Factor

Absolutely amazing collection!

City coins of Judaea, Arabia and Decapolis are my main area of interest and I follow their trends very closely. A major factor in their pricing was tightening of the regulations by Israeli Antiquities Authority over the last several years, making legal ancient coins collecting in Israel very hard and causing many people to give up or significantly slow down. For example, to bring a coin to Israel that was legally purchased abroad on an auction or from a dealer you need to receive an import permit from the AA, for every coin. Otherwise it will be confiscated and you will not get it back. If you want to sell your legally purchased and registered with AA coin, you can only do it with a licensed antiquities dealer, no collector to collector sales. There is of course a black market but people just don't want the hustle. There are several prominent collectors who don't live in Israel and who are not affected by these changes, so the prices of rare and exceptional coins remain strong but more common and average grade coins are often pretty much impossible to sell, and when they do sell it's usually for a fraction of what they brought a decade or two ago.

Just received an envelope from CNG. Gadara under Septimius Severus, featuring Caracalla and Geta. Zeus on the reverse looks like Louis XVI wearing a wig 😁

He accepts offers! I wonder if I offer 3k...

Several days ago they also listed on VCoins a crude tourist type copy of a Hasmonean prutah, and when I messaged them about it they asked me why I think it is not real 🤡. Their authenticity expert is probably on vacation 😂.

Amazing set! I have about 50 coins from Shlomo Mussaeff collection. Here is one from relatively rare city, Adraa in Arabia: Adraa, Marcus Aurelius. RPC 6536, Spijkerman 2-3.

I won two provincials, one Hadrian of Ascalon (scarcer 225 date) and another is Neapolis under Philip I, this one rough but quite rare type with 3 out of 5 know specimens in museum collections.

Very nice group! My area of interest is provincial coinage of southern Levant, and here are some of Lucilla coins from that region. First from the left is Caesarea Maritima, same type as Michael illustrated. It is quite rare, particularly compared to other Caesarea coins. Next one is from Gerasa in Decapolis. I am working on corpus of all known coins of Gerasa and I am aware of only four specimens of this type. The next is from Aelia Capitolina, probably relatively early type with Lucius Versus on the obverse. The forth is from Nysa-Scythopolis and the fifth from Pella in the Decapolis. The portraits on these two coins are remarkably similar, suggesting the dies were probably created by the same artist which actually makes sense since these two cities were very close geographically.

Here is my Perseus, from Ptolemais. Second known and the only one in private hands. https://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/6/8762 Ex Harlan J. Berk, Ltd. 83rd Buy or Bid Sale (10/1994) lot 930.

My example doesn't help much I am afraid. Some traces of letters are visible but I can't decipher the inscription.

Absolutely not. Even if the mounting is very careful and the coin is not damaged in the process, it will certainly see some wheat as the item is used. Why anyone would enjoy destroying a piece of history is beyond my understanding.

Rivergod from the middle of desert 😀 ARABIA, Adraa. Commodus. 177-192 CE. Æ (30mm, 16.69 g, 12h). Struck circa 177-180 CE. Laureate, draped, and cuirassed young bust right / River-god Hieromyces reclining left, leaning on overturned urn from which water flows, and holding reed; behind, Tyche seated left on rock, head right, holding cornucopia. Spijkerman 6; Meshorer, City-Coins 227; RPC IV.3 Online 6539. Green surfaces, earthen highlights. Near VF. From the Dr. Jay M. Galst Collection.

Very cool coin! Here is my latest Heracles, arrived last week. Arabia, Adraa. Elagabalus. AE 16 mm, 5.65g, 6 h. Laureate head of Elagabalus r./ Heracles seated on rock, l., resting on club. RPC 9238, Spijkerman 13. Very rare, the fourth known and the only one in private hands.

Volusian is amazing, excellent cleaning! With silver coins I typically apply a drop of lemon juice for a few minutes, closely monitoring the effect. But I don't know how it will work with lower silver content coins.

I am collecting provincials, so most of my coins are rather ugly and relatively scarce, especially compared to imperial issues. Here is one of my recent acquisitions. Caesarea Paneas, Julia Soaemias. Meshorer 55, Sofaer 40. Just one example of this type was known, now in museum. This one is second.