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.

Just received this amazing piece from CNG. Very common, with over 60 coins listed in RPC, but of great style, centering and condition. And, surprisingly, hammered only 80 dollars. Show your Petra or gorgoneion coins!

Honestly I doubt the auction house or the consigner will see any money from this sale. The price is absolutely ridiculous, and the high bidder is very unlikely to actually pay, regardless of whether the bid was intentional. I knew a guy who used to bid few times the realistic estimate on literally every coin he wanted. He won them often but rarely paid the bills. Obviously he was banned from the auctions but immediately registered new accounts with fake addresses and kept doing that for years! I didn't hear from him for a while so I don't know if he continues with this habit.

Lovely coin! Here is one of Domitian struck few years later:

I received the coins I won on Saturday. The more interesting of the two is this large bronze of Herennius Etruscus from Caesarea Maritima: The coin is rather rare, there are just five in RPC and this is the only one ever auctioned, as far as I know. What can you see when you compare my photos with these from previous sale of this coin back in 2018? There were clear corrosion pits on the obverse (look at the chin) that magically disappeared over the years 😀. The surface looks quite natural, only under magnification I can spot areas that are a bit darker than the background. Whoever did this repair did very good job. Generally I am against any tampering with coin, such as tooling or smoothing, however in this particular case I am okay with what they did. I also think the filling was done with some kind of plaster that can be removed if needed. The appearance of the coin was significantly improved, without irreversible modifications. What is your opinion on such repairs?

I do some research and publish the results, not necessarily exclusively based on my own coins but they are usually big part of it. As of now I have purchased four papers, two more on final stages of preparation. And maybe ten or so more planned, some started fifteen or more years ago.

I got two lots (and one on CNG), will see how they look in hand.

I really like this coin, despite having a hole it is one of the best examples of this scarce type. Antoninus Pius, August 138 - 7 March 161 A.D., Philadelphia, Decapolis, BronzeAE 27, RPC IV online T6636 (9 spec.); Spijkerman 17; SNG ANS 1387; BMC Arabia, p. 39, 9 & pl. VI, 7; Rosenberger 18; Sofaer pl. 160, 20

Very cool diobol! I received this coin a few days ago from the same eBay seller. Rather common issue of Gaba in Judaea dated first year of Hadrian's rule, so nice I couldn't resist getting another example.

The die sharing phenomenon was not limited to Asia Minor. My friend Yoav Farhi and I just coauthored a paper in Israel Numismatic Research discussing die links between cities Gaza and Raphia in Judaea: https://www.academia.edu/95379856/Farhi_and_Kaplun_2022_Gaza_and_Raphia_under_Commodus_Another_Numismatic_Connection_INR_17 I cannot share the whole paper here due to copyright, however if someone is interested let me know, I can send it directly. Gaza also briefly shared a set of dies with Eleutheropolis: https://www.uni-muenster.de/Ejournals/index.php/ozean/article/view/3670/3647

Summary of my communication with this seller about a coin I paid for several months ago: 1) Thank you for payment, I will send it in few days. 2) (after two weeks) I am expecting to receive it from another country (!), in just two weeks. 3) (after several weeks) Another dealer got it (!) but I bought it back (!), will send next week. 4) (few more weeks) It got lost on the way to be shipped. I think average kindergartener can come with better excuses.