AncientJoe

An excellent coin and pedigree, congratulations!

I think the remainder of the NAC auction has been well-vetted now but feel free to drop me a PM if you have any lots you're uncertain on (I recently viewed the sale in-person).

It was a brutal auction: I underbid my main target and didn't come close on several others. Thankfully there are always more coins coming up around the corner!

Some great coins have already been listed in this thread. It also isn't necessary for true art to be the most expensive coins: many coins in the Kraay Hirmer "Greek Coins" book are absolute masterpieces for their types and aren't be dekadrachm-expensive. Waiting for the right pair of dies can take a long time but it's worth pouncing when they come up. That said, ignoring my point above, here are two of my favorites which are exorbitantly expensive: The Agrigentum dekadrachm: But I personally prefer this Akragas tetradrachm's style with the incredible skylla:

Thanks! And yes it is: coincidentally, I was offered it privately ~10 years ago and passed, then was outbid evidently by the Dioscuri owner when it was next sold. I'm very glad to finally have it come home. (The Divvus Julius denarius I posted above was also from his superb collection)

Octavian / Augustus minted a myriad of interesting coins so it's hard not to have several even in a generalist collection like mine. I'm short for time this weekend so this is more of a photo dump than proper writeups: Octavian and the Battle of Actium: Ex. "Julius Caesar and His Legacy", May 13, 1991 coin 23; Ex. NFA 16 Dec 2, 1985 lot 322; “Leo Biaggi de Blasys’ Complete Collection of Roman Gold” number 97, Privately purchased from H. Herzfelder in 1951; Ex. Jameson Collection - Feuardent 9th June 1913, lot 22 Portrait aureus with Julius Caesar: Ex CNG 45, 1998, lot 1813; Ex Jean Vinchon November 20, 1992 lot 92; Ex Munzen & Medaillen Auction 52, June 19, 1975 lot 522; Munzen und Medaillen Auktion XXVIII (19-20 June 1964), lot 251; Otto Helbing 63, 1931 (Professor Prix), lot 290; Helbing Auktion (March 1928), lot 460 Capturing Egypt: Divvus Julius comet: Capturing Armenia: Augustus' Signet Ring: Triumphal Arch:

Wow!! That looks absolutely incredible. Well done!

I have a few coins I'd consider "crown jewels" in my collection for various reasons: Colosseum Sestertius When I first held this coin in lot viewing, I said to myself, "Now THAT is a coin" and just sat there for a few minutes admiring it, thinking about the hands its passed through in history. Ex Tommaso Saulini di Roma (1793-1864), Galeria Sangiorgi, Roma, Palazzo Borghese 28 April 1899, lot 110; Ex. Dr. Paul Hartwig, Auction MM P&P Santamaria, Rome 07.03.1910, Lot 1215 Athens Diobol, minted from melted gold statues of Nike to fund Athens defense against Sparta in the Peloponnesian War. I lost a lot of sleep over this coin. When the catalog first came out, I ran out of my office to show it to my wife saying, "I haven't been this excited for an auction in YEARS". I ended up preparing a nuclear bid: it's one of two in private hands - a good friend owns the other and won't be selling it - so this was my one shot, and I bought it for a fraction of my max bid. Judaea Capta aureus, a purchase from this January. A friend bought this coin in an auction right as the COVID lockdowns began and I was always hoping it would find its way back to market. He later found several great pedigrees and ended up selling it along with the rest of his coins. I was absolutely thrilled to buy it - it's dripping in history: Boscoreale, an incredibly historic moment in history, and an artistic portrait of Vespasian. Kimon Dekadrachm - I first saw this coin at NYINC ~12 years ago and fell in love with the art. It isn't signed but I find it far more aesthetically appealing than Kimon's signed dies. The flan is also uncommonly complete due to its slightly odd shape giving space for more detail than ordinarily present on these coins. It's one of the first coins I pick up whenever I view my collection. Eid Mar denarius - I debated not including this as it's a coin which comes across as over-hyped is comparatively common. However, I'm including it because of its meaning to me. The first coin show I attended in person with my father had an Eid Mar on display. I only collected US coins at the time (and, coming from a lower-middle-class family, never dreamed of spending even $1,000 on a coin). I was drawn to the Eid Mar from reading Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar" in high school and kept thinking about the coin as I walked around the show. At the same show, I held an Alexander the Great stater and was mesmerized by how it felt. These two experiences started the fire that eventually grew into my ancient coin collecting passion. Fast forward a number of years and after selling my company, I was bidding on an Eid Mar. I spent months agonizing over bid levels and strategizing... to ultimately be outbid in the moment. At a coin show later in the year, I ended up meeting the dealer who represented the collector that bought it: the dealer had exceeded the collector's bid by a number of increments because they knew that it was a good coin. So, I ironically should have bought it in the end! However, what resulted was me being introduced to the buyer. We became fast friends and this connection dramatically opened my numismatic world. I eventually did buy an Eid Mar (but sold it as the quality wasn't quite up to par). A few years later, at lot viewing, I saw a very nice example but immediately dismissed it as I assumed it would be impossible to acquire. Fast forward to the middle of the pandemic and somehow the stars aligned to where I was able to purchase it! Perhaps I'll eventually upgrade to one with a longer pedigree but I'm very happy with this coin for its condition, toning, and overall appeal and to have an example of the type that sparked my interest in this crazy hobby.

Thank you both for the kind words! I have been fortunate to be able to acquire many of the types I thought I'd only be able to admire from afar (including a handful which have yet to find their way into my photography queue but which I'm excited to share here soon). Some of them are indeed expensive... I wish a time machine could just go back a few decades for them to be easier to acquire when coins were less prevalently marketed. Thanks again! And, congrats to @rasiel on the new purchase!

Can you share images of some of them here? Heritage with slabs is great for some coins and absolutely the wrong choice for others. It'll entirely depend on the coins you're considering selling.

For what it's worth, I'm friends with the individual(s) you're referring to and your information about how the catalogs are/will be used (and what you're implying about their motivation for acquiring them) is incorrect.

Anecdotally, they've stabilized now around the 2014 level. The non-portrait Julius Caesar A Hirtius Praetor types are still absurdly overpriced but even some more important Twelve Caesars have have slipped through the cracks recently. Prices are strong if they grade well (i.e. no "brushed" or "light marks" from NGC) but there have certainly been some outliers. In part, this is due to the largest new buyer (a comparatively recent re-entrant to the market over the last few years) acquiring enough of the types already and not hoarding others. Russian buyers who were extremely aggressive in the 2012-14 era are out of the market due to obvious political/financial reasons and there haven't been any marquee, fresh-to-market collections of aurei sold recently.

RIP Steve 😞 His passion and inclusive encouragement to the community will be greatly missed.

I think you paid a justifiable price for that aureus as long as the surfaces are fine and not smoothed (hard to tell from the pictures). The NAC images look noticeably lower grade but that's at least in part a photography difference. An example in a grade higher sold for $50K hammer in 2014 at Heritage (estimated at $50K), then was resold for 26K CHF in December 2016 (estimated at 25K), then again in 2023 for 28K CHF also at NAC (estimated at 25K again). 2014 was a very expensive time for aurei in general. 2016 was much more affordable and 2023 is a time of relative stability in the market, having not come close to its 2012-14 peak. For what it's worth, your coin sold in 2021 at Roma for 6K GBP hammer on a 10K estimate (so, just the 60% reserve) and then was unsold in Baldwin's in March 2024 at a 9-10K GBP estimate (so probably a slightly higher reserve than this latest sale). It's an interesting type, and seems to only be held back by being a hair low grade to not be of interest to the buyers who would rather pay 25K for a slightly nicer coin. My guess is it may take some time to find a buyer as the coin isn't "fresh" to the market, having been in sales several times in the last few years. However, you're helped by the fact that Baldwins' sales aren't particularly well attended which may mean a collector seeing the coin on VCoins would look at it with fresh eyes. Hope this helps!

The Cleopatra sold at Roma for 70K GBP in 2017 and is indeed an exceptionally rare type but considerably less expensive than the 400K CHF hammer the Tyrant paid for the octodrachm shown above in 2016. If I had to pick between the two, I'd pick the octodrachm, in part because of it having a pedigree to the Hunt collection versus the Cleopatra which appeared out of nowhere in the Roma sale.