AncientJoe

I was hoping you'd post your/our example here too! It's an excellent coin and took me this long to find a slight upgrade.

Thank you! The photography is my own, a love/hate relationship as I'm far from a professional photographer but have managed to cobble together a fairly reproducible approach through brute force effort. My other coins are listed on my website: https://www.colosseocollection.com/p444364358 I don't think I'll build the Twelve Caesars in gold but Julius' portrait is indeed one of the "keys".

This year has been atypically busy for me, leaving disappointingly little time for coins. However, I did want to drop in and say that I have greatly enjoyed reading everyone's Top 5-10-25 lists and am hoping to respond to many more! Here are my top coins received this year. I've limited the list just to five as these are my main additions although I did manage to "improve" some other coins through pedigree sleuthing done by myself or friends (most notably, an eagle-eyed friend found that my Colosseum sestertius belonged to a Tommaso Saulini (1793-1864) and also located a 1961 pedigree for my Nektanebo stater). 1) Julius Caesar aureus. I've long wanted a JC aureus but have been sorely outbid on every example I've attempted. However, this year finally saw one come home to my collection. The centering is a bit less than ideal but this coin has all of the important parts visible. I also coincidentally ran into an early pedigree prior to the auction while browsing catalogs looking for a different coin which makes the coin even more desirable to me: Ex. CNG Auction 45, March 18, 1998 lot 1813; Ex Münzen und Medaillen Auktion XXVIII (19-20 June 1964), lot 251; Helbing Auktion (April 1931), lot 290; Helbing Auktion (March 1928), lot 460 2) Pyrrhus tetradrachm (ex. Montagu, Weber, Locker Lampson). This is the second time I've tried to buy this coin and finally succeeded! I had what I thought was an excessive bid in 2019 and didn't even come close... but managed to buy it this time around for 1/3rd of my prior bid. It's a type which has been on my wantlist for 10+ years and I was losing hope of ever being able to cross it off. 3) Terina stater. This is the second Terina stater I've owned - they are rare enough and I'm picky enough to have waited for 10+ years for this coin and I think it's finally a "keeper" for me. Both obverse and reverse are some of my favorite dies of the series. 4) Gela tetradrachm. This is my first Man Faced Bull and I couldn't be happier: the engravers really captured the scene well on both sides. 5) Thurium distater. The obverse is one of the more attractive heads and the overall coin is a noticeable upgrade over an example I owned a while ago. I have not yet tracked down a published pedigree but it was sold alongside other coins as "Ex Ratto 1940" so I'm not giving up hope. I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season filled with family, food, and fun. Here's to 2024 being a great coin year for all! (And, as always, please post anything related!)

You'd be surprised how many coin collectors are in STEM jobs. Whenever I see a resume with numismatics on it, it's an immediate personal connection. I'd definitely recommend including it!

I don't have a Nero in silver but here's my best in bronze and gold: NERO. 54-68, aureus. 64-68. NERO CAESAR Laureate head r. Rev: AVGVSTVS GERMANICVS Nero standing facing, dressed in toga and wearing radiant crown. He is holding a branch and a victoria on a globe. C. 44. RIC 46. Calico 402. 7.34g, St. 6h. High relief. Ex. Boscoreale Hoard 1895; Ex. H. P. Smith Esq Sotheby Wilkinson & Hodge, June 5 1905, lot 405; Ex. Sotheby Wilkinson & Hodge, December 6, 1907 lot 111; Ex. Dr Eugen Merzbacher Munchen, November 2, 1909, lot 1204; Ex. Dr Jacob Hirsch Auction 33, November 17, 1913, lot 1144; Ex. Robert Ball Nachf Auction 6, February 9, 1932, lot 1037; Ex UBS 72, 2007, lot no. 209

My two favorite Apollos, coincidentally sold in on the same day (although I bought the Rhegium privately a year after the auction): Clazomenae Drachm circa 360, AR 4.05 g. Laureate head of Apollo facing three-quarters l., wearing chlamys secured by round brooch. Rev. AΠ – ΟΛΛΑ – Σ ??Swan standing l., with open wings; below, KΛ. ??Traité II, 1997 and pl CLV, 25. Boston 1861. Kunstrfreund 219 (this coin). Ex Naville I, 1921, Pozzi, 2400; Ars Classica XVI, 1933, 1390 and Leu-M&M 28 May 1974, Kunstfreund Tetradrachm circa 300-280, AR 17.29 g. PHΓINOΣ Laureate head of Apollo l., long hair falling in curls over neck. Rev. Lion's head facing. SNG ANS 676. Historia Numorum Italy 2501 (these dies). SNG Lloyd 700 (these dies). AMB 229 (these dies). Ex NAC sale 8, 1995, 115

One of my favorite coins is my Hera stater from Knossos: A good friend has an incredible talent for depicting coins and other pieces of art with thousands of individual points inked by pen. He very kindly drew the Knossos for me which takes on another level of beauty in this interpreted form:

Congratulations on acquiring an example of arguably my favorite coin type! Your coin has nice, wholesome wear which adds to the appeal: Roman citizens cherished these coins (which are generally believed to have been handed out at the inaugural games of the opening of the Colosseum). Some ancient Roman used this as a souvenir: truly history in your hands. I saw a Colosseum sestertius in the Heritage booth at a preview for their upcoming auction for the ANA show in 2013. I asked an attendant to hold it (lot viewing wasn't prepared yet) and I just marveled at the coin and the history involved, saying out loud, "that is a heck of a coin". Fast forward a couple months and I managed to buy it for a record price for me at the time but I love it so much I've named my collection after it. It was unpedigreed in the auction but through a combination of some impressive pedigree sleuthing friends and Ex-Numis, it's now one of my better pedigreed coins: 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

This is great, thank you!

I can't believe that was 11 years ago already... that's my aureus (and profile picture), although I paid quite a bit more for it at NGSA (maybe that was the estimate? I believe I paid 34K CHF hammer). It's also from the Biaggi collection but I otherwise haven't been able to find where it was residing between Biaggi and 2011:

Thank you! This is perfect.

Thank you so much!

Thanks for the updates to your extremely valuable resource! A request if it isn't too much trouble: would it be possible to include the date when you added a catalog to your list? That would help identify newly added entries versus needing to scan through them each time or keep track of all of the catalogs I've already read through.

That's great! Sir John Evans is a very notable and important additional pedigree to find.

Do you happen to have a link to the Forvm post on the coins in their uncleaned state?

Keeping a full coin in-focus is challenging. I just looked on the enlarged pictures of your coin in the sale and I don't mind where the focus is currently placed but if it bothers you, it doesn't hurt to ask. I don't think it will make any difference though, and is consistent with how they photograph other coins. I would imagine the vast majority of collectors and potential buyers wouldn't notice (especially these days where most people are viewing on phones).

Indeed: the CNG description is accurate but the original post text above from panzerman changes it to "this coin". @panzerman, was that copied/pasted from somewhere else? I can't find an auction which references those catalog numbers and "this coin" in CoinArchives.

Thanks for the shout-out. The 3/4ths facing Pantikapaion is indeed a masterpiece: I had the opportunity to hold the British Museum's even-nicer example a few years ago which was a treat. There are four major varieties of Pantikapaion stater with the primary difference being the presence of the wreath around Pan's head. Mine does not have the wreath, showing an uncontained god with a particularly dramatic portrait. The art, further enhanced with a 100+ year pedigree to Jameson and the Grand Duke Alexander Mikailovitch collection, makes this one of my favorite coins (and thankfully not as many zeros as the NAC coin):

If you click Filter and then the dropdown arrow on the Shop box, you can see the list (there are many): https://www.ma-shops.com/ancient/

Part of the issue was horrible advertising by Spink! I was unaware of this sale and just asked a few friends who also hadn't heard about it. I haven't looked closely enough at the prices the collector paid but it is curious that almost all coins were purchased privately rather than at auction: perhaps they were uniformly overcharged for them. The quality of many of the coins left a lot to be desired but some were still steals at these prices. I'd have bid on several had I known about the sale and it's not because of a lack of paying attention to upcoming auctions.

The 88 year old is Herb Kreindler, a legend in the ancient coin industry and the long-time auctioneer of the NYINC sales.

Did you happen to note what type/example this was - it sounds like quite the coin to just be available in stock. I'm dealing with a series of delayed flights so I won't be there until tomorrow.

My list was solely in Triton and I thought I did badly at first as I didn't get the hammer price exactly correct for some but then realized that if my estimate was a bit high, I'd have bought the coin, so that did count. As a result, I'm happy with my success rate. An alternate scoring strategy would be to measure how close to the hammer each guess was (ideally in absolute value so that going over isn't penalized, but I'm biased as it would increase my score!) Lot 55: Guess 22K, hammer 19K Won (I couldn't bring myself to actually bid on this coin because of the flat head so I'm not surprised it went below the $20K estimate) Lot 119: Guess 32.5K, hammer 32.5K Won (I based this on the pre-bid level of the Heritage example - it was at $35K the week prior to the auction but ended up selling for $36K: That said, I don't think these coins are worth nearly this much, despite owning one myself) Lot 133: Guess 30K, hammer 32.5K Miss (This was just in Triton in 2020 and hammered for $25K there - someone clearly should have been paying attention a couple years ago if they were now willing to pay 30% more) Lot 185: Guess 15.5K, hammer 13K Won (This type has been overpriced for a while and without a pedigree, I didn't think this would sell well and was correct - it was estimated at 20K) So, that means I "spent" 64.5K/100K which is a decent average and indicates to me that the market has some degree of normalcy/predictability = some hope for buying this year!

Thanks Simon! I did indeed notice that the coin didn't match the Vaudecrane specimen (although it was quite close - I don't completely fault the catalogers). Mine is the Calico plate coin so at least they didn't mistake that: Your example is superb with a particularly artistic reverse! Congratulations, that's an exceptional coin.

Thanks, and you are indeed correct - I need to plagiarize auction records more accurately next time 🙂 It is very humbling to think of the hands through which these coins have passed!