red_spork

I cite my published papers on my resume and LinkedIn. Fortunately every job I've had in the decade I've been collecting has been found through personal connections and I haven't actually had to submit a resume and hope it gets through to a recruiter, but I think it can be a good thing to show something you're passionate about especially if it can illustrate good technical writing or analytical skills.

3 hours ago, Ocatarinetabellatchitchix said:

SURVEY FOR THE MEMBERS: and what if you’d see a very very rare and precious coin for sale (let’s say in a yard sale), definitely the seller doesn’t know the treasure he has in hands, what would you do ??? Be honest please !

I'm paying the seller his asking price, wishing him a good day and heading home. Same thing I do when one pops up on eBay or something 

Offtavian

Roman Imperatorial period AR Denarius(3.82g, 16mm), C Caesar Octavianus, mint with Octavian in Italy, 41 BC. Bare head of Octavian right, with slight beard; C·CAESAR·III·VIR·R·P·C around; border of dots / Equestrian statue of Octavian galloping left, his right hand extended; POPVL·IVSSV in exergue and on right. Sear HCRI 299; Crawford 518/2

Ex Numismatica Ars Classica Spring Auction 2020, 25 May 2020, lot 726, ex RBW Collection, Numismatica Ars Classica 63, 17 May 2012, lot 553, ex Jesus Vico sale June 1992, lot 401

I've owned a curved variant before but currently only own a straight variant, also a Banti plate coin. Kinda wish I'd kept the curved variant now but I had to sell it to help fund the upgrade to the straight variant:

New, straight variant:

Roman Imperatorial period AR denarius(3.86g, 18mm), P. Clodius M.f. Turrinus, moneyer, 42 B.C., Rome mint. Laureate bust of Apollo right; lyre behind / Diana Lucifera standing facing with bow and quiver over shoulder, holding lighted torch in each hand; P•CLODIVS M•F• across fields. Crawford 494/23; Sydenham 1117; HCRI 184; Banti Claudia 23/17(this coin).

Ex Münzhandlung Ritter GMBH, 17 July 2023, ex Jacques Schulman, Amsterdam, 233, 28-31 March 1960, lot 1126

Old, now deaccessioned, curved variant:

Roman Imperatorial period AR denarius(3.92g, 20mm), P. Clodius M.f. Turrinus, moneyer, 42 B.C., Rome mint. Laureate bust of Apollo right; lyre behind / Diana Lucifera standing facing with bow and quiver over shoulder, holding lighted torch in each hand; P•CLODIVS M•F• across fields. Crawford 494/23; Sydenham 1117; HCRI 184.
 

1 hour ago, Al Kowsky said:

The dealer wanted to settle out of court for $315,000 but the couple rejected the offer on the advice of relatives. It will be interesting to see how this case will be resolved 😏.

This seems like an extremely generous offer to me. Likely more than they would have been offered by any dealer who knew what it was and believed it was authentic given the auction estimate. It seems like these are rare enough that no one really knew what it would sell for at auction.

After reading the article it seems to me even other auction houses thought it was basically worthless. The dealer went through a good bit of time and probably expense authenticating it. He obviously knew he was taking a large risk that it was worthless, did all the legwork and realistically probably spent his whole life, as many specialists here do, learning everything that it took to properly authenticate and market this piece that the prior owners seemingly knew next to nothing about. Now, perhaps there's some more information not in the article but just based on what's in the article I don't really think he did anything wrong.

Plenty of us here watch the various sales venues for misidentified or under-attributed coins with an eye towards finding underpriced coins, in some cases massively underpriced(I've seen a few cases as much as 100x or so). I don't particularly see a difference. Sometimes they're sold by dealers, other times they're sold by private collectors, in both cases they didn't take the time or didn't have the knowledge to understand what they had but none of us is under any obligation to share valuable information with sellers.

On 9/8/2023 at 1:33 PM, Heliodromus said:

djmacdo on the FORVM board has just posted about having received an inexpensive bronze coin from Roma that had spent weeks in customs and came with a note that it had been opened and inspected by Homeland Security (whose jurisdiction would seem only marginally more applicable than, say, the US Space Force).

This does happen occasionally. Whether or not more of Roma's packages have this happen than any other dealer's is hard to say but I've had coins show up inspected and taped back up as well, not from Roma

5 hours ago, Julius Germanicus said:

My ex-Manlia Scantilla is now advertised for 1.100 Euros, about three times the 380 Swiss Francs that it was auctioned for 🥵.

 

A practice that I've noticed becoming much more common in recent years is that certain(in some cases previously well respected dealers) ask outrageous multiples of either their recent price paid at auction or what the coin would likely achieve at auction and then will accept massive "discounts". It used to just be something that a certain eBay seller whose name is usually the punchline of jokes around here was known for but it's spread to at least a few Vcoins and MA-Shops dealers now as well. I recently bought a coin from a Vcoins dealer, after a bit of back and forth, at 38% of the asking price. Normally I'd be embarrassed to send such a deal as that just seems like wasting a dealer's time but if a dealer wants to waste buyers' time with fake prices I figured I'd waste his time with a lowball offer just to see what happened and was surprised at how little I had to come up to get it accepted. I honestly felt kinda scummy about the entire transaction and supporting those practices but I got the coin I wanted and the dealer got a sell at a price he was happy with so I guess everyone's happy.

They lost a recent coin of mine it seems. USPS pointing finger at NY customs, NY customs saying it's not there and left customs already. No tracking updates since 10 July.

1 hour ago, El Cazador said:

And? What does it mean? If you can pay with CC or PayPal for invoices - who cares what Wise situation is - Roma still in business 

For one, Credit Card or Paypal costs noticeably more. It varies depending on the exact amount and currency and whatnot but Wise often works out to 1% versus 3% or even more sometimes for other payment methods not to mention most auction houses tack on additional fees for paypal or CC too and it all adds up. I'd be pissed and especially if I bought a coin at the higher end of the price I'd be willing to pay for it and then had unexpected fees tacked on I might not pay the invoice, personally.

Very interesting. I did not know about this particular dolphin rider. I've only got one, a type shared a few other times in this thread(including by @DonnaML whose excellent example shares an obverse die with mine):

Roman Republic AR Denarius(18mm, 3.72 g, 5h). 74 B.C., Rome mint. Laureate head of Neptune right, trident over shoulder; control-mark XXXIIII to upper left. Border of dots/Winged boy(perhaps Palaemon or Cupid) on dolphin speeding right. Below, L•LVCRETI TRIO. Border of dots. Crawford 390/2

Privately purchased from a friend 2 August 2023, ex CNG 100, 7 October 2015, lot 1803, ex R.H. Collection

This is a great example of this type, much nicer than the lesser example of the type I owned years ago. I sold my "quaestor" bronzes but I still have this nice example of the type that seemed to follow them and is often overstruck on the "quaestor" bronzes, as is this example (see 9-12 obverse for the back of Romas helmet):

Macedon under Roman Rule. Uncertain official(traditionally, D. Junius Silanus), Æ25 (9.96g), 167-165 BC. Facing mask of Silenos, wearing ivy wreath / MAKE/ΔONΩN in two lines, D above; all within oak wreath. MacKay, "Bronze Coinage In Macedonia, 168-166 BC," ANSMN 14 (1968), pl.III, 10; SNG Copenhagen 1324.

Overstruck on a quaestor bronze of Gaius Publilius or Lucius Fulcinnius as evidenced by the Roma obverse undertype remnants at 9-12 o clock obverse

Privately purchased from NeroNumi via Vcoins, 10 June 2022, ex Gorny & Mosch Giessener Münzhandlung Auction 220, 11 March 2014, 1249

If they frame it as a "buyers protection fee" and then charge 9% that makes me wonder how many fakes they think are sold on their platform and how much refunding they expect to have to do.

Roman Republic AR Denarius(18mm, 3.72 g, 5h). 74 B.C., Rome mint. Laureate head of Neptune right, trident over shoulder; control-mark XXXIIII to upper left. Border of dots/Winged boy(perhaps Palaemon or Cupid) on dolphin speeding right. Below, L•LVCRETI TRIO. Border of dots. Crawford 390/2

Privately purchased from a friend 2 August 2023, ex CNG 100, 7 October 2015, lot 1803, ex R.H. Collection

I have a very good idea of what I paid and a rough idea of the value if I were to sell the coins in my collection today at the kind of auctions I normally attend. but as has been pointed out, auctions are highly variable, as evidenced by many of the coins in my collection that were bought for less than they'd previously sold for or in some cases quite a bit more than they'd previously sold for. One thing I have no idea of that will severely affect things is who will be in the market when I go to sell. For instance this victoriatus is exceedingly rare, a single die variety of the Q victoriatus with a Q on the shield and only the second die known of the thousands of dies cut for victoriati with a letter on the shield(the other one known only in a single example). I have no idea how many collectors care but in my experience, having collected victoriati for quite a while now, I could see this coin go anywhere from $500-$5000 depending on who is at the auction. I know several collectors who care but on any given day any one of them may be on a buying hiatus and any of them could decide tomorrow they're bored collecting coins and will no longer be buying. Alternatively a hoard could pop up tomorrow with 20 examples of this die and variety and satiate most of the collectors who care about owning the type.

As a specialist I've got a lotta coins like this, maybe as much as a fifth of my collection. I have no idea what they'd hammer for and I hope I don't have to find out any time soon.

Here's another one. This one seems to be scraping eBay listings but has absolutely nothing to do with the actual owners of the coins. I spotted this today because I bought the coin below directly from the owner who is a friend. I was pretty shocked to find his pictures and his coin listed here. I will not be linking the store as Id rather not help them show up better in search results but people should always be skeptical of where they're buying coins.

Had this on my vcoins watch list for a while. Price was a little high but it looked like it should have a provenance and price would be fair if it was pre-1970. Finally found one earlier this week and quickly made the choice to send the dealer an offer and buy it:

Roman Imperatorial period AR denarius(3.86g, 18mm), P. Clodius M.f. Turrinus, moneyer, 42 B.C., Rome mint. Laureate bust of Apollo right; lyre behind / Diana Lucifera standing facing with bow and quiver over shoulder, holding lighted torch in each hand; P•CLODIVS M•F• across fields. Crawford 494/23; Sydenham 1117; HCRI 184; Banti Claudia 23/17(this coin).

Ex Münzhandlung Ritter GMBH, 17 July 2023, ex Jacques Schulman, Amsterdam, 233, 28-31 March 1960, lot 1126

This was an upgrade for me from this which I will be selling:

Everyone here will probably be shocked that I picked up yet another prow bronze yesterday. This type is the first struck(as opposed to cast, i.e. aes grave) sextans of the Roman Republic. Fairly large at 30mm & 25g

Roman republic Æ Sextans(30mm, 25.00g, 3h), anonymous "semilibral" series. 217-215 BC, Rome mint. Head of Mercury right, wearing winged petasos; above ••; border of dots / Prow right; above, ROMA; below, ••. McCabe Group AA; Crawford 38/5
 

This type has always been a favorite for me. Interesting history, great devices, several really well engraved dies. What's not to love?

A couple rare bronzes of the Sardinian Praetors of 210 and 209 BC that I picked up recently:

Roman Republic Æ Quadrans. Publius Manlius Vulso, Praetor of Sardinia, 210 BC. Sardinian mint. Head of Hercules right; above, ••• / Prow right; above, ROMA; (MA) vertical to right; ••• below. Crawford 64/5

Roman Republic Æ Semis(14.05 grams, 27 mm). Caius Aurunculeius Cotta, Praetor of Sardinia, 209 BC. Sardinian mint. Head of Saturn right; behind, S / Prow right; above, S; before AVR monogram; below, ROMA. Crawford 65/3

Really great denarius Steve. A truly amazing example of this scarcer type.

1 hour ago, SteveJBrinkman said:

Jordan, yours is a rare coin.  Crawford lists only a single obverse and reverse die.  Schaefer identifies 3 obverse and 3 reverse dies.  Your example is among the finest, and an excellent addition to your collection.

Thanks Steve! I am very happy with it and was shocked to find an example at all, let alone one in decent condition after several years of looking.

Over in the "airview" slab thread I detailed the process of cracking open one of NGCs new airview slabs so it's time that I discuss the coin I cracked out of that slab. I spotted this tiny silver sestertius on vcoins last week and one small detail instantly told me I needed to buy it and that was the "spike" on the back of the helmet. Why? That spike is a unique feature on just one series of coins that includes denarii, quinarii and sestertii: Crawford 68 from Sicily. A tiny fraction of the denarii and quinarii of this series bear a corn-ear mintmark on the reverse and really only a handful (on the order of 10) of coins are known in each denomination with the mintmark, though the non mintmarked denarii and quinarii are at best, scarce. The sestertii only come without the mintmark and like the mintmarked larger denominations are known in only about 10 examples.

On top of the overall rarity of the type, as a Roman Republic collector the sestertius denomination in general is a difficult denomination to collect because only a single issue for this denomination, the very large Rome mint Crawford 44/7, is common. All others are so rare that the number of the common 44/7s that one sees on the market in a year generally exceeds all other types of sestertii combined, so for me it's exciting to be able to add any new sestertius but especially one from Sicily, an important theater of the Second Punic War that I have at least one example of most other denominations for from quadrigatus down through semuncia.

Roman Republic AR Sestertius(12.7mm, 1.12g, 11h), Anonymous(Uninscribed sibling of Corn-ear series), 211-208 B.C., Sicilian mint. Helmeted head of Roma right with "spike" on rear of helmet; behind, IIS / The Dioscuri galloping right; below, ROMA in linear frame. Crawford 68/3; Russo RBW 284; Sydenham -

Ex Greco Roman Ancient Coins, Vcoins, 25 May 2023, ex Stack's May 2023 World Collectors Choice Online Auction, lot 71065

Formerly slabbed by NGC Ancients, 6626721-001, Choice XF

And for comparison a couple of types discussed in the text above are illustrated below both from my collection:

First a rare Crawford 68/1a denarius with corn-ear mintmark. For an idea of rarity, when I picked this up in 2020, to my knowledge it was the first example to have appeared on the market in a decade. Note the prominent spike on the back of the helmet, a feature it has in common with my new sestertius:

Roman Republic AR Denarius(4.35g, 11h), Corn-ear series, 211-208 B.C., Sicilian mint. Helmeted head of Roma right with "spike" on rear of helmet; behind, X / The Dioscuri galloping right; below, corn-ear(wheat ear); ROMA in linear frame. Crawford 68/1a

And a common Rome mint Crawford 44/7 sestertius in uncommonly good condition. Crawford 44 comprises several small subgroups so there are many styles in addition to this one:

Roman Republic AR Sestertius(12.75 mm, 1.14 g, 2h). Anonymous, first anonymous denarius coinage series. Circa 211 B.C. Rome mint. Helmeted head of Roma right; behind, IIS. Border of dots / Dioscuri galloping right; in linear frame, ROMA. Line border. Crawford 44/7; Sydenham 142; RSC 4; Russo RBW 176-177.

Purchased from Apollo Numismatics(Merrill Gibson) via VCoins, 1/1/2016

As always, feel free to share anything relevant 

2 hours ago, Hrefn said:

Now say you walked into a coin shop and 100 “replica” tetradrachms were for sale for $5 apiece, and you could tell they were real.  Should you buy them all, and say nothing?  Or tell the dealer he has genuine coins?   

Personally, I would very tempted to cherry pick a few before telling the dealer he was grossly underpricing real coins.   But that is because I am not a saint.   

I'd be buying the whole lot at the dealer's asking price. He's presumably happy to get his asking price for the coins and move the whole lot and I have no duty to inform him. If he's worth building a relationship with I might tell him but that's less an ethics discussion and more a strategy discussion.

17 hours ago, Hrefn said:

Roughly speaking, buying a coin for a thousand dollars, turning around and selling it for a million dollars, would be impossible to morally justify, regardless of who was seller and who was purchaser.  

I would argue, especially as is the case with many specialists here, that even such an extreme example is not unjustifiable given the amount of effort that goes into coins as a hobby for many of us. I know many specialists who have put thousands of hours into learning everything there is to know about the series they collect, far more than any dealer has time to put towards a single series, and a lot of specialists cannot only correct identify coins, they can correctly describe those coins to potential purchasers as well, both of which are usually required to maximize return when you're cherrypicking rarities that a dealer(or sometimes an entire auction worth of customers) previously missed. I've never had a 1000x return on a coin but I have had a few coins that I bought relatively cheaply because they were a very rare type misattributed or in a few cases found a very worthwhile provenance for and sold in the 5-10x range and there are a few that I have no plans to sell but believe would probably reach 25x or more. I don't see anything wrong with that at all - I put in, as a conservative estimate, about 3500 hours over the past decade learning about coins and almost all of that learning about Roman Republic coins, talking to collectors, visiting public institutions to see their coins or libraries, tracking down and reading nearly every paper and reference work in my area of interest, watching the major auctions, etc. If I put the same amount of time towards a side business and made a million dollars doing it, few would question it.

That's a very roundabout way of saying I really see no problem with someone with expertise cherrypicking underpriced and/or misattributed coins and sometimes getting fabulous returns on them. If you've learned enough to do that you deserve whatever profits may come from it, it's honest work and especially in a situation where you're a buyer from someone who is offering up coins there is no way you're misrepresenting values or anything like that.