It's really sad that Greek gold are few & far between <<not counting electrum hektes>>. There's like maybe five types that aren't stupidly rare and only like two that are even kinda affordable relatively [not for me tho -- yet]
I had some major dental work done & more left (six cavities + 4x wisdom teeth) that'll end up costing me like $800 after "insurance" so basically I have no coin money. And my cat also had more deworming to do so that cost another chunk of money.
I'm thinking if I didn't have to spend the $900 on dental & my cat's deworming, I could've maybe afforded a worn Scythian stater (the one with the three magistrates). Although I heard it's arguably a Roman Republican coins, but idk if that's true. But I don't really like the design because it's flat, like a Roman coin. And it doesn't have a dramatic portrait, which is what I like about Greek coins.
These days I've been really enamored by Mithradates VI Eupator staters (the cheaper Lysimachos types, not the pricey ones with actual diademed Mithradates portraits) but 95% of them are terribly unattractive because of bad die work and rusted dies. I drew a picture of one of the nicer ones I found online (in the Coinweek article about coins of Mithradates). Also, it's kinda weird just how consistently bad the die-work was on the Lysiamchos type stater of Mithradates when the die work was consistently good for his famous tetradrachm and his expensive portrait staters. And I wonder why the Mithradates portrait types weren't minted a whole lot compared to the common Lysimachos types. But I don't think I'll buy a cheap crappy one for like $1'500 because I'll inevitable be unhappy with it. If I had only $1'500 to blow on a gold coin, I'd rather buy a really nice Byzantine solidus with a portrait of Jesus or a VF common aureus with decent die-work than a rusted Lysimachos-Mithradates stater. (Do you spell it Mithr-I-dates or Mithr-A-dates? Wikipedia spells it with an "I", but CNG spells it with an "A", which makes searching his name kinda annoying in CNG's database, but then his name in Greek is spelled with an alpha so I guess CNG is actually correct (idk the ancient Greek pronunciation of his name).
I saw a sold one from Pars Coins that sold for $1'995 that was really nice. It was probably before the pandemic because if it retailed in June 2022, that same one would've had a sticker price of like $3'000 or even $4'000.
Also, does anyone know why Pantikapaion staters are so ridiculously expensive? I see them occasionally up for auction so they don't seem all that rare but they always go for like high 5 figures or low 6 figures.
Is there a comprehensive list of all known Greek gold coins? It seems like there were a couple of types that were widely minted or had huge hoards found (like the Baktrian Diodotus stater that almost always has a test cut) that usually sell for <$4'000 and then it jumps to these really obscure types that I never seen before and rarely see at auction that hammer for like $20'000+ and hardly any in between.