Rand

2 minutes ago, Al Kowsky said:

I hope you don't crack the bottom solidus out of it's holder.

I will not 🙂 The coin sold yesterday is of common PP type. The one I showed is of much rarer PERP type and one of the highest grade (if not highest) known. 🙂

2 minutes ago, TheTrachyEnjoyer said:

Nope. Postumus did not mint antioch coins. This is a fantasy label created by a quack

True.

ANACS just inserted a wrong label. Human errors happen in every field. ANACS should reflect on QC.

It would not stop me buying the coin, whether it is in a usual holder or in a slab with wrong label.

I doubt just slabbing any coin would bring profit. This would depend on the expertise of the collector/dealer. Slabbing may lead to a loss if the seller overgraded the coin and slabbed grades are low.

I won a slabbed coin this morning. I am unsure why it was slabbed; this may be Heritage's policy. I bought it for a die study, irrespective of the grade, probably adding 20% to the sale price. Still, I doubt the slabbing paid off. I will unslab it to fit the collection.

Another coin where slabbing probably paid off for the seller. I have not unslabbed it, in case I need to sell.

For those who genuinely want authentication only, the current system with TrueView should be fine. The offered standard slabs are cheap, add little cost to the overall grading process and may be considered packaging to be opened on delivery. 

The photos and IDs remain online, and ex-slab coins are not uncommon on offer. 

NGC does not offer a guarantee for authenticity - this does not mean they are not putting all their expertise into detecting fakes.
 

My perspective as a remote collector who handles a coin the first time when it arrives.

Slabbing serves several purposes:
- Authentication: certainly a bonus. Some fakes are made by die transfer, making them 'die-linked' with genuine coins. It is very hard to assess such coins from photos.
- Grading: a bonus for evidence of tooling, rim state, bends and other attributes that are easy to miss on the photo. A few times, my coins were not described accurately by dealers. The grading scales for ancient coins and the consistency of grading need improvement.
- Protection from damage/elements: Unlikely needed for the coins I collect. This may be helpful for more fragile coins and coins from some alloys. I have not seen evidence of how protective slabs are.
- Presentation: I dislike the current slabs, which are designed with dealers rather than collectors in mind. The slabs I have, sit outside the main collection, breaking the flow of the collection presentation.

Also
- Secure slabs facilitate direct sales between collectors.

I am not against slabs in my collection,  in principle. To buy me in:

1. Make them much smaller; reflect the size of popular antique coins. Denarii, aurei, solidi, and many other coins are ≤20 mm and relatively thin. My preferable slab size would be ≤50x50 mm with slab thickness = coin thickness + 1-2 mm of the slab.
2. Remove labels at the top and keep the slab square. 99.99% of the time, I am the only person who sees my coins and know what they are.
3. Put slab ID on the rim to be scannable but ideally no-visible or minimally visible when the slab is viewed front or back. Keep the label information online. Label information may change with evolving attribution, die information, and changes in the grading system. Keeping the label separate from the slab would avoid the need for re-slabbing (the grading industry may feel different about this).
4. No cheap plastic. Use quality, highly transparent materials for smaller square slabs keeping rims visible. I want to see the coin, not the slab.

Naturally, different collectors may have different preferences.

9 hours ago, idesofmarch01 said:

I'm curious as to why collectors would care more about edge marks that are believed to be from mounting, as compared to normal edge marks from circulation wear and tear?  When I evaluate a coin's condition, scratches and marks are, well, just scratches and marks.  I've never quite figured out why it would matter how the marks got there.  Can anyone elucidate?

I agree. The NGC slabbing is mounting. 

Sometimes there are concerns about the rim adjustment to fit the mount. If the result is only some scratches, they are just scratches, possibly from removing from the mount.

PS. Another reason why I collect what I collect.

I love the coins I collect - I am never bored with them. However, I would probably collect other coins depending on how much I would be prepared to spend each year:

$50K - Roman Republic
$100K - Aurei and Constantine I solidi
$1000K - Greeks in Sicily

I would hate collecting one coin a year or letting the best examples go to others every time. ‘First in a village rather than second in Rome.’ The price is 'staying in a village'.

Thank you. This is a beautiful coin!

There is no surprise collectors praise Greek Sicilian coins - their artistry is astonishing. 

How widely did they circulate, and are they often found outside Sicily?

With Italy restricting their export, there is little hope of new legitimate coins coming from Italy itself.

Nice coin! The first photo does not show the beauty of the coin well. The video does a much better job.

Within the Berk dynasty, Shanna Schmidt makes the best and really stunning photos (and charges accordingly) https://www.shannaschmidt.com/roman-empire/vespasian-69-79-ad-rome

This coins does not win beauty prizes. I struggled to find a nice one 10 years ago.

Nicephorus III Botaniates, Constantinople, Histamenon nomisma. Jean Elsen & ses Fils S.A. Auction 117. 15/06/2013.

It was my long-term impression that DO was 'the Harvard collection' until Harvard Art Museums put online coins from their collection. Many provenances indicate bequests and gifts accepted over decades rather than purchases (https://hvrd.art/o/196513). I hoped to visit the museum last year during our daughter's graduation. However, the campus was very busy, and I did not have enough time.

From the link provided by @Deinomenid, it reads that Harvard Art Museums intends to actively expand the collection. We may now have two 'collectors' from one University to bid against.

42 minutes ago, Deinomenid said:

and  Harvard just now stated they are in the market

I thought that DO never stopped buying, for example:

https://www.doaks.org/resources/coins/catalogue/BZC.2013.027/view Purchased Numismatica Ars Classica NAC AG, Auction 75. 18/11/2013. Ex 1973 Jericho hoard, Jordan

https://www.doaks.org/resources/coins/catalogue/BZC.2002.3/view Purchased from Baldwin’s, 23/03/2002

The possibility of American collections buying does add pressure for bidding. With a private buyer, there is hope for another chance later. With universities/museums, when there are gone, they are gone (with few exceptions).

Regarding DO, my impression has been they buy very sensibly, selecting nice coins and not pursuing very high.

Now Harvard joining does add pressure.

Really enjoyed the thread. I have two coins for this period as well.

Romanus III Argyrus, Constantinople, Histamenon nomisma. From Numismatica Ars Classica, Auction 56. 08/10/2010

Constantinus IX Monomachos, Constantinople, Histamenon nomisma. Auktionen Meister & Sonntag, Auction 8. 13/10/2009

1 hour ago, Hrefn said:

@Rand, I thought had an obverse die match for you, but they are merely very similar.    

Thank you @Hrefn. I appreciate and keep your coins in my records - I particularly like the Merovingian one.

A beautiful coin - I only have the reverse die link for it (not as nice as yours).

Solidus Numismatik. Auction 13. 25/03/2017

I collect Anastasian gold coins, as I might have mentioned before. Many collectors would find the period boring and coins monotonous… I do not complain.

Focusing on gold coins is not because of snobbishness - bronze and silver often bring higher prices than average Anastasian gold. Gold coins of the period are far more suitable for die studies, though.

I like the historical mysteries of the period with few historical records, vast gaps of knowledge, and many people who produced gold coins with the Anastasian name.

In fact, there were hardly any other gold coins in the world produced during the Anastasian period. Parisian and Axumite Emprires were not producing gold coins at scale; those few we know could be outside the Anastasia reign. I came across some coins from an Indian state that may be called electrum but appear more like silver.

Anastasius solidus may be seen as a truly global currency found all over Eurasia, including India and China plus Africa. So if I wanted to see myself as more of a generalist, I could say I collect all gold coins produced from 491 to 518 (and some later coins that used the Anastasian name). I would still collect the same coins.

 It may be hard to prepare an accurate write-up about an Anastasian coin because of the scarcity of reference literature. The history books and numismatic publications on the topic are few, and academics disagree on important matters. So what I cannot find in publications and I try to puzzle out myself… the best I can. Following the coins, it is sometimes tempting to disagree with what the literature says. 

I do like these coins themselves, beyond the collector’s hunt.  

I do not intend to produce a book of my own collection. I can do this within minutes with the software I used for the database, but it would be a miserable story with many ‘blank pages’ of coins I do not have. I hope to prepare a book of Anastasian coins if I can in the future, featuring my coins but not necessarily identifying them as such. To make such a book, I need to master photography, travel museums, commissioning photography when needed, get permissions to publish other coins… I am on the way to applying some analytical methods to my coins.

Scores of coins can be considered unique or only in private hands, but I am more excited about finding duplicates and die links.

Classical Numismatic Group, Inc. Triton XX. 10/01/2017

Third party grading for higher value (e.g., $5K+) ancient coins is likely to become as essential as PMG grading is for banknotes.

The current NGC slabs have a long way to go towards what a good 'ancients' slab should be for people who may prefer to keep their coins in slabs after purchase. Reducing the slab's size for the numerous denarii, aurei, and solidi is long overdue.  

The grading scales need to be refined as well.

I hope PCGS moves to the ancient coin segment.

19 minutes ago, John Conduitt said:

The Eid Mar was in an NGC holder... I wonder if the Greeks cracked it out.

Unless the aureus was found in the slab, this valuable slab should have remained in the US.

If the trend of restricting private ownership of ancient objects, including coins continues one day we will have to bid for

‘Highly important collection of early NGC/PCGS labels, featuring provenances from A, B, C’

Kolner Munzkabinett is a reputable German auction house - always a good experience for me.

Thank you, @Ursus

I changed 'scratches' to 'graffiti' in my earlier post. Many were probably test scratches to assess the metal, such as on this Justinian's solidus. 

However, the 'scratches' often look like graffiti that may have some meaning. Some 'graffiti' are Latin, such as an apparent 'K' on another tremissis from the above PERP series (not mine). I understand that 'K' did not make it into Elder Futhark.

Some 'graffiti' match Elder Futhark. For example, on the Anastasian solidus below, the top symbol matches the runic symbol for ï and the bottom one for s (apologies, I can not find how to type runic letters).

Roma Numismatics Limited. E-SALE 24. 30/01/2016

Of note, this coin is most likely not imperial, possibly Ostrogothic. Its die match was found in Karsibór, an island on the Baltic Sea near Szczecin. Karsibór was a significant seaport of the route to Scandinavia (Karsibór Hoard, now in the National Museum in Szczecin, http://www.mpov.uw.edu.pl/en/thesaurus/artefacts/solidus).

However, some 'graffiti', like in the two tremisses I showed earlier, include symbols that do not fit into Elder Futhark, Latin, or Greek. They could be personal 'avatars', but I hoped they could be less recognised variations of Germanic alphabets. I am not too hopeful about this, though.

@Ursus 

I understand runic alphabets varied between Germanic people. 

Many early Byzantine coins have graffiti resembling runes, possibly indicating ownership by a person, etc. Could it be possible to link the graffiti to specific runic alphabets attributing them to particular Germanic groups? 

Admittedly, although many late Roman and early Byzantine solidi were found in Scandinavia, not many have such graffiti to support they are runes.

Two examples, but I have more.

Bolaffi. Auction 40. 02/12/2021

Vcoins. The Ibarra Collection. 2022

Amazing collection, @kirispupis. I would love to see it - it is close to my pattern of collecting.

What are your considerations about the overall desired size of the collection? This is about balancing the urge to hunt (buy) and enjoying what is already in the collection.

While I enjoy having more and more coins, I probably do not like having the collection become too bulky, as it makes it harder to handle. Individual coins are lost among many other coins (not to mention the costs of a bigger deposit box).

Would you consider upgrading the existing topics - higher grades, higher denominations when they exist?

I do not see any restaurants on the list. They are essentials to prevent the visit from becoming a tick-box activity!

Romans (people who live in Rome) tend to be away on holidays in August, with many businesses and some restaurants closed - it may be useful to book dinners in advance.