Salomons Cat

One bidder was willing to pay 620 CHF, another one 4200 CHF, and one bought it for 4400 CHF... That makes 0 sense to me. I see no reasion why the coin should be worth more than 50$. Maybe it was pure coincidence: One bidder really wanted the coin, he wanted to enter 50.00 CHF but forgot a very essential "." while entering his prebid. Or something like that. Then there is the question, how the second really high bid appeared. Another coincidence, I assume. And the third really high bid of 620 CHF... Ok, I'm out - no explanation 😶

So, to summarize, I think that we have at least 3 good and rational reasons why provenance is valuable: - Nobody knows how the legal situation develops. There is a good likelihood that at some point in the future there will be international legislation that regulates the trade with newly discovered ancient artifacts and then you need provenance. - Provenance provides protection against forgeries. This might become more important in the future, if new dangerous forgeries enter the market. - If you don't record provenance, you lose it. Even provenance from an ebay sale might be valuable one day. Or, if a forum member sold you a coin, from my point of view that would also be a good provenance if you document it.

I see several rational reasons why provenance should increase the value of a coin. Just hypothetically: Just imagine that forgers become better at imitating ancient coins. Suddenly in year 2030 many coins enter the market that cannot be distinguished from real ancient coins. You own 2 aurei of emperor Sponsianus that you bought in 2023. To prove that the coins are original ancient coins you just use the image search engine of acsearch that shows that these coins were sold in 2023 in an auction. You can also prove that you bought these coins. So, maybe at some point in the future it will be essential that you have any kind of provenance that dates back to any time before the year 2030 to prove that a coin is an original. That's why I think that any kind of provenance should have some value. Right now we live in a time in which we can photograph coins and easily look up their provenance online. I think that we should take advantage of that.

Link: Faustina the Younger and Venus holding apple and rudder Obv: FAVSTINAE AVG PII AVG FILDraped bust right.Rev: VENVSVenus standing left, holding apple and dolphin-entwined rudder.

*edit* I agree 100% with what Ed Snible wrote. Just one personal thing about Coin #2: If we can profit from our knowledge and research to estimate prices that's a good thing. On the other hand, checking all the online shops and auctions regularly costs a lot of time. So, if you're 100% happy with the coin and you would prefer to invest your time in another way, then I would think about buying it.

I especially like the Commodus! If it wasn't Commodus I would wonder if the throat cut might have been an accident. But such cuts seem to appear on coins of unpopular emperors and tyrants more often than on the coins of the good guys, so I assume that it was probably intentional

Thanks for your compassion so far - I was already a bit sad that nothing had worked out 😂 But I finally got 2 coins from my wishlist. I think that the prices for both coins were good, but not cheap. I got both of them for exactly the amount of my maximum bid; Vespasian 360 CHF and Titus 900 CHF (ouch). But a well centered denarius with a nice portrait of Vespasian is hard to find, as well as a nice looking Judaea capta Titus. I think that both coins are very representative for their period, so I'm very happy with these coins. Obverse: laureate, skin flaps, good body fat, constipated look - yes, that must be Vespasian 😊 Reverse: Pax with caduceus and branch RIC 29 Obverse: Titus Reverse: Palm tree. To left, Titus standing with left foot set on helmet, holding spear in his right hand and parazonium in his left, presumabely very proud of himself; to right, Judaea seated in attitude of mourning, her head resting on her hand. Her hand looks quite big here. RIC 1562

I'm observing the auction right now, but some of the coins that I have on my watchlist today already got very high pre-bids shortly before the auction. Some are already about 20-50% above the price of similar or better coins on acsearch that were auctioned during the past months?! I'm probably a bit unlucky in this auction

There were 3 coins that I really wanted from that auction, 2 denarii of Vespasian and 1 of Trajan. But I work in a hospital and I suddenly had to help there because a new colleague couldn't handle all of the patients. I only worked during 3 hours but it was exactly during the time of the auction when the coins that I wanted were sold. The coins were sold for quite little, I would have bid more. Well... there will be other opportunities and none of these coins were unique. That's what I tell myself.

Seems like a good idea at first, but I assume that this was not possible due to the following reasons: 1) the vampires were decapitated 2) the archeologists found the bones and probably exposed them to bright daylight 3) According to my knowledge, very few real vampire have ever been identified or captured. It seems that they can hide quite well and it's therefore difficult to talk to them. Only exceptions that I know are "Twilight 1-5", "Interview with the Vampire" and "Vampire Diaries"

I know it! If you're really superstitious and you want to prevent that a dead person spooks around, then there is one thing that you should do even before decapitating the corpse. I won't say what it is...

I must say that I only go to cgbfr if I have no other option, so if I really want a coin and I have no hope at all that a similar one might appear in an auction or in one of my favorite ma-shops/Vcoins stores soon. The last time when I checked the prices for a few coins on cgbfr they sold the coins for 2.5x the price that the exact same coins were sold for in auctions recently. Numiscorner is even crazier. There are many Vcoins shops that have very good offers. The only “problem” (if you want to buy and not to sell) is that all coins are quite expensive at the moment, doesn’t matter where you look, I guess it’s just the market at the moment… *edit* Maybe my opinion is not very diplomatic, Prieure de Sion expressed it better. Just an example of what I mean: I was interested in buying a Faustina II denarius (RIC III 676) because I find the reverse interesting. Although it's a rather common coin, there are at this moment no examples for a reasonable price available, in my opinion. There is for example one in the cgbfr shop, but it seems to have some deposits around the mouth and the same coin was sold for 130 Euros (including fees) 6 months ago in an auction. So in this case at least not 2.5x the auction price but still +50%. I think that for this coin, the auction price was not far away from the usual market price, compared to other examples of the same coin it might actually have been rather on the high side already. There are nicer examples out there that will enter the market and cost less... So I will just wait 🙂 I didn't want to say that the cgbfr prices were completely unreasonable... If they wait long enough, at some point (months? years?) someone will buy the coin. From my point of view they're just usually on the very high end with their prices, so it's just not the place where I look for coins first.

Yep, this small coin cabinet is the only one that I ever want to buy and I will try to fill it with my favorite coins. Thank you, I'm very happy and also quite flattered that you like my living room. I must resist the urge to upload more photos of it now... 😂

I have already described elsewhere how I store my coins. My coin cabinet is often on my living room table and for some reason I enjoy looking at my coins quite often. It's like a little private museum to me. Most museums don't care so much about coins and which kind of coins you like most is also quite an individual question. So it probably makes sense that some people have their own collections. I guess that you could also ask why you go to museums - some people even visit the same museum several times per year. To me, these coins are ancient little pieces of art and history. I find it quite fascinating to learn about the history that is connected to certain coins. Art and history also have a lot to do with presentation, I think. So I enjoy looking at coin pictures here in the forum or for example at Prieure de Sions homepage because all of these coins are presented in very nice ways. This is my living room table in the morning, I often have a cup of coffee next to me and sometimes I look at some coins:

I think that it does, because it is not rational and it is not wise; we should not have called ourselves sapiens. Humans all have the same enemies: Aging, cancer, diabetes, frailty, earthquakes, one day a meteorite will hit the earth, later the moon will collide with the earth, the sun will explode and the universe will ultimately implode or evaporize. But instead of trying to solve these problems, we kill each other and waste resources and time because of tiny square metres of land that we don't need. Russia is big enough anyways, China is also big enough. Even Liechtenstein (where I grew up) is big enough as a country. If this is our nature and we cannot overcome it by rational thinking then we have no future in the long term.

After having read some expert opinions about this topic I assume that Prigozhin might have been desperate, maybe the way to Moscow simply seemed less dangerous and more promising than continuing in Ukraine. Maybe he was looking for a way out, without losing his mercenaries and his power. That he suddenly turned around before reaching Moscow might have had various reasons. Maybe the Russian secret service had his family or he received text messages from supposed allies that urged him to stop, or maybe not all of his mercenaries would have followed him to Moscow. What worries me is that humanity doesn't seem to become smarter. Technology evolved, but apart from that a big part of human history still seems to be shaped by only a few men with quite primitive brains. Sometimes I have no clue how we shall survive as a species.

I've had a similar problem a while ago. I only collect Roman Imperial denarii, until Maximinus Thrax. I only had 2-3 coins that don't fit into that pattern. But one day, there was a beautiful antoninianus of Otacilia on vcoins, with the most beautiful portrait of her that I could imagine and at 70$ the price seemed ok. So I bought it: Then, the problem was, that she was quite alone in my collection. So I went to the YOTHR store and bought a Philippus antoninianus for her :,) Now they sit next to my Roman Imperial denarii, together. But the gap between Maximinus and them will never be filled... Back 2 topic: I bought great coins recently, but they did not arrive yet. The last one that I bought, that has already arrived, is Julia Titi: Julia Titi. Augusta, AD 79-90/1. AR Denarius (20mm, 3.44 g, 6h). Rome mint. Struck under Titus, AD 80-81. IVLIA AVGVSTA TITI AVGVSTI F •, draped bust right, wearing stephane, hair in long plait at back / VENVS AVGVST, Venus, seen half from behind, naked to the hips, standing right, right knee bent, resting left elbow on column, holding helmet up in right hand and transverse spear in left. RIC II.1 388; RSC 14.

I combine Lighthouse Quadrum Intercept capsules with a coin cabinet that I found on catawiki. Similar to the Zecchi coin cabinets, but a little bit different in style. I like it: ... and I can still easily take the capsules and turn them around to look at the reverse sides 🙂 The only disadvantage is that the capsules reflect the light, so there is this mirror effect.

Yes. If you touch a mirror with your hands then you leave a fingerprint. That's because our skin is covered by a little bit of oil that protects us from drying out. The same happens when we touch a coin: We probably leave a fingerprint when we touch it, even if we cannot see it. I believe that this can have an impact on the toning of a coin in a long term. Maybe, if coins are evenly covered with skin oil that's not even a bad thing but also protects them... I don't know. However; when I get new silvers coins I often quickly put them in acetone first after I received them because I don't know how they have been handled in the past. There is also one other thing: Our sweat contains chloride - very small amounts, but possibly enough to build tiny spots of AgCl (horn silver) on silver coins. Some people accept all of that on ancient coins, the aging is part of their natural charm and they have already been touched thousands of years ago anyways - without any precautions. So when collectors handle them, it might be completely neglectable. But if you prefer a very even toning on a certain coin, then I believe that you can increase the likelihood if you carefully clean it with acetone and a cotton swab. The accelerated (or "artificial") toning further minimizes other influencing factors before the coin gets a layer of sulfur atoms because it only requires such a short time span. So, the "artificial" (or accelerated) toning has it's advantages. It's just not very romantic. And I completely understand if many collectors don't want to do that. As I said, I wouldn't do that with coins that are important to me. It also cannot be undone without damaging the coin. I'm happy that I could contribute something! In the meantime, I think that I prefer the egg toned versions of these two coins... At first I was also surprised by the strong colors and didn't know what to think. But now they look ok to me. The colors also depend a bit on the light. The previous photos were in bright daylight. But I took some other photos in the evening under artificial light. I must say that the colors are always quite strong, irrespective of the light and the angle or how I take the photo. But now, they seem a bit darker to me and the Julia Mamaea even has a bit of a golden tint. The Gordianus is just blue and violett, doesn't matter how I look at it. By the way, I also found another photo of the Julia Mamaea before I cleaned it. pre cleaning and egg toning post egg toning:

I tried the egg trick a few days ago. I didn't expect to post this here so unfortunately I only took photos after toning, not before. There were some reasons why I tried it on these 2 coins. The Julia Mamaea had some unattractive deposits that I could successfully remove with ammonium thiosulfate, but after that it just looked very dull. The Gordianus Pius was one of my first coins, I got it when I was about 12 years old. It had been in a cabinet during 20 years and instead of acquiring a nice toning it became dark brown and spotty. Both coins were not nice to look at with their previous toning. I assume that the new toning will look artificial for the moment, but the coins will continue to tone in the long term and I'm optimistic that the toning will be more even. There are some youtube videos where they put the coins in a bag together with the cooked egg. That makes no sense to me. I think that the coins should be completely clean and not touch any of the egg, otherwise the toning will be uneven and the coins will get in contact with chloride and we really want to avoid that. I also think that the egg should not be too hot because we don't want too much steam and H2O. There will still be enough sulfur without any visible steam. So, what I did: 1) I put both coins in acetone for a few minutes and later cleaned them with a cotton swab. If the surfaces are free from oil or any deposits the toning will be more even. 2) I cooked a scrambled egg 3) I put the egg in a bowl, then I put the coins in a kitchen strainer and left the strainer with the coins inside above the egg during 5min I would never do this to any coins that were expensive or personally important to me. Here is the Julia Mamaea before I removed the deposits: And here are the results - please don't be too shocked: I'm not sure if I regret this or not. Maybe I was a bit too curious...

Beautiful coin and great text. In my opinion, the best coins are the ones that tell an interesting story. I would have liked to buy this one as well - we both started bidding on this coin several weeks before the auction. Luckily, we figured this out early enough. It's in the best hands now 🙂 I find the Antonine Plague quite interesting. According to what I have read it was mainly described by Galen, who was probably the most famous ancient physician. Many of his ideas about how the human body works and about diseases were completely different from what we know today. In ancient medicine (and this was strongly promoted by Galen), they believed in "humorism", which is the theory of the 4 juices. They believed that the human body contained blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile. Health was that state in which these substances were in the correct proportion to each other. And bloodletting was the main "cure" for most diseases. But Galen also contributed knowledge about anatomy and surgery, so I guess that not everything was bad. Humorism didn't fall out of favor until the 17th century when the germ theory emerged and people got an idea about viruses and bacteria... incredible. Galen didn't bother to describe the symptoms of the Antonine Plague in his writings. For him, any infectious disease that affected many people at the same time was a plague. I think that it is now assumed that the Antonine Plage were in fact some different contagious diseases that occured at the same time or one after the other: First, it might have been smallpox during the time of Marcus Aurelius and later possibly the bubonic plague during Commodus' time. But today, nobody can know for sure which were the diseases because the descriptions from ancient times were not precise enough. For sure, manipulating the grain market just for the personal benefit of a few people was not a good thing to do. A famine during an epidemic does not help. Luckily, I also managed to acquire an example of this coin, I assume that there are not so many that are in good condition. Yours is by far the most beautiful that I have seen. Mine is not as perfectly centered but still very attractive, I think: