DonnaML

Thanks for the post. I wasn't familiar with box thalers before. What did people keep inside them? Snuff?

Does anyone know why the percentage of left-facing portraits for Probus seems to be so much higher than for any of his predecessors?

Great display! What does one call those multi-level plastic display stands in the center? I'm tempted!

George II AV Half-Guinea 1756, Spink 3685, KM 587, Bull 658. By John Croker. Obv. Old laureate head left, GEORGIUS·II· DEI·GRATIA· / Rev. Ornate crowned quartered shield of arms, divided date above, legend around, ·M·B·F·ET·H·REX·F·D·B·ET·L·D·S·R·I·A·T·ET·E·17 – 56 [King of Great Britain France and Ireland Defender of the Faith Duke of Brunswick and Lüneburg Arch-Treasurer and Elector of the Holy Roman Empire]. 20 mm., 4.2 g. Purchased from Dix Noonan Webb Auction (now Noonans) 252, 12 April 2022, Lot 175. Next, another stringed musical instrument -- this time on the reverse of an ancient coin.

More British gold: George III AV Spade Guinea 1793, Spink 3729, KM 609 [Standard Catalog of World Gold Coins (6th ed 2009) at p. 693], Bull 723 (ill. p. 554) [Maurice Bull, English Gold Coinage 1649-1816 (Spink 2020)]. Obv. Laureate bust right (5th bust “H”), GEORGIVS • I I I • DEI • GRATIA • / Rev. Crowned spade-shaped shield, quartered; around, M•B•F•ET•H•REX•F•D•B•ET•L•D•S•R•I•A•T•ET•E• [King of Great Britain France and Ireland Defender of the Faith Duke of Brunswick and Lüneburg Arch-Treasurer and Elector of the Holy Roman Empire], 1793 beneath shield (date var. with Italic “1”, high “7” linked to shield, “9” not touching shield; see Bull p. 554). 24 mm., 8.40 g. Purchased from Noonans Auction 260, 28 Sep 2022, Lot 1437.* *See Bull p. 549, explaining the rather unusual appearance of the spade guineas (somewhat resembling an ancient clipped siliqua!): “To discourage the illegal practice of clipping the legends were intended to be very close to the edge of the flan. As a result, due to the slight variations in the diameter of the blank flans and the occasional subtle miss-alignment in striking, tops of some of the lettering are often missing.” Next, another coin issued by George III.

The dealer from which I made the purchase is actually located in Austria rather than Germany. I imagine that similar economic reasons explain the VCoins vs. MA-Shops price differential for a dealer in Austria. I saw the MA-Shops listing first, so it was fortunate that I happened to check the listing on VCoins before making the purchase. I don't even remember exactly why I did so -- I certainly wasn't expecting to see a price for the same coin that was 50 Euros lower. But, as it turned out, the whole issue was academic in this case: the next day, I exercised my 14-day right to cancel the order, after I realized that I had stupidly forgotten that I already had a very similar type for the same Emperor. Still, the frequent existence of a price differential between the two platforms is useful information to have for the future. I'm surprised that I never noticed it before. Not every dealer, of course, sells on both platforms. It's probably a minority that does so.

I've made one purchase (at retail) from Bertolami, a Roman Republican coin, back in November 2020. Before I made the purchase, given my concern about exports from Italy, I asked them where the coin was located. They informed me that it was at their London office, and, therefore, that no export license was required. It certainly appears that they are a multinational firm.

My Callie, probably not thinking about ancient coins:

I have a couple of coins depicting the Labors of Hercules, one of them the same type as yours. I've posted both of them before, but repetition never bothers me! On this one, I'm afraid it looks like someone poked poor Hercules' eyes out. Or perhaps he's just resting. Roman Republic, M. [Marcus] Volteius, AR Denarius, 78 BCE (Crawford) or 75 BCE (Harlan). Obv. Head of young Hercules, wearing lion’s skin headdress, right / Rev. The Erymanthian boar running right; M•VOLTEI•M•F in exergue. Crawford 385/2; RSC I Volteia 2; BMCRR 3158, Sear RCV I 313 (ill.); Harlan, RRM I Ch. 12, pp. 62-79 at pp. 74-77, Sydenham 775. 18.5 mm., 3.96 g., 7 h.* *This coin, depicting Hercules and the Erymanthian boar -- one of five coins issued by M. Volteius as moneyer during that year -- relates, like the other four Volteius coins, to one of the five principal agonistic festivals which were celebrated annually at Rome, this one specifically to the Ludi Plebeii, held each year from 4 to 17 November. Hercules had a special relationship with the Circus Flaminius, which was where the Ludi Plebeii were held, and was near the temple of Hercules Magna Custos ad Circum (Hercules the Great Guardian at the Circus). See Harlan at p. 76 for a summary of the legend of Hercules capturing the Erymanthian boar alive, the fourth of the twelve labors of Hercules. Harlan points out that according to tradition, the tusks of the Erymanthian boar were preserved at the sanctuary of Apollo at Cumae -- perhaps establishing a connection of the Erymanthian boar to the Circus Flaminius (where the Ludi Plebeii were held) and the nearby temple of Hercules Magna Custos ad Circum (which was supposedly built on the advice of the Sibyl of Cumae). This may have been the rationale for the portrayal of the Erymanthian boar on this coin rather than one of Hercules’s other labors. The other one: Roman Republic. C. Poblicius Q.f. AR Serrate Denarius, 80 BCE. Obv. Head of Roma right, wearing helmet decorated with grain ears; ROMA behind, V above / Rev. C•POBLICI•Q•F; Hercules standing left, wrestling (and strangling) the Nemean Lion; bow and quiver to left, club below, V above lion. Crawford 380/1, RSC I Poblicia 9, Sear RCV I 308 (ill.), Harlan, RRM I Ch. 5 at pp. 23-27, BMCRR Rome 2896. 20.13 mm., 3.84 g.

Congratulations! A gorgeous coin.

50 Euros higher on a single 200 Euro coin seems like an awful lot to be entirely attributable to a fee differential, though.

I just bought a coin from a German dealer on VCoins for 200 Euros. The same dealer was charging 250 Euros on MA-Shops for the same coin. The shipping charges were the same on the two platforms. So I made the obvious choice of which platform to use to make the purchase. Just out of curiosity, does anyone know of any possible reason for the different prices? Are the MA-Shops charges to dealers that much higher than what VCoins charges them? If so, one would expect to see this kind of retail price differential all the time. But I haven't noticed any such substantial differences in the past in this situation.

I've tried several times in the last few years to upgrade my one Lucilla denarius, which I bought six years ago, not long after I began actively collecting ancient coins. But the first two upgrade attempts I purchased were both lost in the mail -- one from Germany and one from Canada. Given that the total number of coins I've bought that have ever been permanently lost in the mail is three, I can only conclude that there's a Lucilla thief out there! The third try, a purchase from cgb.fr, was apparently the charm, because it just arrived yesterday. It's admittedly not quite as nice as the two that were lost, but I'm pleased with it nonetheless. Among other things, the Palladium on the reverse is more recognizable as such than in most ancient coin depictions I've seen. Lucilla (wife of Lucius Verus & daughter of Marcus Aurelius) AR Denarius, Rome Mint AD 164-66. Obv. Draped bust right with hair in small chignon pulled behind her head, LVCILLAE AVG ANTONINI AVG F / Rev. Vesta standing left, veiled and draped, sacrificing over lighted altar from simpulum (ladle)* held in her right hand, and holding Palladium [statue of Pallas Athena taken to Rome by Aeneas] in her left hand, VES-TA. RIC III 788, RSC II Lucilla 92 (p. 234), BMCRE IV Marcus Aurelius & Lucius Verus 325 (p. 429) (ill. Pl. 58 no. 18), Sear RCV II 5493 (p. 370). Purchased from cgb.fr, 14 April 2024. * See Jones, John Melville, A Dictionary of Ancient Roman Coins (Seaby, London 1990), entry for “Simpulum” at p. 290: “the name for a ladle made of earthenware which was one of the traditional implements of the pontifices at Rome. It should be distinguished from a culullus, which was a drinking vessel.” At this point, I will probably try to sell my first Lucilla on the Facebook ancient coins sales group (unless anyone here wants it), and won't charge more than I paid back in 2018, namely about $50 plus postage. Lucilla (wife of Lucius Verus & daughter of Marcus Aurelius) AR Denarius, Rome Mint AD 164-66. Obv. Draped bust right, LVCILLAE AVG ANTONINI AVG F/ Rev. Concordia seated left, holding patera & leaning left forearm against statuette of Spes, CONCORDIA. RIC III 758, RSC II 6a (p. 233), Sear RCV II 5479 (p. 368), BMCRE IV Marcus Aurelius & Lucius Verus 306 (p. 427). 17.1 mm., 3.4 g. Purchased on MA-Shops, 7 April 2018.

Thanks for the clarification. What about pre-2000 retail sales, whether on ebay (the "buy it now" sales) or elsewhere? Are any such sales included in your database?

Thanks so much! I will investigate at length in the near future, after giving things some time to settle down. A couple of questions if I may: in addition to ebay sales and data from old auction catalogs, does the database include any non-ebay retail sales, as from platforms like VCoins and MA-Shops? Should I assume that you've omitted post-2000 auctions outside ebay, which are already largely covered by databases like ACSearch?