ValiantKnight

My favorite out of all my Ptolemaic coins, a massive 93-gram octobol.

Ptolemy III Euergetes, Ptolemaic Kingdom
AE octobol
Obv: Diademed head of Zeus-Ammon right
Rev: BAΣIΛEΩΣ ΠTOΛEMAIOY, eagle with open wings standing left on thunderbolt, head right; E between legs
Mint: Alexandria
Date: 246-222 BC
Ref: Svoronos 446; SNG Copenhagen 142 (Ptolemy II); Lorber series 4
Size: 48 mm, 93 gm

Anyone know what would be the easiest to obtain sceatta type minted in Britain itself? I’m not so interested in the continental types.

8 hours ago, Rand said:

I love these coin series with charming abstract art, uniformity of style and still, such a varies for mints, cities and rulers. Bronze has its own charm.

Would you happen to know whose bust is on the reverse? I remember reading somewhere that it’s the prince that is depicted, but I don’t know for sure. I assume the king himself is on the obverse.

My only contribution. If I was rich I’d be going nuts collecting Migration Period and early medieval barbarian/Germanic coinage (and also all of the super rare late Roman rulers), but I’ll have to stick to the bronze and the occasional silver for now.

Sisebut, Visigothic Kingdom
AV tremissis
Obv: + SISEBVTVS REX, bust facing
Rev: + TOLETO PIVS, bust facing
Mint: Toledo
Date: 612-621 AD
Ref: Miles 183a

1 hour ago, Nerosmyfavorite68 said:

I decided to try another UK dealer as a trial balloon, to see if the package also takes forever.  When I get to the paypal payment section, there's a message from the dealer - Royal Mail is dealing with a 'Russian' cyber-attack and is not doing overseas packages at the moment. 

Sigh, Royal Mail has joined Deutsche Post for the title of the worst.

I guess I'll just choose DHL Express for orders from LAC.  I have no idea how long this particular disaster has been going on.  My order was from March 4th.

In January, I ordered something sent via Royal Mail that took nearly two months to arrive, although reading other peoples’ comments I think it might be speeding up a bit, but IDK for sure.

Agree on the DHL. I recently bought my most expensive coin to date from LAC, and thought that since I already spent a ton of money might as well splurge some more for the DHL shipping. Took 5 days but that included the weekend; past DHL orders have taken like 3 days.

3 hours ago, Ryro said:

A few things here to digest;

"New York officials have returned more than $20 million worth of ancient artifacts to Greece,"

So, were they just sitting on the other $16.5 mil worth of stuff? As well, this article states the coin was already up for sale in Germany and went unsold before Dickie B bought the bogus provenance! Who had the coin at that point??

"and were on loan to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York until their seizure in March."

=Don't loan your cool stuff to the Met!

"included 29 Hellenic antiquities dating back as early as 5,000 BCE, according to a news release from the office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. All of the antiquities were seized in connection with trafficking and smuggling investigations; New York Homeland Security Investigations special agent Ivan J. Arvelo said in a statement that Grecian artifacts are "especially susceptible" to trafficking because ancient Greece has "long (been) acknowledged as the cradle of Western Civilization."

Nobody tell the British Museum!

1 hour ago, Harry G said:

Its been the other way round for me too - I frequently sell coins on eBay, and once mixed up two orders - a Byzantine half follis, and a Roman denarius. Both buyers were very understanding and sent them back - and surprisingly one said that I didn't need to pay them back their out of pocket postage costs (but I did anyway via eBay refund)

Great that you had some understanding and cooperative buyers. A few years back I was selling some seated liberty quarters and I accidentally sent a Carson City quarter to the wrong buyer. I emailed them but of course I never got a reply (or the coin itself) back and I had to refund the other buyer.

What makes this whole thing more annoying is that the packages originally had their correct labels but USPS kicked them back for supposedly having insufficient postage (even though I printed the labels off eBay), so the mix up happened after I had to make new labels. 

I had a similar situation, but out of the blue I had been sent a package of coins (and one artifact) around a month after I received the coin I bid on and won, all from the same auction house. I contacted them promptly to let them know and that I wanted to send them back. From their words it sounded like that I would need to pay for the return shipping.

I asked for confirmation on this, and I had to send multiple emails for this for them to finally respond (at this point it had been almost 3 weeks). They confirmed that they would pay the return expenses (wasn’t specific as to if I needed to make the label and they’d pay me back or if they’d send me a return label themselves, or also what the return address is; I wasn’t going to send it to their address on the label in case they had a different address for returns) and that they needed a photo of the label to send to the carrier. I sent them this.

Ultimately they never responded again, so I ended up keeping them. Too many unknowns (lack of detailed return instructions from the auction house) in returning the package weighed against the risk of the return package getting lost/stolen made the time and effort on my part not worth it. 

In your case, you can try continuing attempts to contact them for a few weeks and if they aren’t responding adequately or at all and you feel like you did all you could, then you probably might as well keep the coin.

5 hours ago, Nerosmyfavorite68 said:

Justin decked the patriarch and barked like a dog!  His mental illness made him 10/10 interesting!

I’ll bet it wasn’t so entertaining for Justin himself, or for anyone else that suffers with something similar 😒

7 minutes ago, Ancient Coin Hunter said:

You would need to build up the biceps to carry a purse of those heavy coins!

And to wear steel-toe boots while holding them in case one gets a case of the butterfingers 😁

Ptolemy III Euergetes, Ptolemaic Kingdom
AE octobol
Obv: Diademed head of Zeus-Ammon right
Rev: BAΣIΛEΩΣ ΠTOΛEMAIOY, eagle with open wings standing left on thunderbolt, head right; E between legs
Mint: Alexandria
Date: 246-222 BC
Ref: Svoronos 446; SNG Copenhagen 142 (Ptolemy II); Lorber series 4
Size: 48 mm, 93 gm

Great news! The package in question arrived today, and I am now the proud owner of a Trajan’s Column denarius! Quick photos with my phone:

4 minutes ago, David Atherton said:

Yes, but not via Royal Mail, which I assume is the issue?

Yes. Royal Mail it is.

Still waiting on aforementioned coin package from the UK. Planning on contacting the seller in about two weeks (exactly two months after the shipping date) if it hasn’t arrived by then. Anyone else still waiting on anything from the UK at this point? Or have things been moving smoothly by now and I just happen to have fallen into bad luck with my coin?

Bump. Any thoughts? Thank you.

Personally I prefer the uncleaned look, but that’s just me.

Heres a $20 siliqua I used to own:

Justinian I, Byzantine Empire
AE follis
Obv: D N IVSTINI-ANVS P P AVG, diademed, helmeted, cuirassed bust facing, holding globus cruciger and shield, cross to right
Rev. Large M, cross above, officina letter Δ below, ANNO to left, XX to right, mintmark QHЧΠ in ex
Mint: Theopolis (Antioch)
Date: 546/7 (year 20)
Ref: SB 220
Size: 19.9 gr., 39 mm

A Nero denarius. Don’t care for the type I just want it to be problem-free, good style, decent details, and most of all, have his name be clear and completely on the flan (something that is surprisingly difficult).

Any Vandal Kingdom siliqua. 
 

An AR penny of an Anglo-Saxon ruler.

Any Carolingian other than Charles the Bald and Louis the Pious. And coins that are definitively of Charlemagne and Charles the Fat (I have coins that are probably of them, but not 100% certain).

Thanks all for the additional comments and coins posted. very much appreciated.

Here's one more area of the solidus that I am worried somewhat about. It could be just due to lighting/shadow effect, or just an effect from striking, but to me it kind of looks like a depression/sunken area, like if it got hit by something. There's no corresponding raised surface directly opposite it on the reverse. Maybe I am just being paranoid, but I thought I'd check by posting it. Thanks again for all the assistance.

I hear there’s a certain other coin forum that is in need of airline information 😈

Concerning reproductions, I’ve wanted for a while a mint-state, highly accurate reproduction of an Athenian owl tetradrachm in good silver, for a fair price that reflects what it is (not 330 euros or even 100!). I want to feel I’m in 430 BC with a brand-new one in hand 😁

That said, a while back got myself a nice repro of an imperial portrait Charlemagne denier, something I know I won’t likely ever own.

I had to take some time to think of my other unpopular/controversial opinions, so here goes:
 

I find Roman Republic history not very interesting apart from the last few decades of its existence (Caesar, Spartacus, Cleopatra, etc.). This makes me not excited for the coins either.

Severan denarii as a whole are pretty boring to me. Too many head right obverse+standing deity reverses. 

Indian coinage to me is less appealing than Chinese coinage (which is already very low on my list). I think it’s because I find the history for the latter more interesting (but still nowhere near stuff like Late Roman or Early Medieval history).

I love late Roman and (pre-900 AD) Byzantine coinage. 

I’d rather have a really rough Julius Nepos/other extremely rare late Roman ruler AE4 than a nice denarius or sestertius (rarity+history trumps appearance for me, but I always try to get the best-looking of what I am looking for whenever possible).

Islamic coins can be beautiful with all of that calligraphy that I can’t read.

Prices on Carolingian and Ostrogothic coinage need to go down somewhat. Apart from specific types they are not very rare as a whole.

I simply don’t understand the appeal for fourees. Part of it is that they are unofficial. Another part has to do with the fact most seem to have exposed cores that make the coin rather ugly to me. I might be open to having a fouree if it was completely problem-free.

May not be that unpopular but a bit of smoothing (done right) is okay.

I think collectors should not be looked down upon/discriminated against for not having a bunch of reference books/a numismatic library for identifying coins. I remember one member basically saying that those without access to reference books shouldn’t bother with finding their coins’ reference numbers. This came off as very elitist to me. 

4 hours ago, Cordoba said:

and for how common they are they are damn expensive.

Funny, this is my opinion but for the new styles (but your opinion is still pretty accurate IMO for the classical owls). I haven’t studied them in depth but they do not seem particularly rare/hard to find, and I am left wondering why they are so expensive. I guess they are that popular. 

44 minutes ago, Deinomenid said:

Hopefully  the op is ok too.

Thanks. Yes they replied (after I responded to one of their automated emails), and all is good now. Glad to hear they replied to you and @DonnaML as well. 

It’s an overstruck mess but I got it for $20 shipped and it has provenance at least to 1999 so I am not complaining.

Heraclius (with Heraclius Constantine), Byzantine Empire
AR hexagram
Obv: dd NN hERACLIUS Et hERA CONSt, Heraclius on left and Heraclius Constantine on right, seated facing on double-throne, each holding cross on globe in right hand, small cross above
Rev: dEUS AdIUtA ROmANIS, Cross-potent on globe above three steps; monogram to left, I in left field
Date: 615-638 AD
Mint: Constantinople
Ref: SB 801
22 mm wide, 6 gr.