Nerosmyfavorite68

It sounds like you have some very qualified volunteers. I myself would be willing to opine. I totally avoid auctions so I wouldn't be competition.

I hope I picked a decent present. This dealer had some coins I wanted, so I bundled. I considered the left-facing tet to be neater, but this one was prettier. A Louis XIV medal was the initial target from Numiscorner, but perhaps I'll do that for Christmas. Their descriptions (although they do seem to have better ones on their website, perhaps I'll just look there) are sparse, and I really don't know how to pick an old/fairly original one, other than picking the oldest-looking medal. He said he prefers coins which will fit in his binder. The Louis medal is HUGE. Seleucis and Pieria, Antioch. Gordian III. 238-244 AD. BI Tetradrachm (12.20gm, 27mm). Obv.: ΑΥΤΟΚ Κ Μ ΑΝΤ ΓΟΡΔΙΑΝΟC CΕΒ, laureate, draped and cuirassed bust right seen from behind. Rev.: ΔΗΜΑΡΧ ΕΞΟΥCΙΑC, eagle standing facing, head and tail left, wings spread, wreath in beak, standing on exergual line; SC in exergue. Prieur 282

I wouldn't consider Tiberius III to be super-common, but he's not super-rare, either. For whatever reason, AE coins of that general period from Constantinople are far scarcer than Sicilian issues. It would be much harder to find a decent Constantinople follis.

Ewomack has a delightful example. Is it tiny? My horrible AE Sicily example is tiny. I'm so glad that I bought my solidus; it's by far the most mirror-like gold coin that I have. I missed out on buying a lovely Divus Augustus as, and the dealer kindly offered me a discount. It was either that or a somewhat unattractive example of a Syracuse Tetradrachm.

Low weight? It's 23 grams. I'd be more concerned about the 18gram one on vcoins. The patina's probably phony and it has some smoothing going on (which may have been corrosion removal). I've seen far worse. Unless it's super-obvious, I leave the authenticity to others; I don't want to be wrong. i've noticed that many Savoca and some German dealers tend to have that patina. Here's my humble example: (the green has been stable since 2011). Ugly, but no smoothing here! SH54869. Orichalcum sestertius, RIC I 37; BMCRE I 38; Cohen 24, F, rough, Rome mint, weight 24.698g, maximum diameter 34.9mm, die axis 180o, 37 - 38 A.D.; obverse C CAESAR AVG GERMANICVS PON M TR POT, laureate head left; reverse S P Q R / P P / OB CIVES / SERVATOS, legend in four lines within Corona Civica oak wreath; ex Edward J. Waddell; (ex Forum)

Yes, I agree. My definition of looting would be something like the German occupation or digging up a place like the Parthenon or Palmyra, not circumventing some ridiculous laws. However, the false provenance would put any such vendor in my 'buyer beware' category, insofar as high-end coins. However, since those coins are out of my league and I would research such a provenance even if it were affordable, that doesn't really matter to me. A provenance would never make me pay more than 5 or 10% more, at best. I'd rather buy from Roma than my formerly favorite UK dealer. At least I'd probably get a refund if something went wrong, especially on an inexpensive coin. On a smaller level, I'm sure the inexpensive coins from a certain middle eastern dealer aren't fresh digs! And per Athena (not the dealer whom I was referring to), what was that dodgy place in New York City which sold fake antiquities, circa 2010? Something Gallery. The proprietor might have just had a similar name, but somehow that name stuck in my head. The horrible, fake patinas/toning drive me away from Athena. I do sometimes see silver offered which doesn't look like poo. The Zurqieh fake patinas usually don't affect me. I usually go for the silver. Do they end up being badly cleaned sometimes? Yes. One constant in life; probably five years from now the politicians going after Beale will probably have been convicted of something. That's how it goes with most big city politicians.

Yes, I had noticed the same phenomenon. I'm happy with my purchases. As a budget collector, I don't usually purchase coins above $350. They were a bit dinged up, but both were preferable to my budget nummi placeholders. The coins might have an interesting story to tell. I wonder if they were payments to barbarian mercenaries or tribes?

I loved the wrieup and the Thermus type is very neat! Well stated. I could have come up with a more attractive example than this, but the coin below certainly does look old. Khrusru II - AR Drachm, 33mm, 3.88g

I first noticed the problem at Zurqieh, when I clicked on the Sasanian section, to pull them ALL up and browse through them. Only 100 would come up.

Balbinus - 238 - AE 36 Tarsus, RPC Online VII.2 2997, BMC Cilicia p. 208, 239, G, 36.4mm., 29.502g Next, same theme, another large 30 plus mm. provincial.

My Zeno placeholder arrived. Both were from the same dealer. Given some similarities in wear between the Leo and the Zeno, one wonders if both came from the same hoard? Zeno second reign AV20 Solidus. Constantinople Obv: Helmeted, diademed and cuirassed bust of Zeno facing, holding spear over his right shoulder and with shield, ornamented with a horseman spearing a fallen foe, over his left. D N ZENO PERP AVG. Rev: Victory standing left, holding long jeweled cross in her right hand, to right, star. VICTORIA AVGGG Δ, CONOB, RIC 910. 4.22g. AD 476-491.

That's quite a handsome piece, much better than my horrendous Claudius Aureus. Congrats!

Thanks! That's often how I make a purchase, if I don't have a specific example in mind. I need many results to pop up.

I first noticed this problem while searching inside the zurqieh store. The problem: only 100 results will show up, even if there are 10 billion examples. I thought at first this was a Firefox or noscript problem, as it came up normally in Edge, but when I was looking today within Numiscorner for a Louis XIV medal for dad, only 100 results would show up, no matter what browser; Firefox/Edge/Chrome. There's no page 2, 3, etc. I also tried another search term, follis, just to make sure. Same results. To make double sure, I chose Savoca and tried follis: 100 results. This is very annoying. What happened?

Well, I guess this thread called it right.

That's a very nice example! Tiberius III - 698-705 - AV Solidus - S 1360 - 4.46g. officina B XF

34mm, year 36, gamma. I'd have to look up the Sear number, but here's a budget example of an Antioch Justinian I. Year 36 is the seller's description. It kind of looks like X X X GI Which would be year 37.

Even before seeing the text, I also voted Albinus. Albinus was Caesar, after all. Did Caesars also have statues?

It is amusing, but: https://www.numisforums.com/topic/6437-what-roman-emperors-looked-like/#comment-84458

I'm semi-retired from the record collecting part, but I heavily collected original recordings (mostly 16" records/transcriptions) of old-time radio shows/news. I have two copies of Roosevelt's Day of Infamy speech, had copydisc of War of the Worlds, and of course one comes across bizarre or dirty shows/recordings.

It's quite an interesting collecting genre. The overstrike makes the coin more interesting. Question; why are silver coins of the Nabataeans scarce? Were they melted down for the plentiful coinage of Trajan?

I enjoyed the writeup. Congrats on the rare type!

There is something really satisfying about 24k gold. I have only two tremissises (what's the plural?); Johannes & a decrepit Justinian.

That's a great milestone and a nice example! I'm also a budget collector, and I've been scooping up budget gold coins lately.

Agreed. Savoca also has fairly cheap Fedex shipping to the U.S. If I'm ordering anything fragile, I've been having to go the DHL Express way from a certain UK dealer, about double the cost, to avoid the horrors of the floppy mailer. Expensive, but the stiff envelope negates the drawbacks of the floppy mailer. Through a combination of shipping cost and partly just for the principle of it, I've cut way back on buying from them. Which is a shame, since there's many lovely coins. Oh, and add a phone number (doesn't have to be a valid one) if you choose DHL from them. They don't tell you upfront, but allegedly their DHL carrier requires a phone #, the only time I've had this happen. If possible, I usually choose the postal route from most European dealers.