Nerosmyfavorite68

There's less and less mortgages, at least in that field. Insofar as consumers, the garnishments, they are a'plenty. The garnishments are equal, if not greater, than the mortgages coming in. Anyway, I don't want to go into too many details, but people are having trouble paying bills.

That sounds about right. I wonder what the aqua Trajan 'should' have gone for, $80 or $90? A couple of Domitian asses, a bit more worn, but with very attractive deep green patinas, have been kicking around numiscorner's shelves since at least 2022. They are $80 or 90, IIRC. However, this is me, when I find a bargain. The good buys outweight the bad, and $150 is rinky dink, in the scheme of things. The Nicephorus III buy, alone, more than made up for it.

Or if one collects by other factors, like patina, looks, etc.

And that's if the economy doesn't go south. I work in the financial industry, and let's just say it's looking very 1929... October's traditionally when the market goes south, if it does. The various algorithms and other factors have made the market so artificial that it might not. I can confidently say that's how it's looking on the consumer and the commercial mortgage side, though. Cue the theme (one of the all-time great themes, by the way). I'm not too sad about the mortgage part, but I'd rather the consumer have less of a hard time. Heck, if I didn't have a paid off house and cars, I'd be in a world of hurt, myself.

This is a great idea for a thread! I had rather a busy and trying day, so I'll consider which coin/s would fit the bill. Possibly the c. 1999 HJB Johannes tremissis buy. Any of the other, similar Chicago buys would be honorable mentions, as they were the result of my Chicago trips with my grandfather.

Edited 1 hour ago by Salomons Cat English isn‘t my mother tongue and I always find something to correct. No need to apologize. My high school German is execrable. About the only phrase I remember is "Meine Taube ist Entzuendet," the crazy kid's report. That's a lovely republican denarius. The reverse is exquisitely rendered.

Many thanks for the additional help!

I will be rather excited if it is an Egyptian issue. Perhaps someday I'll get a 'real' owl, but the opportunity cost is a killer. I'm not super excited about the pi-types, and 500+ is too much to pay for such a common issue. Although the owl is very nice for the price, the main reason I bought it was for the scorpion countermark. I was also pretty undecided about what to buy this time. I could either go for the oversized, but overpriced, Philip, or this.

Very neat! Small, easy to store, very nice!

Thanks!! Did the Egyptian owls circulate in Judea/Phoenicia?

I hope I'm not jinxing my coin to come, but I rolled out the writeup early. I want to acquire as much information as I can about this probably imitative owl tet. Can anyone decipher what the graffiti on the reverse says? The writing looks Phoenician to my untrained eye. The coin also resembles vcoins tets advertised as probably being Egyptian. Also, many thanks to robinjojo for helping out. I was struggling to pick a coin for my buy, when I happened to see this inexpensive 'Athenian' owl. It was on page three of the dealer's recent list, so presumably it had been around for a little while. People had snapped up inferior examples, but my coin was there,waiting for me. The countermarks and graffiti, which perhaps scared other buyers away,were the factor that convinced me to make my purchase. The obverse scorpion countermark is pretty cool! I know relatively little about Athenian tets, mostly what I've read on this forum. Robinjojo was kind enough to add his opinion, and here are the relevant passages, I had suspected that my budget owl (and this example is pretty nice for the price) was an eastern imitation, and the style was similar to vcoins listings listed as Egyptian-origin owls. Robinjojo seems to share my opinion that the learning process is one of the most fun and personally enjoyable aspects of collecting. Add-on coins are also a habit of mine,so I chose a couple of very inexpensive add-ons. This very worn (and super cheap) Trajan sestertius went into the cart for that very reason, the extreme wear. I found it intriguing that it was that worn; a good learning tool. This coin probably circulated into at least the time of Postumus. This rather decrepit Demetrios I Poliorketes hemidrachm was another throw-in. The expensive tetradrachm version is generally beyond my budget, so this will have to do as a box-checker. I wasn't aware that smaller versions were available, nor did I know that he controlled Tarsus.

What do you think the Rene box is worth (the 'Ceasar's gold (sic)' one? I'd guesstimate $275, on a really good day? I'm not sure what the victoriatus from the "sol-uuu-dus" video would go for, but I wouldn't have been all that happy with it, after spending $650.

I also wondered the same thing. The black cores look less hideous than the red ones.

Ah, the modern variant of the old Spanish Prisoner scam. My former old time radio buying group list must have attracted a spammer, as I've recently received spam the past few months, but it's the completely obvious variety. I don't know why they bother. Spectrum must also have a lousy spam filter. However, if I'm dumb enough to send a confirmation email to my home email, it will rarely go through. The super-obvious spammer comes through just fine!

Even worse: They need to have Dave Hester do an opening, lol. He sure took a bath on that one. The Maximian looks weird.

Comedy time: You gotta watch the first minute. Reminds me of "Fra-gee-ley, must be Italian!

Trajan (98-117) - AE Dupondius - 28mm. 12.58g RIC 428 Abundantia nice aqua patina I really wanted the coin for the patina, and it is a scarce patina, but I paid $150 for this. I did even it out for paying a relatively modest amount for other, enjoyable buys.

Good thing I don't use WISE or bank transfer.

My recent Nicephorus III Electrum nomisma and nice Magnus Maximus siliqua totalled to that amount. I'm getting a lot more pleasure out of my buy. I wouldn't take a risk like that on the 'vault box.' Perhaps if it was $150, or something like that, with one coin inside...

Well, a $650 mystery box isn't something I would do. Would you? Mystery boxes in general just seem not to work out. Yes, some sight unseen coins have worked out in the past, such as Dr. Fishman's c. 2009 $25 tetrarchal folles, but that's $25, not $650. I enjoy the Classical Numismatics youtube channel.

Your photographs are a lot better than mine. It's a billon (debased silver) tetradrachm of Nero from Alexandria, Egypt, year 11 (IA). Reference Sear RCV I 2003. It's good that he kept the paperwork. Preserve that.

Yes, perhaps it's one of those situations where more go to auctions than show up on vcoins. I never thought this coin was too rare, although my initial assumption that it might be a 4 or 5 out of 10 on the rarity scale. It's sufficient to check the box, for now, and it wasn't broken, which is another plus. The DHL envelope negated the drawbacks of the rather floppy, environmentally-friendly, padded mailer. The Restio type is another issue which I want to eventually acquire.

Unpublished or not, it's a beautiful example, and better than any of the few Aurelius coins I have. It looks like the better quality trend is coming along nicely.

Valerian I - (253-260) - AR Antoninianus - RIC VI 5 Cologne, 22.26mm. 2.55g DEO VOLKANO I don't have too many Valerians, and most aren't photographed. Although the above isn't in the greatest state of preservation, I purchased it for the nice portrait. The mint also has something to do with it. Antioch is almost certain to have the 'fish eye', which is why I usually avoid that mint. Cologne and Rome are much more likely to have something nice, in my opinion.

Hmm, I guess my assumptions were mistaken. I was under the impression that it was a little bit scarce, although not super scarce. There are only 4 examples of the portrait type on vcoins, and all are expensive.