Did you win anything at the Leu Auction?

[Restitutor]

15 minutes ago, ComicMan said:

Fascinating! Looks like that is the only type they had according to wildwinds? Interesting that they just decided to go with what Athens was doing. My grandmother's favorite animal is the owl, I definitely want to pick up a bronze with it for her I think that she would like it, though it definitely does not have to be a tetradrachm so something like this would be cute.

Totally off topic but as someone else who has owls as their favorite animal (see, my avatar), I couldn't pass up the chance to show off this beautiful owl who resides in my backyard: 

I hope you're successful in your hunt for an owl coin for your grandmother!

[Limes]

No, I did not join the party. Leu seems to attract bidders with deep pockets, maybe too deep. Although some prices realised are fair, and even some coins can be had for a friendly price, the large bulk of the prices are ridiculous if I compare them to other sold or offered items elsewhere. It seems to be going like this since covid and earlier Leu auctions were better from a buyers perspective. But I have no data to confirm this, its a mere feeling. 

Another problem for me at least, but this also goes for other auction houses, are the rising fees, shipping fees and customs fees. Latter is the case with Swiss (and Britain since brexit too) but also because buyers need.to pay customs clearance costs (?) over all packages, always, and it has become a lot stricter. 

So, all these fees eat a larger and larger.portion of my budget. So i have to chose more careful when I buy a coin from a non-EU country, and do so on fewer and fewer occasions. 

In no way is this a complaint, it's a fact and I know it comes with this hobby. Its just a bid sad though, especially the rising buyers fees. And Leu has great material to offer, so that attracts bidders of course. 

I apologize if this appears as a pointless rant, not my purpose.

[AussieCollector]

9 minutes ago, Limes said:

No, I did not join the party. Leu seems to attract bidders with deep pockets, maybe too deep. Although some prices realised are fair, and even some coins can be had for a friendly price, the large bulk of the prices are ridiculous if I compare them to other sold or offered items elsewhere. It seems to be going like this since covid and earlier Leu auctions were better from a buyers perspective. But I have no data to confirm this, its a mere feeling. 

Another problem for me at least, but this also goes for other auction houses, are the rising fees, shipping fees and customs fees. Latter is the case with Swiss (and Britain since brexit too) but also because buyers need.to pay customs clearance costs (?) over all packages, always, and it has become a lot stricter. 

So, all these fees eat a larger and larger.portion of my budget. So i have to chose more careful when I buy a coin from a non-EU country, and do so on fewer and fewer occasions. 

In no way is this a complaint, its.a fact and I know it comes with this hobby. Its just a bid sad though, especially the rising buyers fees. And Leu has great material to offer, so that attracts bidders of course. 

I apologize if this appears as a pointless rant, not my purpose.

I agree, especially this part:

"Leu seems to attract bidders with deep pockets, maybe too deep. Although some prices realised are fair, and even some coins can be had for a friendly price, the large bulk of the prices are ridiculous"

And combined with my suspicions about their bidding software, Leu are my auction of last resort.

[rhj959]

17 minutes ago, Limes said:

No, I did not join the party. Leu seems to attract bidders with deep pockets, maybe too deep. Although some prices realised are fair, and even some coins can be had for a friendly price, the large bulk of the prices are ridiculous if I compare them to other sold or offered items elsewhere. It seems to be going like this since covid and earlier Leu auctions were better from a buyers perspective. But I have no data to confirm this, its a mere feeling. 

Another problem for me at least, but this also goes for other auction houses, are the rising fees, shipping fees and customs fees. Latter is the case with Swiss (and Britain since brexit too) but also because buyers need.to pay customs clearance costs (?) over all packages, always, and it has become a lot stricter. 

So, all these fees eat a larger and larger.portion of my budget. So i have to chose more careful when I buy a coin from a non-EU country, and do so on fewer and fewer occasions. 

In no way is this a complaint, its.a fact and I know it comes with this hobby. Its just a bid sad though, especially the rising buyers fees. And Leu has great material to offer, so that attracts bidders of course. 

I apologize if this appears as a pointless rant, not my purpose.

I had 100 coins consigned and some of the hammered prices were eyewatering.  I had a Maximianus Trier 170b that went for £740!

 

[Qcumbor]

I won three coins. Two were targets and I had to bid in the last seconds to snap them. The third one was an impulse buy.

They're the only ones I put bids on, all the others I had views on that were on my watch list, I had the intuition they would go too high for my liking. Fortunately, the one I wanted the most that I got, was auctioned at the very beginning. Then, only a few bucks were left so I hadn't to worry about the following lots : I could relax and look at how things were going with a smile on my face !

Q

[Finn235]

 

See y'all in Auction 25!

[ComicMan]

1 hour ago, AussieCollector said:

I agree, especially this part:

"Leu seems to attract bidders with deep pockets, maybe too deep. Although some prices realised are fair, and even some coins can be had for a friendly price, the large bulk of the prices are ridiculous"

And combined with my suspicions about their bidding software, Leu are my auction of last resort.

I heard a lot about this, hasn't been my experience, but what exactly is up with their bidding software?

 

1 hour ago, rhj959 said:

I had 100 coins consigned and some of the hammered prices were eyewatering.  I had a Maximianus Trier 170b that went for £740!

Damn, I mean that is a nice coin but 740?

9 minutes ago, Qcumbor said:

I won three coins. Two were targets and I had to bid in the last seconds to snap them. The third one was an impulse buy.

They're the only ones I put bids on, all the others I had views on that were on my watch list, I had the intuition they would go too high for my liking. Fortunately, the one I wanted the most that I got, was auctioned at the very beginning. Then, only a few bucks were left so I hadn't to worry about the following lots : I could relax and look at how things were going with a smile on my face !

Q

Which ones did you go for?

 

8 minutes ago, Finn235 said:

 

See y'all in Auction 25!

o7

[Severus Alexander]

Which is your favourite?

While I agree that Leu prices are overwhelmingly on the high side, as a generalist who goes through all several thousand lots 😱 there are often a few that stay low enough for me to win something I'm interested in... admittedly with a bias towards the less-trodden areas of numismatics.  I think I did pretty well this time, here are my 9 wins:

A - I've made a lot of progress this year on early Greek (and early Roman too). One minor theme for early Greek is to pair each coin with a counterfeit version, since the dawn of coinage was also the dawn of counterfeits.  This is a fourrée Phanes hekte, attributed to the Ephesos area. Coins of Phanes are interesting because they are the earliest to feature someone's name in the larger denominations (probably a private individual rather than a king; possibly a magistrate).  My hammer: 243 CHF. (The next lot – a smaller coin [hemihekte] and also a fourrée – hammered for 850.)

B - Sassanian AE pashiz are typically pretty ugly like this one of Bahram IV.  But this one is special (like the previous lot in the auction, though not noted for my new coin): if you blow up the photo and look at the left hand margin on the obverse you can see that it's an overstrike on a Roman coin, in particular a FEL TEMP REPARATIO! Hammer: 75 CHF.

C - AR damma of Yashaditya of Multan in Sind = Raja Dahir of Alor (679-712), who battled against the Umayyad invasion, ultimately falling at the important Battle of Aror on the banks of the Indus. A famous guy, a famous event... plus he looks so awesomely like a pirate here! 😄 My hammer: 75 CHF

D - How could I not go for this hilarious Severus Alexander coin from Cotiaeum. Sevvy shows off his pecs! 😆 I had to pay for the privilege of owning this small provincial, though... hammer was 220 CHF. Still, I think this is reasonable given that the coin and bust type is (thus far) unique.

E - A denarius of Fufius Calenus and Mucius Cordus, c. 70 BCE. This was on my essential historical list as it celebrates the reconciliation of Rome with Italy in the aftermath of the Social War. Italians who were not among the main belligerents against Rome receive their due, which was Roman citizenship, a process which reached its logical conclusion under Caracalla when all free (male) residents of the empire received the citizenship. Quite a remarkable concept, when you think of it, even if voting rights were fairly meaningless. Hammer: 75 CHF. Not super cheap but OK, and I was tired of swinging and missing on these.

F - "Aurum Barbarorum", manufactured by Germanic and other tribes in Eastern Europe in the 3rd and 4th centuries, and typically worn as amulets (probably presentation pieces to warriors by their tribal overlords). Leu has had a lot of these lately, at widely varying prices. I liked the more 2nd-century style portrait here, as well as... isn't that Gumby on the reverse?? 😁 Hammer: 110 CHF.

G - Another fourrée (I have a small sub-collection of them, aiming to represent different numismatic eras and regions), this time of a denier of Charles the Bald (840-877, King of West Frankia, Reims mint). I'll probably also let this represent Charles the Bald in my collection, even though it's a fourrée. Low cost at 40 CHF.

H - A very cool Abbasid coin dated AH 151 = 768/9, so the time of al-Mansur. Minted in Sijistan not long after the famous Battle of Talas, which (in retrospect) established the border between Tang dynasty and Muslim influence in Transoxiana, you can see that it imitates Chinese cash with its rectangular hole. A neat representation of two great civilizations bumping up against each other. Album 335 (a rare coin), my hammer: 80 CHF. Pretty cheap!

I - This one was a bit of a shot in the dark, as I know little about medieval Russian coinage, but my hammer was only 25 CHF and in its previous outing in Elsen it sold for ten times that. (I'm pretty sure that was overpaying!) Anyway, it's an issue of the Republic of Novgorod from c. 1420-1450. It struck me as interesting compared to others of similar design in that it has a full flan, a neatly engraved obverse design and legend, and also has an unusual symbol (A?) at the top of the obverse. Maybe @John Conduitt can help me with this coin. Did I do OK?

As I asked at the top of this comment, I'd love to hear which of these coins is your favourite?

 

[Severus Alexander]

@ComicMan: Nice post! I love both of your new coins. Also, I haven't had a chance to welcome you to the forum: so, welcome! 🙂 I'm glad to hear you're a generalist like me.

@Roman Collector: what a great Faustina portrait! (I like the poppy too. And the fact that you used the word "occiput." 😁)

@Helvius Pertinax: that one was on my watchlist too. Also: you mentioned that there was a period during the Pelopponesian War during which Athens produced no tets. That surprised me! Surely they'd need the capital especially then! Do you happen to have a source for this info?

@Prieure de Sion: I know it wasn't a main target for you, but that unusual Domitian portrait on the fourrée is pretty cool!

@rhj959: Good to see you here! We all dream of finding a hoard like that. 😄 Luckily I already have my example and didn't have to battle the Leu bidders for it... that's an amazing price for a fairly common coin.

 

[DonnaML]

1 hour ago, Severus Alexander said:

E - A denarius of Fufius Calenus and Mucius Cordus, c. 70 BCE. This was on my essential historical list as it celebrates the reconciliation of Rome with Italy in the aftermath of the Social War. Italians who were not among the main belligerents against Rome receive their due, which was Roman citizenship, a process which reached its logical conclusion under Caracalla when all free (male) residents of the empire received the citizenship. Quite a remarkable concept, when you think of it, even if voting rights were fairly meaningless. Hammer: 75 CHF. Not super cheap but OK, and I was tired of swinging and missing on these.

 

As I asked at the top of this comment, I'd love to hear which of these coins is your favourite?

 

The Republican denarius for the win! What a beautiful and interesting coin.

[Tejas]

2 hours ago, Severus Alexander said:

F - "Aurum Barbarorum", manufactured by Germanic and other tribes in Eastern Europe in the 3rd and 4th centuries, and typically worn as amulets (probably presentation pieces to warriors by their tribal overlords). Leu has had a lot of these lately, at widely varying prices. I liked the more 2nd-century style portrait here, as well as... isn't that Gumby on the reverse?? 😁 Hammer: 110 CHF.

Nice catch of a historically interesting piece (especially at this price). Given the findspot distribution and the fact that Germanic runes have been found on a few of them, the attribution to East Germanic tribes is quite plausible.

[Helvius Pertinax]

2 hours ago, Severus Alexander said:

@ComicMan: Nice post! I love both of your new coins. Also, I haven't had a chance to welcome you to the forum: so, welcome! 🙂 I'm glad to hear you're a generalist like me.

@Roman Collector: what a great Faustina portrait! (I like the poppy too. And the fact that you used the word "occiput." 😁)

@Helvius Pertinax: that one was on my watchlist too. Also: you mentioned that there was a period during the Pelopponesian War during which Athens produced no tets. That surprised me! Surely they'd need the capital especially then! Do you happen to have a source for this info?

@Prieure de Sion: I know it wasn't a main target for you, but that unusual Domitian portrait on the fourrée is pretty cool!

@rhj959: Good to see you here! We all dream of finding a hoard like that. 😄 Luckily I already have my example and didn't have to battle the Leu bidders for it... that's an amazing price for a fairly common coin.

 

Thanks for having mercy on me then 😅 

Unfortunately I dont have my notebook on me atm, but I can write a bit after school and gather the sources.

[ComicMan]

5 hours ago, Severus Alexander said:

Which is your favourite?

While I agree that Leu prices are overwhelmingly on the high side, as a generalist who goes through all several thousand lots 😱 there are often a few that stay low enough for me to win something I'm interested in... admittedly with a bias towards the less-trodden areas of numismatics.  I think I did pretty well this time, here are my 9 wins:

E - A denarius of Fufius Calenus and Mucius Cordus, c. 70 BCE. This was on my essential historical list as it celebrates the reconciliation of Rome with Italy in the aftermath of the Social War. Italians who were not among the main belligerents against Rome receive their due, which was Roman citizenship, a process which reached its logical conclusion under Caracalla when all free (male) residents of the empire received the citizenship. Quite a remarkable concept, when you think of it, even if voting rights were fairly meaningless. Hammer: 75 CHF. Not super cheap but OK, and I was tired of swinging and missing on these.

 

I was actually eyeing E! To be honest, I expected it to go for more, but yeah that is definitely my favorite. That, or D.

You are a generalist, but your favorite is Severus Alexander I gather from your name? That is an interesting one, why is that?

[Roman Collector]

Great coins, @Severus Alexander!! You have a very eclectic numophylacium, indeed! My favorites are D and E. D for the pec-flexin' and E for the historical importance.

[John Conduitt]

10 hours ago, Severus Alexander said:

I - This one was a bit of a shot in the dark, as I know little about medieval Russian coinage, but my hammer was only 25 CHF and in its previous outing in Elsen it sold for ten times that. (I'm pretty sure that was overpaying!) Anyway, it's an issue of the Republic of Novgorod from c. 1420-1450. It struck me as interesting compared to others of similar design in that it has a full flan, a neatly engraved obverse design and legend, and also has an unusual symbol (A?) at the top of the obverse. Maybe @John Conduitt can help me with this coin. Did I do OK?

This is an 'homage' scene with the Duke sitting on a throne (there are standing and sitting types). Novgorod made a lot of these. I believe these were struck from 1420-1478 (ending when Ivan III took over Novgorod), not as long as C12-C15. As it's 15mm, it's not the earliest in the range.

Yes the flan is interesting. They're normally oval, as they were cut from wire. The weight is light - usually 0.8g. It looks like it would be HPF 3002 DA. I don't know why Leu didn't give that reference, as they gave the next coin as Huletski 3004 with the tighter dates (although I'm not sure it is 3004, more like 3002 IA, but that's another matter!).

The surface is a bit rough, which might be why it didn't sell for more. In nice condition, you can pay more than 5 times as much (although CHF250 would be a lot!).

Edited December 7, 2022 by John Conduitt

[velarfricative]

11 hours ago, Severus Alexander said:

B - Sassanian AE pashiz are typically pretty ugly like this one of Bahram IV.  But this one is special (like the previous lot in the auction, though not noted for my new coin): if you blow up the photo and look at the left hand margin on the obverse you can see that it's an overstrike on a Roman coin, in particular a FEL TEMP REPARATIO! Hammer: 75 CHF.

 

Very nice pashiz, at Leu especially eastern bronzes regardless of rarity tend to sell for extremely low hammers

[SteveJBrinkman]

I watched a small handful of lots in the Leu sale, and was successful only with my first choice which was a Crawford 44/6 anonymous quinarius.   Cr. 44/6 is among the earliest, if not the earliest quinarius.  It is generally very common and plentiful but as a specialist in early Roman silver, this variety, which is pictured in Crawford plate IX.21 (group 4 in my classification) is the scarcest of the major varieties, and the only Cr. 44/6 quinarius variety missing from my collection of these fractions.  It's not a thing of great beauty with some deposits and fine surface granularity, but this variety is rarely found very nice so I'm happy.

[ComicMan]

Damn @SteveJBrinkman that is quite the website you have got! Are you specialized in the anonymous denarii?

Edited December 7, 2022 by ComicMan

[ComicMan]

6 minutes ago, SteveJBrinkman said:

I watched a small handful of lots in the Leu sale, and was successful only with my first choice which was a Crawford 44/6 anonymous quinarius.   Cr. 44/6 is among the earliest, if not the earliest quinarius.  It is generally very common and plentiful but as a specialist in early Roman silver, this variety, which is pictured in Crawford plate IX.21 (group 4 in my classification) is the scarcest of the major varieties, and the only Cr. 44/6 quinarius variety missing from my collection of these fractions.  It's not a thing of great beauty with some deposits and fine surface granularity, but this variety is rarely found very nice so I'm happy.

Sorry cannot figure out how to delete a comment, messed up the quote 😛

Nice website! Are you specialized in the anonymous denarii?

[Qcumbor]

22 hours ago, ComicMan said:

23 hours ago, Qcumbor said:

I won three coins. Two were targets and I had to bid in the last seconds to snap them. The third one was an impulse buy.

They're the only ones I put bids on, all the others I had views on that were on my watch list, I had the intuition they would go too high for my liking. Fortunately, the one I wanted the most that I got, was auctioned at the very beginning. Then, only a few bucks were left so I hadn't to worry about the following lots : I could relax and look at how things were going with a smile on my face !

Q

Which ones did you go for?

 

I really wanted the didrachm even though it shows some honest and even wear. Love the type !

Anonymous, circa 240 BC. Didrachm (Silver, 19 mm, 6.33 g, 6 h), Rome. Head of youthful Mars to right, wearing crested Corinthian helmet decorated with a griffin springing right. Rev. ROMA Head of a bridled horse to right; to left, sickle. Crawford 25/1. HN Italy 297. RBW 38. Sydenham 24

 

Q. Antonius Balbus, 83-82 BC. Denarius (Silver, 19 mm, 3.80 g, 6 h), Rome. Laureate head of Jupiter to right; behind, S•C; to right, B•. Rev. Q•ANTO•BALB / PR Victory in fast quadriga to right, holding wreath in her right hand and palm frond and reins in her left. Babelon (Antonia) 1. Crawford 364/1c. RBW -. Sydenham 742a.

 

C. Piso L.f. Frugi, 67 BC. Denarius (Silver, 16 mm, 3.75 g, 6 h), Rome. Laureate head of Apollo to right; behind, heron right. Rev. C•PISO L•F•FRVGI Nude horseman galloping right, holding whip in his right hand; above, lituus. Babelon (Calpurnia) 24. Crawford 408/1a. Hersh, Piso, 29 (O10/R1005). RBW -. Sydenham 865c.

 

Q

[arnoldoe]

I bid one a few but didn't win anything..

 

one group lot i bid on was also in last years auction  where it sold for $400

I noticed the lot had two  of the best coins taken out from last year. so I thought I might be able to get a good deal..

but...

the lot sold for $300 more than last year despite someone keeping the two best /most valuable coins lol..

Edited December 7, 2022 by arnoldoe

[Severus Alexander]

13 hours ago, ComicMan said:

You are a generalist, but your favorite is Severus Alexander I gather from your name? That is an interesting one, why is that?

Nothing too mysterious, it's just that my first Roman coin was a coin of Severus Alexander. 🙂 Coincidentally, I bought it at age 13, the same age as SA when he was acclaimed emperor.

8 hours ago, velarfricative said:

Very nice pashiz, at Leu especially eastern bronzes regardless of rarity tend to sell for extremely low hammers

🤫😉 (And thanks!)

8 hours ago, John Conduitt said:

This is an 'homage' scene with the Duke sitting on a throne (there are standing and sitting types). Novgorod made a lot of these. I believe these were struck from 1420-1478 (ending when Ivan III took over Novgorod), not as long as C12-C15. As it's 15mm, it's not the earliest in the range.

Yes the flan is interesting. They're normally oval, as they were cut from wire. The weight is light - usually 0.8g. It looks like it would be HPF 3002 DA. I don't know why Leu didn't give that reference, as they gave the next coin as Huletski 3004 with the tighter dates (although I'm not sure it is 3004, more like 3002 IA, but that's another matter!).

The surface is a bit rough, which might be why it didn't sell for more. In nice condition, you can pay more than 5 times as much (although CHF250 would be a lot!).

Thanks for the excellent info on this coin, John!  I wondered if the round flan placed it earlier in the date range, that's useful to know the diameter would have to be larger. Perhaps it's a middle-date-range issue. (I expect the porosity explains the weight.)

Nice didrachm, @Qcumbor!  I had that one on watch too. 🙂 

[John Conduitt]

2 minutes ago, Severus Alexander said:

I wondered if the round flan placed it earlier in the date range, that's useful to know the diameter would have to be larger. Perhaps it's a middle-date-range issue. (I expect the porosity explains the weight.)

Actually, the earliest ones were 12-13mm! But the later ones often have a cross dividing the legend, so it could well be from the middle of the range.

[SteveJBrinkman]

7 hours ago, ComicMan said:

Damn @SteveJBrinkman that is quite the website you have got! Are you specialized in the anonymous denarii?

Yes, for some years, I've focussed on the early denarii and fractions, fully anonymous and the early coins with symbols and moneyer's monograms, generally pre-140 BC.  However,  I am not exclusively collecting these early coins.   At some point all of the easy ones are acquired and the scarcer issues don't come up but once every few years.  So I have become somewhat more of a generalist and have smaller groups of other collecting areas.

[ValiantKnight]

I just went for one coin. Didn’t win it, so I bought myself a consolation coin from elsewhere that I already had on one of my watchlists.