Waiting on coins from four different dealers

[Roman Collector]

I'm sure you know the feeling.

[happy_collector]

Sounds exciting, @Roman Collector. I was also waiting for ancient coins from different dealers/auction houses during the past 2 weeks. They eventually all came in on the same date last Friday. I was very happy to see the 4 small packages after coming home from work (yes, I have to go to office on "Faustina Fridays" 🙁). On the other hand, I doubt if my wife shared my joy, since she had to speak out pretty loud (6 feet distance, separated by glass) to the mail delivery person to sign receipt for me... 😅  

Here is one of the coins in the packages. It's a Lucilla denarius that I have been looking for quite a while. Glad to eventually add it into my collection. It probably will be one of my 2022 top 10 additions. 

Lucilla, wife of Lucius Verus AD 161-169, AR Denarius (18mm, 3.19 gram) Rome
Obv: LVCILLA AVGVSTA; draped bust r.
Rev: FECVNDITAS; Fecunditas seated r., holding child, young girl standing before her

RIC 765

Edited June 6, 2022 by happy_collector

[Furryfrog02]

1 hour ago, Roman Collector said:

I'm sure you know the feeling.

I'm currently not awaiting any packages besides one from the US Mint with my youngest's newest birth year silver eagle.
I will tell you what though; when my wife sees the USPS daily emails with what is supposed to be arriving and she sees the ones that say "ebay"....
ooooooooooooooo buddy...that is scary.

[DonnaML]

I don't know if it's called "waiting" anymore when a coin was sent to me from Spain almost two months ago and there's no way of tracking it! I've basically given up, and very soon I am going to ask Cayon Subastas to put in an insurance claim. Especially given that someone in the Facebook group said they're in exactly the same situation with a coin they won in the very same auction in late February. I wonder if there's a higher rate of theft for packages from Spain, given that people probably know that they aren't tracked anymore once they arrive in the USA. No more Spanish auctions for me -- this was my first. I haven't had the same problem with a couple of VCoins/MAShops retail dealers in Spain, because not all their coins are subject to the export license requirement and because they're willing to ship coins via Fedex or DHL Express.

I'm also waiting for one coin from HJB in Chicago from the new Buy or Bid Sale (a Macrinus Provincial from Nicopolis), and one from Incitatus in Canada (a Faustina II dupondius). I'm not overly concerned about them, since coins from those two dealers have always arrived without significant delay. 

Edited June 6, 2022 by DonnaML

[CPK]

I've got a few coming. Chain-buying can be addictive. 🙄😜

[Ryro]

I've waited as long as 352 days for a coin *ordered right before COVID attacked. 

Currently, I've a few cuties, beauties & rarities on the way...

[jfp7375]

I have my first 2 denarii coming from Tom Vossen in the Netherlands (I'm in Chicago). 

Ordered on May 30th, shipped the 31st, and one tracking update so far on June 4th ("Processed through facility" in Frankfurt and now "Origin post is preparing shipment"). 

So everything is more or less on track, but doesn't make it any easier to wait! Especially since these are my first moderately expensive coins... first silver coins as well. Hoping they'll show up by early next week, like the 13th/14th. 

Ugh. I want to see them so bad!!!

[David Atherton]

I've had a coin stuck at Heathrow since 26 May. I'm starting to get a sinking feeling about this one ...

[kirispupis]

I'm currently waiting for coins from three sellers.

My Roma wins are past customs and should be here early this week. That has a Diodotos I tet I'm very excited about. I believe it's the first tet I've purchased this year. Everything else has been bronzes and obols.

I have wins from two different CNG auctions. Their entire office got Covid, so things have been delayed. They're going to put the results from both auctions together, and they should ship this week.

Finally, I ordered a coin via ma-shops. It hasn't shipped yet, but many of the ma-shops sellers take a week or two to get coins out. SwissPost can take a month to reach here, but I'll be happy when it does.

This makes a total of six coins for my Philip II, Alexander III, and the Age of the Diadochi collection (plus three late Romans). That brings the total of that collection to 110 coins, which is pretty crazy given at one time I felt there couldn't be more than 18 coins to complete it.

[jfp7375]

Man, so many cross-border shipping horror stories. Definitely a bit scary

[Kaleun96]

5 hours ago, DonnaML said:

I don't know if it's called "waiting" anymore when a coin was sent to me from Spain almost two months ago and there's no way of tracking it! I've basically given up, and very soon I am going to ask Cayon Subastas to put in an insurance claim. Especially given that someone in the Facebook group said they're in exactly the same situation with a coin they won in the very same auction in late February. I wonder if there's a higher rate of theft for packages from Spain, given that people probably know that they aren't tracked anymore once they arrive in the USA. No more Spanish auctions for me -- this was my first. I haven't had the same problem with a couple of VCoins/MAShops retail dealers in Spain, because not all their coins are subject to the export license requirement and because they're willing to ship coins via Fedex or DHL Express. 

If I recall correctly, this isn't a Spanish post, or even a European post, issue but just related to what service has been paid for. 

You can pay for at least two types of tracking: tracking with the postal agent and its delivery partners, or just tracking with the postal agent, which usually only works until the item leaves the country. 

Often the second one is used to save money but it's kind of useless for the recipient. I've had some mail sent via USPS work like that too, as soon as it reaches Europe the tracking stops. I've also had the postal service where I live (Sweden) offer it as an option when I was posting something to the UK. I think it may have even been included in the lowest shipping option by default since everything is digital anyway it probably costs them virtually nothing to include tracking updates until it is handed over to a delivery partner. 

Maybe Cayon will let you pay for full tracking? When I bought from a Spanish dealer once they gave me the option of paying for one or the other and the price different was only a few dollars but of course that was for within-EU. 

[Hesiod]

15 minutes ago, Kaleun96 said:

If I recall correctly, this isn't a Spanish post, or even a European post, issue but just related to what service has been paid for. 

You can pay for at least two types of tracking: tracking with the postal agent and its delivery partners, or just tracking with the postal agent, which usually only works until the item leaves the country. 

Often the second one is used to save money but it's kind of useless for the recipient. I've had some mail sent via USPS work like that too, as soon as it reaches Europe the tracking stops. I've also had the postal service where I live (Sweden) offer it as an option when I was posting something to the UK. I think it may have even been included in the lowest shipping option by default since everything is digital anyway it probably costs them virtually nothing to include tracking updates until it is handed over to a delivery partner. 

Maybe Cayon will let you pay for full tracking? When I bought from a Spanish dealer once they gave me the option of paying for one or the other and the price different was only a few dollars but of course that was for within-EU. 

For the US, it depends on international shipping agreements. Not all local shipping numbers will work upon arrival to the US (Poland, for example).

[Kaleun96]

1 hour ago, Hesiod said:

For the US, it depends on international shipping agreements. Not all local shipping numbers will work upon arrival to the US (Poland, for example).

I think the key here might be "local shipping numbers" and what you mean by that. If you ask your local post service to ship an item internationally with full tracking, they will probably use EMS if they don't have a bilateral agreement and there should be no issue tracking a parcel in the US if sent with the right EMS service. If you only send via your local post's "registered letter" service then you are probably dependent on their international agreements. It looks like Poland's post only offers tracking to US under its "GLOBAL Expres" service or via its partnership with EMS.

I don't mean to go down the rabbit hole of international postal services, I just wanted to point out that it all comes down to the service you pay for and long delays with no tracking is well-known from carriers on both sides of the Atlantic.

edit: here's an example from Sweden's PostNord just to help illustrate what I'm talking about. Registered Letters are not tracked by default in the US (mainly just in the EU) but they offer two other services (International Tracked Letter and EMS) if you do want tracking state-side. So it's not that it can't be done just because Sweden doesn't have an agreement for normal registered mail, you just have to pay extra for it.

Edited June 6, 2022 by Kaleun96

[Heliodromus]

40 minutes ago, Kaleun96 said:

If you only send via your local post's "registered letter" service then you are probably dependent on their international agreements.

Yes, and it doesn't help that most foreign sellers are unaware of this, or that things can change ...

Up until about a year ago registered mail from Spain *was* tracked inside the US, but no more. I pointed this out to one seller on a 2nd purchase, and asked that he made sure to use a service that was tracked this time, and 2nd coin still came registered mail since even the Spanish post office incorrectly assured him that it would be tracked!

Even when incoming post-office mail *is* meant to be tracked inside the US, the system right now is highly unreliable (and has been since the start of covid). I've got a couple in transit at the moment that were scanned at their respective international departure airports over a week ago (one UK, one Germany) but have not yet been scanned as arriving at US customs in NY, where they are surely sitting.

 

[David Atherton]

16 minutes ago, Heliodromus said:

Yes, and it doesn't help that most foreign sellers are unaware of this, or that things can change ...

Up until about a year ago registered mail from Spain *was* tracked inside the US, but no more. I pointed this out to one seller on a 2nd purchase, and asked that he made sure to use a service that was tracked this time, and 2nd coin still came registered mail since even the Spanish post office incorrectly assured him that it would be tracked!

Even when incoming post-office mail *is* meant to be tracked inside the US, the system right now is highly unreliable (and has been since the start of covid). I've got a couple in transit at the moment that were scanned at their respective international departure airports over a week ago (one UK, one Germany) but have not yet been scanned as arriving at US customs in NY, where they are surely sitting.

 

Also, international Registered mail is handled as First Class mail once it arrives in the US!

https://faq.usps.com/s/article/What-is-Registered-Mail-International

[Zimm]

I currently have two letters in the mail;

One of them has been in the mail for over 2 months now. I was almost certain it was lost, but just last week I received a message from the dealer informing me that the letter had been returned to him and that he'd mail it again shortly. The contents weren't necessarily interesting aside from a scarce trachy of Andronicus III.

The second batch of coins I ordered last weeks is, at least in my opinion, far more interesting. Aside from a few scarce issues of Michael VIII and John III, it has two coins that stand out from the rest. One of them being a rare trachy of Andronicus II with very few examples known (albeit mine is in awful condition) and the second one an unpublished Nicaean trachy that I presume is either an issue of Theodore I Laskaris or John III (though I suspect the former). 

 

Edited June 6, 2022 by Zimm

[Constantivs]

9 hours ago, jfp7375 said:

I have my first 2 denarii coming from Tom Vossen in the Netherlands (I'm in Chicago). 

Ordered on May 30th, shipped the 31st, and one tracking update so far on June 4th ("Processed through facility" in Frankfurt and now "Origin post is preparing shipment"). 

So everything is more or less on track, but doesn't make it any easier to wait! Especially since these are my first moderately expensive coins... first silver coins as well. Hoping they'll show up by early next week, like the 13th/14th. 

Ugh. I want to see them so bad!!!

I've purchased 5 or 6 coins from Tom Vossen over the last few years and have never had an issue. Should go smoothly I hope.

[jfp7375]

1 hour ago, Constantivs said:

I've purchased 5 or 6 coins from Tom Vossen over the last few years and have never had an issue. Should go smoothly I hope.

Good to hear! I've only heard good things. 

Speak of the devil actually, just got a good update this morning! 

Does this mean it's through customs already? Great news if so - should be here Wed or Thurs at the latest I'd think 

Processed Through Facility
ISC NEW YORK NY(USPS) 
Your item has been processed through our facility in ISC NEW YORK NY(USPS) at 7:40 pm on June 5, 2022.

 

[Kaleun96]

3 hours ago, Heliodromus said:

I've got a couple in transit at the moment that were scanned at their respective international departure airports over a week ago (one UK, one Germany) but have not yet been scanned as arriving at US customs in NY, where they are surely sitting.

 

I've got one that has been sitting in Australia "booked for flight" for over a month now 😅 Though it seems Australia's post has been affected more than most. I don't even think the USPS delays from last year due to the Chicago international service centre going to sh*t resulted in delays as long as I'm seeing with Aussie post.

[Spaniard]

I'm waiting patiently for a sweet Kashmir coin from India...It's just arrived in Spain and only took 10 days to get here, so should be with me this week coming 😊

Also have another 2 coming in from the States.......

I love the wait🤪

 

[Etcherdude]

3 minutes ago, Spaniard said:

I'm waiting patiently for a sweet Kashmir coin from India...It's just arrived in Spain and only took 10 days to get here, so should be with me this week coming 😊

Also have another 2 coming in from the States.......

I love the wait🤪

 

I’m envious that you can find the wait desirable, Spaniard!

[DANTE]

21 hours ago, Roman Collector said:

'm sure you know the feeling.

 

I'm going through a dry spell at the moment. The only bright side: I'm waiting on one item to be shipped from France, an Eastern seal (Syrian, Mesopotamian, Babylonian?) Looking forward to that one.

[DonnaML]

13 hours ago, Kaleun96 said:

If I recall correctly, this isn't a Spanish post, or even a European post, issue but just related to what service has been paid for. 

You can pay for at least two types of tracking: tracking with the postal agent and its delivery partners, or just tracking with the postal agent, which usually only works until the item leaves the country. 

Often the second one is used to save money but it's kind of useless for the recipient. I've had some mail sent via USPS work like that too, as soon as it reaches Europe the tracking stops. I've also had the postal service where I live (Sweden) offer it as an option when I was posting something to the UK. I think it may have even been included in the lowest shipping option by default since everything is digital anyway it probably costs them virtually nothing to include tracking updates until it is handed over to a delivery partner. 

Maybe Cayon will let you pay for full tracking? When I bought from a Spanish dealer once they gave me the option of paying for one or the other and the price different was only a few dollars but of course that was for within-EU. 

As others have explained, it is, in fact, a specific issue with the USPS not tracking mail from the Spanish postal service.  I believe that there is no "full tracking" available from Spain unless a package is shipped by international courier service. And it's too late for that now. 

[Agricantus]

I stopped waiting for my Agora coins. Forgot even if it's been 2 or 3 years. I guess I am the only one here who doesn't have a mail courier issue...

[David Atherton]

5 hours ago, DonnaML said:

As others have explained, it is, in fact, a specific issue with the USPS not tracking mail from the Spanish postal service.  I believe that there is no "full tracking" available from Spain unless a package is shipped by international courier service. And it's too late for that now. 

This is correct. When I order from Spain I always have the packages shipped DHL or FedEx, both for speed and tracking transparency. 

Norway and Ireland are two others. 

Edited June 7, 2022 by David Atherton