Here are the coins from the FedEx thread...

[Nerosmyfavorite68]

Had these arrived without issue, I would have just posted them in the 'latest ancient' thread, as they wouldn't really normally warrant a writeup.  However after all the fuss, I'm sure some are curious to see what the coins in question were.

Let's just say it was an adventure to reach FedEx.  It's at one of the worst exits in town, traffic-wise, and of course someone decided to get into a wreck with a garbage truck, right at the exit.  I was ready to give up at that point, but by pure luck I made it to the exit.   The entrance to the Fedex faciility (it's their freight depot) is pretty hidden, so it took some more adventures to get in there.  On the upside, the weather was glorious and I don't have to return to FedEx!  By the way, even the FedEx person there agreed that the 800 number was trash.  The inept phone rep had ended up not doing anything to try to forward the package.

The coins were well-packed, no issues there, nor did I anticipate any.  Packing received a solid A, well-done, but not too hard to extract.  I actually quite like their packaging method.

(For the few who don't know, the issue arose from the item not being sent by post, and that it required a signature).  If they had left it on Friday, I would have been slightly spooked that they used FedEx, but the coin was ordered Wednesday and arrived Friday, all for c. $21.  One certainly couldn't gripe there, to be fair.

Out of curiosity, how does one set Walgreens (or any fedex spot) for delivery? Is it done on a case-by-case basis, at the time of ordering?

I've not signed for a coin in at least two years, or however long this current postman has been on the route, nor have I for the DHL Express packages, nor the Savoca FedEx packages.  Had it been a $300 or above package, I could understand, but this wasn't.  I didn't anticipate a non-postal option, but I would have gladly waived any insurance to not go through this hassle.

This kind of issue would be largely solved by vcoins adding (or restoring) the comment box at the time of order, and perhaps a checkbox for I want a signature, insurance, (or not).

I was on the verge of the 'return to sender' option, but I didn't want to have to pay return postage for something which wasn't my fault (their $21 option was very vaguely worded), nor did I want to have to kow-tow to them to attempt to have it re-sent the correct way.

There's no need to be cross at this point. I had to go to a lot of trouble to get them, but they're here. It's quite easy to avoid such a situation by just sticking to my tried-and-true dealers.

Well, drumroll, here they are.  While the Agrippa is actually low-key decent, the package hardly warranted all this effort to receive.  It was pure chance that I chose this vendor.  I was influenced by the recent Agrippa thread. The only 2 or 3 examples I owned were from a 1990's bulk lot of low-grade (mostly VG/F) asses.  This one was nicer than the $1.50 ones.

Nor was the price bad; at least, not in my opinion.  While it doesn't pop as much in person (looks darker and drier in person), there's a nice, natural patina and quite a lot of obverse detail left.  It was actually the nicest vcoins offering under $250, in my opinion. It was actually kind of hard to find this issue with a natural patina.  Most were stripped.

The portrait is also quite nice.

Here's a translation of the description:

AGRIPPA Consecration of Caligula As 37-41 Rome R1 copper
Obverse: M AGRIPPA. L - . F. COS. III Head of Agrippa left, wearing the rostral crown (R7)
Reverse: Anepigraph/ S|C Neptune standing naked left, cloak on shoulders, holding a small dolphin in his right hand and a vertical trident in his left hand
Commentary: Copy on an irregular flan, a little short on the legend. Beautiful portrait well struck with regular wear. Slightly soft strike on the reverse. Very beautiful natural green patina

Country: AGRIPPA Year: 37-41 State/Grade: VF (my comment, more like nice F)

 

Nominal: As Weight (g): 10.20 Material: copper Catalog number: C.3 (Agrippa) RIC.58 RIC.58 BMC/RE.161 BN/R.84 RCV.1812 ($960)

Here's the ugly duckling of the lot. While it's actually a bit less hideous in person, it's not a nice coin, but it didn't make an pretense of being one.  This is an issue which I've always wanted, but seems to be quite expensive (like $1,000) in decent shape.  The outline of the design is clearly there, so it was preferable to the even more decrepit Moneta Carisius they had.  The Moneta type is more affordable in decent shape.

The mystery of this coin is what's going on with the rust. They're right about the chip, but it seems to be shallow and doesn't look like the average fourree break to me.  Under a bit of magnification there's no real smoking gun of a fourree break/edge.  One can even see silver popping out under the rust.  Could it be impracted dirt?

Another question: This dealer sometimes uses reference abbreviations which I'm not familiar with. is CRR Crawford?  I also have no idea what B.10 refers to.

Translation:

T. Carisius - 46 B.C.

Obverse: Anepigraphic Head of the Sibyl Herophilus (prophetess) facing right, hair in a bun
Reverse: T. CARISIVS// III. VIR Sphinx seated facing right
Commentary: Copy on a centered flan, chipped at 11 o'clock. Significant wear but coinage clearly identifiable. Grey patina

Country: CARISIA
Year: 46 AC.
State/Grade: VF/VF (my comment: more like aVG)
Nominal: Denier
Weight (g): 3.43
Material: silver
Catalog number: B.10 (Carisia) BMC/RR.4063 pl. 50/3 BMC/RR.4063 pl. 50/3 CRR.983 (4) RRC.464 /1 RSC.10

[CPK]

Nice coins! 👍

[akeady]

FWIW, B10 (Carisia) is Babelon 10 of the gens Carisia.   Babelon is a largely outdated 19th century French work on Republican coins.   Its numbering scheme survives in RSC (Roman Silver Coinage).

CRR refers to Sydenham's Coinage of the Roman Republic.

BMCRR  is Grueber's British Museum Catslogue of the Roman Republic.

RRC is Crawford.

I'm glad you got the coins!

ATB,

Aidan.

[expat]

Nice to see a resolution to your tribulations. Good additions for you.

I picked up an Agrippa, RIC 58, as well

Agrippa. Struck under his Grandson Caligula, 37-41 AD.
M . AGRIPPA . L . F . COS . III, head left wearing rostral crown / S-C in field flanking Neptune standing facing, head left, naked except for cloak draped behind him & over both arms, holding small dolphin in right hand & vertical trident in left.
AE As 12.62gr, 28mm. RIC 58,Cohen 3.

[Ancient Coin Hunter]

Nice addition to the collection. Glad that your ordeal is over.

[ambr0zie]

I am glad the coins arrived. I am also annoyed when there are bloopers with the shipping - either errors/unexpected situations from the couriers or sellers trying to save money (on my account). I've had my share. 

Here is my example of the T. Carisius. Heavily worn - a little more circulation wear and this would have been difficult to attribute. 

 

Almost identical images (and the same portrait - Sibyl Herophile) on this Gergis bronze, a few centuries earlier. 

11 mm, 1,28 g.
Troas, Gergis. Æ. Circa 350-300 BC. Head of Sibyl Herophile facing slightly r., wearing laurel wreath and necklace / ΓEP, Sphinx seated right, grain ear in exergue.
SNG Copenhagen 339-40; SNG von Aulock 1514; BMC 9.

Because, you know ...

 

[JAZ Numismatics]

I'm glad you finally got the coins! I particularly like the Agrippa - I like that kind of psychedelic crustiness. I'll bet it looks great in sunlight.

[Nerosmyfavorite68]

3 hours ago, ambr0zie said:

I am glad the coins arrived. I am also annoyed when there are bloopers with the shipping - either errors/unexpected situations from the couriers or sellers trying to save money (on my account). I've had my share. 

Here is my example of the T. Carisius. Heavily worn - a little more circulation wear and this would have been difficult to attribute. 

 

Almost identical images (and the same portrait - Sibyl Herophile) on this Gergis bronze, a few centuries earlier.

 

That's a very nice patina on the Troas AE.  The obverse is also more pleasing on your sphinx denarius.

Perhaps someday I will find a decent deal on a Carisius in nice Fine or VF.

I'll have to try the Agrippa in sunlight.  Whatever lighting conditions they used certainly helped.

The 2015 ordeal was much worse.  At least the package was there this time.  Both my nightmare scenarios happened when a signature was required, and also when a different shipper was requested/expected.

LOL, checking traffic before work, that area is even more backed up today.  Due to a connector highway being added some years ago, there's about 3 major entrances within a mile.  It generally only backed up during rush hour before the useless I-75 project, but 2 of the 3 are angled so that they zip in and cut off through traffic.  And this, the biggest chokepoint of all, is last on the list of stuff to work on.  Brilliant.  It just constantly is clogged up now.  The highway is now just a place to avoid.  Others decamped to the other major highway, making that worse.

Edited October 30, 2024 by Nerosmyfavorite68

[Sol_Invictus]

Glad you got the coins! The Agrippa is beautiful!

[akeady]

The best adventure I've had with FedEx was a few months ago.

A colleague in San Diego was sending a work packet to me in the Dublin office but left out the most important part of the address - he managed to put in "Arran Quay" but not "Dublin".   So, after eagerly tracking the packet for a few days, when the status became "Delivered" I was a bit worried as it hadn't been delivered to me and the last place it had been was in Co. Donegal.   If you're not familiar with Irish geography, that isn't anywhere near Dublin.

After three calls to FedEx (they started calling me back every day!), I discovered that the address had been interpreted as Arranmore Island, off Donegal.

I posted to a Facebook group, Arranmore Hub, and got a reply almost immediately - "Your package is on the red ferry" 😄

I called Arranmore Ferries and the nice people there printed out my full address and gave the package to the FedEx guy the next day and it eventually reached me!

I've never lost coins in the post and this delivery was of no real value to anyone other than us, but it was important that we got it, so I was delighted when it arrived.

I still have to visit Arranmore, which seems a lovely place and has good internet connectivity for remote working.

https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/2023/05/08/i-dont-have-to-worry-about-the-cost-of-living-any-more-working-on-arranmore-the-worlds-most-connected-island/?

ATB,
Aidan.

 

[Nerosmyfavorite68]

Thanks, everyone!

That's pretty cool, Akeady!  I'm very glad you had a good outcome.