Byz Biz... A Big Batch Of Bronze. And A Tiny Gold.

Well... 5 weeks ago I spent hours pouring over a certain German auction house's lots, planning bidding strategies, prioritizing... really wanted a large batch of Greek silver coins. Had many to try for. Hadn't bid with them before.

Hopes were dashed as the bidding was 2x, 3x, 10x higher than estimates on virtually all of those mixed lots. I grew frustrated. Was trying to work and babysit the live bidding. It was fast and furious and generally insane.

I made some poor decisions.

Don't know why I bid on this-- frustration? Anger? It was relatively unloved and at the last moment while it was on the block I clicked bid. And won. May not be the Greeks I was shooting for but I'm sure I'll grow to love these!

I have only a couple of Byzantine coins and have largely neglected that empire in my reading and browsing.

Time to crack out the (virtual) books. While the lot may not have been my first choice, I'm sure it will become utterly fascinating as I read and learn about them.

First step will be matching the 30 envelopes with the coins (32 coins, they together in a bag and the envelopes were in a separate stack), then checking those attributions. Learning more about each one will take many delicious months. The tremissis is Constantius IV. The overall quality of the bronzes is better than I thought it would be, so YAY!. Many Christ coins to add to the manger (I had 2 already).

Broke my secondary light, too late and too tired to work on individual pictures tonight so attached are phone pics of the group. Based on the old paper envelopes that were included (abbreviations, attributions, prices), it looks like they are from the same collector or dealer, unsure of the age, unsure of the currency for the prices penciled in on the envelopes--Euro? Deutsch mark? Other?