Why So Expensive?

It's a nice coin overall, but this campgate is really distinctive.
I like those arches/crenellations--but it's not worth $125 to me.

There must have been a lot of "someones" as there were over 30 bids. But $125 is ridiculous in my mind unless there is something extraordinaire about this coin that I am unaware of. Oh well, to each his own. Like I said, when it came up on ebay at .99 starting bid, I was willing to pay as much as $30 if need be. I never had a chance to bid because it went up so fast. I still think there is something about the coin I am missing.

Auction results often mystify me and I see this coin as overpriced at $30 but I'm no expert on campgates. I do not own a RIC 200 (the one with dots) but have two of the following series with crescents RIC 214 and one with different portrait RIC 215. The last is listed as R2 while the others are all C3 so they should be cheap. I do not see the OP coin a all that high grade due to surface texture. My three coins cost $10, $12 and $15 but I bought them because I thought they were cheap and attractive so maybe twice those numbers would be reasonable.



These coins are listed as coming with varying numbers of rows of blocks. The OP coin is 6 with a note that 5-10 is normal and 11 and 13 are exceptional. Perhaps someone really wanted a 6 row coin. Mine are all higher (8-10 row) but I have not looked for these variations so I don't know if 5 row is hard to find or not. I also think I see a trace of a second dot after the mintmark but I can not believe anyone would pay that much extra for a spurious extra dot.

Here is something interesting.

I found this listing on Vcoins from a reputable seller that I have personally purchased several nice coins from. This example for sale, listed as RIC VII 200, has, in addition,
the base dots.

It seems unlikely, but if both bidders were searching for an example of RIC VII 200, it is conceivable that one or both of them had seen this listing. It took me less than a minute to have my Vcoins search reveal this entry to me.

Having said that, they both would have had to make the same mistake in not realizing that the premium price is being placed on the Vcoins example because of the dots on top and bottom unlike the ebay example with dots only on the top.

Here is the picture of the Vcoins example and corresponding information provided by the seller.

Food for thought,

-Kurt

Price:$180 US

CONSTANTINE I, The Great. Follis, 3.14g. Siscia. Perhaps unrecorded campgate variation.

CONSTANTINE I, The Great. 306-337 A.D.

Obverse: CONSTANTINVS AVG
Laureate bust r.

Reverse: PROVIDENTIAE AVGG
Campgate, two turrets, star above, dot on top of doorway, arches with dots on top AND bottom.

Exergue: dot BSIS dot
Mint City: Siscia. Struck 326-327 AD

Reference: RIC VII, 200

A very rare, perhaps unrecorded exception to the rule laid out on RIC VII, p. 449-450, n.200: 'Some coins have a row of dots or arches (pointed or rounded) with dots in uppermost layer, other coins have these dots (never arches) in bottom layer, which occasionally is depicted as a kind of base for the camp gate. Further varieties show row of dots both in top and bottom layer, exceptionally a row of arches with dots in top, dots only in bottom

Maybe that just says that all of us here are some of the better bargain hunters?

You can add, but not revise, once there is a bid.

Man I wish I would have seen it. Sometimes bidders get lucky. Excellent coin.