| Author |
 Replies: 8 / Views: 1,534 |
|
|
Pillar of the Community
Philippines
1156 Posts |
I now collect large size world silver crowns OFEC and I am interested to include large diameter copper ancients in my collecting thread. Say upwards from 30mm diameter. Are these coins easy to find? And if so what would prices be?
Thanks!
|
|
|
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
3445 Posts |
Nice big beautiful sestertii of Rome can be had for under $100 (30-35mm) Nice guys cost less. Big Big Ptolemaic bronzes in the 40-45mm range can get expensive. Several hundred at least for a nice one. Smaller 30mm would be 'proportionally' less. A nice silver dollar sized Ptolemy might be had for around $100.
|
|
Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
4208 Posts |
I just bought 2 big Ptolemy coins. 40mm and 42mm. But I also have some roman sestertii and a roman semis...so no, not hard to find. Some roman coins can be had pretty cheaply if you're willing to sacrifice grade (or put in some work smoothing it).
|
|
Moderator
 United States
23731 Posts |
As with any other type of coin condition is going to determine what you will pay for the coin. You can find some fairly nice sestertius for under $100.
|
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
2480 Posts |
Get a large Ptolemy, you won't be sorry :) Plenty of them to choose from and you can certainly find a whopper for less than a hundred bucks. Here's an example, for sale at a fixed-price website, Ancient Imports. Link to the coin pictured below, which is 39mm and 40.72 gm, $87. http://www.ancientimports.com/cgi-b....pl?id=28829 www.vcoins.com probably has many more examples for sale and there is always ebay, of course. Here's a supersized Ptolemy III (I think--still working out the attribution) I got recently, 47.5mm and 91.8 gm. It cost a bit more than the one pictured above ;)  |
|
Bedrock of the Community
Australia
21788 Posts |
Other than two classes of bronze coin mentioned, the only other classes of large bronze coins that readily come to mind are magnificent Russian 5 kopec pieces and the pure copper British 'cartwheel' twopences.
These are not ancient, but sit nicely in a collection of older large OFEC bronze coins.
There are quite a few large bronze pieces of the 19th century. Turkey issued some, up to 40mm diameter, the Vatican issued some remarkable 5 baiocchi and 4 soldi pieces, Ceylon issued a nice 5 cent bronze piece in 1870, Portugal issued large 20 reis coins for themselves and for thae Azores and a 40 reis piece, that must weigh nearly two ounces, and the Chinese issued some scarce 5 and 10 cast cash coins with a square hole, which were over 30 mm in diameter.
These sorts of coins make the subject of World numismatics quite interesting.
As an oddball, I have seen a Burmese bronze tamlung, of 4 bahts weight of the 17th century, of the
Eastern Toks of Nan, in an auction catalogue. It had an estimate of $30. This piece is anepigraphic, with a small blob of silver melted into it, which gives it it's circulating value. If you can find one of those, best of luck!
All of the coins I have mentioned would cost $50 or less in VF condition.
|
|
Pillar of the Community
 Philippines
1156 Posts |
Hi and thanks for the replies! quite helpful. if you've noticed my double posts - my apologies. didn't realize earlier my mobile is on automatic resend when the wifi signal is weak, am now back to a laptop. thanks This IsFun for the pictures, they look great! Copy Sel691, I have two pcs of 5kopeks Catherine the Great circa 1700s and these are actually the coins that started me on this large copper thread. Very nice coins. Would those large ancient coppers, common ones and at below VF, but large, be within a max $10-$30 price/piece bracket? because higher than that I tend to go silver. I will start looking for ptolemys only knew of it just now. My collecting goal is always to fill up an album, and I use albums with 60 pockets for 2x2 flips. So this album would be only for large coppers and I don't know if this number to fill an album is attainable with such a low budget? LoL  any inputs please, thanks! |
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
3445 Posts |
If you go with 'nice guys' (Antoninus Pius or Marcus Aurelius) a fairly decent 32mm Sestertius can sometimes be found for $30 but you will need to follow ebay listings and make an effort to sniff out 'bargains'. |
|
Pillar of the Community
Russian Federation
5180 Posts |
Quote:
Ceylon issued a nice 5 cent bronze piece in 1870 I have a Ceylon 5 cent coin from 1870. It might be large, but it's certainly at the lower end of large (it's larger than a Nicholas II-era Russian 5 kopek, but it's smaller than a British cartwheel penny). I certainly didn't buy it for being large anyway. That said, it is certainly very nice (and that did play a part in my decision to buy it). And about the Catherine II 5 kopek... a funny story. One day, when returning home from a coin market, I touched one of my pockets to check the coins I put there. I felt a large coin and a small one; and knowing I put a 10-ruble bimetallic commemorative (that I found in circulation) in that very pocket, I thought that it was probably the large coin (at 27mm, it normally was), wondered a bit about what the small one could've been, and basically went home. So when I finally arrived at home, I checked my pocket. There was a 10-ruble bimetallic, sure enough; but it was the small coin after all - the large one was the Catherine 5 kopek. Truly, as said elsewhere for an entirely different reason, "our brains have but one scale - and they resize all our experiences to it". |
| |
Replies: 8 / Views: 1,534 |
|
Posted 09/21/2013 1:30 pm
