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Valued Member
Canada
266 Posts |
I am looking to buy my first Tetradrachm, Considering going for one of the Alexander type coins or possibly something else, anyone have any ideas what would be a cool coin to get for my first Tetradrachm? I'm probably looking to spend a Max of around $200-250 on this or hopefully less  Edited by arnoldoe
12/16/2014 12:44 am
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Pillar of the Community
3772 Posts |
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Moderator
 United States
23731 Posts |
Vcoins would be your best bet.
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
1569 Posts |
I disagree, if you can, try and find a dealer that you can meet in person. Vcoins is vetted to a certain point but is quite expensive.
You will never soar like an eagle if you hang around with turkeys.....
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Pillar of the Community
3772 Posts |
While I agree in principle with you 'MetDet71', I prefer to see the merchandise in hand and/or deal with a dealer who is experienced with ancients, how does someone who is quite new to ancients establish that? There are plenty dealers who sell ancients without knowing much about them.
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
1569 Posts |
This is very true, in fact some of my better forgeries have come from recommended dealers on recommended sites.
Coin fairs would be a good place to start, get to meet other collectors and chat amongst themselves. Most of the collectors of ancient coins that buy from me came my way through 'word of mouth'. Unfortunately it is not the lack of knowledge of dealers, myself included, that is of concern, it is more the total lack of respect most seem to have for collectors. I have purchased from most of the bulk sellers of 'hoards' from where ever and was 'promised' there would be a few bits of silver coinage in the lots - there certainly was, even though it was a modern cast copy. All I am saying is instead of buying from a flat picture, try and find a reputable auction house or similar that you can visit and physically handle coins with a good provenance as a lot of the coins on the market are not legal coins. In the near future the only coins that I will be selling with be fully certified with full details of where they came from. The amount of coins and the type of coins on the market this year is ridiculous.
You will never soar like an eagle if you hang around with turkeys.....
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Pillar of the Community
3772 Posts |
No argument from me against what you said and I hope that 'arnoldoe' finds access to a good dealer and also finds the time and has the patience to find out if the dealer is reliable and knowledgeable on the subject. But the issue here is that he wants to acquire a costly item that he wants to hold in his hands soon.
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
1569 Posts |
If that is the main issue then 159 quid for the coin from the seller you posted seems a fair deal. There are coins on other sites cheaper, but this is simply because they are coming direct from Gaziantep or Dubai and although not to be dismissed simply because of this, if the OP is buying via post then I would avoid them and go to a site like Vcoins where you at least have some protection.
You will never soar like an eagle if you hang around with turkeys.....
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Pillar of the Community
3772 Posts |
The coin I linked was just an example close to his price range and not a recommendation to buy this. I only scrolled through vcoins until I found a decent example. There were cheaper ones I saw, but not in the condition I would want as first piece of pride.
If you can recommend other reliable sites, then I am sure that will be appreciated.
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
1569 Posts |
To be honest I can't, with hand on heart, recommend any sites. There are some other collectors on this forum that do occasionally sell coins from their collection and that is the only recommendation I can offer. It's not a coin I have in stock at the moment - in fact I bought thousands of old comics the other day for some reason  - so I can't help out atm., but if I had one I would happily send it on for the OP. You will never soar like an eagle if you hang around with turkeys.....
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Moderator
United States
23731 Posts |
I agree that it is best to buy first hand from a trusted dealer, where you can examine the coin rather than just look at a picture. However a person like me that lives a six hour drive from any dealer that has ancients, I'm limited to buying from on line sites like Vcoin, Heritage Auctions or other reputable online sellers or auctions.
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
1569 Posts |
That's a long trip Ron, I have 5 places to buy from within walking distance so I suppose that makes a huge difference.
You will never soar like an eagle if you hang around with turkeys.....
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Valued Member
 Canada
266 Posts |
Well, I probably live at least 8 hours from anywhere that may sell ancient coins, possibly even more so I am probably forced to buy online, and Vcoins does seem fairly expensive compared to other places online. Even auction sites like CNG seem to sell many that go for quite a bit less than that. I will probably end up getting something off of E-bay eventually how does this one look? http://www.ebay.com/itm/LANZ-ALEXAN...371205344838Edited by arnoldoe
12/16/2014 10:12 am
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4778 Posts |
The few establishments in my area that sell coins don't have ancient coins (not surprising), so its just online for me also.
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
3626 Posts |
That particular seller has a good reputation. Coin could be a life time issue which will be more expensive than the posthumous ones. If you want to buy from an ebay seller, check the "dodgy seller" list on forvmancientcoins. Check the sellers reputating and check out any negative feedback. Look at the other coins that have on sale, do they all look OK. Check previous sales, do the coins look OK. When the price of the coin goes up, look for a similar coin on vcoins. Look at the price they are charging. If the bidding goes close to that, then you are probably not going to get a bargain. |
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Moderator
United States
23731 Posts |
The seller is well known with a good reputation and the coin looks OK. However you really have to be careful with buying higher price coins on ebay , for every good seller there are ten that are not. |
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Replies: 25 / Views: 4,305 |
Posted 12/16/2014 01:23 am
