What's A Fair Price For A Jannaeus Lepton (Not Prutah)

Harlan J. Berk has two for sale one for $150 and the other $100. https://www.hjbltd.com/#!/inventory/ancient-coins/

Here you go:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lot-of-11-A...57Ciid%253A1

If you are okay with a prutah, that is? I also spy one Porcius Festus which could fetch a decent amount by itself.

I've bought from this seller before. Not sure why he is too lazy to flip the coins over, but the coins are legit.

Hi Finn235. Sorry, I just saw your messages. Those two coins do like the ones I'm looking for. The hard part for me is telling wether a coin is a lepton or a Prutah when there's that much wear. I'm looking for two leptons (no letters between the spokes or whatever those are :)) with really good detail. My husband has one ancient coin with no details and likes it so much, I thought he would really love two leptons that are so old and still look like they did so long ago. Thanks again for the help.

Thanks for the extra information Finn235. It's very helpful. I never realized how much there could be to learn about one type of coin! :) Do you know where I can find a list of fair prices for this coin in different conditions? The ones I have seen have had a pretty big difference in price and condition. Thanks again. :)

Will do. Thanks.

@GC, yes this is a better place to post as many folks who collect only US coins may not have heard of vcoins. The seller isn't Dar Almhml is it? I think that he mainly sells Islamic coins, but I did have a very positive experience buying from him and his shop is out of Dubai.

You know Ginger you can just buy this lot, not one of mine.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Maccabee-LO...AOSwubRXFrq9

This man is interesting. His name is David Green, retired in Florida and he buys other auctions and resells them. But oddly enough, for a great many years David Hendin (the expert on these and the man who's name the system uses for ID's of Jewish ancients) anyway for a great many years until very recently David Hendin was having weekly sales to move Jewish coins and often, quite often David would buy all of his lots, outbid me and everyone else. I just figured he was quite bored as he does that. Anyway this lot of 9 coins has a widows mite (lepton) then to the right the larger prutah of the series and then a bunch of Maccabbee coins with proto hebrew, which you can think the commandments were written in. These things are so common and had Jesus not told the parable no one would have ever cared about the mites. They hold so little value even today and the amazing priced ones are usually the Prutah's with the nice letters and anchor. But did the widow really drop in the nice prutah? Probably not. Why David Green did this, bought all of Hendins stuff for so many years? No idea. I can often look up what he paid and offer $5 over and he takes it. Then he buys back from me and resells. Just a fun guy really. But he does provide a time capsule of deals from Hendins past sales. Often the same photos. So you know the pedigree. Also you put a shovel in the ground in Israel you get this stuff. On another note these were a captured people and the ore was pretty weak so if anyone cleans them too much they decay especially if you live on like an island off Georgia. You live in Arizona you are always good to go.

Oh and by the way, to know the levels of these coin? Here are the nicer ones he has still pretty cheap:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/The-Two-Wid...AOSwd0BV67T6

And here are the weak cheaply cut leptons:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/JUDEAN-WIDO...CXmDdQArZ9Rw

Wildly different prices right? But the truth is if the story is true, she probably had two of the really weak ones with a few details on them. She was a very poor widow.

So year, I know for a fact David has thousands of these like he once asked Hendin to get him couple thousand of the common Herod's grandson Agrippa coins with the wheat. He is really just that bored but a great guy all around.

Just read the links you posted Bob L (thank you for those), not sure what to do now. I think I'll keep looking and educating myself on this subject before I buy. Does that fake patina damage the coin? It seems like it makes them look like a better grade than they actually are and sellers are maybe overcharging? So much to learn. Eventually I might reach 50 posts and buy from someone here. That is starting to seem like the safest choice. Hmm... :)