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 Replies: 12 / Views: 2,567 |
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Valued Member
United States
219 Posts |
Hello all, Recently I've been starting to get into the ancient coin area (mainly Roman and Byzantine) and the one thing that I can't seem to figure out is how to price/value an ancient coin. US coins have the RedBook, Greysheet, etc. and World Coins have the Krause catalog, but what reference point, if any, are ancient coin dealers/collectors looking off of when price their coins? |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
7066 Posts |
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Moderator
 United States
23731 Posts |
Bob, do you subscribe to Coin Archives? It was a great site when it was free, well beyond my ability to pay the high membership fee.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
549 Posts |
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CCF Advertiser
United States
1306 Posts |
Going rate is safest especially if you have to liquidate your coins. So first: http://munzeo.com/See what others have sold for and compare the quality of the coin. Sometimes a coin can be so rare there are very few recent sales, but then you might try to sell yours and there are very few collectors. But if they sell a lot of that type recently you will learn the going rate. Then past sales on ebay. Here are the last 200 or so recent sales of the alexander drachm: http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw...H_Complete=1You can always get more if you are willing to sit on the inventory in a site like vcoins for a couple of months or if you have some special coins you can consign with a big auction house. But if you want today's price, what you can get if you needed to sell it today, the above advice is the easiest way to go. Especially if you wanted to make a list for insurance. |
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Pillar of the Community
Spain
629 Posts |
How do you determine the beauty of a woman?
In my own opinion there are a lot of factors that build together the price of a coin. Basically it´s only offer and demand;
OFFER:
- number of that kind of coin actually available
- Grading.
As you can see the offer is very "objetive", but demand is absolutely "subjetive"...
DEMAND:
- number of collector of that kind of coin (are dying more collectors than newbie collectors?)
- desirability of that coin (yes, an elephant denarius of Julius Caesar is always more valued than other denarius so scarcer than them)
- beauty of the coin
- external imfluences (If Hollywood makes a blockbuster based on the life of a very dark emperor, depicting him as a hero, a lot of collectors of modern coins will buy a coin of that emperor to show it, so the price of that emperor will rise)
Edited by Athalbert
05/01/2017 02:57 am
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
2624 Posts |
If it is a reasonably common coin I find a good indication of the market is to do a search for it on vcoins. By ordering the results by price you can look through till you find coins of a similar quality to your own and this gives you a general feel for what the coins are being sold for. It is hard to do a " Red Book" for ancient coins as there are so many factors like how well struck and centred and how full the flan etc so there's a little more interpretation required. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
7066 Posts |
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Bob, do you subscribe to Coin Archives? No, Ron, I don't. Good advice from all here. Particularly helpful, I think, is the info at augustuscoins. |
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New Member
United States
49 Posts |
This topic is something I've found particularly helpful as a new coin collector. Thank you all for the information!
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Pillar of the Community
United States
616 Posts |
Quote:
How do you determine the beauty of a woman? I ask my wife.  |
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Pillar of the Community
Spain
629 Posts |
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
946 Posts |
If you mean "value" in the $ sense then the basic way to determine that is to see what other examples of said coin have sold for recently.
If you mean the numismatic value in rarity there are many members here and on other ancient coin forums as well as authorative works to help determine the numismatic value.
However rarity = BIG $ is not a given, as for that it is about the condition and basic "eye appeal".
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Bedrock of the Community
Australia
21788 Posts |
It is possible to comment at length on each of the factors below that contribute to the value of an ancient coin.
Valuing an ancient coin accurately is a lot more complex than valuing a machine stuck modern coin. Nevertheless, if you have a passion for ancient coins, valuing skill can come more easily than you may think.
condition
quality of strike
degree of corrosion
completeness of design
quality of die cutting
style
quality of flan
patination
how well cleaned after recovery
damage
overall visual appeal
provenance
supply
demand
These value factors contribute to how well or poorly the coin presents itself, the reputation behind it and it's marketability. Eventually, my kids will be lumbered with selling my collection, either before or after I die.
I consider ALL of these factors when considering to buy an ancient coin, and I almost always do due diligence when it comes to authenticity, and comparison pricing with other near similar coins that may be available for sale, (market research). Let the keyboard be your friend.
Edited by sel_69l
05/19/2017 8:39 pm
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Replies: 12 / Views: 2,567 |
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Posted 04/30/2017 11:33 pm
