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 Replies: 10 / Views: 1,273 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
7066 Posts |
Slow night here and so I'll start a second round of "Faux Gift Certificates." I posted the first round a while back: http://goccf.com/t/300456This may not generate interest, but I'll give it a try... Rules are simple: You've got a (pretend) $500 gift certificate to spend on ancients/medievals. Poke around and report back how you will (pretend) use it. In doing so, please post the coin or coins here, along with a brief explanation of why this would be your selection. That last part is important. How does your purchase fill a gap in your collection or otherwise pique your interest? Educate us, please. I'll get things rolling by posting my (faux) purchase in a few minutes. |
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
7066 Posts |
My selection consists of the two coins below. These were just listed within the last 48 hours (by the same dealer) and, while it may be hard to believe this given their pedestrian appearance, I was truly stunned to see them. They are pretty ugly, a bit chipped, worn, and tiny - and one may have a bit of BD and some tooling from what I can see. However, they are also extremely rare and are among my Holy Grails since they are both from the very elusive (from a collecting standpoint) Early Kamnaskirid Dynasty, the first of three historical periods that Pieter Anne van't Haaff divided the history of Elymais into. I own a fair amount of coins from the two subsequent periods, the Later Kamnaskirid Dynasty and the Elymais Arsacid Dynasty, but none from the earlier period. I have, for a very long time, wanted coins from this first period. They rarely enter the market and, when they do, they cost a small fortune. Last year I went so far as to reach out to one of the few collectors I know of who owns a coin from that period, in the hopes he might entertain an offer. He wasn't interested at this time. I do own a tet of Parthia's Phraates II who for a time served as the Arsacid viceroy to Elymais during this period of Elymaean history. But that's not the same as owning a coin from the few homegrown Elymaean kings and usurpers from this early period. They are a small group: Kamnaskires I, Kamnaskiries II Nikephorus, Okkonapses (usurper), Tigraios (usurper), and Dareios (usurper). These two below could be purchased with my faux gift certificate, and they would satisfy a collecting urge I have had for a number of years. Alas, I can only purchase these with my faux certificate for now since I am on hiatus from coin collecting for the time being, focusing - for now - on ancient weapons. Having limited resources and having to make difficult collecting decisions can sure be frustrating...  Kamnaskires II Nikephorus 147-139 BC Van't Haaff 2.7.1-1  Tigraios 138/7-133/2 BC Van't Haaff 5.5.1-1 Edited by Kamnaskires
02/23/2019 10:41 pm
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Moderator
 United States
23731 Posts |
Just under $500.  Varham IV  Hormizd II |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
616 Posts |
The heart of my collection is the Severan dynasty. I recently purchased a Pertinax denarius, but I'm still waiting on Didius Julianus. The coin below sold for 550 Euro. I'm sure I could use my vast powers of persuasion* to get the buyer to hand it over for a slight loss.  *My godfather...  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
7066 Posts |
Excellent fake-uses of the fake-money, above.
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
7953 Posts |
I was inspired by the "How Far Back" threads to take my small Kingdom of Poland collection, and start expanding it to cover as many date/mint/type combinations as possible, for now focusing on the 1500s (though I have picked up some earlier undated medievals along the way, too). As there were 65 years in the 1500s with dated coins, and I started with only 9 already in my collection, this means I also need to be careful not to blow too much money on any one coin (if I want a 1571 coin, for example, the only option is a gold ducat, which runs well into 4 figures, so this is off my list). For the reign of Sigismund II (1546-72), the overwhelming majority of coins were made in the the Lithuanian mints. I have 2 denar, 1/2 groat, groat, trojak (3 groat) and cworak (4 groat) coins of various dates from this reign minted at Vilnius or Tykocin, but I do not yet have a coin from the Gdansk mint in any denomination. Schillings/solidus were made, and are within my budget, but with my $500 faux gift certificate I would look for a trojak (3 groat) which was only issued in 1557 and 1558. The most accessible is one of the 1557 subtypes, Kopicki 7368(R3). The example shown below sold for just over $500 a year ago, to give an idea of the quality level this would buy. I have seen a sale as low as $225 in lower condition, but so far I've been able to keep my acquisitions at VF or higher. SO this would fill a mint/denomination gap, but also a "beard length gap." Early (1540s) portrait coins of this monarch show a close cropped beard, and late (after 1565) portrait coins show him with a chest-length forked beard. Only the coins of 1555-1558 show this beard length.  Edited by tdziemia
02/24/2019 3:04 pm
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Pillar of the Community
United States
7066 Posts |
Excellent choice, Ted, and a very clear elaboration: mint (check!), denomination (check!), and beard length (check!). Good use of the fake money!
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Pillar of the Community
United States
7953 Posts |
Thanks, Bob. By the way, concerning your opening statement ... Quote:
This may not generate interest, but I'll give it a try... From my viewpoint, that's akin to saying stories of unrequited desire might not generate interest. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
6130 Posts |
This auction already ended, but with a pretend $500 to spend, I would have happily ponied up the rest to buy this Plotina that sold at CNG for about half the price of a normal Plotina denarius:  In fact, I very nearly bid on that one, except: 1) I thought I could win the Leu example for less money. I was wrong. 2) I already made a purchase that I should probably take a year off to recover from Sadly, I have reached the point in my Roman collection that the remaining holes mostly will cost well over $500 to fill. "Trajan's girls" (Plotina, Marciana, Matidia) are all tough cookies - Usually $1500+ each in anything resembling acceptable grade. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
616 Posts |
Finn235
Those women are definitely hard to get.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
6130 Posts |
You can say that again. And that Didius Julianus was an absolute steal! They only recently started going for under $1000 for nice specimens at major auction houses - I would have expected that one to go for 1500 euros!
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Replies: 10 / Views: 1,273 |
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Posted 02/23/2019 11:50 pm
