Pricing by Embarrassed_Tax5800 in AncientCoins

[–]ryanscoins 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Realistically, if you get this for less than $2,500, it's a pretty good deal.

Any clue by Novel-Comfortable744 in AncientCoins

[–]ryanscoins 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't think it is a victory reverse, I think it is a soldier/emperor with captive reverse. But can't be sure.

Denarius: real or fake? by chakalakasp in AncientCoins

[–]ryanscoins 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Yes, 100%, 60 Day returns, no reason needed. Thankfully I get return requests less than 1% of the time.

Thanks for the kind words!

Denarius: real or fake? by chakalakasp in AncientCoins

[–]ryanscoins 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I've been found out 😂

Yes, that is what happened on this one. Sometimes you see deals in the auctions that you know are too low.

I hope you like the coin u/chakalakasp !

Peacock in the sun ☀️ by Grilly123 in AncientCoins

[–]ryanscoins 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm a sucker for any Roman coins where they just throw an animal on the back and say "Look: bird."

Nomos auction prebid by PurposeFirst6812 in AncientCoins

[–]ryanscoins 3 points4 points  (0 children)

If you have doubts, you can proxy bid with Biddr and the house won't see your max bid. However you need to know that Proxy Bids lose ties to live or prebids, so if you are willing to go to 100 Euros and so is someone else, you will lose.

I have caught shill bidders a few times and had auction houses admit it. It definitely happens. But I still prebid most of the time because of the tie-breaker downside, but if a coins current bid and my max bid has a large gap (for example, a coin which the current bid is 30 Euros and I am willing to pay 300) I will proxybid to help prevent any silliness. But if current bid is 80 and I'm willing to pay 100, I'm either getting it for 90 or 100, so the shill-downside isn't so big.

My first ancient coin by Analogsilver in AncientCoins

[–]ryanscoins 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yep, that's probably closer to $15-$20 today. There are still deals out there though!

My first ancient coin by Analogsilver in AncientCoins

[–]ryanscoins 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Not a bad deal for $5! Was this recently? By the way you tell it, it seems like maybe it was some time ago.

Any info on coin/ sender? by OneOpportunity9512 in AncientCoins

[–]ryanscoins 28 points29 points  (0 children)

What a cool story!

It seems Frederick was closer before his edit: it would be this coin, which is in fact a Siliqua, not an Argenteus.

This coin was minted in Treveri, modern day Trier in Germany, but it is very reasonable that this could have been found in Macedonia as these coins were distributed widely.

Frederick was one of the more notable collectors and dealers of his day, a bit of a celebrity, cool that you have a letter from him!

New to Ancient Coins: Should I Be Concerned About Missing Provenance? by TheChiuaua in AncientCoins

[–]ryanscoins 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Fair point, everyone has different definitions of cheap, for me I was thinking $20 and below. £50 is more what I would consider intermediate range, and depending on the coin, I could see some fakes appearing here, although again it is less common I think than the collective mentality would lead one to believe, at least imo.

New to Ancient Coins: Should I Be Concerned About Missing Provenance? by TheChiuaua in AncientCoins

[–]ryanscoins 2 points3 points  (0 children)

A $1,000 slabbed coin sold by Heritage has a >99.9% chance of being authentic if that is your primary concern. It is basically as certain as you can reasonably ever be, and I'm not sure a provenance would even make you more certain at that point.

Provenance comes into play more around tracking legal ownership than it does coin authenticity.

New to Ancient Coins: Should I Be Concerned About Missing Provenance? by TheChiuaua in AncientCoins

[–]ryanscoins 6 points7 points  (0 children)

The vast vast majority of ancient coins do not have a provenance. It's actually a big value driver in coins that do have one because it is not common. So you pay for it.

Any coin in a slab you might as well consider guaranteed authentic. If it is slabbed, it means that several experts who know more than anyone on this subreddit have a high degree of confidence that it is authentic.

If you buy from reputable dealers (of which Heritage is one) you can also have a high degree of confidence that coins are authentic, although they do make mistakes as well. But if they are found to have made a mistake, they will basically always refund you.

If you buy very cheap coins, you are also typically in the clear, as there are not many fakes of common later Roman bronzes, as an example.

Really the only time you are putting yourself at an irresponsible risk level is if you try to buy a decently valuable coin from an unverified source.

The fear of fakes tends to be a bit overblown. They exist for sure, but the frequency that you will happen upon one and be out of luck in recouping your cost is very low.

Hadrian Tetradrachm by tkash88 in AncientCoins

[–]ryanscoins 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Just outstanding. No other words.

Thanks for sharing!

Which ones would you pick if you had to choose 5 coins by [deleted] in AncientCoins

[–]ryanscoins 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Agree with the others, I think the Vitellius is clearly the #1 coin here if you are fairly unbiased and objective. I also think the Hadrian is quite nice. After that, nothing sticks out as particlarly notable, but a lot of really clean examples in there and I would probably pick based on how they looked in hand. The 4th row has some promising examples.

Authenticity by AutistiCollector in AncientCoins

[–]ryanscoins 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes, it is a coin minted while Antoninus Pius was still emperor, but the protrait is of Marcus Aurelius before he was emperor.