Walter Holmes Posted June 20 Share Posted June 20 I have 3 ancient coins I would like know if any one has a suggestion for the most reliable price guides to determine value. Thank you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zadok Posted June 20 Share Posted June 20 ...current auction results..... World Colonial and Walter Holmes 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Oldhoopster Posted June 20 Popular Post Share Posted June 20 One of the mistakes new collectors of ancients make, is trying to determine the value using US market criteria. IMO, slabbing only contributes to this problem. Each coin was hand struck on hand made planchets, therefore each is unique Which characteristics are important to you. Centering? Obv, rev or both? How much missing legend or design equates to a discounted value? Strike? You're dealing with coins struck by hand with handmade dies. Planchets? Cracks? As made pits or defects? Size (too small, casting sprue). Environmental issues? Toning, verdigris, corrosion remnants That's just a very simplified outline, but you can see that trying to develop a pricing guide, even for slabbed ancients would become Very difficult, very quickly So how do you determine the approx value? Do what @zadok said. Look up auction records. Then find one that resembles yours in as many characteristics as possible. While it seems like a lot of work, you'll actually spend time looking at a lot of coins, and looking at a lot of coins is a great way to learn about ancients and build your knowledge. And building knowledge is never a bad thing zadok, Hoghead515, Walter Holmes and 1 other 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post zadok Posted June 21 Popular Post Share Posted June 21 On 6/20/2022 at 6:33 PM, Oldhoopster said: One of the mistakes new collectors of ancients make, is trying to determine the value using US market criteria. IMO, slabbing only contributes to this problem. Each coin was hand struck on hand made planchets, therefore each is unique Which characteristics are important to you. Centering? Obv, rev or both? How much missing legend or design equates to a discounted value? Strike? You're dealing with coins struck by hand with handmade dies. Planchets? Cracks? As made pits or defects? Size (too small, casting sprue). Environmental issues? Toning, verdigris, corrosion remnants That's just a very simplified outline, but you can see that trying to develop a pricing guide, even for slabbed ancients would become Very difficult, very quickly So how do you determine the approx value? Do what @zadok said. Look up auction records. Then find one that resembles yours in as many characteristics as possible. While it seems like a lot of work, you'll actually spend time looking at a lot of coins, and looking at a lot of coins is a great way to learn about ancients and build your knowledge. And building knowledge is never a bad thing ...definitely agree with Hoop's assessment....ancients r an animal all of their own, there is little standardized about ancients...buying/collecting ancients, n those two words r not the same thing...collecting ancients is mostly in the eye of the beholder, collect what pleases u with the bottom line being..."im going to enjoy this coin everytime i look at it"...buying ancients, with an eye towards what is it worth, what can i sell it for is a price guide concept, good luck with that....ancient price guides r seldom updated, i still use a "price guide" on hiberno-norse given to me 40 years ago by Patrick Finn, to determine relative values because there hasnt been anything better published...while i believe current auction results give u the best evaluation of market prices, keep in mind that no two ancients r the same, establish ur own price guides for ur collection, keeping in mind stardard collecting rules e,g. cleaned coins, damaged coins, altered coins etc...also be aware virtually all ancients have been cleaned to some degree, but washing coins is not necessarily a bad thing...having an earthworm crawling around in ur slab with ur ancient is usually frowned upon..... Walter Holmes, Quintus Arrius, Hoghead515 and 1 other 1 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoghead515 Posted June 21 Share Posted June 21 Thank you hoop and zadok. Ive been thinking for a long time about venturing into ancients. We do have 4 ancient coins already. That helped clear a few things up for me. Walter Holmes 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Walter Holmes Posted June 21 Author Share Posted June 21 Thank you for taking the time to respond to my inquiry. I just started delving in ancients and decided upon slabs to ensure, i hope, authenticity. Bought the lot and wanted to include them in my collectors insurance policy. Im just not sure if the purchase price is acceptable. Best I dig into the auctions for similar coins to accomplish that task. Perhaps it will allow me to develop a comfort zone to move outside of slabs and actually hold the coin in my hands. Thanks again. Hoghead515 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oldhoopster Posted June 21 Share Posted June 21 On 6/20/2022 at 8:21 PM, Hoghead515 said: Thank you hoop and zadok. Ive been thinking for a long time about venturing into ancients. We do have 4 ancient coins already. That helped clear a few things up for me. Ancients can be tough in the beginning, but if you like history it can be incredibly rewarding. I can't count the number of times, I'd spent hours trying go attribute a low grade, late Roman bronze (LRB) only to put it back in the drawer for later. However, as I paged through the Reference books or wildwinds site, I was always finding something else that was interesting. While that ratty $2 LRB may still be a ratty $2 LRB 20 years later, I learned so much during the "painful" attribution process and I can't put a price on that. Invaluable Hoghead515 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zadok Posted June 21 Share Posted June 21 On 6/20/2022 at 8:26 PM, Walter Holmes said: Thank you for taking the time to respond to my inquiry. I just started delving in ancients and decided upon slabs to ensure, i hope, authenticity. Bought the lot and wanted to include them in my collectors insurance policy. Im just not sure if the purchase price is acceptable. Best I dig into the auctions for similar coins to accomplish that task. Perhaps it will allow me to develop a comfort zone to move outside of slabs and actually hold the coin in my hands. Thanks again. ...one additional bit of advice, if u as a newbie to ancients r going to spend significant money to buy raw ancients...be sure u buy from well established, well respected ancient coin dealers.... Walter Holmes 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
