Heads up for those surprising Women of Rome

[lrbguy]

Tomorrow the Women of Rome collection  group lots of up to 50 coins comes up at Leu.  The single coins, for the earlier women through the Severides have been doing much better than I expected.  But in the remaining part of the sale there are going to be several large lots numbering usually 25-35 coins, which will consist entirely of women figures from the time of Hadirian (Sabina and related family) up to the time of Gallienus (Salonina).  (lots 4569-4598) 

Most of the lots are starting fairly low for the number of coins, so I think there will be some great deals to be had, but you will have to be the judge of that.  If you are not already into group lots, you might want to look into it.

When the dust settles I do intend to sign on here and let you know how the whole experience worked out - good, bad, and ugly.

But if you are curious about it, Leu Web Auction 30 in the Group Lots clustered at the end of the sale will be the scene of the action.  I'd give you a link, but the list owners might frown on that.

I also have a number of large lots of Roman Provincial  (4504-4512) starting as low as 150 Francs for a group of 18.

Enjoy!!

BTW I'd like to hear from anyone who was pleased with how it all went.  I hope that's you.

 

 

 

[Valentinian]

I searched the auction on "Knapp" and many lots came up. Let us know how you think it went. Were there any that did much better than you expected? Any much worse? Overall, how was it? And, what did you have to do to get Leu to auction them? 

[Ancient Coin Hunter]

Good luck with the remainder of the auction.

[lrbguy]

On 7/17/2024 at 2:53 PM, Valentinian said:

I searched the auction on "Knapp" and many lots came up. Let us know how you think it went. Were there any that did much better than you expected? Any much worse? Overall, how was it? And, what did you have to do to get Leu to auction them? 

There is a lot to cover but I want to be as brief as I can.  I have earlier discussed here how the consignment to Leu came about in this thread:   Leu was vendor B in that post.

The consignment consisted of just over 300 Roman Provincial bronze and approximately 650 Imperial silver coins.  Of the silver coins 195 featured men of Rome and just under 450 were in honor of Roman women. All were denarii or antoniniani.  The house currency at Leu is the Swiss Franc, so any realizations noted here are in that currency. 1SF ~ $1.13  

It helps to break down the material into three sections: Roman Provincial; Roman Republic; and Roman Imperial.    Here follows a bit of a breakdown:

                                                                               Roman Provincial (Most acquired around 2002-2003)

Large lots:  The bulk of the Provincial coins were arranged into 9 lots of anywhere from 18-34 coins each. All but two large lots sold, the unsold balance amounting to 62 coins. These will be returned to me.

Individual coins:  These amounted to 19 lots of single coins, 4 of which remained unsold.  The unsolds topped out at 420 SF total for the four.  Of the coins that sold, 10 sold in the 100-200 SF range.  Seven sold below 100 SF, and two sold for considerably more.

One of the better coins was this Diassarion of Cornelia Supera which brought 650 SF.

 

 

My most prized possession among the Roman Provincial coins was this Bronze ("Egyptian") tetradrachm of Annia Faustina (the third wife of Elagabalus).  It hammered down for 1700 SF.

 

 

                                                                                                                  Roman Republic

22 coins of the Roman Republic were sold as 14 singles and a group of 8.  These were the remnants of a Republican collection I sold through an auction by  Victor England in the 1990s.  

All but two of the singles realized over 100 SF each, and two of these demand individual attention.

This is an example of the first quinarius, issued in the Dioscuri series from 211-208 BC. I bought it in 1988 from Harlan Berk and it sold for a modest increase over original cost.

 

My favorite Republican piece was this denarius of L. Censorinus from 82 BC.  The obverse head of Apollo is nicely centered, while the image of Marsyas, though slightly shifted, is finely detailed and well captures the spirit of the figure it portrays, I think. It too was purchased in the late 1980s and sold for three times the purchase price.

 

 

                                                                                                                    Roman Imperial

Of the nearly 650 silver coins in this portion I have not yet done a careful review of the breakdown by imperial families. The earliest of these was a silver denarius of Nero Claudius Drusis, which was struck under Claudius around 41-50 AD.  The latest was a bronze antoninianus of Magnia Urbica from 285 AD.  

I will discuss this part of the sale in a separate post.

 

[lrbguy]

Hmmmm.  Is there any point to this endless recitation of data?

[TIF]

7 hours ago, lrbguy said:

My most prized possession among the Roman Provincial coins was this Bronze ("Egyptian") tetradrachm of Annia Faustina (the third wife of Elagabalus).  It hammered down for 1700 SF.

 

Wow, that is a fabulous coin.  Congrats on the strong sale!

[Postvmvs]

2 hours ago, lrbguy said:

Hmmmm.  Is there any point to this endless recitation of data?

I can't speak for everyone, but I am interested in a look behind the curtain of selling. I am very much a coin buyer, and selling is almost a foreign concept...

[Ancient Coin Hunter]

The Annia Faustina coin is superb @lrbguy. I don't think I've ever seen a coin of that personage.

[lrbguy]

Thanks for the comments on the Annia Faustina piece.  At the time I was acquiring these coins I never had a shot at a Zenobia, and most of the big ticket items, such as a Tranquillina in Imperial silver, were out of range (though I did spring for a Tranquilina from a provincial/eastern mint as a silver drachm).  But the day I acquired the Faustina, three examples appeared in the same sale.  Mine was mid-range. It allowed me to put together a full four coin sequence for the wives of Elagabalus.

Before launching into the Roman Imperial morass, I wish to highlight a Republican coin which may not be familiar to many on the list. It is from the initial production of the new  silver coins in the series of 211 (per Crawford) which introduced the denarius.  It is the silver sestertius and features the dioscuri reverse introduced then.  The fame of the imperial sestertius in bronze is so substantial, that many/(most?) collectors may not be aware the denomination was introduced before the days of empire as a coin in silver alongside the denarius.

The reverse on this example is off slightly to the bottom, which seriously obscures the bottom inscription "ROMA".  The denomination appears on the obverse as "IIS".  It was purchased at the same time as the quinarius above from a set that Harlan Berk really didn't wish to sell in pieces. But I already had a reasonable denarius from this series, so I paid top dollar at the time to get just these two.  While the realization on the quinarius in the Leu sale handily exceeded its purchase price, this sesterius fell just a bit short of what I paid in 1988.  [A word to the wise is sufficient.]

 

 

The Sestertius in a day before Empire

 

The irony of having this piece in my collection is that with but a few exceptions I have neither collected nor sought to acquire the Imperial Sestertius in bronze, nor any of its Imperial divisions.  This held throughout the first three centuries of empire up to the time of Diocletian and the first Tetrarchy.

 

[Valentinian]

On 7/20/2024 at 3:24 PM, lrbguy said:

Is there any point to this endless recitation of data?

Yes. I'm interested. I'll bet quite a few of us are curious about how selling works and how it compares to buying.