a good write-up is better than a good pic

crito

If this had been my auction I would have described the coin as "Cleaned XF/AU with a spot of corrosion at ~ 2 o'clock, obverse." Seller's pics are crystal clear so nobody can complain about that. But I like how he snuck in NGC's name without mentioning the fact that NGC might bag it. Maybe I'm wrong, but I bought a nice one of those with PL surfaces on ebay for ~$100 and it's now in a PCGS slab graded MS62BN. So either red copper automatically brings stupid money or good pics are way overrated. Looks to me like a good write-up is what really sells.

I guess I need to start having estate sales of red coppers and monster toners from old time collections. :rolleyes:

eBay Auction Link

laurentyvan

Meh, a good picture is worth a 1000 words, we've all heard it a 1000 times... but a good write-up (if honest) should (almost have to) compliment the image.

OK, I apologize for Meh, but not for the opinion. A good picture, not fussed with will almost always tell the truth but usually only in combination with a good description. Digital photography can be messed with, so know your seller. If a numismatic artisan describes well but images poorly on a consistant basis, they'll become known for that. Vice-versa applies...

SYRACUSIAN

The seller of this auction was Jeremy, airplanenut, a member of this forum, and he's top notch in my book. I haven't seen the coin in hand (which was probably consigned to Jeremy) to know if it has been cleaned or not, but it comes from a very well known collection (and not the usual inexistent "estate"), about which there have been several articles, including the one he refers to in the description. Not everybody knows who M.Damon was,so I don't think that there was any bad intention there at all.

It is a 1819 2 oboli, and it is the most expensive coin of the entire Ionian island series. In my opinion, even if the coin was an XF, the price that it realized is low. NEN had sold an NGC MS64BN with beautiful blue toning last fall for $2450 and the price was more than fair. More recently, they've sold its proof version,in NGC PF64BN for $5950 and the coin was sold within less than a week. Buying a 2 oboli that grades PCGS MS62BN for ~$100 should be considered as the best numismatic bargain I 've ever heard. It would be hard to locate a 1862 lepton in BU with this kind of money nowadays, ie the cheapest and most common coin of the series, let alone a pedigreed 1819 2 oboli, cleaned or not.

SYRACUSIAN

PS: crito, are you sure that yours is also a 2 oboli and not a one or 2/5 obol? I'm asking because Jeremy hadn't mentioned it initially, he had erroneously titled it as a penny,and added its denomination later ,along with its diameter,and unless you know the series well, the coin could be mistaken for its smaller and cheaper brothers.

crito

It looked like a two lepta to me. A two obol is huge in comparison to a penny. And I happen to have a slabbed type set.


I don't own any pink coins though, just ugly brown ones.

SYRACUSIAN

Nice slabbed set.


For what it's worth, I too prefer nice glossy brown examples to washed out reds. I just wanted to make clear that in this case, the seller is a very honest person. I figured that you thought that it was a 2l (half obol or 2/5 obols according to different authors), otherwise the $100 was an obscene bargain. For comparison with the previous NEN examples, they sold a 1819 2L NGC MS63BN last summer for $595.


The two obol is bigger than a penny. If there's no other indication,(size, diameter) here's a very useful guide to understand which one is which (from the greek coins forum) among the three 1819 values.

A) From the engraver's initials on the Britannia side:

2 Lepta: WW
1 Obol: W
2 Oboli: W WYON

From the lion's wings position on the reverse:

2 LEPTA
L W: Slightly before K of KRATOS
R W: R of KRATOS

OBOL
L W: Bottom left tip of K of KRATOS
R W: Bottom left tip of A of KRATOS

2 OBOLI
L W: Slightly before K of KRATOS
R W: Bottom left tip of A of KRATOS


On the one lepton (1834-1862), Britannia faces right and
the position of the lions' wings is

Left Wing: Middle of K of KRATOS
Right W: Middle of A of KRATOS


Obviously, it is much simpler to look at the engraver's initials, unless it is impossible from the picture.