Is there any reason I shouldn't pounce on this Caligula As? (In the end, I decided not... I pounced.

lordmarcovan

(Aside from the fact that I have no idea where the money will come from, LOL)

I know it is a pretty common type, but I think it looks nice. I had my eye on a slightly lesser example that was a bit cheaper, but it had a gouge on the face that scared me off.

Price on this one is $220. Yea or nay?

It is listed on a fairly well-known dealer's page, as a "new" item. (NOT on eBay- I have not yet ventured into buying ancient coins on eBay, to protect my newbie self.)

I wonder how long it will last.





<< <i>Caligula Æ As Vesta

OBVERSE: C CAESAR AVG GERMANICVS PON M TR POT Bust facing right

REVERSE: VESTA S C with Vesta seated left holding patera and scepter.

29mm - 10.9 grams

RIC 38 >>

lordmarcovan

Gradually, I am learning to do my research a little. I'm growing, day by day. In my first few weeks of newbie enthusiasm, I bought anything that appealed to me if the price sounded good. I probably did OK on a lot of it but I am sure I overpaid for at least a few items. That's OK, though, I can live with that, and chalk it up to education.

This piece seems to compare favorably to others in its pricerange, based on past sales data for the first 20 or so coins of the type listed on the Wildwinds site.

I am gonna sleep on it for 24 hours or so, and see what the forum says, but otherwise, I think I will pounce. I believe I have enough in savings to grab it, despite all the recent spending sprees.

Aethelred

Looks like a nice example to me and the price sounds fair.

This is the most common type issued under Caligula, but his coins are not as common as many emperors givin his short time in power. He is also a popular emperor, even people who do not collect coins or study history know who he was.

Automan

The coin seems to have undergone a bit of smoothing and there is a small pit above they eye (at the hair line), possibly resulting from corroded metal being accidentally removed when smoothing the coin.

Still, these factors do not really count as "problems", and its a nice specimen. Actually, without smoothing, the coin would likely have been very rough. A significant portion of large Roman bronzes have seen some smoothing.

Automan

coinmickey

There's some porosity and it's not the best strike in the world. By that I mean that the reverse (Vesta seated) is off center and it's been smoothed over the years.

As you noted, this is a common type, so you can probably do better.

CIVITAS

While the coin has undergone some smoothing, it does look like it was pretty well done. I don't see any evidence that the detail has been tooled/strengthened. The reverse is actually well above average for these coins. For some reason, on a lot of these asses (let's see if that gets through the filter) the portrait is quite nice while the reverse is rather miserable. FWIW, the coin is fairly priced for what it is.

lordmarcovan

Well, I bought it.

This one was somewhat tempting at sixty bucks less but I suppose I need to start getting choosier. In my initial enthusiasm for filling holes in the vast emptiness of the new collection, I have grabbed up a lot of stuff that is probably gonna need to be upgraded before long.

Of course I saw a few nicer Caligula/Vesta asses, and one or two that were totally awesome, but the nicer ones were in the $550-600 range and the awesome ones had pricetags in the low four figures.

My Littleton album (which I decided to use for a year or so anyway, as a stepping stone, if nothing else) is now a bit more than half full (66 of 120 coins). But of course what remains is the far more difficult half- it's all uphill from here.

In terms of the earlier part of the collection, I now have seven of the Twelve Caesars: Augustus, Caligula, Claudius, Nero, Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian. Since the first of the Twelve Caesars (Julius Caesar himself) is not part of the Littleton album collection nor included in a lot of Roman Imperial collections, I won't be needing him, at least until I branch out later. So for the remaining four of the Twelve Caesars, I'll need Tiberius (gotta be a silver Tribute penny), and three of the four 69 AD emperors: Galba, Otho, and Vitellius. Those'll be tough but I have seen some decent Vitellius denarii that are feasible.

Automan

My earlier post did not really reflect this, but I also think that overall the coin is good value for money. You should have little trouble recouping the investment, or even making a profit. The detail seems to be that of a $4-500 as.

Automan

lordmarcovan

Wow, thanks.

It's good to see you back around, BTW. I always remembered you as one of our more knowledgeable but seldom-seen posters.