(Otho denarius sold now, associated SSP giveaway done)

lordmarcovan

Nice rare Roman AR denarius of the emperor OTHO, 69 AD

I was reluctant to just let this one go at auction, but I need some funds to finance some gold purchases, so I'll take my chances.

It's hard to find an Otho denarius with decent eye appeal, a full name on the flan, and a nice portrait for less than four figures these days.

It's hard to find Otho at all, sometimes. He only ruled for about three months. At any given time, there are usually less than half a dozen on all of eBay, and usually the ones that are nicer than mine have lofty pricetags.

Here's your chance to fill a tough hole in a "Twelve Caesars" set affordably.




Now, to make up for the SSP spam, I will also offer the customary giveaway. Post once to this thread to enter (no bids or purchase necessary).

The winner will be randomly drawn when the Otho coin sells, and will receive a coin of about the same age (though Chinese rather than Roman).

dan8402

Very nice coin, especially combined with the Roman ruins background. I don't think i have ever seen something like that done before. I would love to have it, but definitely need to stay strong and stick to my focus.

lordmarcovan

C'mon... it's currently NINETY-NINE CENTS. Focus, schmocus!

Bailathacl

Drooling.... on watch list.... drooling....

500Bay

watching it too.... good luck!

dan8402

<< <i>C'mon... it's currently NINETY-NINE CENTS. Focus, schmocus! >>



I doubt a bid of $5 would help you all that much.

Edit: Even $20 wasn't enough

ormandh

I want it!! -Dan

StubbyMcNumbthumbs

I'm a'watchin'. Currently at $10.50.

I wonder what the "mintage" numbers on one of these was, given he was only on top for 3 months and their production techniques were somewhat less efficient than today's. Then figure in how many are still in the ground waiting to be found or were melted for other use, can't be too many still around.


As my blue-collar friend says.."I don't care WHO you are, now THAT's "

lordmarcovan

Exactly.

Figure a three-month production time, 1,940 years ago, and then try to guess what the surviving population is.

Sort of makes those "rare" US coins like 1909-S VDB cents or 1916-D dimes pale in comparison, doesn't it?

That second part about imagining how many are still in the ground REALLY gets my juices flowing, but that's why I am an avid metal detectorist. Too bad I live on the wrong side of the pond to hunt for stuff like that. But maybe it's a good thing. If I had European dirt to dig in, I might not be able to keep a steady job or marriage, 'cause I'd be diggin' all the time.

coinpictures

I would be scared to do a no-reserve auction ending on Christmas Day. On the one hand, pretty much everyone will not be working, but on the other hand, will people be wrapped up with silly family activities?

Will be interested to see where it ends. Good luck!!

dan8402

Up to $40.99.

Aethelred

<< <i>I would be scared to do a no-reserve auction ending on Christmas Day. On the one hand, pretty much everyone will not be working, but on the other hand, will people be wrapped up with silly family activities?

Will be interested to see where it ends. Good luck!! >>



Not having a reserve would not bother me, but when I saw that it was ending on Christmas Day I also thought that might be an issue.

lordmarcovan

I didn't even think about the Christmas day end time. Just listed it. Didn't do the math.

Eh, well. I will probably lose money in any event, so somebody will get a nice "Christmas gift".

Thanks to those of you who bid. Every little bit helps, since each bid is that much less money I'll be leaving on the table.

I'm sacrificing this one but it will be fun to watch, anyway. I had some sentimental attachment to it but I'm getting some holey gold coins (including one with a Charlotte mintmark) which will be new sentimental favorites for my Holey Gold Hat, so it's purely a collector-oriented move rather than a calculated dealer strategy now, anyway.

Aethelred

I placed a modest bid, but I may be back for more later.

engraved

Ha, I'm current high bidder, but I somehow think it won't last very long.

theboz11

Gave it a bit of a nudge with room left over. Key dates are good, no matter when they end.

Weiss

Neat idea with the Wiki link. Interesting story.
Incidentally, Berk is currently offering an Otho Denarius. For $7500.

lordmarcovan

Y'know, I can't help but wonder, with NGC beginning their ancient coin program on January 1st, if I shouldn't have held onto this one just a tiny bit longer, and gotten it entombed in plastic?

I still have plenty of leftovers from the collection and may submit some of the nicer ones, but this was the last "Twelve Caesars" piece I had left.

I might build another Roman collection again before it is all said and done. I had a lot of fun and learned a lot from this one. If I do it again, though, I probably won't go for the whole "A to Z" (Augustus to Zeno) thing like I did last time. I'll probably go with something smaller, like just the Twelve Caesars, or something else from the first century or two of the Empire. After the silver content of the antoninianii started to decline, and the realistic portraiture also declined, I found the coins less interesting (though still plenty fascinating). The late empire's crude, ever-smaller coins just don't appeal to me like the great high-relief, realistic First century pieces do.

Maybe I'll slab some of my remaining leftovers and sell them, and use some of the money to work on a Twelve Caesars set in higher grades. That'll mean having to buy another, even nicer Otho, of course, not to mention Vitellius and Galba and Caligula and so on. Hoo boy, that'll be tough. And I'll have to get a Julius Caesar portrait coin, which is the only one of the Twelve Caesars I didn't own.

coinpictures

With almost 3 days left to go, you're not doing too badly...

Blackborder

Isn't one side of the coin supposed to be white and the other black?

lordmarcovan

Eh?

Was that an Othello pun, by any chance?

Blackborder

lordmarcovan

Thought so.

Took me about 2.5 seconds of "huh?" to figure out the pun.

Rickc300

Well, I dug out all the spare change from under the couch, pooled my last 3 days of detecting in the park and placed my max bid and was outbid... Nice coin, I hope the new owner will appreciate it as much as I would have and that you did while it was in your collection...

Rick

WillieBoyd2

Good luck with your sale!

On Christmas day 2004, I bought several Roman coins on Ebay, including the Maximinus denarius
which became my posting avatar.

lordmarcovan

One final since there is less than an hour left. It has done pretty well.

It will be interesting to see what the snipers do. As of 55 minutes left in the auction, at around $470, I stand to lose around $115 plus eBay fees. I fully expected to take a bit of a loss on this one, though, because even if it had sold at the $665 I had it for in my Store, I would only have broken even on it after all the fees.

There may be a pleasant surprise ending, but I'm not holding my breath. If it crosses the $500 mark, which it is practically assured of doing, I will be reasonably content with the outcome, chalking it up as a "manageable loss".

Ending it on Christmas night was probably not the brightest strategy, though I didn't consider that when I listed it.

We shall see.

woodardcoin

20 mins left . What a beauty . Count me in and Merry Christmas Rob.

lordmarcovan

TheBoz stole it! It never moved in the final hour.

Boohoo for me, good for him.

I'm losing $115 plus eBay fees, but I would far rather lose it to a fellow Darksider friend than to a stranger. I can live with that.

Serves me right for listing it with a Christmas Day end time, in a probably less than perfect market. My timing was not the best.

But again, I knew that.

Congrats, Bozman! You got a nice grab, I think, and who knows, if I ever decide to do a Twelve Caesars set again in the future (which is not outside the realm of possibility), then I might just try to haggle that one back off your hands and give it a homecoming.

But for now, I am just changing gears, that's all. Loved every minute of the Roman collecting thing, and would likely not have sold it all off had it not been for my August layoff. Now I'm a bit more active on the Liteside, and going back to PCGS Registry sets (at least for a while), meaning I have come full circle back to where I was in 2001 when I joined these forums.

Because of the cyclical, circular way my interests evolve, it is possible, if not probable, that I will come full circle again one day and do the Roman thing again. It was thoroughly enjoyable, and I did OK when I resold most of my stuff, which makes up for some if not all of the loss I took on this one piece. Besides, you can't put a dollar sign on the education I got from these coins.

Rickc300

I wish I had dug into the couch a little bit deeper for more spare change since I was outbid by a mere 35 bucks... Someone got a deal and a half. It sold for a couple of bills less than I really thought it would otherwise I would have been a little more active in freeing up more cash. I wish I were able to bid what I really think that coin is worth. My hat is off to you for taking the chance and offering it up as a true auction though, I wish it had worked out a little better for you in the end.

Rick

theboz11

Deals are always welcome. I did bid higher than the winning bid, and closer to the real value. Save your Pennies and Maybe in a couple months you can make me a offer I can't refuse. This is not for my collections.

CIVITAS

Certainly looks like it went a little bit cheap, but probably only missed the mark by about 15%. You were already 5.5% behind the game on currency conversion from when you bought it, and 14% behind vs. 4 months ago. Combined with a slight change in the tastes of the market place and the inconsistency of eBay auctions and I'm not surprised. A manageable loss, but still not a fun one. I've taken worse. And if you stay at this long enough, you will too. Something to look forward to, huh?

lordmarcovan

Currency conversion? It never left the USA.

Boz is sending me a cool coin as a partial trade in, which means I'll net even less liquid funds from it, but the one on the way looks juicy.

I knew when I bought this stuff that I was paying nearly full retail and it didn't bother me so much. Since I was a novice at the game, I figured it would be best to stick with established dealers and buy nice looking coins, and though I lost out on this one, the keystone of the collection, I made up for it when I sold the rest, either breaking even or even earning a modest profit on many of them.

The real profit I got, of course, was the education about them, which was the whole idea of starting the collection in the first place.

The fun I had was just icing on the cake.

Say, Josh- remember that Marcian I bought from you, which you offered to buy back at a little less than I had paid? I'll take that offer now, if it is still on the table. PM on the way shortly.

CIVITAS

It doesn't have to leave the USA to benefit/lose on currency conversion if you have European underbidders (and I'm sure you do). European bidders are thinking in Euros, not dollars, so if they want to pay 400 euros today, they put in a bid of $560.00. 4 months ago that bid would have been $640.00. Either way it was 400 Euros. In any case, European bidders are now losing out to US bidders due to depreciation of the Euro and Pound, so you're getting underbidder support from bidders using a currency that's worth less than it was when you bought this piece.

farthing

As a side note to Josh's point, I'm finding that my win ratio on Conder tokens has improved greatly lately. Up until recently I spent most of the year getting whipped by European bidders.

I hope the exchange rates hold or get slightly better for me leading up to the next DNW token sale this Spring!

lordmarcovan

Hmm. I never thought about that.

Hussulo

I've found my self bidding and buying less from the US lately.

A few months back a $350 coin might of cost me about £180-£190 now its more like £240.

CertifiedGoldCoins

I've been hanging out on the US Forum, so missed this. I've been out of the business for a few years, so don't know the current market (check VCoins for that). eBay is polluted with fake Ancients, so many big dealers and serious collectors left long ago, leaving bargain-hunting snipers.

Your Otho has a nice portrait, and his name with a complete legend is a big plus. The weak reverse held it back. Coins of short-term Emperors like Otho escalate in price if the meat is there.

When eBay began to become FleaBay, I set up my own Web site, and did better. I sold this Otho for $375, five years ago (2003). The partial name combined with a porous reverse motivated my pricing, but no FleaBay/PreyPal fees.



This one got me $1,175 later that same year.

theboz11

<< <i>leaving bargain-hunting snipers. >>



I resemble that remark

lordmarcovan

I haven't forgotten that there was a giveaway attached to this, and I drew a name, and dan8402 just won an ancient Chinese coin.

Which is a little amusing, since he won one of my OTHER giveaways of... you guessed it... some Chinese coins, including an ancient one.

Destiny says you are gonna collect Chinese coins, Dan, whether you want to or not!

Ah, well, this makes it easier for me. That's one less package to ship. I just gotta add some extra to the existing package.

dan8402

<< <i>I haven't forgotten that there was a giveaway attached to this, and I drew a name, and dan8402 just won an ancient Chinese coin.

Which is a little amusing, since he won one of my OTHER giveaways of... you guessed it... some Chinese coins, including an ancient one.

Destiny says you are gonna collect Chinese coins, Dan, whether you want to or not!

Ah, well, this makes it easier for me. That's one less package to ship. I just gotta add some extra to the existing package. >>




I guess I'll have to see what happens. I don't have nearly enough money to collect everything I want to collect. But free stuff can never hurt.