Purchases from the Chicago Coin Expo

I had a wonderful week at the CCE, spending time with a few forum members and getting some early insights into upcoming auctions. The venue was beautiful and couldn't have been more convenient for me which is a nice change from needing to travel far to shows.

As has already been discussed here, the auctions were a mix. I had a sizable number of coins consigned to the Gemini sale: the ones that sold, sold well but about 2/3rds went unsold. There is something to be said about momentum in an auction: comparable coins of some of the same types sold for very strong money the next day at Heritage. While it probably shouldn't, the "feel" in the room does have an impact on prices realized (for better or worse). I first assumed it might be tax time budgetary impacts but Heritage saw some incredible prices, so that can't be the sole factor.

I'd also wager that photography makes a significant difference. My consigned coins looked better in the printed catalog than online but they look [I]far [/I]better in-hand. I've heard that HJB has taken the mentality of ensuring their customers are pleasantly surprised when they receive their coins; perhaps a middle ground could be reached with better but not idealized pictures. Some of the estimates were high but there were definitely deals to be had. That said, I think the new owners of some of my coins will be very happy, especially if they didn't have a chance to lotview themselves.

Without further ado, the coins! These are my first attempts at photographing them and I will undoubtedly reshoot them again.

Phanes trite: This series is among the earliest of coinage, and the first coins on which a legend appears, with the staters "I am the badge of Phanes". This trite carries the more concise "ΦANEOS" in retrograde.

Brutus denarius: I was offered this coin two years ago for almost 5x what I paid for it this week at Heritage. I'd have to attribute this to a terrible picture, a slab which made for poor viewing conditions, and a lost pedigree which wasn't mentioned in the sale. I was quite happy to see it come back around and, needless to say, had a considerably higher bid than I ended up needing.

COL NEM: I have wanted an example of the popular Nemausus dupondius ever since I started collecting but since my more recent focus on quality over quantity, it's been very difficult to find the "right" coin. Not any longer! While this was only 1/10th the price of the Phanes trite and the type is probably 1000x more common, it's my favorite purchase of the week, again from Heritage and again with a terrible picture which didn't come close to showing the quality of the coin. Lotviewing is [I]well [/I]worth the time.

Thanks for looking! Please post any related examples!