Ancients in Your Future

Past Meets Present in Upcoming Ancient Coin Auctions

Over the next few weeks there are several Ancient coin auctions crossing the block and each will offer great selections. In this and subsequent postings I'll give you a quick overview of what's coming your way in Ancient coins during May and June 2009.

First up is the Numismatik Lanz Munich Auction 146 set to close on May 25th. The first half of this sale, nearly 700 lots, is all ancinet coins. They come from a variety of areas and cultures and span a broad value range, allowing for most any collector to find something of interest. Of special interest should be the long run of about 16 gold Hekte's from Mytilene, the capital city on the Greek Island of Lesbos. This is a big group of these little 2.5g nuggets and more than I have normally seen in any other sale of late. It presents itself as a fine study group and a good opportunity for anyone considering building a Lesbos collection.

In the Roman section of the Numismatik Lanz Munich sale you will find a good number of hidden rarities, such as this outstanding Domitilla Denar, mixed in with a a large selection of high grade and reasonably estimated material. There is a nice run of Denar of Caracalla all in XF condition with estimates arround 200 Euro. The same can be said for the selection of Severus Alexander, and several others, so opportunity awaits the careful buyer.

For those interested in later date material there are several pages of Byzantine coins, including nearly 20 gold pieces. The second half of the sale features an equally large number of German States minors, so I will pass my copy of this catalog along to friend and fellow numismatist, Doug Nicol, to help with his current work on a third edition of the Standard Catalog of German Coins.