I drove 5 hours in 100+F temps to see a currency bar (a bucket list item). The seller's photos and description made it look interesting, but it is an Uber coin, Ugly but Rare. Turns out it was too ugly. Anonymous. ca. 280-250 BC. AE aes signatum ingot (135mm x 83mm, 1062 gm). VG, tooling. Two chickens feeding and facing each other; star with eight rays in center field, above and below chickens' heads / Two tridents pointing inwards; two dolphins swimming toward each other between them. Crawford 12/1. HN Italy 265. Thurlow-Vecchi AS 24, pl. 23. Vecchi, currency bar 24 The bar looks a bit better in hand than in the pics. I met the seller. He did not have a provenance other than it was from a European (maybe German) collection and the seller / dealer said there were no export issues to the US. He could not find it in previous sales. We agreed the bar was light (1062 grams vs 1500 gram average for examples in Haeberlin), but there are not many examples to calculate an expected weight. The Chickens did not look right. The left bird tail should be in the top left corner. The legs looked wrong.... After some soul searching, I decided this one is not for me. The price is high, but I probably could find a way to make a bid or two if I liked the piece (it sold for $12M w buyers fee). My biggest issues are the chickens do not look right and none of the edges are straight. The edge part seems like an odd comment, but they just don't look right. Haeberlin and Crawford pics are below. I hope to see a currency bar again.
Very interesting. I'm from the "Light side" just visiting the "Dark side" for a moment. I had to see what this currency bar was all about. Only $12 million you say. Is that high for one of these?
Low weight, design looks wrong, no clear provenance. I think you made the right decision, skipping this one. Do you have any doubts about the autenticity? Too bad you had to return empty handed after that long drive.
He's hardly empty-handed; he still has the $12M. And I think empty hands are preferable to hands holding an item of questionable provenance and even authenticity.
Try: http://numismatics.org/archives/ark:/53695/schaefer.rrdp.b01 at the American Numismatic Society website. Scan 13 shows a bar(14.60g) I bought from Frank Sternberg. Later, it was in V. England's Goodman sales.
Really beautiful photos, and a beautiful aes signatum. I am not a professional numismatist, I created an account on this site so that someone could help me. I inherited some coins from my late grandfather who was a numismatist, one of those coins is Aes Signatum. How can I post pictures to help me determine the value of my coin. My Aes Signatum has amphora markings on it.
Really beautiful photos, and a beautiful aes signatum. I am not a professional numismatist, I created an account on this site so that someone could help me. I inherited some coins from my late grandfather who was a numismatist, one of those coins is Aes Signatum. How can I post pictures to help me determine the value of my coin. My Aes Signatum has amphora markings on it.
If you've the pics on your device, start a new thread on it, click "Upload a File," find them, and upload them. You'll be given a choice on how they're formatted, either in "Thumbnail" or "Full Image" format, click "Full Image." Welcome!
Unfortunately, I don't have that option, probably because I'm a new member. I have almost absolutely all the options you mentioned, but I don't have the option to add pictures, because I'm probably a new member. I'm so sorry. I thought one of the experts could help me evaluate my Signatum. Unfortunately, Signatum is not complete, one small part is missing, but I still think it is valuable.
I see that you have set your profile to private. Hard to follow your progress in posting about the coins. Can’t even send you a PM, private message.
I see your join date is “Friday.” Wait until the week’s end and try again. We’ve got to clear you’re not a hostile UAP. We get lots of those dropping in and out of here, you’d be surprised. Not discriminatory or nothing like that. We welcome the good ones from the good planets.
