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by Stephen Knapp, 25 Mar 1995
Whew! I just got back from the Chicago International Coin Fair, and it's been quite a day. A huge bourse of 115 dealers, from the US and many parts of the world including Spain, Germany, Switzerland, and the usual strong contingents from England and Canada. Ponterio and Associates (San Diego) were running a two day auction with a little bit of everything. Too bad for me the lots which might have been interesting to me had been sold the day before. Guess I should come to these things on Fridays. ;-)
I was not prepared for the large turnout of dealers in ancients. Nor was I prepared for the outrageous prices they were asking for what a few years ago I would have called junk. Late Roman bronzes (AE3 and AE4) in VF-XF with high gloss (shellacing?) priced up from $30 to $75 per coin. Not from me! This happens when the really high grade stuff is held off the market for too long. Suddenly the marginal grade material starts looking attractive, to the sellers anyway. I don't think too much of that was selling. Even the extreme low end had been priced up, with real culls offered at $3-$8 per coin (LRB again).
On the brighter side, my collection of "bankers marks" on Persian sigloi got a real shot in the arm. A Chicago dealer had just picked up a hoard of over 100 pieces, and I got an early crack at the group. I always like it when he does that. Now if only I could track down some authoritative studies on the marks. Anyone know of anything beyond Hill, and of course Carradice?
A dealer from Great Britain made my day when he sold me a really low denomination Ionian silver piece from the 6-5th centuries BC. I have been wanting to get something smaller than a hemiobol for quite some time. Finally connected on a hemitartemorion. I'll have to check Von Aulock #7808 to verify that, as he wasn't too sure. Could be either a 1/24th or 1/48th stater I suppose. Anyway, it's just the kind of fractional for which I was looking. Very tiny, but clean and well struck.
Not one to neglect the literature, I picked up a new book which I think will be quite useful in the long run. Dennis Kroh (Empire Coins, Ormond Beach, Florida, USA) has prepared a collection of brief reviews of a great many of what he considers the most significant numismatic references for ancient coins. It lists books currently in print, as well as out of print classics, rates their utility with a system of stars, describes key features of a book or set, and gives an estimated price for acquiring the work. The literature is grouped by geographical subject, and at $25 I think it will help keep me from wandering off into the frivolous. Got 20% off on the current edition of Sear's Roman Coins, so I finally broke down and bought it.
In all it was a great day. My thanks to Richard Rush for posting notice of the event. Had I not seen his post I would not have gone (and would not have spent too much money). I thank him, my wife does not. Ah well, it's been several years since I attended anything like this, so maybe once in a great while isn't so bad. . . . My one regret is that I didn't clear things up in time to make contact with Richard and other netters at the show. BTW, you should have seen the eyebrows go up when people learned that I found out about the show solely though online sources. A couple of the dealers were at last willing to swap e-mail addresses.
Stephen Knapp
Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago
Chicago, IL, USA
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