does anyone have any idea how many coins of this type did survive? I know that this coin does appear often, but still it cost more than many of the rare ones, even of a nice ones. Congratulations with the coin, btw, impressive.
Someone else can comment here, but my understanding is that these are one of the most plentiful
Greek coins available. Two main factors affect their
price.
The first is there is a high demand among collectors. This
type of coin is sort of like the
Spanish Doubloon or US
Morgan Dollar of its time. Therefore most people want one in their
collection, regardless of their collecting focus.
The second is
quality. As rupert mentioned, they are often worn down from circulation and the nature of their high relief. Also, many of these have
test cuts or are poorly centered. The result is that you can find coins with one
side well centered and the other
side off center, or one
side slightly worn and the other not, etc. It gets very hard to find everything just right. I know I have looked at over 3-4,000 of these and maybe 50-100 are
well centered on both sides with minimal wear. And even then, you have to see how well the engraver did
Athena (bad noses, stretched features).
SO this accounts for the apparently lopsided prices. In fact, with the recent flood on the market, only the lowest
quality coins have shown a decrease in
price. The top ones have actually gone up in
price. I can't really give you a
good explanation for that, unless it has made more people aware of this
style coin and people are trying to get the better ones.
Just my free (and minor) opinion.
BR
Mark
