Yes, those are the dies to have. There are others extant though and I think you did the right thing by walking away on that one, Andrew. Personally, I think it looks like it might have been over cleaned with dull surfaces as a result. I haven't seen it in person, did you? Others examples that I think nice too:
Thanks for the confidence vote in these particular dies. Perhaps I need to find an example from the same die pair with just
good honest wear on
good metal. One will come up at probably a small fraction, if I wait. The coin was inspected in person for me, and came back with a clean bill of
health, no issues no cleaning marks no corrosion but somewhat dull surfaces. The surfaces may indeed have
had some chemical wash at some point.
Are there any coins that you still regret not buying or being unsuccessful in bidding?
Surprisingly not many. Usually if there is a landmark coin I'll at least have a punt on it at minimum, which avoids regret, even if the coin went for many multiples estimate. For example at a sale earlier this week I put in a shamefully low bid on a
portrait aureus of
Julius Caesar. That's not just a landmark coin for obvious coin collecting reasons but also because if you want your wife to be able to wear
the Twelve Caesars in Gold on a necklace then there is really only a single
Julius Caesar in gold
portrait available, so the specific
type is always in demand to make up a Gold Twelve Caesar's set. I've only the remotest chance of winning the coin at my low-ball bid, but to avoid regrets one must at least try. I've
had many similar cases. Of course there were many more times when I bid too low, but at least then you can say to yourself that you correctly valued the coin but the winner overpaid. If you didn't participate, you don't have that defense. So I always try to take
part. My
success rate at
auctions is miserably low, but that's how it should be.