Certainly, Joe has a great pulse on the market and I would agree with all he says from my much more limited viewpoint. I got a newsletter from a major
auction house in the mail today that reinforces that. I am sure many of you have received or will receive this mailing piece. I am going to summarize their findings here and, bear in mind this mailing was designed mainly for getting people to submit
consignments, I also think it is pretty accurate. And my personal observations added.
They highlight a gold coin of
Diocletian. AD 284-305. AV
Medallion of Ten
Aurei (38mm, 53.65 g, 12h) that
had an estimate of $500,000 that went for $2,318,000 that includes buyer's fee. I missed that one. But, holy moly. Anyway, their market opinions:
Greek: overwhelming demand, with Asian
money fueling a lot of the demand. I have seen this Asian (mainly
Chinese)
money in a few
auctions where bidders countries were shown. I watch
auction live bidding for fun at times, even when not bidding.
Chinese money is a factor for sure these days. Since I love
Greek coins, this is bad news I have already seen.
Roman Republican: Quite strong. That is better than overwhelming, for sure. LOL. But they are certainly up, too, perhaps even more than this brochure indicates.
Roman Imperial: Strong through Twelve Ceasars. Rebounding nicely in the later centuries. Not really sure what this means, but I think it means Imperials are maybe not as hot overall as some other categories. I don't really buy them except in lots (I bought one fairly large lot of decent late
Roman bronzes and
billon (100 coins) that was amazingly affordable a couple years ago that would cost three times (or more) today from what I have seen recently). That big lot will leave me working for months when my coin
budget runs out, that and Shawn Caza's excellent book. I feel bad for not getting to those yet, except for a couple, but they are there waiting for me.
Roman Provincial: A collector driver market, which is
good because it isn't investors as much. Obviously, investors are messing with gold and silver more than bronze, but seems like this is one of those fairly esoteric areas where collectors have more of a chance. Luckily, I actually like
Provincials, depending on where they are minted.
Byzantine: Following the overall rising of prices, with the implication that they are behind others, but keeping up with overall trend of rising prices. This makes sense to me.
Celtic: Doing well across entire spectrum. I think this is pretty accurate, Celtics coins have always been high in my opinion. Except potins, perhaps. It is why I don't collect them.
British: Very strong at all
price points, especially since Elizabeth died. Makes total sense.
Islamic: Getting much stronger. I look at specific
Islamic coins in my journey, although I collect very few. Like everything else, they aren't giving these away.
World: Very Strong. This is so broad, but everything is up, so are these.
United States: Strong
I found this a
fair and
good little newsletter from one specific
auction house. I think it is quite accurate and reflects what Joe said. As a collector, I know what my experience is with the relatively few coins I am interested in, Joe and this
auction house have far more of a pulse on what is going on. Bottom line is prices are going up overall. Pretty sure we all already knew that.
Virgil