Ron C2,
Yeah, I agree and pretty much do that, but all things considered it
comes down to condition and
price and the best compromise between the two, but those words in a listing will cause me to look for others not labeled as such to compare. I have started moving up in
budget a
bit to get better
quality coins, but will grab a coin from time to time that is out of my
area because the
price is low for a nice coin. Just recently, I bid on a few coins in an
auction and got outbid on all, a few went way higher than I expected and I ended up bailing on all. The auctioneer sent out a list of "coins going too cheaply," so I looked at the list. It seems that
Elymais coins are not very popular, so I bid on one very low, won it, and it is the least expensive coin I ever bought, not counting
per coin cost for a lot. Plus, it is in very nice condition. To the point I am thinking of starting a
collection of these coins because I may be able to assemble a fairly
complete group at reasonable cost for my
budget. So, I may make it my
area because it interests me although my focus has been more on what is today
Turkey. Although it fits in with my interest in
Alexander's conquests (and I have seen
his settlement on an island off Kuwait) and could literally see that
part of
Iran from southern
Iraq across the Shatt Al Arab river. The coins are also quite beautiful and have a Parthian/Persian flavor. There seems to be a lot of these coins from such a small country. Sorry, that was quite a ramble.
Virgil