The Most Expensive Ancient Coin Ever Sold

We have a new champion for world's most expensive ancient coin. This gold stater from the Greek city of Panticapelm recently sold at Numismatica Ars Classica for a whopping 4.4 million Swiss francs. With added buyer's premium, we're talking about 6 million dollars. Now, you don't have to be a numismatic expert to see this is a very pretty coin. It's in a fantastic state of preservation, but most of us should think, why? Why 6 million dollars for this coin? What makes this piece so special to break the previous record held by the gold Eidmar Aureus struck by Brutus, by a significant margin, mind you? This is a great opportunity to explore certain subjective aspects of the ancient coin market that set it apart from the overall numismatic market. Historical significance, special artistic appeal, how a certain coin compares against its contemporaries, and how it fits the artistic style of the time it was made. You know what? Let's begin by, let's go in an overall analysis of the coin, and with that, we can have a base to understand this a little bit further. Ok, so once more. This is a stater from the city of Panticapelm, a Greek colony at the northern shores of the Black Sea, on modern day Crimea, so right at the edge of the Greek sphere of influence. This piece is dated to the 4th century BC, between 350 and 300 BC. By this time, Panticapelm was quite prosperous due to its very fertile soil. They exported mostly grain to the overall Greek world, and by the sheer numbers of coins they issued, they must have been quite wealthy. If we look at the obverse, we have the bearded head of a satyr. Notice the long, almost elf-like ears, the wild-looking facial hair, giving it this animalistic look. Satyrs were mythological forest spirits, like a male equivalent of the nymphs. They were fun-loving, but quite chaotic beings, representing the raw, uncontrolled emotion and energy nature has. If I told you satyrs were the main company of the god of wine and partying, Dionysus, on his lavish parties, binge drinking and orgies, we can get an idea of the debauchery these guys were accustomed to. Why did the people from Panticapelm choose the satyr for their coins? It is probably a reference to the founder of the dynasty of rulers at that time, a certain Sateros I, so picking a satyr was a bit of a pun with the king's name. On the reverse, we have this marvelous griffin, a creature half-eagle, half-lion, raising its front paw, holding a spear on its beak and looking straight at us. Around it, the legends read PANT, an abbreviation of the issuing city, Panticapelm. Griffins were said in local stories around the city to guard the rich gold reserves of the area. More than that, these animals are generally associated with the idea of a guardian of treasures and precious metal mines, so it's just fitting to show the guardian of precious metals in a precious metal coin. Extremely well executed reverse die. The front and back paws, as well as the fluidity on how the wing was made, show whoever engraved this die knew a fair bit about animal anatomy, properly modeling the volume of the musculature of the animal. On its legs, we can see nice details on the articulations and the finer connection points between the legs and the actual paws. Gold coins were always struck by the best engravers a state could afford, but in this case, it was certainly made by a very talented individual. So, now that we have wrapped up looking at the coin itself, let's try to understand this eye-watering price. At the same auction, there was another Panticapelm stater, which I'm putting on screen right now. As you can see, it is also a lovely coin. In fact, I would argue this coin has a superior reverse, but it sold for a small fraction of the first coin. This coin type is not that rare, but notice the stater's head is looking to the left, depicted in this typical sideways portrait that we're used to seeing everywhere. It turns out that during the early 4th century BC, we see this trend in classical Greece of facing portraits on coins, so I'm putting some examples on screen now. These were incredibly hard to make. It required a master engraver to achieve such gorgeous portraits. Some argue this was the absolute pinnacle of numismatic art ever, something I frankly agree with. These coins have such high relief, the faces pop out of the flange so much that they really look like metal sculptures. But, as you would expect, these gorgeous coin issues were generally restricted to the most prosperous cities of classical Greece. Think about Amphipolis, Rhodes, Larissa. The coin you have on screen now is Atetadrakma of Amphipolis. Panticapelm, however, was an outlier. It was located at the very edge of the Greek sphere. It was even considered by most Greeks as a land of mystery, this far away city next to the endless steppes no one knew anything about. For such a distant city to produce a coin of similar quality to the big players of the Mediterranean shows either that it was powerful enough to hide a master engraver, or that Panticapelm was blessed with a local engraver of outstanding talent. The portrait also shows emotion. Satyrs were creatures of the woods. It is depicted in this with this surprised expression, like if you were having a walk in a forest and you came across one and it looked at you with this look, like if you caught him doing something naughty he shouldn't. Very few coins manage that, to tell a story. The famous coins of Syracuse with the water nymph Aretusa are famous partly because of that as well. It's not only a portrait of a very pretty woman, it's a water nymph. Her hair is flowing around, showing she's looking at you from under the water line, where she was supposed to be, and many dive varieties even depict dolphins going around her, like if they were her assistants. It's almost theatrical, it's not a static image. But at the end of the day, would that even matter to you if it meant that the coin would be worth more than 10 times over a common variety? Well, that is up to you, but hopefully you can grasp the concept that artistic style really matters for ancient coins, and this principle also applies to affordable mundane coins. There are good dyes and bad dyes in coins as common as Constantinian bronzes, but of course that would mean a much smaller price difference, I don't know, like for example $20 for a normal coin and $50 for a very pretty dye. Other aspects also contributed to the final price of this coin. It had a provenance, that is, a record of its previous owners and auctions it was sold in for nearly a century. This pretty guarantees the authenticity of the coin due to the number of very skilled numismatists that had this coin in hand to look at it. This coin is also a plate coin, meaning it featured on reference catalogs for the type, and when we're talking about these super high-end coins, it's inevitable that any potential buyer looks at this piece as a financial asset, a way to put part of your portfolio in an art object. I wouldn't even be surprised if this coin was purchased not by an individual, but by some investment entity looking to diversify its assets. And we are not done with this video yet. How about the second most valuable coin to date? The Eidmar Aureus struck under Brutus that sold for 2.7 million pounds, plus buyer's premium in 2020. We are talking about a coin made in a moving military mint. It was not made with the intent of being beautiful. It was a utilitarian item, meant to pay for the troops in a timely manner. Its enormous value comes, obviously, from its equally enormous historical value. A gold coin struck by one of Julius Caesar's assassins celebrating the assassination, likely meant to pay for one of his generals or high-ranking officers. It's just a massive, very important historical object. This illustrates well how historical significance is another element on ancient coin collecting that affects the final price for a coin. We can even apply this to more common coins again. Almost everyone can, for example, have a silver drachma of Alexander the Great. But, considering two coins of similar grade, a collector will have to pay a premium to get a coin that was struck during Alexander's lifetime. There are less of them going around and demand is stronger. Another example, the Nadi struck under Mark Antony during the civil wars against Octavian were made in the millions and they are very common. But for the simple fact that the coin is linked to an important historical character, there is a lot of demand for it, so the coin is surprisingly expensive for what it is. This type is a perfect example of how rarity isn't really a direct indicator of value for ancient coins. You really have to think on the demand side of things to determine how expensive a coin should be. Let's go for even more common coins. Denarius of Trajan. Anyone can have a Denarius struck under the Optimus Princeps. They are common and if you don't need one in absolutely pristine shape, they are quite affordable. But, let's say you went to Rome and you fell in love with Trajan's column, still standing there after 2000 years, and you need to have one of Trajan's Denarii featuring his column. Well, get ready to pay a substantial premium on that, because quite a few people want it, because, of course, historical significance. So, there you have it. We got to know the new king of ancient coins, the most expensive piece out there. And as a bonus, we got to learn a couple of interesting points about the ancient coin market. How not only grade, but especially artistic style and historical relevance can affect the price of a coin. So, let me know what you think. Do you 6 million dollars is the right price for this coin? Should it be more? Less? Let us know in the comment section down below. Don't forget to leave a like if you enjoyed the video, it really helps the channel. Happy collecting and I'll see you soon.