Sale: Nomos 3 & 4, Lot: 1365. Estimate CHF300.  Closing Date: Monday, 9 May 2011.  Sold For CHF3400. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ISLANDS off THESSALY, Peparethos. Augustus. 27 BC - 14 AD. Trichalkon (Bronze, 19mm, 8.47 g 1). ΣΕΒΑΣ Bare head of Augustus to right. Rev. ΠΕΠΑ Bearded head of Dionysos to right. RPC I, 1420. Rogers 568. A neat, clear example with a brown patina. About very fine.

A note from BCD: An extremely rare coin that is obviously under appreciated by ASW. In fact, there are several more obscure or little known coins in this catalogue to which this collector has tried to draw the reader’s attention. Perhaps some of them will be recognized, appreciated and bought by the few collectors left who appreciate true rarity. Well, there are 13 of them in the RPC... But isn’t one of the great joys of being a specialist collector the ability to perceive the awesome rarity of a coin that is dismissed as minor by everyone else? And it is thanks to BCD that the estimates in this sale are as low as they are: whenever ASW began to get excited about the beauty and rarity of a coin, and wanted an estimate to reflect that, the red pencil has come out! Another fact is that when there are people who display the same knowledge and perspicacity of BCD, they tend to delightedly present him with coins like this and then, saying, “Of course you realize how rare this coin is!”, ask a price that would boggle the mind of all those simple, under-appreciating numismatists out there. BCD would like to add that all 13 of these coins mentioned in the RPC are in public collections and suggest that ASW would find it rather difficult to locate one in a list or auction catalogue that was issued during his lifetime.