are you are pretty good I have a coin
for the Byzantine Empire I'd like to
sell really yeah
found it a few years ago oh and a few
friends look at it and everyone swears
it's from the Byzantine Empire I'm
hoping to get about 2,000 but I'm
willing to go as low as about 1,300 um
this is pretty amazing where in the
world did you get this I actually bought
a group of books from antique store a
while back and in one of them that was
actually inside the spine whoa now in
300 something ad Emperor Constantine
moved the capital of the Roman Empire to
a new city he built they named the city
Constantinople basically they better
have the coins well they're just the
right purity of gold was used the right
weight and everything like that the
Byzantine Empire was around for so long
because they were so well-organized and
the backbone of their economy was coins
like this they are recognized all over
the world it is from the Byzantine
Empire because you have Christ seated at
a throne and they depicted Christ there
as more of a king than as a martyr how
much you want for it I was thinking
about 1900 there's a collector base for
this but it's not as big as you would
think especially this country
it's got to be US coins it might be hard
selling this to one of my typical
customers but find the right history
buff and they'll go nuts for it and
eventually one of them is gonna walk in
my shop I'm probably right around 1100
I'm thinking see how then the coin is
yes their economy was declining and they
devalue the money okay
you know the same coins that are making
a few hundred years earlier twice as
thick and those are worth more now I'll
give you like 800 bucks for it that's a
little bit too low you know that's a
thousand years old
you look at the back of the coin the
conditions not great and you do like 16
I'm 99.9% sure it's real I still have
that chance that it's not I'll go 1,100
bucks 11 yeah I guess we do 11 okay
1,100 bucks all right I'll meet you
right over there
normally I'd call my coin guy in
something like this but my gut told me
just pull the trigger and buy it of
course I still need to call them because
this thing needs a grade and a price I
have to sell the damn thing hopefully at
a ridiculous profit here's the coin yeah
it's fantastic I specialize in ancient
coins that includes everything prior to
about 500 AD and including the Byzantine
Empire up to 1453 this is a coin of the
Byzantine Emperor Constantine the ninth
he's on the reverse and Jesus Christ is
on the out verse the front and with this
interesting cup shape that it has was
introduced under Constantine 2:9 I have
a comparison coin here for you and this
one was issued by one of his
predecessors and this coin is as flat as
a pancake and this one is like a shot
glass okay that was definitely cool in
Byzantine times gold coins were very
much out of the reach of the average
person however merchants had very large
transactions and they would sometimes
use thousands of these at a time what
year do you think this is well this coin
is not dated any more specifically than
the reign of Constantine the ninth so
sometime between 10 42 and 1055 ad
wasn't too far off but they have Christ
seated at a throne like that I know
that's from like the Byzantine Empire
absolutely
so is it the real deal or looks good
good question what's it worth well let's
say for sure it's a thousand years old
very close to it it's gold but these are
not always worth what people might think
they are okay I see these going
typically in the marketplace today for
between 700 and 1,000 dollars in this
condition that's it yeah I was just
thinking it would be more I mean it's a
gold coin that's almost a thousand years
old it should be worth thousands and I
think you just ran into a market that at
present is terribly undervalued um yeah
cuz I paid 1,100 bucks for it alright
not the news I was exactly looking for
lesson learned I'll call you next time
yeah first all right thanks man thank
you ever good I always say that a little
bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing
and I didn't know nearly as much about
Byzantine coins as I thought I did I
might have to sit on this one for a
while and wait for prices to go up
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