More ludicrous prices from Heritage yesterday .. the perfect storm of Heritage, NGC 5/5 slab and Epfig hoard provenance has people paying $500 for a Beata Tranqvillitas.
There was a really nice Vrbs Roma posted yesterday over on CoinTalk, that had sold for a rather eye-popping price too. I get rarity of exceptional condition, but still ...
I've got three theories for these Epfig slab prices:
1) Newbie collectors, insane from covid cabin fever, and flush with nothing-to-spend-it-on covid cash, lured by the NGC 5/5 slabs
2) An inflation based move into hard assets, without any understanding of historical prices. If you keep bidding until the other guy(s) stop, then you can only have overpaid by one bid increment, right? The logic partially holds as long as only I bidder believes it.
3) Money laundering
Seriously I don't get it. Perhaps one of the above explains it. I really don't know.
I was following Heritage live due to thinking of bidding on the Constantine Gloria Ex 2 with cross issue mark. That one (in NGC MS slab) went for $288 (tip included). I'm too cheap to pay that, but perhaps a bit more reasonable given the scarcity of nice specimens and the Christian interest.
OTOH, here's one for Constantius II I paid $7.70 for in 2006.
Given these Epfig hoard NGC slab prices, I'm already planning my eventual collection disposal via Heritage. NGC slabs, "Ex. Heliodromus hoard", "Property of a gentleman".
