Friday 30 November 2012

No Endorsement for Sayles' Sales (Artuqid coins): Ripping off the Natives

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Readers may recall the anecdote about how William F. Spengler got all those coins which somehow managed to materialise in the US after his return from a diplomatic mission which allowed him to write the book on the pictures of some of them with Mr Sayles. He reportedly bought them from brown-skinned market traders at scrap value. This is in part the origin of that old US coiney trope that if enlightened coin collectors did not buy coins  - whether legally or not - in the source country and smuggle them out the Ignorant Oriental Gentlemen of US stereotype would melt them down to make their 'trinkets" (note the belittling tone of their line of argument). So obviously they consisder that the Big White Man is justified to go in there are cheat them out of the full value of these items which they will reach when he sells them off. This is to "rescue the object" (for "humanity")  you understand, not to profit. Silver today has a scrap value of between 50 and 60 cents a gram - so let's take a look at how much some of the type of coins published by Spengler and Sayles are worth in the US market:
JTC-059   $250
JTC-072   $450
JTC-073   $150
JTC-078   $175
JTC-062   $525
JTC-060   $1,200
JTC-061   $650
JTC-067  $300
JTC-087   $195
JTC-127  $125
JTC-089   $125
JTC-090   $125
JTC-091   $225
JTC-094   $325
JTC-108   $75
JTC-109   $185
JTC-111   $90
JTC-112   $125
JTC-113   $95
JTC-114   $250
JTC-115   $225
JTC-118   $110
JTC-120   $140
JTC-121  $225
JTC-123  $295
JTC-144   $120
JTC-101  $90
JTC-092   $75
JTC-093   $160
JTC-095  $325
JTC-097  $350
JTC-098  $195
JTC-099  $80
JTC-124  $185
JTC-183  $225
JTC-125  $80
JTC-184  $220
JTC-126  $60
JTC-185  $200
JTC-186  $120
JTC-130  $60
JTC-132  $130
JTC-133  $95
JTC-174  $120
JTC-134  $100
JTC-175  $90
JTC-135  $75
JTC-177  $350
JTC-138  $475
JTC-140  $875
JTC-139  $875
JTC-178  $100
JTC-179  $175
JTC-180  $175
JTC-181  $180
JTC-182  $190
JTC-148  $75
JTC-103  $1,200
JTC-104  $80
JTC-106  $395
JTC-151  $150
JTC-107  $175

So, somebody is making a tidy profit out of denying the distant brown skinned Oriental Gentlemen a 'fair trade' and taking the coins out of the local market and profiting from selling them to outsiders. Let us note that in part the market value of the objects is additionally enhanced by the writing of the book on the basis of some of Mr Spengler's coins.



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