Limes

Great list, and I really like that you take these year end lists from another perspective! That Postumus portrait is great, so is the reverse of the camp gate. I remember when I got my first camp gate, I really loved it and still do. 13 EUR from Lanz (still hoping its not a fake...!) in 2016, one of first coins that has been and still is, in my collection. 

By the way, what happened to the reverse of your no. 10? 

Great coins! And nice to see you enjoy your venture into Greek coins. Think it will stick? 

My favorites are the Ptolemy I tet, great portrait. Also the reverse of your Trajan As is very nice. 

Best wishes!

Informative write up, @Ocatarinetabellatchitchix, thanks! And cool you were a firefighter, on the side 🙂

Here are two relevant coins, one with a sacrificial scene over a lighted altar, and another one with the mentioned temple on the reverse; the temple of Vesta.  

Nice collection! I like the Sabina dupondius. Great portrait and patina. Your last Faustina sestertius is very nice too. The pictures dont do it justice I assume! 

See a thread I did about it, a while ago:

Its not just the Pyramids, but some magnificent structures also are not shown on coins, while others are.

1 hour ago, shanxi said:

Only one coin for a time period of 150 years.☹️

Well, I think you can do better than that.

 

Let's move on to the next period. You have two days to post again.

year -450 to year -350

In this period there are tons of Greek silver, but now also bronze, early Chinese coins and don't forget Persian and Indian coins.

 

Never been good at these games. Hope I'm playing it right...

Really sorry to hear that. I've had the same experience 5 and half years ago, too young and too soon. Its not only with the big events that someone is not there, but also the little thing. Missing comfort from that person, a phone call, the simple question how are you. I can cope with it now, but there's an emptiness, so to say. 

Its a good thing, to have something to take your mind off it. The coins are great, lovely, each of them. I wish you all the best...

Nice addition! And that;s a great portrait indeed! 

1 hour ago, Julius Germanicus said:

it's weight is also 100 % spot on: exactly 27,2 grams equaling one roman ounce, the nominal weight of a Sestertius!

Dont want to be negative here, but would the original coin, without corrosion on the reverse, weigh more? I think that the wear/pitting also made the coin lighter? 

I have two AP sestertii. Both nicely round, good portraits, but the weight is off. The reverse of the IMPERATOR II type is a bit corroded too. 

Nice additions Martin. Its never bad to wonder off the collecting path. You can find interesting things! 

Don't have a Elagabalus with such a big eyebrow, interesting touch from the die engraver. The only thing I can add, is my only coin of Geta as augustus below. The thing I like about these portraits of an older version of him, is that you can recognize his younger potrait in it. 

Nice tet! Will you be trying to go for the phase 1 type too? 🙂

Never knew they made (I assume printed) calenders. They send these out to customers, or does one need to buy it? Kind of bad for a ancient coins dealer to add a wrong description, on a well known coin, and on a printed calender... no way to easily correct that one 🙄

My budget type of the brutus coin below. I don't think it will score a 5/5 in a plastic tomb though, let alone get an estimate of 5.000. 😁

Thanks for sharing your list. You've definitely plunged yourself in the world of Faustina, hairstyles, and die-studies, and your list consist of coins that will make the heart of experts go faster. 

Since Im not an expert on Faustina coins, or hairstyles for that matter, I do enjoy watching your coins (and your topics), with a preference for the good looking ones 😉 And in that sense, your no. 8 is my favorite. Beautiful portrait, great patina with appealing browing colouring of the higher areas. Simply lovely! 

Thanks for your wishes, and I wish you the best in 2023 as well. 

17 hours ago, robinjojo said:

I've treated coins with BD but I haven't used an oven for drying, since I live in an area of low humidity most of the year, except winter, were the much needed rains also kicked up the humidity level to !00% at times.  That's a welcome tradeoff.  

You've done a very good job treating the Caligula bronze for BD.  I'd go slow with the distilled water.  Distilled water is very good a neutralizing the corrosive process.  

I can't really see the spots in the hair.  I would take the coin out the water from time to time, and using a wooden toothpick, see if those spots can be dislodged.  

Once you are sure as possible that the BD is gone, the treated area will darken with time.  If you want to speed the process up, there is liver of sulfur, sold in concentrated liquid form that will turn the area dark brown.  It takes some experience to determine the right dilution ratio, using heated distilled water.  Once the desired color is achieved the coin needs to rinsed in distilled water and dried thoroughly.

Finally, you might want to consider sealing the surfaces with Verdicare or Ren Wax.  Ren Wax would give the coin a "wet" look, more so than Verdicare, based on my experience.

I'm waiting for the arrival of a really neat looking Arab imitation of a Byzantine follis.  The coin could very well have BD, but I won't be sure until it arrives.  The deposits might be earthen or they could be the dreaded BD - definitely a coin in need of triage!

Thanks again for the help. I've picked the green tiny spots with a pick, nothing happened that I would expect with BD, so these might turn out to be just some sort of other deposits, or colouring. I'll keep an eye on it nevertheless.  

About Renaissance wax, not every collector is a proponent of using this. There's an interesting topic about it on CT, see here. Even including someone sharing his/her correspondance with the BM about it. I have some here, used it once, but noticed no significance difference. I dont think I'll use it on the Caligula, too concerned it might trap reoccurring BD. 

I also ordered a set of small JAX repatinating bottles, to make the corrossion spots more dark again. I've never used that before, and I'll be sure to share pictures once I've applied it, of the result. 

I dont have verdicare. I looked for it a while ago, it was sold out, and have forgotten about it. It's a coincidence that RC started this topic; i just ordered Gringgott's Bronze Disease Killer a few moments before it after seeing the green spots back on the coin. 

Good luck with your new coin, those spots look like a case of BD, but you'll know once you see it in hand. Might you need to treat it, I'd be interested in seeing your cleaning process! 

41 minutes ago, ComicMan said:

I like your choices! Though you did forget about Lucius Verus as one tends to do, poor guy is playing second fiddle to all the other elective emperors and Commodus 2000 years later.

 

Yes, good observation. Some of the coinage of Verus and Marcus Aurelius share the same reverse design. In their early joint reign, I imagine Marcus Aurelius working hard to opposse the rebellion in the east, and contemplating life as a philosopher, while Lucius Verus is dining, gambling and enjoying life with his mistress in Antioch. An iconic issue could be the two shaking hands as well (https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=5978010 but also a more afforable sestertius)

Since I dont have that type, therefore, from my collection, two with shared reverse design (with a particular strict looking Lucius Verus):

Well, as a dealer, how does the saying go? Never get high on your own supply? 😉

I voted for no. 7, thats some great toning you don't see often on RR coins. 

No idea how you managed to get a top 10 from 190 coins, but your selection contains lovely and interesting coins! I voted for the olympia and Ariarathes I, with the first being my personal favorite. 

And Blargmablark, well, its like the sound my cat makes when some hair is stuck in its little throat... 😉 

Well, its an interesting question, but I think impossible to give the most iconic reverse for all emperors. For one, emperors who reigned long enough struck coins commemorating various highlights of their reign, thus stating which of those was the most iconic would become a subjective matter. And second, some emperors struck various reverses commemorating the same event. Which of those is most iconic?

For some of the earlier emperors, I can give you my personal view. And even then, its quite difficult for me to say without a doubt which reverse I think is the most iconic. Below is my go at it. I stopped at Commodus. Do note, most of these issues are not in my collection unfortunately.....

- Augustus: denarius commemorating the victory over Mark Antony and Cleopatra at Actium. I think its after that desicive battle outcome, where the principate started. E.g. the denarius showing Apollo on the reverse (IMP X ACT). 
- Tiberius: not many choices obviously. The Livia reverse is most available and referred to the tribute penny of the bible, many want and will add that to their collection. But personally, I think a DIVVS AVGVSTVS coin is more fitting, honoring his predecessor and the continuation of the dynasty. (E.g.  https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=187296) 
- Caligula: I'd say the sestertius with his sisters Agrippina, Drusilla and Julia. (See e.g. https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=3359299) (dont want to know what happened there...)
- Claudius: in doubt whether it should be a IMPER RECEPT issue (https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=3594740), or the issue commemorating his victory over Britain (https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=247822)
- Nero: I personally think the artistic highlight of coinage of the Julio Claudio dynasty was under Nero. And what coin would be better suitable then him on the reverse playing the lyre, as reference to the story of him burning down Rome... (e.g. https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=604444) 
- Galba: (im skipping vindex and macer here) The sestertius showing Galba on the reverse giving his speech in Carthago Nova, accepting the leadership of the revolt against Nero (https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=139417) is quite iconic
- Otho: none are interesting in my opinion, but a coin of him is a must have for the 12 C's set
- Vitellius: difficult, but I'd say the issue with his children on the reverse, hoping to establish a new dynasty, but failing ultimately (https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=2663938). 
- Vespasian: obviously one of the various coins commemorating his victory in Judaea. 
- Titus: in my opinion, one of the two most iconic of all Roman coins, is his sestertius with the Colosseum reverse (https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=7385258). The other iconic issue is of course the EID MAR issue of Brutus.
- Domitian: not quite sure, either an issue referring to the Secular Games in 88 AD, or an issue with Minerva on the reverse? Maybe a flavian collector might add his opinion. 
- Nerva: unlike many, I don't think coinage of Nerva is boring. His very short reign was special, because somehow a civil war was avoided, after the death of Domitian and the end of the Flavian dynasty. He had to be able to manouvre between many factions, knowing that a misstep would cost him his life. I don't think there's an issue commemoration the adoption of Trajan, although there are very rare issues of Trajan commemorating Nerva. An option would be to go for an issue of Nerva, seeking the support of the people, the military, or the praetorians e.g. https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=2951868 or https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=366642. Other interesting issues are commemorating his social programm, with which he gained popularity amongst the people.
- Trajan: known for his military campaigns and expanding the borders of the empire to its largest extent, I think his column, or another conquest issue would fit (e.g Dacian captive issue). 
- Hadrian: famous for travelling, a travel issue would do. There are many to chose from. 
- Antoninius Pius: many interesting issues, but difficult to say which one is iconic. Maybe his issue with the temple for Faustina on the reverse, struck for Faustina after her death in 141. This temple still stands in the forum today.
- Marcus Aurelius: despite him being known as the philosopher emperor, his reign was marked by more action packed activity of continous battles against invasions of the empire by Germanic tribes, and, earlier, tackling troubles in the east. Especially the campaign in the east would prove to be devestating for the empire, as the troops brought back the plague to Rome. So, I think an Parthian of Germanic issue would be fitting (e.g. https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=5532180) A germanic issue would also be interesting, because of the Hollywood blockbuster movie.... 😉
- Commodus: an issue of him as Hercules (https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=718649 or more affordable https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=2122853) 

Please feel free to add your own opinion!

Lovely lego recreation, and great that they are on display! Unfortunately, Hamburg is not around the corner, the show seems very interesting. 

My coin (description and photos needs an update): 

And another issue to the return of the standards. Despite it being struck a bit off the flan, I really like this coin because it has no portrait.

On 12/6/2022 at 11:57 PM, robinjojo said:

How severe is the BD?  Have you tried an extended soak in distilled water, with occasional changes of the water?  You could try this for a week to see if that works, followed by a thorough drying in the oven at a very low setting. 

It was pretty bad, but I got most of it away. You can clearly see the areas on the picture. At the back of the head was the worst of it, but it was also on the lip of the portrait, and on the side, at eight o clock. (The scratch at the lip is my fault, I slipped (how to say this?) with the cleaning tool... I cried a bit 😞) 

I believe there must have been BD already, but that it was covered by repatinating it. When i picked some areas infected, the black patina let go and BD seem to appear. There are other corroded areas on the obverse, where the blackish patina also is gone now, but no BD appeared. E.g. the neck, just below the hairline and in the field in front of the chin of the portrait. Interestingly, the reverse shows no issues and is in XF state with lovely details. 

It's hard to see, but there are some tiny green spots left on the back of the hair of the portrait on the obverse. I can see it under a magnifier. But im not certain if these are deposits, or something else. Nothing happens when i gently pick at the spots. 

I will keep it in DW for a couple more weeks, and after receiving the chemicals, gently rub the infected areas. 

I also read about baking the coin in the oven for a little while. Also that it will make the coin darken. Have you had experience with this? And what setting do you use? 

thanks!

Happy to announce I received my gift! Thanks Secret Santa 🙂 Now let the wait begin! 

Curious if other participants have received their package yet? 

31 minutes ago, Mucius Scaevola said:

My latest ancient is this "Vercingetorix" denarius.

 

Moneyer issues of Imperatorial Rome. L. Hostilius Saserna. 48 BC. AR Denarius (19mm, 3.66 g) Rome mint. Head of Gallic captive (Vercingetorix?) right; Gallic shield to left / Two warriors in galloping biga right: one driving, holding whip and reins, and the other, facing backward, holding shield and brandishing spear. Crawford 448/2a; CRI 18; Sydenham 952; Hostilia 2; RBW 1569.

Nice addition! Despite the wear, the portrait is excellent with the barbaric waving hairstyle. I also like that your issue shows the naked warrior on the reverse, which on some issues is not completely shown. One of these is high on my wantlist, but they demand a very high fee! 

Lovely, varied list, congratulations! I like how liberty is actually writing the constitution on the reverse of your no. 10. And the portrait of the divine Vespasian is well rendered, overall a lovely addition. 

A very interesting top list @Roerbakmix, and great written descriptions of high quality. And your chart is cherry on the cake, of course 😁

I'm intrigued by your no. 7, showing the confronting busts. Is it supposed to show a dynasty? Or is there something else going on? Your no. 2 is fascinating as well, the depiction of the figure on the obverse would perfectly fit the front cover of a Scandanavian fantasy novel! 🙂

Thanks for sharing! 

Sorry, missed this one before, but you mentioned it in the other topic! Congratulations on your RR coins. I votes for no 7 and 9. 7 because of the reverse, and no. 9 due to its eye appeal and lovely action packed reverse.

I cant give a straight answer to the posed question. I enjoy watching 'beautiful' coins (even though what is beautiful is different to many). Then there are beautiful rarities, and beautiful 'common' coins, and I enjoy looking at both. Then there are rarities that are so rare, that beauty is not an option. I also enjoy watching those. 

For me, from the perspective of a collector, it's both. Im very pleased to snatch a rarity in lesser quality, and likely will choose that over a more 'common' coin in better quality. And since my funds are limited, I must choose all the time. My collection is my collection because I collect the coins I like. 

From your perspective, and the question which coins you should add in your top list, why would you ask our opinion first? Would you change preferences if the outcome of your poll is beauty over rarity, or the other way? I think you should choose yourself; which coins do you like best, either be it beauty or rare. After all, it's your collection and these are your coins. 

By the way, 190 coins is a huge haul! Perhaps you should consider a top 100 😉

Good job. I just ordered some new chemicals at Noble. BD seems to be back at my Caligula as 😔