Limes

Loving the digital tray @LONGINUS

Campgates are one of my favorite reverse designs. Its also one of my earliest coins in my collection. I remember when I saw it, and I did not quite know yet what it was, but the reverse really spoke to me, and I was very excited to buy it. (Back then, ancients were very new to me, and I was amazed by it all). Another very interesting (in my opinion at least) issue, is this commemorative issue, that shows the Milvian bridge.

Neat addition, and great history. Do you know what the oxen and priest on the reverse mean? Is it the way the Romans inaugurated ground for a new city? Or marking the boundries? I dont have a provincial coin of Augustus to share though.

I will say a prayer and make an offering on your behalf to Mercury, in his temple (well, to be more specific, in front of our cabinet where this coin is stored 😁), and maybe he'll grant you a miracle too! I'll have to clean up all the blood and so on quickly though, or my kids will be traumatized for life.

Ah yes, sorry, didn't have the time to dive into this yet. It's an interesting (and beautiful!) coin. It raises the question of the relation of post and prior reform coinage in relation to the Lugdunum mint. Sydenham briefly mentions this in his paper; the weight of the AE As at Lugdunum deviated from the weight of the Rome mint, and the weight of post reform copper semisses do not relate to the weight of post reform semisses of Rome. I'll have to check it out and do some comparison. But basically, I think this also affects the dupondius from Lugdunum (i.e. weight appears to be lighter that post reform weight standard at the Rome mint).

Maybe you can ask biddr? I thought someone of biddr visited this forum, but dont remember the user name. My experience is that bid are not the same for every auction, at least some of the auctions i attend online. Maybe its different with biddr. But erratic behaviour can be spotted quite early during an auction, maybe. So you could draw a conclusion then, sit back, and enjoy the doofus purchases being made 😁

Thanks! You saying that means a lot. I must admit it's a bit strenuous to do a write up as a non native English speaker. Thanks, and glad you liked it. Positive may be that Nero bronzes are abundant and in various grades. Although popular, not all of his coins are very expensive, although it of course depends on your budget and collecting preferences. I hope you may find another good piece to add to your collection some day. Thanks for your comment, appreciate it. Your latest Nero shows a really strong portrait. And is there someone riding on the back of Victory? Or is it a die break? And that follis is very interesting! That sure does like Nero. Indeed, even the guys froms the Artuqid dynasty enjoyed the artistry of these coins, as much as we do today. And if the world still exists a 1000 years from now, maybe people then will still marvel at these coins.

Very interesting write up @Curtisimo, thanks! And thanks for mentioning me 🙂 I really like that you show the history behind the circus from the archaic times untill its final phase when it was in utter neglect. Although little remains today, the mere size of the area is still impressive, when I visited it back in 2015. Our hotel was near the piazza, where the obelisk still stands. I cant find the photos right now unfortunately. Here's my crude issue of the circus, but with Caracalla as caesar on the obverse. These coins were struckby Septimius for both Geta and Caracalla.

Hello everyone, This topic is not about that man in love with art, but about that other guy who had a big crush on art: L. Domitius Ahenobarbus Nero Claudius Caesar. Born in Antium in 37 AD, he entered public life at an early age and rose rapidly in the imperial line after Claudius married his mother, Agrippina the Younger. Everything good, one would think. But, alas. His mother - allegedly - murdered emperor Claudius, placing Nero on the throne in 54 AD. From there on, things slowly went downwards. His endulgance for the arts lead to erratic behaviour which greatly upset the elite. And after his love for the arts caused the imperial treasure chest to reach the bottom in 67 AD, consequently delaying payments to the troops, the dagger proved to be stronger than the lyre. Exit: Nero. I find the coinage of Nero absolutely fantastic. Rich in history, with vivid designs and always at a high level of artristry that would surely have pleased the Master himself. The designs are very varied and celebrate the imperial family, military victory in Armenia, but also show Nero’s exuberant building projects. And it’s not just the aureii or sestertii, but all denominations display the same fantastic designs. The latest Kunker e-live auction allowed me to finally add this coin of Nero to my collection, having been high on my wishlist for quite some time. It’s a reform brass As showing Nero playing the lyre on the reverse. Now this coin is interesting for several reasons, on which I make a few comments below. About the reverse: Nero playing the lyre The next few comments are about the reverse. As said above, the reverse of this coin shows Nero as Apollo playing the lyre. It’s not a mystery to us that in the larger part of his reign, Nero indulged himself into horses and races, the arts and music, and everything Greek. He was also quite the big spender, and, according to Suetonius, Nero thought that there was no other way of enjoying riches and money than by “riotous extravagance, declaring that only stingy and niggardly fellows kept a correct account of what they spent, while fine and genuinely magnificent gentlemen wasted and squandered.” (Ch. 25; thanks to the fantastic site of Bill Thayer). His practice of the lyre and singing started early in his reign. According to Suetonius, after some encouragement by his entourage, he even started to appear on stage and his first acte de présence was in Naples. After that, he longed to appear in Rome itself, and for that reason, repeated the contest of Neronia, a festival established in 60 AD on the model of the Olympic games which was to be held every five years with athletic and artistic competitions. Nero even also participated in the Olympic games after introducting a musical competition contrary to custom. Returning from Greece, he held a triumph in Rome while wearing a purple robe and a Greek cloak adorned with stars of gold, and bearing the Olympic crow on his head. Of course a visit to the temple of Apollo was part of the procession. Next it becomes even more interesting, as Suetonius actually mentions this coin in his book, thereby making this the coin with the oldest provenance in my collection (well, not this specific coin, but the type. But that still counts right?): "He placed the sacred crowns in his bed-chambers around the couches, as well as statues representing him in the guise of a lyre-player; and he had a coin too struck with the same device." (Ch. 25; thanks to the fantastic site of Bill Thayer). But that’s not the only theory about the symbolism of the reverse. Another story about the reverse is that it shows Nero playing the lyre and singing while a great fire swept through Rome. This story gained further strength as Nero used part of the destroyed city to build his new palace. Suetonius mentions the following: For under cover of displeasure at the ugliness of the old buildings and the narrow, crooked streets, he set fire to the city so openly that several ex- consuls did not venture to lay hands on his chamberlains although they caught them on their estates with tow and fire-brands, while some granaries near the Golden House, whose room he particularly desired, were demolished by engines of war and then set on fire, because their walls were of stone. (...) Viewing the conflagration from the tower of Maecenas and exulting, as he said, in "the beauty of the flames," he sang the whole of the "Sack of Ilium," in his regular stage costume.” (Ch. 38; again thanks to the fantastic site of Bill Thayer) However, according to Tacitus, Nero was away from Rome when the fire broke out and returned to the city to take measures to help the population of Rome. He further took measures to tighten building regulations to prevent new fires. This seems to debunk the story provided by Suetonius. About the coin reform My latest addition, and the issue shown below which is already part of my collection, are also two issues marked with a ‘I’ in the exergue. They are part of Nero’s coin reform. The ‘what’ and ‘why’ about this reform interested me, so I started reading about it. I will make a few comments below, and, if you are interested too, I’ve added the sources at the bottom of this write up for further reading. Augustus introduced a new monetery system, which consisted of the following - for this write up relevant - denominations*: Aureus Gold 7,85 gr 25 denarii Denarius Silver 4 gr 16 Asses Sestertius Brass 25 - 30 gr 4 Asses Dupondius Brass 12 gr 2 Asses As Copper 11 gr Basic unit Semis Brass 3-4 gr 1/2 As Quadrans Copper 3 gr 1/4 As To this system, Nero added the following changes**: Aureus Gold 7,27 gr 25 denarii Denarius Silver 3,41 gr 16 Asses Sestertius Brass 25 - 30 gr 4 Asses Dupondius Brass 16,3 gr 2 Asses As Brass 8,1 gr Basic unit Copper 10,9 Basis unit Semis Brass 4 gr 1/2 As Copper 5 gr 1/2 As Quadrans Brass 2 gr 1/4 As Copper 2,7 gr 1/4 As * Based on David van Meter ** Based on Sydenham As we can see from these tables, Nero begin striking the ‘lower’ denominations in both metals: copper and brass. He also reduced the silver and gold content of the denarius resp. aureus. The reasons for the latter might have been, that due to the increasing costs of the imperial household and military payments, Nero was forced (or happily decided) to decrease the purity of the finer metals to be able to increase funds. Also, according to David van Meter, the treasury was under extreme stress due to the relief actions because of great fire of 64 AD, and the various already initiated ambitious building projects. However, that does not sufficiently explains the introduction of the smaller units in new metals. For this, Sydenham has examined the various weights of the coinage. The dupondius and As as introduced by Augustus, were in value 2:1. However, the weight was quite comparable, and this caused issues as the actual difference in value between the two metals - brass and copper - did not compensate for the monetary value of the dupondius - As. Hence, under the reign of Nero, it was decided to make a better connection to the actual value of the metals, which was 1.1/3:1 (brass:copper). And by introducing the brass As and increasing the weight of the brass dupondius, the monetary value was established at 1:2. The underlying reason to introduce these reforms was to adapt to the Greek coinage in proportional values, which may have made commercial relations between the east and west easier. To make the value of the new coinage clear, Nero added symbols to them, determining the coins as dupondii (II), Asses (I) and semisses (S) respectively. Also not that today, it’s difficult to distinguish copper from brass, due to the patina formed over the hundreds of years buried in the ground. But for a Roman, the difference was easy to notice, as brass had a bright yellow-golden colour, and copper a reddish-brown colour. (Note: copper is a pure metal, whereas brass is a copper alloy, containing copper and zinc.) Although the ratio behind the reform remains uncertain - whether it was due to Nero’s love for anything Greek, to fix a commercial problem, or a scheme to generate more funds, or all of these reasons - it is clear that it did not last. Nero’s coin reform was abandoned soon after his death. But fortunately for us collectors, it lasted long enough for us to hold such an interesting piece of history in hand. About the attribution Next I’ll briefly make a few comments about the attribution. Künker attributes this coin as RIC 210. And since I have two printed editions of RIC including volume I, I thought it would be entertaining to check this attribution thoroughly and share my journey. (You can skip this if you want, nothing out of the ordinary came from this exercise.) Attribution of these issues turned out to be not too complicated. The mark of value and the weight are the biggest give-aways. So, with that in mind, I began. On my coin, you can see that the last part of the obverse legend is missing. RIC gives 8 legends for Aes of Rome and Lugdunum starting with ‘NERO CLAVDIVS CAESAR AVG’ and ‘GERM’: the legend stops after GERM (1 legend); the legend continues after GERM with a series of abrevations (3 legends, including GERMA IMP); the word ‘germ’ is longer (4 legend, e.g. GERMAN). The first step I took was to determine whether the coin was struck at the Lugdunum or the Rome mint. The step is in my case relatively easy, since coins struck at the Lugdunum mint show a globe at the point of the bust, which the portrait on my coin clearly has not. The second step was to weigh the coin (7,84 gr), which led me to conclude that it’s a brass AE As. And together with the mark of value that can be seen in the exergue on the reverse, the conclusion is that it’s a reform AE As of the Rome mint. Next was to find the corresponding RIC number (or, to check the number given by Kunker). The obverse legend was unclear, but the bust and reverse type are not. RIC lists 36 reverse types and 9 portrait types for the AES of Rome and Lugdunum; my coin shows reverse type no. 3 (Apollo) and obverse portrait ‘B’. Looking at the coins from the Rome mint, RIC lists 8 ‘asses’, with reverse type 3. Combined with portrait type, the reverse legend of my coin, the mint mark and the presence of ‘S C’, only one possibility remained, which is indeed RIC 210. So that makes my obverse legend: NERO CLAVDIVS CAESAR AVG GERMANIC. Relief My last remark regards the relief of these smaller bronzes. I had already noticed about my earlier issue that the head of Nero on the obverse really pops out. The same is the case with my latest addition. So I’ll end this write up with a question: did Nero try to mimic the relief of some of the coinage of his so beloved Greek world, especially coins of Alexander...? Thank you for reading. If you have any Nero (reform) Aes, other smaller bronzes, or anything else relevant, please share. Sources: - C.H.V. Sutherland and R.A.G. Carson (ed), Roman Imperial Coinage, Volume I. Revised edition, London, 1984, reprinted 2018. - David van Meter, The Handbook of Roman Imperial Coins. 1991, Laurion Press, New York. - E. A. Sydenham. THE COINAGE OF NERO. An Introductory Study. In: The Numismatic Chronicle and Journal of the Royal Numismatic Society, Fourth Series, Vol. 16 (1916), pp. 13-36; via jstor.org - C. Suetonius Tranquillus, The Lives of the Twelve Caesars; via https://penelope.uchicago.edu/ - Tacitus, The Annals; via https://penelope.uchicago.edu/

I voted for no. 2, because I use the same background image. But its not very popular, lol! I also really like no. 4. But maybe that does leave little room for additional information in the picture itself. An extra word document with that info that you can copy/paste from would be a solution indeed. Ive been thinking about that myself. Only thing is, im on my phone most of the time, more then on a laptop. And copy/paste info from a document on the phone isnt very convenient. What do you think, @CPK? By the way, that coin is fantastic! And the photos too.

Thanks for sharing. Never heard of 'al marco' before.

Thank you for the interview @Ocatarinetabellatchitchixand @David Atherton. I do wonder, as I dont think you may ever collect anything else than Flavian coins (but maybe Im wrong): will you at some time in the foreseeable future, reach a point that the only coins left to collect are unique pieces or pieces only in a museum, and that are (almost) impossible to add? Or are there still loads and loads of Flavian coins to collect for you? How many Flavian coins are actually out there? That Colosseum sesterius is absolutely by far my favorite of your collection, for obvious reasons. Absolutely fantastic piece!

Thats very interesting food for thought, thanks for sharing. Reminds me of some of the rendering of animals on coins. They dont look real, but for many Romans real enough as they adhere to their imagination or beliefs how the world looks.

Great addition to your collection, and such a good looking issue of this rare coin. I'd love to add a coin of this beloved general to my collection too one day. I thought I had one, and of the type I really wanted, but unfortunately it proved to be a fake. It still hurts a bit, knowing that these coins are rare, don't come up often and better ones are very expensive... I think on better specimens of this issue, you can see the shields you mentioned as part of the trophy (below the 'head' as 'arms') from the front. But at other examples they appear to be more rounded. The same goes for the shields at the base of the trophies. I do think they are the same shields as shown on your coin; it makes little sense to me to put different shields on the designs of these coins while referring to the same campaigns. Then again, I'm not a 'germanic shield expert', so I could be very wrong here.

Fantastic addition, coingratulations! Its a really nice example. I'd like to add one too, one day, but now they're a bit too expensive to justify to deviate from collecting Roman coins. And I have a drachm of him as Herakles with lion skin, so Im pleased with that for now.

Great photos. They really show the details and colouring of the coin.

Final hammer is 1900. Guess you stopped the bidding war! 😁 Going against the stream here, but I recently sold my issue of this type. Wasnt pleased with its place in my collection anymore, and i have one with a better portrait of Pompey (Not as good as the OP coin though!) but with a different reverse.

lol, if you're that easily averted from a target, why bid in the first place?

Just WOW!!! What a massive addition to your already fantastic collection. I saw it in the current catalog, and glad to see it went to you.

Thanks for sharing the photos. Looks really interesting.

Congratulations with your new Vitellius! You can really see the full name, which is a bit scarce with his coins. Here is mine. Unfortunately the name is mostly off flan.

Finally found the time. Here is the bunch together. The largest of the lot is the sestertius of Claudius, the smallest a sestertius of Septimius Severus. The issue of Posthumus is not the smallest, even though it is my latest issue. Perhaps this has to do with the sestertius of Septimius Severus being one of the earlierst issues? Or perhaps because the issue of Posthumus had some effort put into size due to it being a double sestertius? My earliest issue, is the one by Caligula top left. But thats not a good indicator for the seize of the early bronzes. At 31 mm, its been filed (?) quite extensively around the edges (and obverse and reverse too).

Nice! Would you happen to have a group shot of all the coins together? Also, I wonder something. Was the BM also actively collecting imp VIII issues? Or is it by chance that they have so many specimens?

Generally speaking (and I'm no expert and l dont want to get sued by you 😁) the coins look ok. However, the photos are bad. I can see several possibilities, in which better photos can help. First, the patina is ok. Especially on the first two coins, the lighter areas are as to be expected (high areas and in larger fields are more worn, and thus lighter). However, its impossible to tell of its artifically done, or that there is a case of smoothing in the fields (which could also lead to lighter areas). Its impossible to see. The colour of the patina in general looks ok. The fact that the seller has several of these coins on offer would not let me to the conclusion that there's something wrong per se. Perhaps the seller offers a collection with similarly patinated coins. Or perhaps is just coincidence. I assume you looked at review of this seller, perhaps there's a clue to be found there? Anyway, personally I'd start with asking for better photos.

Welcome! That's a very nice coin and first post. I think there are some members here who are very fanatic when it comes to provenance searching and so on. Maybe they can help you out with your quest (if you of course would like that).