Orange Julius

If you’re open to using your smartphone, removing backgrounds and joining pictures is easy with these two apps.

Here’s my example of that Thessalonica FEL TEMP. Was it minted in advance of or in celebration of Constantius’ victory over Magnentius?

I love CONSECRATIO coins and any coin with something on the reverse that is not a “human representation of god/figure____ holding ____.” Anything featuring an animal, chair, building, standards… is a keeper and interesting to me.

That captive on your new coin cracks me up… it looks like he’s saying “SSSTTTTOOOOOOPPPPP!” Just before taking a spear to the groin. 😀 A great coin. I like that barbarous coin too lots of charm there! Here are a couple of my Mag/Decie bro coins: Magnentius, Lyons, D N MAGNENTIVS P F AVG, bare-headed, draped & cuirassed bust right, A behind bust VICTORIAE D D N N AVG ET CAE, two Victories standing, facing each other, holding wreath inscribed VOT-V-MVLT-X. SP in lower centre. Mintmark RPLG. RIC VIII Lyons 136; Sear 18820. Decentius. Caesar, AD 350-353. AE Lyons mint. DN DECENTIVS NOB CAES, bare-headed, cuirassed bust right VICTORIAE DD NN AVG ET CAE, two Victories standing vis-à-vis, holding between them wreath inscribed VOT V MVLT X in four lines; SP in lower centre. Mintmark RSLG. RIC VIII Lyons 137; Sear 18882; Bastien 177; LRBC 228.

That’s a nice coin with a really great portrait style for the age. Although imperial coinage was suffering at the time, coins from Alexandria were still of nice quality and style in Claudius’ reign up through even Tacitus and into Probus, with a smattering of nice Carus/Numerian/Carinus coins. As for the price, it appears you did well against established action results but if you swim in the swamps, sometimes you can find some great deals as targets of opportunity. For eagles, I don’t have a year 2 but I do have a year 1 and a few year 3 comparables that I’ve admittedly gotten at prices well below what they’re worth, but it’s taken me years of hunting through garbage to find them. $26 $15 $15.51 $12.50

Great coins! It’s interesting that these were minted for Maximinus, the alliances of those few years are somewhat cloudy to me. I only have one SOLI coin with captive, a bit later, it’s a bit bent and hard to photograph… but it was only $5.50. Constantine I, AE follis of Aquileia, AD 316-317. IMP CONSTANTINVS PF AVG, laureate, draped and cuirassed bust right. SOLI INVICTO COMITI, Sol, standing left, chlamys draped over left shoulder and flying out, holding globe and raising right hand, captive with Phrygian cap, turning head, hands tied, at foot left. Mintmark AQP. RIC VII Aquileia 1; Sear 16107. Rated R5

I wish I maintained a spreadsheet but instead what I do is just use my email. When I get a coin, I attribute it through my library or reference sites. In the case of books I photograph relevant information, for reference sites I copy/paste like example images and information like maps, references, historical tidbits. I then photograph the coin and add the photo to the top of the email. I then just email it to myself and file it in my Ancient Coins folder. With this process, I can just use the email search and all information is available to me on my phone, computer or anywhere else I can login with to my email. The only downside is that access to this information is for now only open to me. If I’m abducted by a busload of fashion models, my family does not have access to my coin information. Otherwise, the process works well for me!

Great coin with amazing detail! That captive is great. I love everything about him. I bought this one recently for similar reasons. I have probably 15 of this type and probably 4 or 5 from Antioch but it was too nice to pass up for the $22 it cost.

This thread motivated me (thank you!) to take pictures of a few more of my unphotographed Postumus coins. I took them on my phone under a desk lamp, so the images aren’t great, a little blurry and too yellow… but better than no photos!

Not sure why but this reminds me of the new story years ago about the son needing money, dumping his father’s coin collection onto a CoinStar machine. 😬 I wonder how many highly prized coins float through people’s hands without them knowing…

Bringing this thread back for an example of disappointment. I bought the first coin below cheaply from a trustworthy seller (a bad one slipped through) because I like nice Claudius II CONSECRATIO coins. I was a bit weary of this one because it did have the surfaces you see on some of those eBay fakes out of “UK” sellers, but the seller’s photos weren’t great so it was hard to tell. I decided to take a gamble with it and in hand, it looks mostly convincing and the encrustations look natural. BUT… today browsing eBay, I ran across the second coin, proving mine fake. ☹️ Mine: eBay

Nice! I really like the denarius, that’s a beauty! Also, any coin with a goat 🐐 is a must have (although I don’t have one… yet) and that Licinius is a pretty green with a more interesting reverse than many of his coins. A good haul!

A hard question to answer but since I like coins from one of the periods with the worst quality coins…. Here’s a really nicely made coin from the reign of Gallienus. Nice heavy round-ish flan, full beaded boarder on both sides, nice strike both sides, legends well spaced and done, nice eastern style typical of the period… the only quality point that is a negative is the small flat area on the reverse figure around the waist where more metal flowed into the obverse bust and not enough metal was left to fill the lowest points of the figure in the reverse die. Anyway, a fun coin from a period not known for quality.

@Anaximander Love the toning on your Hercules coin. I have one too but a bit more shined up. …but I do like the toning on this one!

Here are a few of mine. The first like yours, and a couple others. I think I have 3 or 4 more unphotographed, ~40 ants, 3 as coins and 7-8 sestertius coins.