Aleph

The carpenter, no. 3, is a great find! This series is tremendously rare but much more extensive than is generally realized. Love no. 1 also! The ‘regular’ Ae tesserae of Rome, e.g., the extensive Spintriae series, the carpentum and associated types, and then the letter series, are special fields that nobody comes to appreciate without spending a lot of time already in Roman numismatics. Ranging from run of the mill rare like the Spintriae to torturously rare like the carpentum series, these are difficult to collect and amazing mysterious. It is likely that no one else will ever hold 1, 2, 3 at the same time unless Simon sells these to that person directly!

Leu is a bad actor here. The bidding patterns I have seen leave little doubt. Good numismatists, dishonest business!

I have Leu at the top of my shit list and am now very conservative or don’t bid at all with them in their auctions. The shill bidding patterns are quite disturbing. The price will nearly always hit one step below your max or thereabouts, and only seems to happen if you bid more than a minute or so before closing meaning someone is responding in real time. The irregularity of it also to implies that this is not a software routine but someone deliberately pushing your bid up manually. Good numismatists but dishonest. Biddr is very on the level in my experience but I strongly suggest you bid live or at least proxy. CNG is also honest and as it is supposed to be.

Anyone find it peculiar that 100% lots sold? That doesn’t happen without someone making sure every lot has a bid…

If you assume this is legionary connected, then perhaps the animals are an eagle and a bull, both commonly associated with the legions? The Reverse looks much more like a bull to me than a dog, but the bird is more of a stretch to see an eagle. Writing 14 as XIV also strikes me as significant. At least in the first century XIIII is common, so XIV would suggest a later date- I would guess a 2nd century date. The AP is a mystery to me. I would guess a place location or a commander? Very nice Mars/cornucopia quadrans! These are not so rare but usually they are quite dumpy in appearance. This is among the best I have seen!

Another one of my favorite coins is this Domitian semis with tripod. While these are not terribly difficult to find, the version with the 'fat' tripod is more difficult to find. Most of these have a tripod like the second image (not mine) which has a normal thin tripod. Considering how different the two tripod versions are, I would consider this a good example of a type which should be split into 2 types! One wonders whether they were both supposed to portray the same tripod...

These monogram tesserae are very cool but difficult to collect. In total there 12 types, 4 with the ship, 4 with VL, and 4 with TR, all die linked. The best reference for these is Dancoisne, from the 19th century who publishes 10 of the types as line drawings. I have been looking for these for 15+ years and have managed to get 8 of the types. The prices however have begun to skyrocket.☹️

Nice Caligula, Octavius! The phantom issue that was left out of the volume I revision, presumably just a dumb error. Hey Simon, yes it was CNG 49, a North American collection of fractions. Multiple of James Lamb’s coins from the Picus article appeared here so very likely this was his collection. The plates are not great, but your example looks like ‘Photo 19’ in the article. I am very interested to go through the article and the sale systematically to if I can find more matches, but haven’t yet done so. Some of the best coins in the article were not in the sale; I would love to know their fate. And I think you are correct on the Hercules semis- the first one that I got was from Roma. I remember being astonished that a second one came up so soon after the first. For unpublished Nero fractions, I think I am at 5- so you got me there!😀 The recent Artemide auction was rough for me for the Nero listings. It sounds like we may have been fighting for some of the same lots. I’ll post a few more photos when I get some time. The Trajan quadrans you posted at the start of this thread would be one of my favorites too! You set a high bar with that one.

Seems little doubt I was bidding against you on many of these! Congratulations on the eagle with wreath Jupiter semis. I wouldn’t have bid it up if I knew it was you.😀. The Jacquier sale was fantastic but I got blown out of the water on most of the lots I bid on. The competition was immense. My major prize from that sale was this very rare Mars type which I let go of a lot of other lots so that I could focus on. I totally agree on the Minerva type that it is not a mule. Now that I have seen yours, I know there are at least two. My example is below. It is amazing that this type is not in the van Heesch thesis. When I begin collecting the minor fractions in the mid 2000s, I was a student and couldn’t afford many of the better coins. Now I look back at all the rarities that I couldn’t bid on and am depressed! So many that went for a couple hundred dollars then are now selling in the couple thousand range. The early days of CNG e-sales in particular had some great pieces. I wish it were easier to see sales catalogs from the 70s-90s as many of these pieces must have passed through the market at this time. A number of my coins come from the James Lamb collection. His Picus article identifies a good portion of his collection which was sold via CNG in the late 1990s (but not credited to him in the sale). Between us, we must have dozens of unpublished types! Nero’s reign especially continues to turn up unpublished varieties. Did you get the second Hercules anonymous semis sold at Roma?

Very nice, and a spectacular pedigree! Definitely not common and the Mercury right version is none too easy either. The anonymous series is littered with great rarities once you get past the Venus, Minerva, Mars, and Jupiter types. The Bacchus and Neptune types are particularly challenging. Funny enough that the seasons types are not actually that hard too find and seem to be over-valued presumably because of the older hypothesized Annius Verus link (now shown to be unlikely).

Sorry about the image. I didn’t realize it was a link and not the actual image. Anyway here is take 2. I think you are correct about the Hadrian modius semis! Some of the issues, such as the star and crescent type in RIC, feel much more like off metal strikes of denarii. I have an example of one of these with Victory on the reverse that previously was only known in Aurei (see below). The Trajan wolf and twins type is deceptive. Cathy king reports either 1 or none (I don’t have the article handy) found in the Tiber, while the contemporaneous Hercules issue is more common. This at first seems odd considering how common the wolf and twins type is today. However, this is misleading. Long ago, Curtis Clay mentioned on Forvm that before the fall of the iron curtain, the wolf and twins type was actually rare. This strongly suggests that this type was distributed in the east and not Rome (or the west). This is consistent with an aversion to minor issues with portraits at Rome. The anonymous types is a different situation. There are many fore runners of the anonymous types under Domitian, Nerva, and Trajan. It certainly looks like the transition to the fully anonymous quadrans/semis was more just an evolution of the series (loss of the emperor’s name) as opposed to something special. As to why the anonymous issues are so common, it is hard to say without better dating of the series. My own guess is a resurgence of the distribution of the minor fraction during the time of Trajan, Hadrian, and Pius but a better dating is needed to understand what was happening. I would love to see find locations for all the imperial minor fractions, especially the vast but scarce issues of Hadrian. Another interesting phenomenon is the specialized distribution of many issues, e.g., the eastern issues, the mines issues. Sometimes these are not so obvious. I recall one issue of Domitian that was rarely found in Italy but appeared to be a common find in the camps on the rhine. There are likely more examples which again suggest very a specific purpose for these issues, perhaps an imperial visit. Clearly, much more evidence is needed and may indeed be out there already. Unfortunately for me, i spend most of my time in the medical literature, rather than the archeological literature these days.😏

Congratulations, Simon. That is a great and rare tessera that was in the group lot! I focused on the tessera so avoided the other fractions. One of the top coins among my white whales is the quadrans below. And I spoke too soon on the pius quadrans! My example has the COSIII reverse so RIC713- yours I have never seen?! I am glad you are snagging these from Heritage. These should go to a dedicated collector for sure. And I am kicking myself that I haven’t followed the weekly Heritage auctions. For the question of semis vs quadrans, I think much of the debate misses a key point. The major distinction is portrait vs non portrait, not semis vs quadrans. There are clearly ‘larger’ denomination non-portrait quadrantes, ie semises, in the post Vespasian period. Metal is also important, that is orichalum vs bronze. This feature is often obscured as patina can make it difficult to tell what the metal is. Portrait minor denominations all seem to have been distributed outside of Italy. It seems clear that sub-As denominations were not strictly part of the monetary system after Vespasian but rather must have been special distributions with a token like purpose, so something like redeemable for entrance to the baths or perhaps a meal at a street cafe. As evidence, of the many price listings found at Pompeii, not indicate a cost less than an as or fractions above an as- so no 1 1/2 As. The dearth of minor coins would also suggest that the minor fractions were not part of general circulation. Circumstantially, even in the earlier JulioClaudian period which saw the issue of quadrantes, no semises were issued at Rome for nearly a century from the death of Julius Caesar, until the time of Nero which was very experimental in the minor fractions. Why is this significant? Well the sestertius, dupondius, and as were multiples of two so it is conspicuous that semises were not produced while quadrantes were if the minor fractions were part of the denomination system. Maybe the smaller denomination were covered by imitative and token issues. I am not up on the scholarship here though so I don’t know the current academic consensus…

This pius is another super rare coin! The only one I have seen I bought on eBay from a dealer that had no idea how unusual it is- I’ll try and find a photo and post. I also specialize in quadrantes, semises, and tesserae. I am guessing I have been up against you in a lot of bidding competitions !😀. Collecting these is an exercise in patience as so many appear no more than every 5-10 years. Here is a recent pickup up from CNG. The first example I have seen in the trade.

This is an exceptionally rare coin! You would have had strong competition if the Hrritage sale was better publicized.😇

Hi David, The circulation pattern is extremely intriguing! Should this series perhaps be considered a commemorative series as a tribute to Vespasian’s eastern victories? Regardless of intention, it would seem clear that these were likely only circulated in the west. The denomination system is puzzling though. It is clearly not Roman imperial, but I recall that the west probably saw mostly imperial coinage circulation at this time, the sunsetting of Hispania and Gaul provincial coinage having occurred a generation earlier. thanks for highlighting this interesting series!

Great aureus, Limes! I really like the cornucopia. if I ever get an aureus, it will probably be Flavian. Coincidentally (I don’t have the heart to hit that pun), several of my rarest Roman coins have been gilt in antiquity to pass as aurei. a tessera of Mitrieus. A quadrans of Antoninus Pius.