Steppenfool

eBay UK is full of random low grade fakes now, I'd say about 2/3 of listings fall into this category. Thankfully they do have a distinctive appearance and are blatantly cast. I mainly buy exclusively from trusted sellers now. Otherwise the coin needs to pass my eye test and be a great deal on top of that.

If it is indeed fake, that coin would certainly fool me, and I am somewhat familiar with Trajanic coinage. @Marsyas Mike I find it difficult to determine the authenticity of worn coins. I wouldn't personally buy that one mainly due to the lettering on the obverse, it looks strangely blurry and rounded and some of the spacing strikes me as bizarre.

That is really quite a bad error. I figured it would be the classic Maximianus/Galerius mix up, but these guys (Maximinus and Galerius Maximianus) have different names.

Very cool, if I came into money I think I'd set up a little coin mint in my house haha. I agree that the left is Titus or Vespasian. The right I think is Pertinax?

Due to being heavily stylised and lacking in detail/features, the Constantine pieces' eye appeal really suffers when the jawline is weakly/not struck in my opinion. It's so common on later Constantine issues that I wonder if the jawlines were even engraved sometimes?

Great haul, I'm glad your dinner went well. Speaking of RIC154a, here's mine! No crescent, although there was definitely intended to be one.🤣 \ Maximinus II (310-313). Æ Follis (23mm, 7.02g, 12h). Antioch, 311-3. Laureate head r. R/ Sol standing facing, head l., holding bust of Serapis and raising hand; crescent/I//ANT. RIC VI 154a I have a budget Maximinus FIL AVGG as well to join your party but vcoins has lost the photo! I should really start saving them. I do love the FIL AVGG issues. The whole Sons of the Augusti debacle is so bizarre that it gives me peace of mind that the coins confirm it actually happened. There's also some interesting mint games going on: Coins show each as FIL AVG or FIL AVGG, but only at mints they did not influence. Galerius, who thought up the idea, struck FIL AVGG coins (with two G's) for both Constantine and Maximinus II at Siscia and Thessalonica [Coins 18-22]. In addition, FIL AVG coins (with one G) were struck by Galerius for Constantine at Nicomedia and by Maximinus for Constantine at Antioch and Alexandria [Coins 23-25].13 Maximinus did not strike them for himself [Coin 17]. Other eastern mints simply did not strike for Constantine at all. Constantine did not strike for Galerius ever again, or for Maximinus until he became Augustus with Constantine in mid 310. From @Valentinian's http://augustuscoins.com/ed/FILAVGG/

As I keep repeating to the point of burning people's eyes, my collecting interest is coins that reference historical events/phenomena. This thread is for you to propose ideas for historical coins that you'd love to have existed. To illustrate what I mean, I will start. I would have loved for Marcus Aurelius to commission some reverses with philosophers or philosophical motifs on them to match his portrait's beard. Obvious contenders could have been Socrates, the capstone of most philosophical schools including Stoicism (Marcus' school) or Zeno of Citium who founded stoicism proper. Some potential motifs could have been the primordial Stoic fire acting on matter. Per wiki: "According to the Stoics, the Universe is a material reasoning substance (logos),known as God or Nature, which was divided into two classes: the active and the passive. The passive substance is matter, which "lies sluggish, a substance ready for any use, but sure to remain unemployed if no one sets it in motion". The active substance, which can be called Fate or Universal Reason (logos), is an intelligent aether or primordial fire, which acts on the passive matter:" Perhaps the reason this wasn't possible was due to the reputation philosophy had for dissent and resistance in Imperial Rome. A notable example is the Stoic Opposition under Vespasian. However, Marcus Aurelius personally admired those involved in the Stoic Opposition and pays homage to them in his philosophical Meditations. Perhaps Marcus was sensible enough to keep his personal admirations to himself when they'd make for ineffective political statements! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoic_Opposition Socrates' distinctive side profile could make a good reverse! I would also have a coin of Hadrian to pay homage to his love of architecture and/or his defensive constructions as that is what he is most famous for in popular culture! His predecessor Trajan managed a bronze Danube bridge (built by Hadrian's favourite Apollodorus) coin, why couldn't Hadrian have a nice architectural coin? Perhaps the new and improved Pantheon could be a contender? A simple drawing of Hadrian's Pantheon that could be engraved onto coin dies. A side view if Hadrian wished to emphasise the new dome! Any other suggestions? Any time period is acceptable!

Posting this in another thread reminded me. Here's my Philip where he looks very realistic and like a native of the Eastern reaches of the empire.

@DonnaML It's often impossible to know if a nickname is contemporaneous or not. We only know about things such as "Caligua", "Caracalla" etc. from often throwaway remarks in primary sources. Most nicknames that people receive aren't conducive to effective propaganda so it makes sense that we are at the mercy of the literary sources here. Philip may have been known as Arabus, but we simply don't know for sure. I do agree he was certainly not an Arabian nomad, but it's not impossible (or even unlikely) that people of Arabian ethnicity were prominent in Eastern cities. To further expand on the primary sources, and what @Prieure de Sion says. The earliest source is indeed the Sybilline Oracles but they are very bizarre, not very reliable , rely heavily on symbolism and have multiple authors/redactions . Wikipedia says it best in my opinion. " Instead, the text is an "odd pastiche" of Hellenistic and Roman mythology interspersed with Jewish, Gnostic and early Christian legend." I've included the passage below that calls Philip "coming out of Syria" for a taste of the flowery flavour of the work. https://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/sib/sib13.htm Insatiate in war and leading onHis spearmen against the AssyriansShall draw near, a young Ares, and as farAs the deep-flowing silvery Euphrates25 Shall warlike Ares stretch his deadly spearBecause of . . .For by his friend betrayed he shall fall down In the ranks smitten by the gleaming iron.And straightway coming out of Syria30 There shall a purple-loving warrior rule,Terror of Ares, and also his son,A Cæsar, shall even all the earth oppress;And the one name is unto both of them: On first and twentieth there are to be placed35 Five hundred The coded message in the last few lines is explained by the website. " The Greek letter for five hundred is {Greek F}, initial of Philippus. The "one and twenty" is to be understood as denoting the initials (A=1 and K=20) of Augustus, the title assumed by the father, and Cæsar (Kaisar), the name of his son." Philip's birthplace of Auranitis was in the Roman Province of Arabia Petraea (the village is actually in modern Syria, however) and he renamed his birth village Philippopolis and began a building program after he became emperor. Zosimus in the 6th century declares that Philip was a native of Arabia in Book I of his New History. However, it is thought that Zosimus had access to the history written by Dexippus who was a contemporary of Philip. Dexippus is also a source in the Historia Augusta and this work calls him Philip the Arab. This work is a bizarre fourth century historical account that blends history, literature, satire, comedy and is therefore once again not very reliable. The funny caveat is that the Historia Augusta cites Dexippus explicitly, although some scholars argue it often does so erroneously. In my opinion, although it cannot be known for certain and could simply be confusion with his province of origin, his Arabian ethnicity would be a strange thing to invent, or for someone with access to Dexippus to get wrong. I would also argue that he looks quite Arabian on his coinage, and the reason I bought my Philip coin below was because I felt that it included an Arabian looking portrait. This may be a case of confirmation bias, however.

@Spaniardhere's my Thrax with a less pointy chin but a more pointed nose. I also think it's funny how he starts off looking much more normal, almost like a lovechild of himself an Alexander Severus, and the portraits get more and more realistic and therefore unattractive.

I don't own one but Julius Caesar doesn't look great on his portraits. His baldness is still quite obvious, as is his elongated head. He has a thin neck and his jaw/chin doesn't look particularly strong Vespasian was unapologetically bald and made no attempt to hide it, unlike his son Domitian who although sometimes appears slightly receded, appeared unwilling to betray the full extent of his hairloss.

I do have affinity with the argument that they are indeed different, as I alluded to in my post. After some careful thought I do think I've worked out the reason why. I think it is because that the days/months are natural demarcations in time that correspond to actual physical phenomena. We need a label for these terms in order to communicate, if these labels didn't exist historically it would be necessary to invent them. The difference with BC/AD to me is that it has no correspondence to any natural/geological/cosmological phenomena and is entirely contrived from a religious event. This makes it more than a mere "label" because the event being labelled only requires a label because of the subjective religious meaning attached to the event, rather than any objective/empirical criteria. If Jesus Christ wasn't born and/or people did not subjectively find this event meaningful, there would be no need to label this demarcation in Ages, because it simply wouldn't exist. Therefore I can see how the BC/AD distinction requires more of an assent to the underlying religious belief than the days/months. However, simply altering the acronyms only serves to hide this fact rather than deal with it, and one only needs a cursory scratch of the surface to reveal the true origin of the dating system. It strikes me as mostly performative to do this. It would be difficult to produce a dating system that isn't similarly contrived, but perhaps there is a reference point that greater captures the spirit of our own age. Weighing this up against the sheer inconvenience of fighting against a 1500 year linguistic convention is probably a sticking point for many, including myself on balance. I am glad to see that everyone mostly doesn't care too much (it isn't a big deal after all) and the discussion has been friendly as a result.

I am torn on the issue. On the one hand, I quite enjoy vestigial linguistic aspects of our society. I enjoy the fact we have Pagan/Norse days of the week, Roman months and Christian holidays, even if we aren't particularly culturally embedded in any of these ideas. It's a nice organic throwback to the foundations of our civilisation. On the other hand, I dislike how "unscientific" the BC/AD distinction is. As someone has already noted, it (probably) wasn't even the legitimate year of the birth of Christ and since the system is ultimately numerical in nature, it does make an objectively incorrect claim! I am also of the opinion that it hasn't aged particularly well, as belief in Christ as God and the resultant importance of his birth is gradually losing adherents in our society and it no longer seems reasonable to define an "age" by it. It appears to me to be something more than the mere nominalism of the days of the week for example, but perhaps this will fade with time. But, my biggest gripe is with the proposed alternative BCE/BC. It simply rebrands the above distinction and therefore doesn't solve any of the problems I have with it. I suppose this is somewhat understandable, because we don't want to lose continuity with every piece of work that has used this dating system over the past 1500 years. However, what isn't understandable or forgivable is how similar the two acronyms BCE and CE are. At least BC and AD use totally different letters, this means that they are almost impossible to confuse when reading, and very difficult to be subject to error through typos. It is very easy to mistake CE and BCE when either reading or writing/typing. I think a better alternative should be proposed if BC/AD is done away with. Even just A for ante and P for post or something equally simple.

I've got this model from Lighthouse. It does everything I need and I'm very happy with it. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lighthouse-coin-coins-incl-trays/dp/B005696Z9K/ref=psdc_595314_t2_B07X3WG351

I've only had interactions online with a few dealers, but they have all been very pleasant. For some positivity I will share one anecdote. I accidentally and unknowingly overcharged myself for delivery from Lodge Antiquities on vcoins by selecting the wrong option. I think I selected a delivery option with the word "insured" in it for peace of mind, even though it was unnecessary for my small £67 order. They issued a PayPal refund of the difference in shipping which was £4.10. It was very kind of them not only to notice this, but to take the time to sort it when I would have been none the wiser that I was out of pocket.

@Severus Alexander I did see the Equestrian Trajan but I already have an emperor on horseback coin of Trajan Decius which is too similar to justify forking out for another horse themed coin. My other main target was the ARAB ADQ Trajan and I was the "first loser" on that one. I was surprised at how high that went too. I like your additions. The Republican denarius is very cheap for the high level of historicity associated with it. I lost out on the mask of Pan Pansa variant and was the first loser on that one too. It hammered for £55 and I regret not going higher.

I didn't actually do anything except proxy bids so I can't personally comment on this. When I was casually observing the early portion I did notice the coloured bar not making sense but attributed it to using 4G internet. @LimesI had a great dinner. it was a lovely local Indian restaurant. My intestines weren't so happy the next day however!

By this do you mean selling them dealer or offering them to an auction house?

This was my first auction where I offered up serious bids on biddr during the Live Bidding portion. It was actually much more nerve wracking and more difficult to manage logistically than the Roma Numismatics style where they have a fixed auction end time. I had dinner plans and ended up having to enter via proxy bids for the latter portion. Trajan, 98-117 Denarius Rome circa 112-114, AR 20.00 mm., 3.33 g. Laureate bust r. slight drapery on l. shoulder. Rev. Annona standing l., holding grain ears and cornucopia; to l., child standing facing, head r. C 9. RIC 243. This was my only win for the auction. I was torn between this and another ALIM ITAL offering. For those not in the know, this type commemorates Trajan's charity program the ALIMENTA that served the people of ITALY, hence the exeurge. More information about this, and the possible motivations can be found below. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alimenta There were two ALIM ITALs up for grabs on this auction, and both had their strengths and weaknesses. I eventually settled on the above for the slightly sharper reverse strike and the metal appealed to my eye a bit better. The alternate choice is below, with a more detailed portrait and complete obverse legend. They both went for similar prices, mine hammering at £70 , the below hammering at £65 which was one increment below (meaning best case scenario they would have been equally priced for me). Which one would you have picked?

That doesn't translate to UK eBay apparently! Maybe my mistake was putting them for auction rather than fixed price.

I've sold a few coins and it was an economic disaster. Ended up getting 50% of what I paid for a few Byzantine Nummi. That's my main motivation for not selling at the moment. My collection isn't big enough to have coins that get absolutely no love!

That portrait was commissioned after he defeated the usurper NORVOODVS, with the help of the Anatolian LEGIO CAPILLVS. 😉 Beautiful coin! Very nice details for a Galba.

You have a real talent for this stuff! Do you have a resource where I can see them all? It's a shame you can't buy many historical Lego sets, excluding the big and expensive Colloseum which is a model of the current ruin rather than it in its splendor.

REQUEST I'm looking for an Antoninianus from Decius' Divus Series under $200 that's NOT Antoninus Pius. If any specimens seem like a particularly good deal please let me know!

I did think about this, but I feel waiting to save up for a coin comes with risk naturally and that most sellers allow reservations which can alleviate this problem! That is fair. Not as if it could be enforced anyhow. It was mainly in the interest of tidiness and so that someone quickly scrolling through who for example is only interested in offering advice can quickly discern which posts to read.