Egry

3 minutes ago, ambr0zie said:

Welcome, @Egry

I was fortunate enough to be invited on this forum and frankly I like it better than CT, especially since all the people I knew virtually and learned some secrets of this hobby from are here.

I have an example of your coin. In a completely different condition, but it is one of my favorite denarii nevertheless.

It was from my first purchase of ancient coins, in a lot of 8 denarii (bought for a very decent price in an auction that was very unpopular; much less than I thought a silver denarius costs and anyway a good price even today - this was 1 year and a half ago). Beginner's luck. I was a complete noob but I wanted to identify all the coins myself (which I did) and I remember I had to check who is that emperor (had no idea) and after identifying the coin I also made a check on Lucius Verus as I never heard of him before collecting.

 

My favorite Verus coin is a Divus Verus issue.

AD 168

DIVVS VERVS, head of Lucius Verus bare, right / CONSECRATIO, funeral pyre in four tiers (ustrina), adorned with statues and garlands, quadriga on top

RIC III Marcus Aurelius 596B; RSC 55, BMC 503

 

I always liked the funeral pyre reverse, originally I thought it was a temple or fortress and was only slightly disappointed when I found out what it really was and that I couldn’t attribute it to an existing ruin.

6 minutes ago, Limes said:

Well, you're in luck mr Egry 🙂 I did a write up about a coin of Marcus Aurelius, with a similar reverse as the Lucius Verus onen. Below the coin and part of that write up. Enjoy the read! 

Emperor Marcus Aurelius was part of the so called ‘five good emperors’ (Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, and Marcus Aurelius), or ‘adoptive emperors’ (idem) or ‘the antonines’ (Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius, Lucius Verus and Commodus). The era ended when Marcus Aurelius appointed his son, Commodus, as his heir.

Marcus Aurelius was, together with Lucius Verus, the successor of Antoninus Pius. Under the reign of Antoninus Pius, the Roman Empire experienced its most peaceful and prosporus period in history. By the time Marcus Aurelius was to ascend the throne, he was 40 years old. Marcus Aurelius was to be known as a philosofical and gentle emperor. Despite his charactaristisc, it would become his destiny to be consumed with frontier warfare and other devestating occurences such as the outbreak of the plague which was brought back to Roman territory by the army that fought the Parthians.

The denarius shown below is one of the many, many coins struck under Marcus Aurelius commemorating the various frontier wars in the East against the Parthians and the North - the Marcomannic Wars. This specific type celebrates the victory over the Parthian empire. There are several interesting - and desirable ! - coins struck in these ‘warfare’ series, bronze, silver and gold issues of both Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus. The coins with ‘vic par’ reverse, written on a shield held by Victory, is a well known type of course. Other types display bound captives, such as mine, or display the (re)-installation of Sohaemus as king of Armenia (struck under Antoninus Pius, and Lucius Verus (aureus, sestertius) for example).

 

About the war itself, it started just after the death of Antoninus Pius with the invasion of Armenia by Vologases IV of Parthia, in 161 AD. In response to the invasion of Armenia and following raids into Syria by the Parthian army, Lucius Verus headed east while Marcus Aurelius stayed in Rome. Either a dandy and charmer, or hardened wartime soldier-emperor (or somewhere in between), Lucius Verus (well, his generals of course), defeated the Partians in Armenia, reinstalled the Roman puppet Armenian king Sohaemus, and furthermore sacked the capital of the Parthian empire in 165 AD. For their efforts, Lucius Verus and Marcus Aurelius were given the honorary title ‘ARMENIACVS’, conqueror of Armenia, and hailed imperator.

Great write up, thanks! I now have even more appreciation for the coin. 

3 minutes ago, Steppenfool said:

I stopped posting much and was waiting for a new forum like this ever since @Leo was banned from CT. It left all of the users unsure what had happened, but he was almost certainly caught in the website's harsh anti-spam filter which automatically banned you if you didn't respond to the verification link that often didn't arrive in people's mailboxes. The admins absolutely refused to address this issue and often blamed the user for not following instructions, or using out of date email providers. A few people on reddit/r/ancientcoins had mentioned they were also indiscriminately banned, and it took myself 3 attempts to make a CT account using 3 different e-mail providers ( my regular googlemail didn't work, only yahoo finally did) before I didn't get banned for not clicking a verification e-mail that never arrived.

This problem, now coupled with the very draconian moderation, has led. to CT not benefit from the population increase warranted for a burgeoning hobby. Hopefully the word about this site can spread, and we can get the Ancient Coin forum that the community deserves. 

Such optimism, I like it! 
 

I want to relate it to the optimism the people of the Palatine must have had when the concept of Rome was just a twinkle in their eye.  

4 minutes ago, Limes said:

Hi there Egry, welcome to this board! There's defintely more activity here, then on CT these days... 

Congratulations on your Lucius Verus, the emperor that Rome hardly could enjoy, so to say. Although I think he loved partying more then ruling an empire. Your denarius is a very nice one, good portrait and sharp details.

Anyway, i have two Lucius Verus denarii, not as nice as yours. 

I love the portrait of this one, but his stare into the void makes me wonder what he's thinking about. Perhaps about the disapointing reverse? 

On this one he looks like he needs a snickers, and fast. But it's the historical reverse that attracted me to this one. 

Thanks for the welcome. 
 

I also have two, the one I posted is the recent replacement. The one it replaced has the same reverse as your second. Could you please expand on the historical significance of this reverse? 

Just now, DonnaML said:

Welcome, @Egry! Here's my own recently-acquired Lucius Verus denarius:

Lucius Verus AR Denarius, Rome Mint AD 165-169 [RSC] / AD 165 [Sear RCV II]. Obv. Laureate head right, L VERVS AVG ARM PARTH MAX / Rev. Captive Parthia, wearing breeches and peaked cap, seated right on ground with hands tied behind back; to right in front of captive, quiver, bow, and shield; TRP V IMP III COS II. 19 mm., 3.26 g. RIC III 540, RSC II 273 (ill. p. 231), Sear RCV II 5358, BMCRE IV 385. Purchased from Savoca 133^rd Silver Auction, 15 May 2022, Lot 370.  

Spectacular example @DonnaML

One of my favourite recent additions to my collection, it has been in the bucket list for a while but only recently had a chance to pick one up. 
 

A very beautiful 8 Scudo from Bolivia. I absolutely love the designs on the Central and South American coinage of the (now not so) recently independent states.

Republic of Bolivia, Gold 8 Scudos (27.02g, 36mm), 1837 LM, Potosí mint. Obverse: Cerro Rico Mountain to the south of Potosi, radiant sun above, Llama standing to the right and sheaf of grain at base, crescent of six stars below, mintmark “PTS” monogram, denomination, date and assayer mark surrounds below, legend surrounds above, “REPUBLICA BOLIVIANA”. Reverse: Bare-headed bust of Simón Bolívar facing to the right, wearing military uniform, his name “BOLIVAR” below, legend surrounds, “LIBRE POR LA CONSTITUCION·”. KM-99; Friedberg-21; Onza-1583. An imposing and rare early Bolivian Republic gold piece featuring a bold rendition of Simón Bolívar, the face of the Latin America fight for independence from the Spanish Empire; two minor cuts in the rim, possibly to recut the milling or test the metal, otherwise details good Very Fine to near Extremely Fine.
 

Please share any of your Central or South American republic coins.

On 5/27/2022 at 9:07 PM, maridvnvm said:

I have been asked once already on this forum and to what/who is on my avatar. I thought it would be interesting to find out what your avatar is and why you chose it.

I primarily collect the early issues of the Eastern mint denarii of Septimius Severus. I sit in the shadows of the acknowledged experts in this field (Curtis Clay, Doug Smith and Barry Murphy) but have been passionate about this coinage for the past 20 or so years and am focussing my collection in on the bits that interest me and areas where I might want to do some amateur research in this generally under-studied area.

My avatar is a very primitive attempt at colourising the bust from one of my denarii that I did over 15 years ago. I have been using it as an avatar ever since.

The original image of the complete coin:-

The obverse coin cropped and colourised bust:-

The coin was then cropped to just the bust ready for re-sizing as an avatar:-

What is your avatar? Why did you choose it?

Very cool. Oddly I always assumed it was Septimius Severus 

7 minutes ago, ominus1 said:

..ah, nice Lucius Verus...one of the 'good 5(6)' 😄

Ah yes. How about I raise you with a the year of the six! 
 

1 minute ago, Restitutor said:

Welcome to the forum! 🙂 That’s a real show stopper of a Verus right there 🤩

Thanks. 
 

Over the last few weeks I’ve been pulling out  my ancients out of their 2x2 flips and assembling them Chronologically in their new home (the lighthouse mahogany cases).
 

Some I haven’t handled ever, purchases in a 2x2 and kept in it. The L Verus was one of them. Once I started handling it, it Alamo’s looked like it could be a forgery, but very good one. I had it checked out by someone with more knowledge than me, they concluded it was real but likely the soil it was found in caused the silver to give a bit of a dead tone. 
 

regardless I set out for a better example and came across this one, the rest is history 

Not the best photographs (I do have better but will need to dig them up).

Persian Daric, Carthage Stater (my favourite coin of all time hence my avatar), and Alexander III Stater. 

Just now, Alegandron said:

Thank you very much.  You need to post your Electrum in my Electrum Thread!  Would love to see it.

Will check it out. Still getting used to the new controls here! 

 Thanks guys.
 

Nice example @Alegandron!

For the past month I’ve been been on Reddit  coin forums and haven’t frequented CT, only to come back and all the familiar names are gone…

skimming through a few chats only to stumble across a few hints of what happened and some kinda sketch looking link of where everyone went.

Anyway,  I’d like to share my latest acquisition . In my opinion one of the nicest Lucius Verus denarius I’ve come across yet. Let me know if you agree and please share any of yours.

ARI-145 Lucius Aurelius Verus, Roman Emperor of the Nerva-Antonine Dynasty from 161-169 AD, Silver Denarius (3.25g, 18mm), Rome mint 161 AD. Obverse: Bare head of Lucius Verus facing to the right, legend surrounds, “IMP L ΛVREL VERVS ΛVG”. Reverse: Providentia stands facing to the left, draped and holding cornucopia in left arm and globe in outstretched right hand, legend surrounds, “PROV DEOR TR P COS II”. RIC-463. Exceptionally sharp and choicely centred each side, lightly toned and visually powerful in hand, near Mint State, reverse good Extremely Fine. 

 

The Obverse Latin legend reads “Imperator Lūcius Aurēlius Vērus Augustus”, stating the majority of his regnal nomenclature as emperor. The Reverse Latin legend reads “Prōvidentia deōrum, Tribūnīciā Potestate, cōnsul secundum”, with an English translation of “Foresight of the Gods, holder of Tribunician power for the first time, Consul in his second term”.