Finn235

Thanks all! This seems like the forum is off to a great start, so I am excited to see where things go from here. No, unfortunately, I haven't had any luck winning one of those yet. They are lumped together with the Peroz-type imitations on both Zeno and Wikipedia, but are totally unrelated and I think actually derived from Shapur II or similar. Still would love to have one though 😉

Hello all, I am sure that 80% of you already know me from various "other" forums, but it still feels silly joining a forum without some semblance of an introductory post! I've been collecting coins since I was old enough to not put them in my mouth, but didn't come to the dark side until about summer 2015. After dabbling aimlessly with lots of utter garbage from eBay for about a year, I eventually decided to get more serious. After some adjustments in my focus, I eventually settled on two main collecting themes: 1) A collection of Roman Imperatorial and Imperial coins from Sulla through Justinian, with the added twist of seeking out an example in each "title", e.g. - As Caesar, or a similar junior position under a living emperor - As Augustus/Augusta - As Usurper (for the two where a distinction can be made) - Posthumous, both Divo/Diva consecration issues and restitution issues. And then of course my main numismasochistic obsession, 2) Indo-Sassanian drachms, for which I am working on a revised attribution scheme, which I hope to begin publishing online within the next year or two. Just for fun, I decided to bust out a picture of my current backlog which I am in the process of sorting, attributing, and imaging That's about 2500-3000 coins. In addition to this, of course I have some other odds and ends - A dabbling set of Indian ancients through the British Raj era - Whatever few Greeks fall into my lap via large lots and then catch my fancy (plus a few individual purchases) - Other Miscellanea, including a few Celtic, Parthian/Sassanian, Islamic, Chinese, and Crusader/medieval coins I'm excited to see lots of familiar faces here, and hope to soon kick off a few threads that I hope will be fun, educational, and engaging!

I don't think that Augustus was a collector; old and foreign coins were mentioned among a list of trinkets and novelties that he enjoyed giving out for Saturnalia. There was, IIRC, an actual collection found perhaps in ancient Judaea? If memory serves, it presented as a hoard of Tyrian shekels, but there was exactly one coin of every date present, with little to no duplication and very few years missing - that sort of thing doesn't just happen as a randomly accumulated hoard. Likewise, I remember seeing some hoard breakdowns where rare rulers/types were conspicuously abundant, indicating a preference for saving unusual types. Also, there was a hoard found at Pompeii that was the daily change from a bar or restaurant, and I recall in the breakdown that despite many rare personalities represented, coins of Livia were totally absent, indicating that they had perhaps already been pulled from circulation in the early 80s.