Finn235

And I wanted to make a second post for Indo Sassanian coins, which can get a little confusing. I own a bunch of these coins which are known from fewer than 10 specimens, but since these aren't as popular as Western coins, there are probably a lot of "dark" specimens which are in collections, but neither attributed nor documented.

From track 1

This very early imitation has an unknown object in front of the bust - probably a sankh shell. In every other coin from this series, this is just a blank field 

This one has a hoop earring with 3 pearls - supposed to be a 3-stranded dangly earring

This one replaces the Korymbos above the helmet with a trident - an important symbol of Shiva worship

There are not many definite imitations within track 1 - curiously they all seem to be imitations of some indeterminate step between series 1.2 and 1.3. I am aware of 4 in existence, I own 2. All are very different styles

A type called the "distinctive nose" variety is demonstrably the first in the Malwa series, not the last as previously suggested by Maheshwari - 7 specimens of this type exist; I own 6 of them

An intermediate step where the face is gone but the nose is still present - and the moon is on the wrong side! I believe there are 2 specimens and I own 1

The popular malwa "Om" type -

An early calligraphy variant - I believe 3 exist and I own 2

One mistakenly engraved retrograde - maybe 4 or 5 exist and I own 1

This weird coin doesn't have a visible eye symbol and is almost 30% overweight. It is unique

Sri Omkara with a Crescent eye opening toward 3:00 - also unique 

This one has the letter MA behind the head instead of Ja, and a simple dot for the eye - I think 3 exist and I own 1

The popular "battle scene" type

This one has a star eye and a star instead of a circle above the horse rider - 2 exist, I own 1

These have two dots for an eye and the horse has a "bushy" tail - 3 exist, I own 2

The "circle lips" type was discovered by me in 2017 and a large hoard of ~100 came to market early this year - I picked up a few highly unusual specimens

These two have two eyes, and the top one was struck on a flan prepared by casting(?) And may have the moon on the wrong side! Two exist, I own both

This one has an open circle for the mouth - most probably made using the "punch" for the moon by accident - unique

This one's mouth is off the flan and the moon is on the wrong side

These two were from an earlier hoard (2018) and the ribbon is engraved too far down on the coin - 2 exist and I own both

Stephen Album released a hoard of ~750 unrecorded Gadhaiya in lots of about 110 each - I was able to buy 3 lots. The rarest by far was die pairing I/B - only 7 specimens

And just discovered a month ago - these Gadhaiya have a star instead of a mouth! 10 have come to light, I bought all 10

I've owned a lot of coins that were unique, but no longer are due to other specimens coming to light.

This I think still is unique

Claudius II / FIDES EXERCITI (EXERC and EXERCI are known types, but not EXERCITI)

This one I have attributed as something Kushan-adjacent; I got it in a large lot of very low grade coins more than 8 years ago, and I've never seen another coin even remotely like it since. I see helmeted Athena bust right / Standing figure in Kushan dress holding thunderbolt and unknown other object?

A few coins I regrettably sold (way too cheaply) I think are still unique

Cilicia, Nagidos AR hemiobol (obol denomination is common)

Troas, Dardanos AR hemitartemorion (tetartemorion is rare - at 0.08g this was unambiguously a half tetrartemorion)

This was a unique imitation of an Indo Greek drachm - Apollodotus or Menander?

And a unique imitation of a Parthian Phraates IV drachm, struck in copper

And some coins that I once considered unique or exceptionally rare, but others have surfaced since

Cilicia, Kelenderis obol, Athena left / goat kneeling, unique until this year:

https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=11029309

Kyme, Aiolis AR trihemiobol or diobol, Unique when I got it in 2017, but I think 2 more have surfaced since

Lucius Caesar AE of Antioch ad Maeandrum, second known when I bought it, but I think the number is up to about 10 now?

Marcus Aurelius denarius, with rare combination TRP XXXI + IMP VIIII which dates it to October/November 177 - it was recorded in RIC but I didn't see a picture of a second specimen until this one showed up

https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=7317148

6 hours ago, Parthicus said:

I just ordered these two coins (photos borrowed from seller because they haven't arrived yet):

The top coin is a Parthian bronze, and a rather scarce and interesting type that I'll explain in detail once it arrives.  If I had 50,000 of them, it would immediately become by far the most abundant Parthian bronze coin type.  The bottom is imitative of a Sasanian drachm of Peroz, but I'm not familiar with this specific imitation, and it will be fun to research.  Not sure what having 50K of them would do, maybe I could make some money by slowly releasing the hoard onto the market...

The imitation is an early Indo Sassanian coin - there is a sub-set within series 1.1 with a very distinctively "hunnic" bust with a large nose and clean shaven face

11 hours ago, Octavius said:

I wanted to increase my Trajan collection, so here are a few sestertii...

1. Bridge over Danube...

 

2. reverse depicts Danube River rising up and kneeling on Dacia...

 

 

3. Dacian king kneeling before Trajan...

The last sestertius actually is not Dacia but Parthia. REX PARTHIS DATVS - "A king given to Parthia". Trajan briefly dethroned Osroes I as king of Parthia and installed Parthamaspates as a client king - Trajan had barely retreated before Osroes reclaimed his throne, but for a brief moment it looked as though Rome had defeated her only serious adversary in the world.

Wonderful coins!

So when Finn is quiet about Indo Sassanian coins, it usually means

1) His wife found out how much he spent on them and he's in the dog house,

2) He's burnt out on them and needs to de-spaghettify his brain, or

3) Something new is oozing out through Indian sellers and he doesn't want to attract undue attention and competition.

Well, this time around, it was 3!

I have more to post later, but a little teaser for now 😉

While seemingly ordinary specimens, this new type totally replaces both of the portrait's upper and lower lips with a single, four-pointed star! It is similar but not identical to the hair bun behind the ear. These are imitations and not an official mint product, as evidenced by the advanced degradation of the attendants on the reverse, and the lack of a "sun" to the top left of the fire altar. Based on the reverse and that this hoard contained a very large number of "lozenge" types

I believe that these are the work of the same mint, although I cannot begin to offer an explanation for what the extraneous symbols on either could mean!

Only 10 of the new "star lips" type were offered as of the time of this writing, and I purchased all 10 of them.

Now, where to put them...

This seems to be more and more common.

Completely ignoring the ethical implications of owning and trying to move undisclosed ancient coins.... I see at least 3 Italian 500 lira coin from the 1960s - in absolutely nobody's twisted world are >100 year old, mass produced coins that were legal tender until 2002 a part of "heritage". It boils my blood more than anything that once the ancient coins were discovered, the officials just took everything, even the stuff that is OBVIOUSLY legal to own.

Reminds me of a story a few years ago where a guy got busted trying to cross from the US into Canada with like 2 binder pages of Indian and Afghani coins - ranging from a few low grade Kushan tetradrachms to mostly 18th century Mughal era rupees. They took them because "this looks like the kind of stuff that can't be obtained legally" and when the Afghani embassy declined to even take them, they instead decided to have a press release celebrating that they would be turned over to the local university to be "studied". Again, less than half of the confiscated coins were even treated as cultural heritage under the MOU.

The really interesting thing about coins from the 11th-16th century found in Japan is that Japan didn't officially even use money at the time. They did begin issuing their own coinage in ~700 AD, but that only lasted a couple centuries until the entire economy imploded on itself due to corruption and mismanagement. Coins were not produced officially past 958, and all previous issues were demonetized in 987, and Japan reverted to using measures of rice, silk, and gold dust as money. Policy regarding coinage ranged from actively criminalizing use to unofficially authorizing "bita-sen" or imitations of Chinese coins. Chinese coins were also imported for local use, as was the case with this hoard.

Coinage wasn't officially reintroduced until the end of the 16th century, at which time 4,000 of the new Kanei Tsuho cash coins (mon) were equal to 1 gold Ryo or 4 silver Bu. 1 Ryo was fixed at 1 koku (180 litres, or about 330 pounds) of rice - considered to be one adult male's rations for a full year. These coins were probably valued similarly, so this hoard was probably equivalent to the wages of one peasant for 25 years!

I'm honestly convinced that other than hard numismatic or archeological evidence, we shouldn't assume we know anything about Elagabalus. Cassius Dio was writing while Alexander was in power, so of course he's going to make it look like Elagabalus had it coming. The coins from the last few months of his reign reflect a time when he tried to flex his independence from Julia Maesa, and they reflect his religious sensibilities and his portrait as he saw himself, rather than the "good boy" iconography of the previous 3 years - doesn't look particularly feminine to me...

7 hours ago, KenDorney said:

Darn tootin.  Same coin.  I love it!

I got it in an eBay lot in late 2018 but sold it after a few months because I was more interested in two other coins from the lot and my wife was pretty ticked that I had spent $750 on myself right before Christmas 😉

Jamesicus ended up being the buyer but obviously he sold it before he passed a couple years back - did you buy it directly from him?

Finn's a cutie! When I was a kid I had a tuxedo kitty - she was ALL sass and knew that she ran the house.

Nice coins too - I'm particularly fond of that Divus Augustus sestertius 😉

Wonderful add!

I've been outbid on more Basiliscus solidii than I care to count - he may seem like just a blip on the radar, but it's an interesting thought - would the West have even fallen in 476 if not for the disruption and civil war in the East?

For now my only Basiliscus is one of those miserable bronzes - gotten as part of a group lot but still not a cheap coin!

Side note - I've always found it fascinating that his solidii don't inscribe his name as BASILISCVS, but rather bASILISCuS - as far as I can tell, this might be one of the earliest instances of the miniscule "b" and "u" instead of "v"?

It's difficult to pick just a few favorites when you have a couple thousand coins!

A handful of mine -

First up, a pair of dream coins that I dreamed of owning when I was a kid, well before I realized that they would actually be within my grasp someday.

Athens "Early mass" type AR tetradrachm, owl's head cocked slightly to right, but without the distinct tail feathers found on the Starr group tets. 450s BC

And the other most famous ancient - Alexander the Great. Lifetime tetradrachm from Tarsos, 327-323 BC. I purchased this one specifically for the portrait, and this was the first coin I ever broke the $500 barrier for

Next, a more obscure issue that I found unattributed in a job lot, and had a merry time hunting down. Kyme, Aiolis AR diobol or "trihemiobol". It is contemporaneous to the much more common hemiobols, but exceptionally rare. At the time I attributed it, it was unique, but I think 3 or 4 more have surfaced since. It is by far the best known specimen.

Moving on to Roman coins, in a similar vein I bought this coin of Lucius Caesar misattributed as Augustus and bought it before I realized that it was unpublished. Someone stole my thunder and published it on RPC Online before I had a chance to, but my coin is still the "plate coin" as the finest known:

https://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/1/5478A

Next, a more pedestrian Caracalla denarius of a very common type and struck with a very worn reverse die. The portraiture, however, is one of the best that I have seen on Roman coins of any era - the attention paid to the facial details makes the emperor seem so much more real and alive - sporting his trademark snarl

And finally, my avatar coin, an inexpensive proto-Gadhaiya that was my own personal tipping point that brought me down the Indo Sassanian rabbit hole - I'm still nowhere close to finding the bottom!

Series 1.3.1 is still my favorite for aesthetic reasons - it is charmingly simple but elegantly executed, and no two coins are ever quite alike. It is one of the few series for which I have never been able to find two die-linked coins.

Don't remember the auction house but I scored this one for just a few dollars in a mixed lot - don't think I'll ever top that. It's hideous but the price was right!

This tetradrachm (which I sold to finance some other purchase) I also had attributed to Cleopatra, RY 1. Doesn't look much like her though!

Incredible!

By blind luck I stumbled into one on ebay in a group lot back in 2018 - ugly as sin but nice + affordable isn't a possible combination when dealing with Tiberius' brother.

What did you get yours for? Cant say I ever recall seeing a denarius of his go for less than $1000. They are considerably rarer than the sestertii.

I keep having this problem. I see something, it catches my interest, and then $300 later I've jumped in with both feet.

I spotted a few lots of ancient rings that seemed to be selling for a very reasonable price, and well, here we are.

I'll start off with my favorite few and post more as I'm able. I am still very much new to this, so any tips or useful online resources are very much appreciated!

First up, a Greek or Roman intaglio ring depicting the bearded bust of a God left. Short beard makes me think this isn't Zeus/Jupiter, and lack of a modius rules out Serapis, so perhaps Asclepius?

Next, a Roman or Greek bronze ring engraved XAPI, "grace" or "charm"

A Byzantine monogram ring, KHTR?

A sadly broken ring engraved in Aramaic or Phoenician and possibly depicting a seated figure left?

Stay tuned for more!

One of my favorite sets to complete, easily doable in almost any denomination at any budget level!

My Good 5:

Or if you want to get a little wild, invite the whole family over for a party!

I need to do a do-over of that shot because I've added a few more titles since then!

There's no such thing as too many Trajan coins in a collection!

Posthumous issue?

It has fairly even wear and doesn't seem to be the work of a particularly skilled engraver, or struck in "holy crap this coin is 3D!" relief, which IMO is the only way I'd pay close to $1,000 for a Lysimachos tet.

Personally I'd say around $350-500 for it.

On 10/18/2023 at 12:21 PM, Ancient Coin Hunter said:

That's weird. I am thinking it might be a lead cast? In which case it would be a modern fake. Anyway, it would be interesting to do a metallurgical analysis on it. What is the weight?

4.17g on my scale. No sign of casting on the seam, plus the coin is double struck on the obverse. What do these typically weigh?

Sorry to hear it and many wishes for a speedy recovery!

I'm grateful that we have modern medicine as our savior!

Or I wonder if somebody tried to silver plate it at some point? 

Got this one in a recent lot and thought I had a silver coin until I realized that it's Sear 1761, an "AE" follis of Constantine VII

Byzantine is way outside of my wheelhouse - any insights into why this might be colored like this? Alloy cut with lead perhaps?

Despite only successfully participating in 2 of their auctions in the last 3 years, I still get the hardcover print catalogs sent to me. Only missing the very first one. They are an absolute pleasure to flip through and I can never seem to bring myself to toss them.

2 hours ago, Limes said:

I would not know what to do with some of this stuff. Are you supposed to actually sit on chairs, that sold for 6.2 million? Or do you place them somewhere, and look at them? Are will they get slabbed for safe keeping? 

https://www.christies.com/lot/lot-6439014?ldp_breadcrumb=back&intobjectid=6439014&from=salessummary&lid=1

I mean, I bet this thing is dishwasher safe. Just imagine how nice my PB&J and baby carrots would look on this

15 hours ago, JayAg47 said:

Reminds me of the coins from silk route or the early Islamic coins that had portraiture. 

Stylistically I can see parallels with Chach coinage, but it's far too small - I don't think I've ever seen any Central Asian AE under 16mm