Finn235

Hi all, Got this one in a large lot, and figured I'd share - I can't seem to find a good match for this one anywhere Obv: IMP C D[IOCL] ETIANVS AVG, Radiate, helmeted, draped, (and cuirassed?) Bust right, holding spear and shield Rev: FIDES M-ILITVM, Fides standing left with two standards, no exergue Tried on Wildwinds, ACSearch, etc - no matches to this bust type anywhere. Any ideas on this one?

Tesorillo is IMO the superior website for attributing late bronzes (ca 317-476 AD): https://www.tesorillo.com/aes/home.htm Admittedly, it does fail to mention rarity and has no actual images, which can be difficult to assess especially for the very late AE4s where style and fabric is most important, e.g. Honorius AE4 versus Johannes or Valentinian III. I also love the .xls spreadsheets at the bottom of this page - definitely more of a specialist tool, but I often use them when trying to nail down an esoteric variety of late 3rd century antoninianus or follis https://www.romancoin.info/

Depends very much on what part of my collection I'm building. My Roman coins are mostly $150-200 coins for the Julio-Claudians, $100-150 coins for the Flavians and Nerva-Antonines, $50-100 for the Severans through crisis years, $25-50 for the tetrarchs, and $25ish for the late empire. The various rare emperors are of course more expensive. It gives a decently consistent visual appeal throughout: For Indo-Sassanian, $20 is usually the upper limit, and I rarely go over that except for the most important, unusual, or aesthetic examples. The most I've ever paid is about $75-150 for a few exceptional and important specimens of the early types and $250 for an ex-Spengler Gadhaiya of Somalladevi Otherwise, I rarely spend more than $10 per coin, which is good considering that I have close to 2,000 of them!

I... I think it might be!

Fantastic coin at an even better price! I was the underbidder on this one 😉 It was a great deal - Salome played an incredibly important role in world history, as some historians believe that it was the death of John the Baptist that pushed many of his followers over to the ministry of Jesus, which may or may not have provided enough numbers for that little religion to reach the tipping point and snowball into the #1 most followed religion in the world today.

Me every few months 1) I'm swearing off of auctions! It's time to get caught up on imaging/organizing my collection! 2) *new hoard drops* 3)

For more or less arbitrary reasons, I opted to extend my Roman collection to extend through Justinian, although I will sometimes keep later Byzantine emperors that come my way or that I feel I can get a good deal on. Like some of the others mentioned, Byzantine politics just failed to excite in the same way that those of ancient Rome did. I suspect when I'm feeling the squeeze and down to only the $3,000+ usurpers for my Roman set, I may eventually find the urge to continue as close to Constantine XI as possible. I managed to get most of my Byzantine gold for what was then peanuts above melt (prior to COVID, now it'd be a little under melt) Zeno Anastasius I really loved the style on this Justin - it's like the engravers at Thessalonika didn't get the memo that they were in the dark ages and it wasn't the 380s anymore! Justinian Phocas Constantine IV And a nice anonymous follis for good measure

I really need to go through my binders, boxes, and bags of world coins - I have more world coins than any other type (except US cents and nickels) but I only have my Japanese collection fully imaged. So as requested: an eclectic assortment arranged by how they are in my "to sort" folder. USSR 50 Kopek / Poltinnik - detestable state, but you have to admit that Soviet propaganda art at least is interesting and inspiring Belgium 5 francs 1862 - Best coin I got in a CNG large lot of the same Genoese communities at Kaffa, Filippo Maria Visconti, Duke of Milan, for circulation in Crimea, AR Asper, 1435-1447 Jersey, 1/13 shilling 1870, part of my "odd & unusual denominations" collection; Jersey went through a period of transition in which the penny-sized coin was 13 to the shilling, instead of 12 to the shilling. 179(5?) Liberty Cap cent I found in a mixed world lot; my oldest US coin French Polynesia aluminum 5 francs 1977 - I just love these French territory types, especially the huge aluminum ones German Weimar notgeld, Frankenthal 50 pfennig 1919 - My favorite from a large lot bought from Savoca a few years ago. Better artwork than most actual countries used on their coinage!

IMO, Probus was the last hurrah of truly talented engraving in the Roman Empire- there were some other appealing or creative types (Maxentius comes to mind) but Probus employed some real talent. I have a few examples with one of each major bust style in my collection: "Regular" radiate bust This was my "main" (most attractive overall) Probus when my binder held exactly one coin of each title for each emperor This one is fully silvered and lustrous in hand I just liked the captive reverse on this one Martial bust type - this is my favorite in terms of style, particularly the eyes and helmet detail! Consular bust This one has a particularly nice facing quadriga style with everything in more or less "proper" perspective, plus the hole + wear made it basically unsellable. And the obligatory Alexandria tet

I've gotten so sick of people shouting at ancient newbies "Don't buy on ebay! Buy only from Vcoins / MA Shops!" Honestly, I'd rather get burned spending $25 on a fake worth $0 than spent $500 on a $100 coin because I don't know the market.

Swap the Claudius cistophor for an As and you're well under budget - that one coin was at least 30% of the total cost of the set. An As like this probably wouldn't cost much more than $100 at auction I remember over at CT we had a thread where we put together a virtual "cheapest Twelve Caesars ever" set - and IIRC we were able to complete the whole thing for under $200. It's possible, but takes an exorbitant amount of time, and even more luck.

From my experience, the Twelve Caesars are only expensive if you get stuck on a straight denarius run. This is my current set, which I have admittedly been adding/upgrading since 2017, but has cost me less than $3,000 all in Otho is the rarest of the twelve in an absolute sense, although Julius Caesar is very tough to find a portrait coin of for reasonable money. There are cheap options for every emperor, mostly by going provincial especially for Caesar, Nero, and Otho.

Glad you like it Paul! And your photos are much better than mine! For now, this is the only permanent Julianus in my collection

I'm also going with quinarius on this one

With regards to relief, my understanding was that it's a matter of hot striking versus cold striking - we know that the ancients heated their coins in a furnace to soften the flans- but still the drive to make something like this as money is just mind-boggling

I haven't seen much of it yet, but it might be a good idea to have: 1) A sticky with helpful links to attribute unidentified coins (Wildwinds, Tesorillo, Asiaminorcoins, ACsearch, CNG Research, RPC Online, among others) 2) Below that, maybe we could think-tank a guide to the ~25-50 most commonly encountered coins (and commonly encountered fakes) so that in the future the board doesn't get inundated with "PLS HALP ID" threads when it's just another fallen horseman or sunday school widow's mite replica.

Glad you liked it Paul! I got a few more in that lot which I admittedly haven't researched as much as you did! I love how especially scathing this one is - MY Experiment MY currency MY Glory MY substitute for the US Bank / PERISH CREDIT PERISH COMMERCE, MY Victory MY Third Heat DOWN WITH THE BANK And people say 21st century US politics are brutal! The "Third Heat" has been interpreted either as his third run for office, the fears that he would seek a third term as president (taboo, but not illegal in the 1830s), or the fact that he had fired two Secretaries of the Treasury for disagreeing with him The last one is from Van Buren's tenure - modern economists mostly blame Jackson's over-zealous policies for making the Panic of 1837 inevitable, but at the time, Van Buren took most of the blame as people called him less decisive and slower to act than Jackson.

Back on topic 🙂 I need to image my Chinese coins; the Wu Zhu I believe is the longest-ever frozen design at about 700 years, with the Ban Liang and Kai Yuan also being up there at about 200 and 300 years (being lazy and not looking up exact dates) Other frozen designs - The Gupta successor state, the Maitraka dynasty at Vallabhi first flexed its muscles of independence in ~475 under Bhatarka, and lasted in Gujarat until 776. All Maitraka coins were minted in the name of Bhatarka, although I don't think anyone knows whether they were minted until the dynasty collapsed. They are at any rate the last of the "Indo Greek" drachm that was first introduced under Apollodotus I Early Intermediate? Late? Similarly, I haven't heard this expressed directly, but the coinage of Gupta king Kumaragupta is IMO far too numerous and too varied to all be lifetime issues.

Well, this just happens to be my wheelhouse. I'll try not to get too carried away 😉 Sassanian Shah Peroz I is perhaps best known for losing not one, not two, but three wars while trying to put his Hephthalite Hun "vassals" in their place in the 470s-480s AD. The first two losses ended with him needing to ransom first himself and then his son Kavadh from captivity - both times required multiple "ox carts" full of drachms, probably on the order of 3-5 million coins. An unadulterated Peroz I This influx of coin established his coinage as the de facto "good coin" of the Silk Road for at least a couple centuries, first as the original coins (this one carries multiple Soghdian countermarks, clearly applied after decades of circulation) As the original tribute payment became lost or too worn for use, the Hephthalites made their own imitations, denoted by the addition of four pellets to the obverse Later, more crude style "North Tokharistan" fabric, plastered with countermarks Then, sometime in the 6th century, the design was adopted by an unknown polity in India, where it lasted until at least the end of the 13th century. Initial, early nondescript Peroz imitation from India (Series 0) - Note the lack of pellets; these were imitated directly from official Peroz drachms These branched out into 3 distinct "tracks" Track 1 - The Gadhaiya Paisa (Anepigraphic, attendants quickly schematics, weight and purity maintained the longest) Also the "Malwa" types - branching off toward the end of Track 1 and outlasting it perhaps a century Then Track 2 - Branching off early in the series, it replaces the korymbos with the letter "Sa" and then adds the 2-letter legend Sri X, perhaps outlining an as of yet unidentified dynasty. The attendants are preserved with dot dresses all the way until the very end Early type with Sa Intermediate type, flower instead of legend Sri VA Sri Ha (makes up about 80% of all individual coins in this track) Then a parallel series, back to Sri VA Sri Te Sri Da Ma Finally, Track 3, attributed tentatively to the Imperial Pratihara dynasty - These branched out from early in Track 2, but place Sri above the crown. The evolution is extremely difficult to work out. Sri MA Kalasha (flower pot) in front of bust Sri Ja? Sri Vi Sri Vigra Srima Adivaraha, minted by Mihira Bhoja I, 836 - 885, preserving the base of the fire altar and attendants from Sri Vi type Posthumous type His grandson, Vinayakapala, 954-5

Nice coins! Decius' story is a tragedy - I feel that had he been born in better times, he would have gone down as one of the all-time greats. I have a partial Decius denomination set, minus that pesky double sestertius Antoninianus Sestertius Dupondius As Semis And the rest of the family Herennia Etruscilla Herennius Etruscus Hostilian (Caesar) Then shortly after dad and bro died, as Augustus

If I'm not mistaken, the Honorius with the RM mintmark always has a plural reverse legend, i.e. AVGG or AVGGG - the legend on mine ends -VG which I think only leaves Val III and some crazy rare dudes (like Libius Severus) as possibilities - Occam's Razor - it is almost always the more common emperor.

Hate to say it, but I don't think any of those are genuine. They look too debased, I've never seen ones with scratches on the dies, nor the jagged look of the top two. I have a handful in my collection; I'll try to see if I can get images

Very nice! I don't enjoy the iconography nearly as much as the earlier empire, but the handful of incredible rarities hiding in the AE4s have always captivated me. I don't own any Val III cross types (that I know of) but at one point I kept any cross AE4 that I came across - it's just a really neat type! My favorite is a Theodosius II from Antioch The type was also imitated by the Vandal king Hilderic This one ends in -REX making the attribution unambiguous There's a little uncertainty with this one, but the wreath style is Vandal (It's worth noting that Hilderic's mother was Eudocia, daughter of Valentinian III and granddaughter of Theodosius II, hence why he felt compelled to issue a type that had been out of production for nearly a century!) Just for fun, I also collect barbarous imitations of the type These two opted to replace the cross with a swastika! For Valentinian III, my "main" coin of his is a tremissis, actually minted by Theodosius II Followed by this very scarce AE4 with a dative legend - DN VALENTINIANO, reverse too garbled to read Back in my LRB lot hunting days, I always saved ambiguous types that I struggled to identify, "just in case". Most of them were of course Honorius, but I got lucky on a couple DN PL- cinches this one As does the RM mintmark on this one These aren't 100% identifiable IMO but Val III is a top contender And, since it was brought up, "Avitus" (also bought in a large lot, so not like I paid big bucks)

Very nice! Tacitus is one of those emperors who isn't tough to find, but it is tough to find a nice one. My current "main" Tacitus: Also came across these two and decided not to sell them for peanuts Sadly, I haven't found one that really "captures" Tacitus - he was a seasoned politician who was well into his 70s, but all I'm seeing is a neckbeard in his 30s...