Hrefn

An example of this issue was posted by @Prieure de Sion a few months ago.  I ran across this one at a local coin show and impulsively snapped it up. 

Description shamelessly cribbed from PdeS:  BRAUNSCHWEIG-LÜNEBURG, William or Henry the Long, 1195-1213-1227. Bracteate Lüneburg lion n. r., in front a cross, behind a globe, below lily with two leaves Berger 478 ff; Coll. Bonhoff 113 (under Otto the Child)

“Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.”  

                                                              Attributed to Sigmund Freud, (and if he didn’t say it, he should have.)  

When the sheen of crass commercialism wears off,  I believe there will be many modern commemoratives which will be deemed desirable.  Granted, there is a lot of dross, but there are also a few gems.  

I don’t hate slabs.  As a protection for modern coins with a mirror proof finish, they can serve a useful function.  But neither slabs, nor the grading criteria which they bring with them, belong in the field of ancient or medieval coins.  The grading criteria appropriate to modern mass-produced coins stamped out by machines, and variably hand-struck coins from hand-engraved dies, which circulate, are counter stamped,  buried in a pot for a millennium or two, cleaned to different degrees with differing levels of skill, then pass thru the hands and cabinets of collectors, sometimes for centuries - well, the standards applicable to one group do not fit the other very well.  

Slabs interfere with one of the pleasures of ancient coin collecting;  handling something held by a citizen of ancient Athens, a Roman legionary, a crusader, or a soldier of Tamerlane.  

And last, the slab is no guarantee of authenticity, nor is it always completely accurate.  So it can be relied upon for neither of these qualities.  And, you pay for the privilege of having your coins slabbed.  

Alas, where is all the plastic?  One of the coins even has a hole in it.  Obviously, my collection is just a bunch of useless junk.  

Manuel I, likely struck 1160-64.   On the left, Christ in glory clasping the Gospel.  On the right, Manuel with St. Theodore, a military saint martyred in the early 4th century.  Purchased from Solidus Numismatik, in Munich, Germany.  Christos anesti to all those celebrating Easter.  

@DonnaML if only there were not examples of similar ubiquitous scams.   Just yesterday I saw a 1964 Kennedy half dollar on sale on eBay for $10000.  In the past I have seen common UK 50 pence coins listed for hundreds of pounds.  Just yesterday, I received a telephone call from someone with a foreign accent who was concerned about my “television control box.”  I did not stay on the line long enough to find out the terms and object of the scam.  We all know of Mr. “High-price, Low-value” as I believe you christened him.  And the dealers who, while doing nothing illegal, buy nice coins, artfully photograph them, and list them for 5x what they paid for them.  

We have entered the territory of Muggeridge’s law.  Briefly, he said that parody was no longer possible, because no matter how absurd and ridiculous your parody was, you would shortly thereafter see it enacted in real life, “and probably by people well known.”

I love the idea that the above scheme is a clever parody, and it is even more delightful that I was inclined to take it seriously.  Truly, that’s  the mark of a very good hoax.  But like Mr. Muggeridge, I would not be surprised to see it in actuality.  

Now if you will excuse me, I have to go type up an eBay listing for this coin I’m selling.  It’s a half dollar that was actually in Elvis Presley’s pocket at the time that he died.  

Posts like this are an ornament to Numis Forums.  Kudos.  

Inanity, stupidity, and cupidity in one parcel.  The sellers have distilled the quintessence of immoral coin-dealership, all into one heavy-duty white fabric bag.  This achievement deserves a moment of silent contemplation.  

My latest purchase comes from N&N London.  It is a follis of Justinian I struck in regnal year XIII in the city of Antioch, which would correspond to AD 539/40.  This was the first year that Justinian’s post-reform folles were struck in Antioch.  The year after this coin was struck, Antioch would be attacked and depopulated by Persia.  When minting resumed, the mint mark would begin with a TH instead of a theta.  

At first I thought I had an unusual variant in the exergue’ s inscription, but now I believe the reverse is slightly double struck.  

This coin is huge, 40 mm in diameter, and weighs 22 grams.  

You can learn everything you wish to know about Antiochian folles at this website.

http://augustuscoins.com/ed/interesting/Justinian.html

@Deinomenid, thank you for raising the topic of Waugh’s Scoop.  I have never read it, and must remedy that deficiency. 

Outstanding coin and piece of history.  Kudos.  

The brilliant English novelist Evelyn Waugh used the name Guy Crouchback for the protagonist in his novel Men at Arms, the first book in his Sword of Honor trilogy about World War II.  It was a very conscious choice with a deliberate echo back to the time of the Crusades.  These books are some of the best novels I have ever read, and Waugh’s exposition of his principled and sympathetic hero’s collision with the post-Christian post-honor characters who comprise Crouchback’s co-belligerents, and who constitute the reality of the coming post-War world on both sides of the soon to descend Iron Curtain, is humorous, scathing and horrifying. 

For this trilogy, and his stand-alone novel Brideshead Revisited ,  Evelyn Waugh richly merited the Nobel Prize in Literature, but sadly did not win it.  But to read the Sword of Honor trilogy, is to gain a keen insight into the modern world.  

Apologies to @JeandAcre for hijacking the thread. 

All the following is my opinion only:  The style of the portraits, especially the Septimius Severus, are good.  They appear to be of the period.  This would not rule out a pressed die taken from a genuine coin, the product of which would be a struck fake and thus have no seam on the edge.  I would look closely at the small cracks on the edges of the flans.   Do they appear natural?  

The surfaces of the coins are oddly stippled, and the inscriptions are mushy.  Overall, I am somewhat skeptical as to their genuineness.  But I am very interested to hear the opinion of others on this board, who possess more expertise than I have with coins of this type.  

Alas, my rate of acquisition is so low that I never have six coins awaiting processing.  I have bought 16 coins this year, which is moving at a breakneck pace for me.  Only one is a solidus, though.  Most of the others are inexpensive casual additions to the collection, like this Constantine bronze which hammered for 9 euro.  

@DonnaML thank you for confirming my thoughts.  It is amazing to me how often the professionals make mistakes cataloging the coins they offer for sale, and those are just the mistakes I am able to spot as a semi-educated amateur.  How many more mistakes must pass before my eyes that I do not identify?  

Misattributed coins sometimes allow buyers to pick up coins which they might otherwise have difficulty affording.  I know that some imitative/Migration era coins which I was able to win at auction were incorrectly described as normal imperial issues.  This Theodosius II solidus is the most recent of these.  I suspect it would have attracted more bidders had it been labeled a proto-Germanic Migration Era solidus, and a speculative tribal attribution attached (Tervingi?  Pannonian Goths? Sarmatians? Hyperboreans? Who can say for sure?)  

Now, this anonymous coin has had its pedigree ennobled by its inclusion in the famous ***HREFN COLLECTION***   When the coffee table book sale catalog is published by Leu, this coin will be the cover illustration, recognized as unique, and command a price equivalent to a Mercedes SUV. / I know, probably not.  Just poking some fun at the commercial side of the hobby.  

I am not sure why I acquired this coin, except perhaps the crown on the seated figure on the reverse caught my eye.  The denomination was listed as billon 18mm, so I don’t know if I should call it a nummus, a follis, or what.  It came from Roma, and this is their photograph.  They attributed it to Constantinople mint, with seated Concordia on the reverse.  However, with the mural crown and her foot on the prow of a ship, this is certainly Miss Constantinople herself, no?  And is that an inverted spear she is holding?  And is SMN(gamma) a Constantinople mint signature?  I would have guessed Nicomedia - but I do not have any of the relevant references.  

Oh, but I do have the matching solidus, so at least I know this is Theodosius I, and not Theodosius II.  The mural crown is an uncommon variant amongst the solidi.  

It is commonly said one should buy the book before the coin, and there is good reason to do so.  But, if you are not sure about the area you will select in which to specialize, you really cannot follow this advice.   Many numismatic references are expensive, and the subsections of the numismatic universe they reference can be rather narrow.  You may find yourself owning some expensive books which do not correspond well to the collecting areas you eventually select.  

Buying the coin before the book can be a very rewarding strategy.  A new acquisition will inspire you to investigate the history behind the coin, the city or tribe, earlier and later issues of similar coinage.  You may find the coin, and the information you learn about the circumstances of its striking,  piques your interest in acquiring similar pieces.  Or coins of that tribe/city state/empire’s opponents.  Or imitations of your coin struck by different peoples or at different times.  

There is nothing wrong with having a core collection, with a smattering of unrelated coins.  In my own collection, about 60% of the space in my trays is occupied by coins in my primary area of concentration.   The remainder is comprised of coins which are either peripherally related, or even completely unrelated.  Some of these coins are solitary examples.  My avatar is my only Celtic gold coin, for example.  I have a single Parthian drachm, a single Eraviscan denarius, 3 Roman Republic denarii, one Mughal mohur, one Kushan gold stater, and one silver stater from Gortyna.  It is unlikely that I will be adding to my collection in any of these areas.  

Nevertheless, each of these “non-core” coins has brought me considerable enjoyment.  I don’t regret buying any of them (even the expensive ones).  One quality they tend to share is that they are outstanding examples of their types. 

Sometimes, an impulsive purchase of an unfamiliar coin can form the nidus of a new interest, and subcollection.  This happened to me with Carolingian coins.  An unexpected auction win has lead to a small subcollection of about 12 coins, and I am actively adding to this.  I have also purchased the relevant books, which is imperative once you have mentally committed to collecting a certain genre of coins.  

So my advice would be to avoid premature specialization.  Buy what appeals to you.  Your specialization will probably evolve naturally, and your acquisition of references can follow. 

My last bit of advice is to buy the best coins of the type you can afford within your collecting budget.  If a coin is worth buying, it is worth buying an excellent example.   Exceptions to this rule exist, as sometimes the history associated with the coin, or the scarcity of it, will amply justify purchase of a worn or even damaged coin.  But as a rule of thumb, buy the best you can.  You will probably derive more enjoyment from choice coins, and you will find it easier to sell them should you decide to do so.  

I do not hold myself as any sort of expert on bronzes, but this appears extensively tooled to me. The vertically oriented parallel lines which sweep across the obverse and reverse are very bothersome.  Perhaps this could be termed normal cleaning but I find it distracting. 

Those look more like a shield boss than a coin.  @Prieure de Sion, does that really only weigh 0.64 grams?

Lion and Sun-face challenge accepted. 

Seljuks of Rum, Ghiyath al-Din Kay Khusraw II AR Dirham. Siwas mint, unclear date, AH 639(?).  Lion advancing to right, crescent and three stars around; personification of sun above / Name and title in four lines; mint and date in outer margins. Album 1218; cf. Broome 272, type D(ii). 3.00g, 22mm, 5h.

Paired above left with an Armenian Takvorin of Levon III 1301-07 AD.   I cannot help but think the Armenian lion was inspired by the Seljuk coin.  

Lastly an uncommon Seljuk coin which just happens to have the most spectacular toning.  Kilij Arslan IV, Sivas mint.  Previously posted.

Several fascinating features on this coin.  The old ticket says it was the only coin of the group with facial features.  The archer has clear stirrups.  The arrow has a crescentic head, and he is holding two more arrows in his right hand as he draws, a hallmark of rapid shooting.   The crescentic arrows may have been for bringing down birds on the wing, thus a subtle boast of the archer’s expertise.  

Kilij  Arslan IV was strangled in 1265 AD at the instigation of Pervane, a powerful Persian noble who had facilitated Qilij Arslan’s rise to power, but subsequently feared he might turn against Pervane.  

Sivas, formerly Sebasteia or Sebaste, was the home of 40 legionary soldiers martyred by Licinius in 320 AD, and the site of martyrdom for Saint Blasius. It was also the first major city in Asia Minor plundered and its inhabitants slaughtered by the Seljuks in 1059 AD, before the battle of Manzikert where Romanus IV   Was defeated in 1071 AD.   Later, with Iconium, the city served as a Seljuk capitol. 

Citing the Caliph al-Mustasim, who was soon killed by the Mongols in 1258 AD.  

This is an absolutely beautiful Class 2 denier of Louis the Pious (Louis le Pieux ou le Debonnaire) which I just purchased from CGB.  CGB did an excellent job with shipping and this package soared through customs for some reason, with no delay whatever.  I placed the order on 5 March and the coin is in hand on 9 March.  No auction commission, no bank fees, no fee for credit card use, no excessive shipping cost (18 euro from Paris to the USA).   I could hardly be more pleased.  

This coin is Depeyrot 177, with 157 examples known to him.  The mint is Bourges in central France, and it was struck between AD 819-822.  

 The Commodus portrait is highly reminiscent of his father Marcus Aurelius.  And the Probus is outstanding with, in my opinion, a very desirable reverse type.  Of course, I am not German.  Great coins. 

I think I have a few.  I believe most if not all have been posted before, so like @DonnaML I will keep the descriptions brief.  By the way, nice coins, Donna.  

  I have posted these in four groups with four coins in each group.  The coins were not moved, just flipped over for the reverse photos.  So in each group of four, the upper right obverse is paired with the upper right reverse, etc.   They are not in perfect chronological order, nor are my photography skills very praiseworthy;  for both these things I apologize.  

1 Valens of Treveri

2 Valentinian II of Mediolanum

3 Arcadius of Mediolanum

4 Arcadius   Same

5 Theodosius the Great of Constantinople  Unusually for the CONCORDIA reverse on the solidi, Constantinopolis wears a mural crown.

6 Gratian of Treveri

7  Theodosius II   Constantinople 

8  Theodosius II   Same

9 Theodosius II  Constantinople 

10 Theodosius II  Constantinople

11  Theodosius II from Thessalonica

12. Valentinian III from Ravenna 

13  Theodosius II  Constantinople

14  Theodosius II from Thessalonica

15  Theodosius II  imitative (Germanic?)

16  Valentinian III  Visigothic (compare with #12)

 Here is another denier of Charles the Bald, this time from the city of Beauvais.  

The obverse features the CAROLUS monogram with the first letter clearly a C and not a K, and with +BELGEVAGUS CIVI around.

The reverse shows a cross in a beaded circle, surrounded by CAROLUS REX FRAN.

This coin is Depeyrot 136, MG 1375.  Thirty examples were known to Depeyrot, and another 30 with the variant reading CAROLUS REX FRA.  These coins are thought to be lifetime issues by metallurgic analysis.  The designation of the mint as BELGEVAGUS CIVI recalls the name of the local tribe, the Belgae.   Many years earlier Caesar had written  “the greater part of the Belgae were sprung, from the Germans, and that having crossed the Rhine at an early period, they had settled there, on account of the fertility of the country, and had driven out the Gauls who inhabited those regions.”  He also said the Belgae were the fiercest of the inhabitants of Gaul.