dougsmit

What you are missing here is that these are the Greek numerals for one through ten. In that series S is six; I is ten. Greek numerals used the archaic Greek alphabet but they went to nine before starting again with ten, twenty, thirty....... That meant you don't add in columns the way we do. S was an archaic letter dropped from the Greek alphabet long before this coin but retained as a numeral. My favorite is the number nine coin which avoided the unlucky numeral theta (alone by itself suggested death) by adding delta four to epsilon 5. The series of the two common varieties includes a couple error coins so you need more than just the ten each of two types. There are quite a few interesting sidelights on these if you read all the links.

I know nothing but believe all are Philip I. I had the foresight to buy mine in 1993 from Fred Shore and avoid the rush caused by this thread. I hope everyone appreciates the rarity not of the coin but of the perspective drawing on it. There are rather few ancients with good perspective.

In another century, I would expect there to be more known about what we now call unofficial. A hundred years ago, the Alexandrian denarii were not recognized as a separate mint and few coins were known. We won't see it but we should not assume that everything is now known. Who knows what further study and further finds will bring to light. Were all of these unofficial or, perhaps, small, short term mints, perhaps travelling, set up to provide coinage for some specific purpose in some place not easily supplied from Rome or the other now recognized mints? Those of you who think they know all the answers are behind those who realize that studying these things is an ongoing and neverending task.

How many different dated reverses are known for Julia? I only have this one BONI EVENTVS IICOS. The next question would be whether the entire supply of all of the different types would fit in one hand. I never trust population counts. One known too often turns into a dozen. Collectors and museums who never correspond with anyone exist in numbers not easy to count. For Julia, at present, I only am only aware of two coins I own that I have yet to see another reported. They share an obverse die but have different reverse spellings (unless you say that B and R are just the same in different fonts). I wonder how many like them are out there hiding in unpublished collections. Mine came three years apart from two different sellers so there is no way of knowing if they were hoarded together or part of a larger group of similar coins. Another impossible question: If we had completely accurate counts of all the existing Eastern mint Domna coins, how many of them would be one of a kind or one of a small handful (10 or so?)? How many exist in as many as 100? The old saying is that there is nothing more common than a rare ancient coin.

The coin that started this thread is a very nice portrait from a mid period of the Rome mint. My favorite coins of hers are from the early years including those from the Eastern mints. There is a great variation in portrait quality from all of the periods and some earlier coins almost look older than the later coins when you would expect her to look older. I have no good explanation other than some die cutters were more skilled. Alexandria denarius "Emesa" denarius (later period) "Laodicea" Rome early Rome middle period Rome later Don't overlook bronze coins. This sestertius is from my favorite portrait die for Julia but I never found a high grade example from this die. I probably could not have afforded it anyway. Of course there are provincials including my favorites, Alexandria (tetradrachms) Early (year 2) Later (year 20 during the very short period after Septimius died but before Geta was killed) Of course there are hundreds of other Provincial cities (you will not get them all). This is Antioch in Pisidia. One might develop a large collection of nothing but Domna coins. If you run out of officially issued coins, there are always the barbarous options.

I agree with this. Obols are larger than many of my favorites. I also question using the Athenian denomination names for cities that probably would not have used them. One of my favorites is the Sybaris. Mine is 0.25g and has four dots which may or may not designate a denomination. Usually from this region each dot indicates 1/12 litra so I choose to call mine a 4/12 which might be called a trias. Unfortunately most of these tiny bulls fail to show all the dots or give weight information so studying them is hard. When CNG sold this in sale 303, lot 2 for $180 + extras in 2013, they called it an obol with which I disagree greatly. I bought it from Frank Robinson for a great deal less in 2020 (I have no idea who owned it in between or too the loss). If I am correct that this is 1/3, the whole litra would be about 0.75 which seems right. What is the weight of the one here? Is it a full obol weight? Does the location of its one dot outside the letters mean it is one whole? The more I learn about coins, the less I believe I know. If anyone else here has a fraction from Sybaris, I would love to see it. UPDATE: After failing to sell in two previous auctions, Roma https://www.numisbids.com/n.php?p=lot&sid=3309&lot=77 sold mine for 45GBP. Obviously there is a lot of disagreement on whether this coin is treasure or trash.

I have seen a very high grade die duplicate to my poor example. The reverse would suggest this was a very early die for COS II (assuming those strokes are II).

How many different dies with this COS--II break are there? I don't have the VICT AVG with it.

As a fan of Alexandria, I regret that I never got a Decius but I do have a Herrenia tetradrachm. My worst Alexandrian tetradrachm may quite possibly also be the one with the best portrait. Before bronze disease ate half of it, it could have been quite a coin and very rare. It is still rare.

I'm sorry that book did not come out while I was still actively buying coins. The fact remains that there are a great number of very rare coins from this period and a relatively small number of coins that are very, very common. I only have the common ones. Double sestertii are common in lower grades but most we see are not pretty. To me, the best and worst looking are those overstruck on earlier coins. This was a sestertius of Antoninus Pius.

Another that is a favorite of mine: You would think that a reverse naming the issuer would be unique but.... Pescennius Niger was called IVSTVS (the Just) and issued the type VICTOR IVST AVG. The type was copied by his adversary Septimius Severus letter for letter. I suspect someone at the mint got in trouble for this one since it suggested that the eventual victor was the Just one and that was the other guy. Shortly after that the IVST was replaced by similar coins reading VICTOR SEVER AVG. This one was unique to Septimius. I would like to know whether this change came before or after the death of Pescennius and the settling of just who was Victor (just or not). I also would like to know what happened at the mint when they discovered this 'situation'. Did heads roll?

Four? I still have 28 Rome mint denarii including two sets of die duplicates of the clashed die reverses. There are also 3 AE of the type and 10 of Eastern mints (a post for another time) plus one with Septimius obverse. The group shot illustrates the clashes and variations separating whether the drapery flows down on the right, left or both sides. This one is barbarous and not as pretty as the first.... ....but my worst is also the most rare (I have seen one other) with obverse legend split IVLIADOM NAAVG. Yes, I like this very common type and all coins of Domna. When I started my web page in 1997 there was already a page online dedicated to Domna but it disappeared years ago. That was before the Internet was of much interest to dealers who now provide most of what is online.

Since this thread has continued and with apologies to the most people here who have seen them over and over again. I only have so many coins worth showing so they continue to come up. Since I am no longer buying coins, this will not get better. My 'best' double strike is the Magnentius which was first a brockage (one normal and one incuse reverse) then flipped over and struck again with the same die pair. I would love to see other examples of this 'situation'. My 'best' overstrike is this as of Gordian III overstruck 7-800 years later by a Byzantine Anonymous follis. Again, I would love to see other examples showing great time between strikes. On my 'bucket list' is to find a proper home for these two coins when I have passed. That is not sold to the highest bidder.

I see this as a doublestrike on the reverse where the coin never left the obverse die but the reverse die 'bounced' up and came down in a slightly different orientation.

FF02, my friend, I hate to tell you but I fear you are reaching the point where you will be finding fewer people more knowledgeable than you in every respect. Many really big name dealers are experts in buying and selling but may be a bit weak in things like the difference between doublestruck and overstruck. I spent quite a bit of time in the 1990's teaching my betters how to separate the mints in the Eastern Severans but they were vastly more knowledgeable than I in big silver, any gold and how to sell a $100 coin for $500 and make someone think they got a bargain. In case there is anyone here not clear on the matter, I copy here the section from my grading page 'Conditions of Manufacture'. In 1997, I felt the hobby would be better off if more people knew the standard terms for what they were seeing on coins. Today, there seems to be more important problems in the hobby but it still is easier to communicate if a language is shared. VG Double Struck Constantius II centenionalis When a flan shifted between blows of the hammer, doubling resulted. Minor doubling is undesirable but extreme examples are collected as mint errors. F Overstruck Heraclius follis Some coins were struck on older issues often leaving legible parts of the undertype. VG Flipover doublestrike Claudius II antoninianus Pax rx. Even normal ancient coins show variety that would be considered errors on modern coins but sometimes this can be of an extreme nature. These coins were struck twice flipping over between the two strikes. F Flipover doublestrike Septimius Severus denarius Mars rx. F Brockage Septimius Severus denarius If a coin stuck in the reverse die, the next coin struck would show an incuse, reversed design of the obverse F Clashed dies Julia Domna denarius Venus rx. Dies struck without a blank between could damage a die leaving a incuse design along with the normal for the rest of the life of that die. https://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/grade2.html