dougsmit

My similar coin is listed as Baalat-Hera (RPC 3577). I am of the opinion that many coins show local deities which are identified with the big names. Catalogers have to provide an answer. Whether that answer matches the intent of the issuer, I am less certain. Similarly, I have some trouble accepting the idea of two of the same god side by side and would look for a local deity to be shown with Artemis. I have no answer for this but how many identical side by side duplicates can you name? For that matter, at the moment, I can only think of one where the same people are shown twice on a coin but in different poses. There must be many that now escape my mind (increasingly easy to do these days).

I always look forward to seeing this one again. It is a coin that needs to be in the care of someone who recognizes that it is special in a way that outranks superficial beauty and high letter grade. This thread asked for a favorite coin. It is most interesting to see what it is that leads each of us to make that selection. This is one with which I totally agree. That is 'some coin'.

If bull includes bucranium, I can add the less often seen option for Caracalla as Caesar where a bucranium was included in the priestly implements reverse.

I have trouble keeping up on what was posted before and know most of my bulls would be duplicates. Has anyone shown the Caligula sestertius honoring the new temple for Augustus? Mine could be more clear on the bull but high grade examples of this are not cheap. There is this Alexandrian bull on a diobol of Domitian but it is not as great as Steve's holey Pius which explains why I bought it. Can you see a trace of the crescent on the Domitian?

I was wrong. I was looking for the chariot obverse use with the reverse of 703. Those little screened images are not all that great by today's standards. Thanks.

I believe Hadrianopolis is the best guess from what I see but I would not be surprised to be proven wrong.

I have never become all that skilled at IDing coins missing critical legends like this one. In addition to filling in the legends missing, it would help to compare styles of the cities and see if there is help there. Sorry.

I greatly enjoy the tiny ones and would love to have more that I could convince myself were intentionally under 0.1g when made but most of mine are probably reduced by chipping. My lightest coin is hard to measure with cheap balances and in rooms with drafts but is around .05g. but I am sure it weighed more before the obvious surface exfoliation. At least it is round on the edges so was not broken with a piece missing. It is hard to tell whether the ragged edge ones were struck on ragged flans or if they broke later. Syracuse, Sicily, Tyrant Gelon, hexas (1/6 litra or 1/300th of the popular dekadrachm), 485-478 BC, .05g?

Do you by any chance have an image of Boehringer 702?

These Kroton triobols with Pegasus are particularly interesting to me because of the never mentioned matter of the resemblance to coins of Corinth even including the Q under the Pegasus in many cases. I would appreciate knowing what has been published on these. They might seem to be a coin of alliance. Are we to take that solo Q to mean Kroton rather than Corinth?

This might be a good place to mention that there are similar looking coins that are not from Viminacium. This Volusian is from the Province of Dacia and has an eagle and lion. The year 5 date shows that a different system of reckoning the year was in place there.

My earliest Viminacium is Gordian III of city year 2. Latest are city year 12 from most of the then current rulers.

Several of the people listed above as usurpers had every bit as much claim to legitimate rule as some of the 'real' emperors but history is written by the victors and their fans. Didius Julianus is called an emperor because he bought it from people with big knives. This caused three legions to revolt and put their leaders into the purple. In the end, revolting general Septimius Severus prevailed and history backdates his rule to when the revolt started. Pescennius Niger and Clodius Albinus were in the same situation but located farther from Rome so usurper Septimius won the race to make the Senate an offer they can not refuse. I have too many Septimius coins to show but loser Pescennius is below.

I'm less certain regarding the intent here being Vipsania, Livilla or the old standard Livia but I suspect by the time Titus issued this REST, no one cared. I prefer Livilla because calling her Pietas was about as political as you can get.

There are two kinds of people on coins. First are the ones where we like the most attractive portrait; second are the ones where we value the worst. Vespasian and Nerva lead this second group. Eastern mints seemed particularly good at making Vespasian look bad.

Mine is rough on the reverse and right facing but I was young(er) and foolish in 1987 and bought it anyway (for $21 which was plenty high then).

Prices on these are way too high considering how common the type is. It is a lot like the Tiberius Tribute Penny with demand from non-collectors. Mine was sold by Frank Robinson in 1991 and again (to me) in 2013 for $19 less than the 1991 realization. Demand for low end, worn coins has not gone up at the rate of the high grade stuff. I broke a rule buying a common but pricy type paying double what the more scarce but not 'Biblical' reverses bring.

I am glad to find someone else who cares about what you call 'towel' left and right. We might mention that both sides is scarce for Rome mint denarii but common on bronzes and gold. It is also the norm on all the Eastern mints. I made these groups for that other site. It shows many of the variations (and about a quarter of my coins). East My favorites are the bottom two rows of the East picture.

The Vagi History volume is excellent. I believe he shot himself in the foot making the Coinage volume more different than people could accept. He lumped most of the common coin together and listed separately prices for types that were rarely seen so people were turned off not finding the coins they owned so much of the time. I see how the idea had merit but I also see how it was an idea that did not sell all that well. $120 is reasonable for a set that is often split up and sold separately for more. My review https://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/book.html#vagi

More of the same old Pax types- centering was not a strong point then. HILARITAS AVGGG for Maximianus Finally this Pax was sold to me as London but the mintmark area suffers from having been overstruck on a Victorinus Salus. Can you confirm the London ID? What is the single stroke between the G of AVG and the head of Salus.

When you pay NGC for their opinion you are agreeing to their standards. They define letter grades as only wear and 90% obverse. If you want strike or surfaces to enter into the mix, you have to pay extra but if you want them to ignore the elephant in the room and just get a meaningless grade on those bargain slabs, nooooo problem. That takes us to the wise words here recently posted by If you really want to open a can of worms, set yourself up as a third party grader but use a desirability scale when you would down-value an AU example where most are seen MS and give high praise to a holed and scratched coin that might be the best available for decades. Neither of my Philip II Antioch tets are all that great but for different reasons. The one as Caesar has almost no wear but shows the ugly truth that the teen had severe acne. (---or is it localized roughness on the portrait?) A cheap slab might get AU but paying extra to get at best a 2/5 for surface would not seem smart. That bit of red remaining suggests someone (not me) removed some blotchy patina and was not happy what was underneath. I'll never know but some of you younger people might see this coin again after I'm gone but with a little tooling on the face making it quite a lot better looking --- unless you get caught. The lefty Augustus has rather little wear as well because the detail loss is from a flat strike which did not erase the texture of the cast planchet. If you were grading this coin would you prefer to admire the full legend and decent detail but downgrade it for wear (broken laurel wreath means Fine).

I'm not sure which offends me more: 1. The whole idea that we need to collect in sets 2. Defining a set with a value judgement like 'good' - There were very few Roman emperors who could not be convicted of high crimes and misdemeanors using current standards. Who were the five bad emperors - or is it the dirty dozen? 3. The idea that we need to approve of the personality or actions of someone to find them interesting. I can listen to music by drug addled hotel trashing serial polygamists without any problem at all but that does not mean I want to be like them. 4. Adding Domitian, deleting Nerva and ignoring the wishy washy Lucius Verus For the record, I am not immune to the set concept because I have hung around some of you too long. I do not have a Provincial coin of Nerva, Pertinax or Pescennius. I also lack a fourree or either Caligula or Galba for my my 12 Cheaters set. Suggestion: the xx (fill in number) rulers who 'meant well' or 'should have been sterilized so Rome would be spared their kid'. What would be the count for emperors who were actually benefitted Rome and civilization in a significant manner? I included here not only Verus but also that not at all good Commodus who really was part of the dynasty in a completely serious manner. Should we blame Vespasian for Domitian, Aurelius for Commodus, Septimius for Caracalla???

I appreciate the minority who use their name but understand some reasons not to do so. When I got my first email address, the provider only allowed 8 letters and dougsmith got chopped of its last letter. Later on, when they changed that rule, another Doug Smith got there first and took the h. During the heyday of my web pages, he regretted that because people kept sending him coin questions meant for me. If your name is relatively common, it can be fun to Google yourself and see how many villains use your name. Doug Smith number one today is a retire hockey player most noted for having excessive penalty minutes. I'm amazed that, today, I am half way down on page six of 80 million hits. I know there are not THAT many of us. I have only personally known two others. I should be glad my parents selected a relatively uncommon first name. John Smith returns 1.7 billion results.

I have to object to using the term anepigraphic for a coin that had legends as part of the design but that lost those legends to corrosion. Many/most of these have lost the Hebrew letters on the star side. Losing the Greek legend on the anchor side takes longer. When looking for one of these we consider several features which separate the usual mites from better ones. Some people call the star a wheel so I prefer coins that show ties on the wreath that surrounds the star. These were made by the billions and millions survive in every degree of condition. I made up the numbers in the preceding line but I don't think they exaggerate much. Has any expert published a guesstimate for mintage/survival?

Sear calls this a trihemiobol but I bought it as a 1/8 stater and two dots is probably the denomination but I know nothing including what the fellow is doing. Ask him? When I bought it, the city was given as Lete but that is a matter of opinion more than fact as is the way this whole series rolls. 0.78g. This was also sold to me as a trihemiobol or 1/8 stater but weighs 1.0g. I'd be more likely to call it a diobol but I used to think I knew more about these than I think I do now. Don't ask him questions that you don't want to hear the answer. In 1991, this was considered a 'rough' coin but now it is more a 'delicate' subject.