dougsmit

Yes I have bought from Satan before, too, but I'm not proud of it. I see patronizing the wrong kind of seller the reason that we have so many fewer of the 'right' kind today. After all, why should dealers train competent people and provide full service when it pays better to take the other road. When I was first interested in the hobby I benefitted greatly from help received from some fine gentlemen who took time to answer my questions and explain to me why I needed to have questions rather than just spending my quarters in their shops. (Beginner coins were cheaper then.) Later, we could go to shows and trade education with gentlemen who valued their long term reputations. We had bad actors but those were the tables we passed by. I never had enough money to buy everything so it never bothered me that I could not afford a WRL at four digits. The hobby is what you make it. Be proud.

Since this thread has been revived to show unofficial or odd SA coins, I'll tack on mine. The reverse is the previously shown confusion of Liberalitas with legend reading Libertas AVG. The obverse die seems fine but the cutter ran out of room after ALEXAND. Next was a feeble attempt of an A under the bust but no sign of the VG. Is this Antioch or just another Eastern city possibly with the same name? ex. Jonathan Kern, 1993 (aka the good old days) Like 'em big? Ae 33 of Antioch (the one in Pisidia). I see the big bad wolf but we seem to be missing one of the little pigs. Now the test. Is anyone paying attention? This one also ran out of room after the D, crammed in the E and put the R under the bust with no sign of the AVG. I wonder if there might have been some other emperors who would not have looked kindly on leaving out Augustus. Two different Antioch using the same sign of disrespect or just accidents? We will never know.

What it is that drives those of you to patronize experts who would list this is beyond my understanding. Heritage? Was it slabbed? Please tell me it was not. We all make mistakes but WRL is pretty bad.

While toning is always a plus, what I like about Ancient Joe's coin is the snake tail is on the flan. I find it odd that the slab company can say all those nice things about coins with one of the animals missing. Mine is not as nice in several ways including graffiti initials on both sides (phi) and crowded flan on both major animals but it is the variation with distinctive snake features. It was fortunate that the mint made so many thousands of variations on the popular themes so we each can select the one that speaks to us. Coin collecting is not a binary subject but one where there are as many right answers as the are coins. The AJ coin is 'fine style'. Mine is only special in regard to the snake. If I sent it in to be slabbed, I would hope for a grade of "Fine 3/5 1/5 - Fine Snake".

Mine came in 1992 from a local coin store in Alexandria VA before I really had interest in Byzantines but thought the patina was pretty.

There are many more than two. No one is forcing anyone to post on more than one if that bothers them. My 'best' Volusian is the finest portrait of him that I have seen from Alexandria. Of course you have to ignore the bronze disease scars which makes the coin uncollectable to most tastes. I almost did not buy the sestertius because of the surfaces. I never had a better one but it is a common coin so finding one should not be hard. The common and slightly worn Pax antoninianus is more my kind of coin. What do you consider the meaning of the star? Also note the dative legend on this and other Volusian coins.

One other is why the style is so different from the right facing ones. Geta is not the obvious choice for a victory coin. The left matter is probably number one. Is that a lazy S following the KAI? Is it overstruck or a clash with a different reverse type? Is the cut find damage or ancient. The one below came with it but is relatively boring. On the other hand isn't a flaming alter interesting for a kid?

This brings me to my prime opinion against 'one per ruler' collecting. Most personalities in the Roman series have more than one 'look' either due to mint, age or some other factor. I like coins that were significant in history for some reason so I am little motivated to cry because I will never own some of the great rarities from people no one even then knew much about. I will never have a Silbannicus. I'm less inclined to have the women of Trajan's family that the empresses who were known to play a role in history (Maesa, Severina). To me a collection needs several coins of the big names before spending the big money on rare guys. Is that why I have over 100 coins of Septimius Severus for each one of Pescennius Niger? No, I'm addicted to Septimius and used to buy any I saw that I did not have. It does explain why my only Gordian is number III. Geta comes in three ages and two mints. There are also Provincials and coins in various metals. I could see having a dozen of his coins before I started to worry about being obsessed. It is a hopeless hobby. I bought two more Geta coins last week and, yes, 'obsessed' is probably a fair comment. We each will collect in our own way. Below is one of my two new Geta coins. I had to have it for a reason only a few will understand and was willing to overlook that terrible cut on the reverse. Which do you see first: the cut or the left facing portrait? Every time I look at it, I see something else that makes me wonder. I like coins with questions.

That explains it. I would suggest using the standard order as used in sales catalogs and standard references which generally keeps families together with a wife following her husband and the children following her. When there were other relatives (brothers, grandmother) they had to be slipped in where it made the most sense. The order by death date causes some odd pairings like Caracalla's wife being next to his brother but not next to him. Of course there are imes where one person might appear twice as wife of one emperor and mother of the next (Julia Domna) or daughter of one and wife of the next (Faustina II) so decisions have to be made. The easy way would be to pick one of your major coin suppliers (like CNG) and follow the order they use. It gets worse when you get into later rulers with more than one Augustus, more than one Caesar, wives, former wives and nephews so following a standard order is better. My favorite period is that of Septimius Severus who was one of the five so called emperors of 193 AD but is usually listed last of the five because he was the one who won and lasted longest leaving power to his family. Commodus died on the last night of 192 AD (therefore is not counted in the five). The next morning, Pertinax became emperor only to be killed by the Praetorians and replaced by Didius Julianus who issued coins for his wife and daughter. This so outraged the Roman world that three generals volunteered to avenge Pertinax we usually place Pescennius Niger first and, interestingly Clodius Albinus second. Albinus accepted a deal with Severus to be his junior Caesar but comes first in the list even though it places his coins before his boss. He later broke off and issued coins as Augustus but that was a year later so one of the emperors of 193 has no coins as emperor (Augustus) that year. Therefore, the five do seem to be listed in order of death. Is this is not confusing enough? I'd suggest a Severan list like this: Pertinax Didius Julianus Pescennius Niger Clodius Albinus Septimius Severus Julia Domna Caracalla (eldest son and first to be named co-Augustus) Plautilla (wife of Caracalla but not to his liking) Geta (second sone named co-Augustus later but killed by his brother) Then we stick in Macrinus and his son Diadumenian who were not related but it just works better if we call them Severans, too. Then we move onto the child Elagabalus who owed his position to his grandmother Julia Maesa but her coins follow those of the wives (three girls but one was wed to him twice so became #2 and #4) and his mother Julia Soaemias who get listed before her mother Julia Maesa (the real power on the scene). Next we have a second grandson Severus Alexander followed by one wife and one mother who outlived Julia Maesa (her mother) to take over the last position in the dynasty list. This is not the only confusing period in the list but you have to allow for the system encouraging anyone who had a bunch of soldiers to say he was emperor and dare others to prove him wrong. Anyone not confused by the situation simply is not paying attention. At least in the Severan period we have some written histories from that day but later what we know is partly from written histories generations after the events and evidence like coins. Fortunately (or not) the guys known only from coins are mostly rare enough few of us will ever own one. Pictures: Pertinax Didius Julianus: Pescennius Niger: Clodius Albinus as Augustus: Septimius Severus: Julia Domna: Caracalla: Plautilla: Geta: You will notice that my coins are not as nice as yours. Finding these exact coins as a MS perfect set will take a while. Happy hunting. You have a really nice start to a collection.

Very nice group but the obvious question is why you chose to display them in an order other than standard. I see you included some Caesars that never were Augusti so I included them in my body count of 114 (and holding - all the cheap ones are gone). There comes a point where most collectors stop caring about adding people who are expensive and did nothing in history and develop a desire to have more than one coin of other people (your favorites). My last 'new face' was a Marius in 2013 which I only bought because it was cheap for a Marius. Since then, all my new people have been not Roman Imperials (Republican, Greek, Byzantine, Eastern etc.).

My guess, and just a guess, is that smoothing of the obverse field around the nose contributed to the 'look'. Whether that included some die irregularity or not, I do not know. I do believe that a die break is possible around a nose. Valentinian II seems yo have a larger 'beak' here. Also, we need to be certain that our current beliefs in what makes a nose attractive were in force at the time. My denarius suggests someone at the mint thought Faustina had plenty.

We all look for different things in coins. I prefer this series to have countermarks and more active poses between the wrestlers. My favorite has a very ordinary pose with the two holding arms but it has an excellent strike of the bull countermark labeled Luy (Aramaic for Ba'al). The countermark shows a line across the bull from the border of dots of the main design. Doe this detract or add technical interest? The second has a slightly more active pose with one wrestler grabbing the belt of the other. It rather looks like one is being punched in the stomach. It has two countermarks, a rather ordinary triskles and a decent Janiform head. I do not have one where one wrestler is trying to trip the other with outstretched leg. They tend to sell over my price point. Most people only seem to care for condition and countermarks do tend flatten detail on the opposite side. There is also the matter of centering. Neither of mine score very high in that respect.

I 'resemble' that remark. I'm not beat up. I'm just as good as I was the day I stopped being a Flavian as and was tooled into a Fake Alexandrian tetradrachm. My legends are clear and my face is strong (if a bit like Titus?).😁 BTW, I came with a NGC label from a failed attempt by a previous owner to have me slabbed. Those guys must get a chuckle out of some of the things people send in.

Rare does not mean expensive. Ugly outranks rare any day. I paid $10 for this Alexandria mint Septimius Severus denarius with INVICTO IMP reverse in 1994. It was listed in Roger Bickford-Smith's pamphlet on Eastern Severans and he said it was the one of my coins he really wanted. I was considering giving it to him when he died so the British Museum did not get it. The type is common from 'Emesa' but not otherwise known from Alexandria. Big dealers don't want $10 coins. I will give it to someone someday or take it with me. 😜

While we were shown the Caracalla denarius, the sestertii are more scarce. They come in two versions according to the number of tiers on the reverse pyre. Four is the less common. I have seen two. I wish I had bought the other one when it was offered on eBay years ago but I was too cheap. Mine is a bronze disease survivor. Banti 12 showed a drawing of one from Valliant but no photo or hint of the current location of the coin listed.

Yes but a significant portion of the population defines 'good' as what can be sold for a 'good' profit. People with excess money and no desire for learning do not care and we can take some comfort in the fact that most of the jewelry pieces are fakes rather than real coins. When it comes to gold, it is even hard to disparage using real coins since many were saved from the melting pot buy being used in jewelry. Most coin shops today have turned into venues for turning antique gold into new bricks. Perhaps some of the real coins used in this way will resurface as coins when the granddaughters of the people who bought these decide that they are so out of style they should be sold for melt. The rest will be melted. Such is, has been and will be the fate of gold 'things' for all time. My only Roman gold coin shows marks from the 4 prong mount that saved it from the pot once upon a time. I got it years ago for very little over 'melt'. Today it is worth no more than 'melt' but 'melt' has changed. If I were to want to market it, I would suggest that it was once the possession of Attila the Hun (omitting the part of the weight of it and its brothers paid in tribute in 443 AD partly explaining why these are so common). My regret is there is no apple on a coin of Theodosius II. Perhaps we could tool one from the globus crucifer and sell it to a well healed history buff? Some of us collect coins because they are shiny and pretty. Others appreciate the way they encourage us to learn about some people of the past every bit as stupid as some we know today. Theodosius became emperor as a small child. From there it seemed to go downhill. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodosius_II Did you read the story of the apple in the above link? We are told that John Malalas means John the orator so it is only coincidence that the Greek word for apple is suspiciously close to his name. I am a great believer in the theory that there is no 'truth' in history but only a study of what people believed to be true (most often because someone else told them it was true). Maybe in the end we all are entitled to our own facts rather than just our opinions? Can I hold my coin and choose to believe it once belonged to Attila, Johnny Appleseed or a beautiful girl who really should have bit into that apple? Stupid? I have heard worse. On this page??? Does this mean I need a coin of Eudocia or Pulcheria? Anyone know where I can get one for 'melt'??? 🤪 (The preceding emogee applies for everything I wrote and everything I might have thought of writing except that I really do believe that line about history being a study of what people believe to be true rather than what is actually true. I was introduced to that concept by something written by Mary Beard but can not be sure if she actually meant what I believe to be what she meant to say. 🤪🤪)

That seems reasonable from what I see. Should I be bothered that all the coins I see of this moneyer are the other denominations? Thank you very much.

At the show, I was given a coin that I recognized as bearing a countermark ligate IMP from the dupondius series naming a member of the III VIR colleges. These are usually pretty bad looking and this is no exception but I thought I should be able to decipher it from the remaining letters. My first guess was Sanguinius but I am doubting that now. These seem to vary a lot in weight. this is 8.97g. Help/comments appreciated.

Thank you. I was really misreading that date missing the bottom of the S and seeing the tail as a second C.

I went to a local coin show not intending to buy anything but mostly to see old friends but a few low end coins did follow me home. This one was selected from a pick out pot at least partly because I could not ID it straight off. I have not really had time to work on it yet but I must be reading something incorrectly since a search on acsearch failed to find it. Suggestions appreciated. The coin is a rather oval AE19x22 and has a light green patina spoiled by a couple chips. I am seeing the obverse as Hera and the reverse with a bull charging left. Under the bull I read what I consider a date ΒΞC (262). Above is BC over ΓCC but any C could be a rounded E with weak center. As usual, I'm not all that happy with my first image but it gives the idea but does not represent the glossy surfaces as well as I hope to do later.

This AE blanca was issued by Ferdinand and Isabella who financed the voyage but, I believe I recall reading somewhere, these were issued after 1492 so none would have been on board.

The obvious place is the standard reference book Roman Imperial Coinage (RIC) volume VII but searching for sale of similar coins might provide information. What do you hope to learn about the coin? The text portion of RIC is more full of information than the catalog of types but there is a lot to be gained by seeing the patterns of what changed between issues, etc.

Axum has some very nice gold and silver coins but my favorites are the small denomination issues where the full weight of gold is born on a bronze coin. Most of these coins are in pretty bad shape but we do see them with gold intact. This .4g is cataloged as Kaleb and successors 520-540 AD. Junker? Yes but it has intact gold. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaleb_of_Axum

While a sharper photo might help, given the possibilities from the known cataloged options, my best guess, and only a guess, is ASIS (first workshop from Siscia) for Constantine II Caesar. An expert in the series might see something in the style that I miss (this is not my specialty by any means). Someone who has handled 10,000 coins of this type has a great advantage over those who have 10.

The coin and most of the ones he has on eBay strike me as terrible examples shown in poor photos making it had to say whether they are real or not. However, real or fake makes no difference to me here. I see nothing there that I would consider worth the postage let alone cost of the coin. We each must decide just how bad is too bad to consider. I have coins in my collection that are this bad but they tend to be very rare, something in my specialty or date back when I was new enough that I did not know better. Today many people will only have mint state coins and I am not one but ask yourself if you really want this level or would pay a bit more for one just a bit prettier. Overall I believe his ID's seem correct. The Nero Janus is a special favorite of mine. This one if far from high grade but appealed to me with the temple facing left.