Pellinore

Double portrait 5687-II. AE Chach (Tashkent, Soghdia = Silk Road), ca. 600-800. Obv. Double portrait: queen left, king right. Rev. tamgha 5 without cross. 20 mm, 2.20 gr. Shagalov & Kuznetsov group 5, type 1, nr 2: nr. 183-185.

(Nice music, David!) An attractive compact denomination, is the Alexandrian diobol. Here's my Domitian followed by Vespasian, that is in fact my most recent acquisition: 3157. AE diobol Domitian AD 81-96. Dated LE 5=AD 85/6. Obv. Laureated bust r. Rev. Large bull t.r. with date LE. 21 mm, 6.63 gr. Emmett 279.2. 3171. Alexandria, AE diobol Vespasian. Year ENATOY = 9 (=76/77). Obv. Laureate head right of Vespasian r. AYTOK KAIΣAΡOΣ OYEΣΠAΣIANOY. Rev. Draped bust of Alexandria right, wearing elephant skin. ΣEBAΣTOY L ENAT all in a circle. 23 mm, 7.64 gr. Emmett 215.9.

I have been an enthusiastic member of the ONS for years. Every year I'm visiting the annual conference in Leiden. The website used to be old-fashioned, but now I see there's something changed. Going to study!

Very interesting, this hot and changing history of medieval Spain. I recently bought this little gold coin of Islamic Toledo. 7405. AV ¼ dinar, Dhu’l Nunid of Toledo: Sharaf al-Dawla Yahya I, 1043-1075, NM, ND. 14 mm, 1.05 gr. Album 396, Prieto-335, VyE-1110, ruler cited only as al-Ma'mun in the obverse center, part of kalima on the reverse.

Link: Marcus Aurelius AR barbarous imitation of a denarius of Marcus Aurelius. Obv. Bust to the right with NAVI-NAIINIV. Rev. standing figure with some legible but misspelled letters IVIV VANANVAV. 18 mm, 2.80 gr. Cf. Sergeev 203.

What an endearing thread. Well, I avoid saying anything about me collecting coins to 'outsiders'. I would never go to the Facebook group. But I'm a member of a coin club in my place and I have a few coin friends there. I wish there were more and I'd like I could swap. Sometimes even my outsider friends are mildly interested and we have a little talk, that 's nice. Often, coins are near to me because I'm identifying or cleaning 'em. Most of my coins are in trays, some in boxes, but I look at them from time to time. I love to look over a tray with (for instance) 48 coins of the same type, like silver dirhams, barbarous imitations, Artuqid pictorial bronzes or LRB. What I like about them is the beautiful style, fine design and calligraphy, (or the fun and absurdity of them), the historic significance and what one can learn from them about history, the early roots of one's own country or civilisation, the vivification of how people lived 1500 years ago. I have a 'coin room' where nobody else ever comes, it's at the top of the house with a fine view of my city. It is filled with boxes of stuff, broken lamps, empty suitcases and other useful rubbish and with quite a lot of recent reference books. There I have a large desk strewn with coins I'm busy identifying or photographing. A few large coins that are too wide for my trays I keep in a glass case in the living room and I'm oftens looking at them rejoicing. Enjoying my coins a lot and reading and writing about them on forums (about four different forums for different coins and various detailing). I'm less interested in valuable museum pieces or value in auctions. Though always thinking about my heirs and what they can do with my coins when I'm dead, to get something back from the nice sum I spent on numismatics these last ten years. Do you have a suggestion? But the most important thing about them is, trying to understand my coins and enjoying their beauty or historical interest.

That’s what I think too. It also explains the damage above the head: it’s where a hanger has been broken off. The coin is either a bracteate or medal aligned. Coins like this are often gold or gilt to imitate a solidus.

Two Anastasius portraits: 3529. Byzantine Empire, Anastasius, Follis, undated but 512-517. Mint Constantinopel, officina B. Obv. Laureate bust r. DNANASTA/ SIVSPPAVG. Rev. Large M under a cross and between two stars, B between ‘legs’, CON in exergue. 38 mm, 17.77 gr. 3536. Byzantine Empire, Anastasius, Follis 498-518, post-reform small module. Mint Constantinople. Obv. Laureate bust r. DNANASTA/ SIVSPPAVG. Rev. Large M under a cross, CON in exergue. 21.5 mm, 10.40 gr. Gepid/ Ostrogothic imitations of Anastasius. See the interesting article annex catalogue The "Sirmium group". About the so-called Gepids siliquae. With a specific catalogue. – 2nd corrected and much extended edition by Alain Gennari on Academia. AR partial siliquae, Gepids = Ostrogoths, Sirmium 508-528. Broken (as often). Resp. cf. #103 and #43 in the catalogue of Gennari.

Thanks very much, so Arcadius it is. The page of the Augustuscoins website is most useful.

Thanks for all your comments. Grimulfr asked for the Stephen page. Here it is. I'm happy to fulfill requests for other pages, as long as I have the book (I'm a bookseller, it will go its way sometime).

Beside collecting coins I'm a lover of old books, and an old book about coins is often very special. I found a nice and unusual book about early British coinage, published in 1756. As a book it is unusual because of its beautifully crafted, finely engraved title page. The main content is the thirteen engraved plates showing hundreds of coins with descriptions. Coins of the British kings between William the Conqueror and Henry VIII, with a remarkable supplement of sceattas from a hoard found at the Isle of Thanet in the easternmost part of Kent (now just an appendix of the duchy of Kent, the straits that separated have been silted up centuries ago). The owner of the hoard "hopes that it may be a means of discovering by Whom, in what Age, or part of Europe they were minted". Apparently in that time the origin of sceattas was not known. The above three pictures are fragments of the supplemental plate in the book, 'Nummi Argentei' or just 'Silver Coins'. I found a review mentioning this item in a numismatic journal, then sketching the history of sceatta studies in the course of the last few centuries.

Excellent work, that schedule looks good, though you won't see much of me, except until around half June. And after mid-September we can carry on with the Holy Roman Empire (don't have any of those Emperors, either). Here's another larger AE of Leo, the reverse is rather bad and I think the obverse text might have been tooled. Still, this is a Salus or Virtus type, isn't it? 2852. AE20 Leo I (457-474), Constantinopolis. Obv. Draped, diademed and cuirassed bust r. Rev. Leo standing right, holding labarum and globe, left foot on captive. 20 mm, 4.60 gr.

Great write-up indeed, even subtly mentioning the posture of the elephants' trunks! I have this, a bit misty as concerns the emperor, but the elephants are emerging clearly. Though the divine libation from the cantharos also recedes into the mists of times. 3287. Nicaea in Bithynia. Gallienus (253-268). AE22. Obv: ΠOV ΛI ЄΓ ΓAΛΛIHNOC. Radiate, draped and cuirassed bust right. Rev: NIKAIЄΩN. Dionysos seated left on quadriga of elephants, pouring a libation from a cantharus. 22.5 mm, 6.57 gr. RG 836; SNG von Aulock 724-5; BMC 154.

I know, but reading a text that's longer than a few lines is very uncomfortable if you have to keep peering through your iphone camera. For a catalogue entry, a title page or a few lines it's o.k. I tried to translate an Ottoman coin, but it didn't really work.

Though much interested in the bronze coins of early Islam (but more so in Arab-Sasanians), I have only one standing caliph fals, that I bought because of the detailed dress. 5997. AE fals Umayyads, Arab-Byzantine Standing Caliph Type. Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan 685-705. Halab (Aleppo) mint, prob. 693-697. 21 mm, 2.46 gr. Album 3529 (p. 37), SICA I, 615-625. Cf. Zeno 171166.

I do have a coin that I bought as Verina's, but it is unappetizing to say the least, and doesn't carry a flattering portrait of this empress. A l RIC 714 like the one of @Lrbguy, but even smaller. 2854. AE4 nummus. Leo I (457-474) & Verina. Obv: Pearl-diademed, draped, and cuirassed bust right. Rev.: Verina standing facing, holding globus cruciger and sceptre. 8 mm, 1.02 gr. RIC X 714; LRBC 2272; DOC 583; MIRB 30; Sear 21436.

Link: Caduceus 2563. Tacitus 275-276, Antoninianus Siscia. IMP C M CLA TACITVS AVG, Radiate cuirassed bust right/ FELICITAS S-AECVLI, Felicitas standing left, sacrificing from patera over altar, and holding caduceus. Officina V. 21.91 mm, 3.90 gr.

Link: hand (not two but one) 2104. Claudius 41-54, Quadrans, mint Rome. Obv. TI CLAVDIVS CAESAR AVG around spidery hand holding scales/ PNR in field. Rev. PON M TR P IMP COS DES IT around large S.C. RIC 85. 15.5 mm, 1.77 gr.

Love the siliqua (and the Martian!). Here are my two coins of this relatively happy reign, even fondly called a 'golden age' by Byzantine historians. 2853. AE Marcianus (450-457), Nicomedia?. Obv. Draped, diademed and cuirassed bust. (D N) MARCIANO P F A. Rev. Imperial monogram in wreath, under something (star?), NICO? in exergue. F. 12 mm, 0.93 gr. RIC 543-5. Wildwinds: monogram 2. AE Marcianus (450-457), Constantinopolis. Obv. Draped, diademed and cuirassed bust. D N MARCIANVS P F AVG. Rev. Imperial monogram in wreath, under cross, CON in exergue. EF. 12 mm, 0.87 gr. RIC 543-5. Wildwinds: monogram 1.

I don't recognize the portrait, but the text might very well be DN ARC.

In the course of the years, a dozen of these very small Roman coins after 400 AD accumulated themselves in my coin shelves. No recognizable names... how can I ever find out the names of the emperors? There's this one for instance. Looks like an elderly emperor, and on the reverse he's meeting a dainty Victory. I can read only 'DN', Our Lord, not very useful. 13 mm, 1.78 gr.

Here's my Theodosius II, that I think is a very handsome coin. I wish I had its match of the West, too. 2856. AE2 Theodosius II (402-450). Minted in or for Chersonesos (Krim). Obv. Helmeted and cuirassed bust to the right, armed with a spear. THEODO-SIVS Rev. The two emperors Valentinian III of the West and Theodosius II of the east holding a long cross between them. [CONCOR-DIA AVG/ CON] but no text visible. 22.5 mm, 4.17 gr. Sear V 21184. Byz. Chersonesos Augustuscoins ES 1.

Link: Postumus. What a great depiction of the Rhine with horns on his head. What would it mean for the Gallo-Romans of the time of Postumus: a river god, horns, life-stream symbols, carrying an urn? Anyway, this is another Postumus with a local god, Hercules Deusoniensis. The last part of the name is variously interpreted, often chauvinistic Dutch, but we can only say 'Nobody Knows'. Postumus 259-268, AR antoninianus. Obv. Bust t.r. Rev. Coarse Hercules figure. HERC DEVSONIENSI. 19 mm, 3.52 gr.

Eagle standing, wings spread 3307. AR tetradrachm Philippus I, Seleucis & Pieria, Antioch, 247. Obv. Radiated, draped and cuirassed bust right, seen from behind. … IOVΛI ΦIΛIΠΠOC CEB. Rev. Eagle standing right, wings spread, holding wreath in beak. ΔHMAPX EΞOYCIAC YΠATO Γ / ANTIOXIA S C in two lines. 26.5 mm, 11.61 gr. Prieur 375 (this coin – 42 pieces). From the Michel Prieur Collection. Ex Rauch 41 (6 June 1988), lot 979. McAlee 922. CNG e-auction 439, nr. 342. March 2019. Plate coin of Prieur. Fine provincial 2019.

Link: the wolf! (who-hoooo! American memories) 1018. AR obol, about 331 BC. Lycaonia, Laranda. Obv. Baal with palm branch and bunch of grapes sitting on a chair. Rev. Protome of a wolf under a crescent.