hotwheelsearl

As I understand, most sestertii were minted in orichalcum, a sort of golden-colored bronze alloy. When fresh, these coins would have shone bright gold, not unlike the "golden" dollars of the US since 2000. Most sestertii after 2,000 years have a variety of patina, coloration, or deposits that obscure the original striking color. It is unusual to find one with anything close to its original color. I have this sestertius of Trajan, which started off with encrustations and oxidation out the wazoo. After a gauntlet of chemical treatments, I revealed the original, shiny, brassy color. I would absolutely love to see your coins that retain their original coloration!

Love the obverse, reverse die was beat to death.

Don't worry, they still could in the modern age. This coin is neat because the phoenix is of the nearly exact same type as the one on the mount. Coincidence?

One of my faves from Mediolanum. This guy has a jawline that could break rocks. Nice little splats of malachite on the portrait too. The Victoria reverse is also somewhat unusual.

Unlike D, who retired to farm cabbages. What a dude.

Would be nice to know what makes these coins fake. The first one has obvious casting bubbles. I'm not sure what you're trying to show with the gold coin, though.

I dunno. details and coloring look sort of characteristic.

I don't think it's a fake. Provincials were often somewhat rounder than their imperial counterparts. Not sure why, though. Many provincials also have that eponymous centration dimple, presumed to assist in making a more round flan. I have a couple provincials (smaller than yours) of Commodus which are amazingly round. Gotta fish out some pictures next week.

No expert but that suuuuure looks like it should be in the "paduans and electrotypes" category. There's no way that's even a contemporary imitation. Looks like a gift shop piece.

I just take pics on a white piece of paper, crop, and then use the iPhone's native "vignette" feature to make the entire background a rather pure white. Usually works pretty well. A bit of coronal fall-off due to the macro lens attachment I use, but overall a good, very simple and fast method. The problem is with larger coins is that you usually end up with a little halo around the coin, though.

@Julius Germanicus, have you ever thought about making some instructions and selling these as kits? I know many folks who would easily pay high dollars for these!

Something I believe is rather overlooked in all of these threads is the possibility of a simple spelling error. Take Volusian, the Roman capital tended to spell it VOLVSIANO, but out in the provinces, you get things as garbled as CALVSSIANO, or even GALVSSIANO, using a greek Gamma for the G. In a thread somewhere, someone showed a rather fine style barbarous aureus of Septimius Severus, except the inscription read, "SAAVESTRA." Additionally, someone in some thread argued rather convincingly that SPONSIANI can easily be a bungled attempt at GORDIANVS PIVS. Since nobody is talking about the usurber Saavestra, or the client king Galusian, the very simplest, and most likely explanation is that the illiterate celator tried his best to imitate a standard spelling, and, like many of his kind, failed to do so.

I used to grade papers during class, so in addition to not paying attention, I'd also not grade very accurately. Multitasking is awful

A bunch of emperors found home.

Amazing! Sure looks like a temporary, plant swag. So neat, and amazing attention to detail on your part!

Gorgeous. What is the purpose of the chain across the archway?

I have this rather lovely coin. It once was heavily encrusted, and a few hours in NaOH cleaned it right up!

A crummy example.

Considering how it takes me a solid year to find a current year US coin in circulation, I’m not surprised it’s tough to find Chas

Sodium thiosulfate is basically a miracle juice for this sort of thing.

This year I participated in two exchanges, so I'll post them separately. The first one I received featured these two really lovely coins. First up is this awesome Trajan silver drachm of Bostra, Arabia. This one is really neat because it is one of the few coins that actually features a camel, albeit a tiny one. I actually once bought one where the camel was described as "gato" - cat! Next is a cool Antiochan issue of Philip I. Antioch is known for their popular standards reverse, with "SR" on the standard. I forget what SR means. Antioch is also well known for some of the worst spelling mistakes in the Ancient world. Seems like all those celators were not only illiterate, but incapable of copying off a template. Volusian is one of the worst offenders. This one is really good though, standard spellings, and nothing garbled. It does have a strange obverse text, with only "A" instead of "AVG" after "PHILIPPVS." Curious. Many thanks, secret friend!

My second gift exchange was from someone who obviously followed my posts (back when I was still making them...) and included a note to the effect that I would appreciate the opportunity to identify the two coins included, as they were not attributed upon receipt. Awesome, I love that opportunity! First is this beautiful, large bronze in a miraculous state of preservation. I love this type of coin - just enough "honest wear" to make it meaningful, but not enough that anything is obliterated. I first looked at the obverse, which is a lovely confronted, of which I only have a few. I love these! I saw the Greek letter phi, which indicated Philip I, or II. The bust looked rather young, so it must have been Jr. Then on the reverse, the "TOV" indicated that it must have been from Tomis. Interestingly, the die seemed to be grease filled, or something, as the subsequent letter "T" dropped off. All that brought me to Moushmov 2320: Philip II confronted with Serapis, with Asclepios on the reverse. And here is a glamor shot of Aesclepious! Next is this, which is a Judean prutah minted under Nero. I don't know much about these, but my best guess is it's by the procurator Porcius Festus. This coin is in great condition, and definitely beats my other example out of the water. Thanks for the fun and beautiful gifts!

well, considering you can sell old, not debased US coins as silver, but much more than face. A silver dime should sell for 10x+ face value as bullion.

This monster was about 23.5 if i remember correctly

my dad was a youth at the time, but his father and the rest of his family really didn't care; in addition, they weren't wealthy enough to save even spare change, so it was just another day in the life for them