lordmarcovan

What this thread needs is a good cat picture to offset the doom & gloom. This is Lily (orange) and Elvis (B&W). They’re the two “Daddy’s cats”. Most of the other critters gravitate to Ladymarcovan, but these two have adopted me. Are you more of a dog person? Fine, here are Lucy (Australian shepherd) and Grace (dachshund). (We have four dogs and twelve cats.)

Enter on: https://www.cointalk.com/threads/lordm-giveaway-108-pick-your-prize.409738/ Obviously, since the giveaway is hosted on another site, you'll need CoinTalk credentials to post an entry over there, but if you are unable to do so for whatever reason, you may post here and I will post an entry for you over there. Just let me know what your prize selection is (either by posting on CoinTalk or here). To pick your prize: Here is a direct link to the prize gallery. https://www.colleconline.com/en/collection-items/21292/coins-giveaway-gallery If you would prefer a more valuable prize, you may opt instead for a $50 discount voucher towards anything in my For Sale gallery. (Free US shipping included.) Obviously, if you chose this option, you would owe me any remaining balance left after your $50 discount is applied. https://www.colleconline.com/en/collection-items/10029/coins-for-sale

ArtDeco on Cointalk won the drawing and selected the Indian gold fanam. I will get another giveaway up soon. Happy New Year!

I have one from the Harptree Hoard myself. Mine is a bit darker than yours. I like the look of yours a little better, since it has hints of iridescence.

That's all the more amazing! 😲

A Judaea Capta! Wow! That one looks easily as nice if not slightly nicer than the one I had in my old Twelve Caesars collection, for which I paid somewhere in the mid-$200s, as I recall. That’s a sweet Saturnalia gift!

@LONGINUS - you consistently find the greatest old paintings to use in these presentations! I can only recall owning two coins of Commodus, neither of which was particularly impressive. The first was this denarius from my old 2007 novice collection. (The images, alas, were created with a flatbed scanner.) The second was this cheap sestertius: low grade, but appealing enough for a $10 coin.

See? Cheer up! It’s a good thing in this particular case! Unless they keep going and become charcoal grey or black, I think you’ve got nothing to worry about.

In this case, I say no. To the contrary, I think they’re attractive. Unless they go really dark grey or black, I wouldn’t be concerned. In those pictures, I see what looks like the initial stages of “cabinet toning”, which I consider a good thing most of the time. Here is a coin of mine with cabinet toning. I like it better this way than I would if the coin was bright white.

Joe, if I had some influence on you, I’m amazed to hear it, since your collection is one I have aspired to emulate (as far as my budget allows). Your keen eye for beautiful coins is second to none. If anyone asked me which coin from someone else’s collection I’d most like to have, my answer would likely be your Vespasian aureus with the purplish toning from the Boscoreale hoard. That thing blows me away, and your collection is an absolute joy to behold. I’ve long said, “I want to be like @AncientJoe when I grow up!” I also haven’t forgotten the generous gift of your time, back when you used to help me with those Photoshop templates for coin backgrounds. Those “shadowbox” templates really look amazing, and they lend your collection a sense of depth and gravitas. As you’ve seen in the examples above, I’ve since adopted a simpler grey gradient background template of my own that I’m able to duplicate without begging for help from others. But I still think your “shadowbox” templates look better.

‘Tisn’t nearly so nice as the one on your profile page, but hopefully that little bit of crude Russian silver made up for that, and I’m glad you like it.

No Emesa, but this is the nicest SeptSev I’ve had. I daresay it actually had some luster.

I look forward to seeing who else will be featured in future interviews!

I’ve had several interesting and unique WW1-related pieces, and wrote articles about four of them. https://www.cointalk.com/threads/souvenir-of-an-invasion-ww1-german-trench-art-on-1904-belgian-10-centime-coin.293084/ https://www.cointalk.com/threads/the-sailmakers-badge-ww1-royal-flying-corps-identity-disc-made-from-1916-british-half-crown.287381/ These last two were especially interesting because the pieces could be traced to a specific individual, and photos of those individuals turned up. Both are rather poignant stories, too. https://www.cointalk.com/threads/berthas-boy-ww1-love-token-on-1916-french-franc-from-a-fallen-canadian-soldier-to-his-mother.286034/ https://www.cointalk.com/threads/vesta-mccurrys-ww1-love-token-coin-is-going-home.329215/

Link: solidus. Zeno, Thessalonica mint. Ex-Eliasberg collection. Holed in antiquity.

Cool, @panzerman! I love those short reigns. And I’d have been happy to get that one for €55. This is the only Quintillus I have owned, back in 2007-08. (The images were done on my old flatbed scanner, so they’re not great).

Nice cherrypicks! I too once found a 1694 London Elephant token in a bulk lot. Some Connecticut coppers, too. Good grab on the Voce Populi, too. You did well! And a 1549 shilling is wow, regardless of condition.

Link: Caesarea. Roman Provincial (Caesarea): bronze Æ28 of Severus Alexander, ca. 222-235 AD; Mount Argaeus Obverse: head of Severus Alexander right. Reverse: model of Mt. Argeus on table. Æ, 28 mm of Caesarea in Anatolia in Turkey (now the modern city of Kayseri). A somewhat bigger provincial bronze with an interesting reverse motif. This was a fun cheapo I had in my giveaway stash.

I viewed the CoinTalk version of this thread over there, and when posting there, I couldn't remember what I had voted for over here. So I just checked. Same ones: 6, 2, and 1. Good to know I'm consistent sometimes.

These cistophori are outside my wheelhouse, but I will say that I like the overall look of #6. The Octavian/Agrippa denarius is great, and I like the "then and now" animated GIF of it.

All wow. I went with the following for my three poll votes: Julius Caesar Nero tetradrachm Vespasian, Judaea capta I see the Hadrian has not yet gotten any love in the poll, so let me throw that in as an honorable mention. It is certainly deserving as well.

Woohoo! I've got 50,000 octopi now! (I'll make room for 'em!) PS- after I give one to each and every one of you! I suppose the value on the one I bought just went down considerably, but oh well. It's still a nice problem to have, right? 😉

Agreed. There is the old saying about "you can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar". However understandable your anger is, allowing it to taint your communications with the dealer would likely be counterproductive. Calmly and politely make your case, and hopefully they will make the right gesture (hopefully a refund, or, failing that, a store credit at least). You might have to return the broken coin. I dunno. I hope somebody eventually superglues it. It's sad to see this minor numismatic tragedy (travesty).

Yes, the 12 Caesars will be a subset under my Eclectic Hundred collection, unless I decide to fork them off into their own collection gallery later (maybe when I complete the set, which I plan to work on in the coming year). I have not yet updated the Eclectic Hundred gallery to include some new purchases, mainly because I haven't yet decided which coins I will have to drop from that collection in order to add the new stuff! (Keeping the collection to a fixed 100-coin total is challenging that way.) This is my second time assembling the series. Here is my old Twelve Caesars set, the first time I completed it in 2013. (I had a $500/coin budgetary ceiling at the time, which made Caligula and Otho challenging.) Second time around, here is what I have (and need) so far, as of this posting (late December, 2023). Looks like I have eight of the twelve. Julius Caesar (Wanted. Lifetime portrait denarius.) Augustus Tiberius Caligula (Wanted. I bought one but decided to sell it, as mentioned) Claudius Nero Galba (Wanted. Undecided on which denomination or type.) Otho (Just graded by NGC: Fine; Strike 4/5, Surface 4/5) Vitellius (Wanted. Undecided on which denomination or type.) Vespasian Titus Domitian (Just graded by NGC: Ch XF; Strike 5/5, Surface 4/5) I have a nearly complete US 19th century type set in my holed coins, and there are dozens of other "holeys" around. There are also my old metal detecting finds albums, which comprise 300+ "keeper" coins that I dug over the years. Beyond that, there's a small scattering of items I have on hand that are either for sale or earmarked for my giveaways. Here is the holey type set. It's not quite complete yet, but nearly there.

I suspect that "SPQR Collection" is likely one of those NGC pedigree names made up for a bulk submitter, like the so-called "Colosseum Hoard" (which was not an actual hoard, but rather a brand name for the bulk submission. Confusing!) Note that both the coin that @Nerosmyfavorite68 posted in the first post and the one that @expat posted in the second post lack Strike and Surface ratings on their labels and show only the adjectival grade. These simplified labels are the hallmark of a bulk submission. I'm guessing that if one makes a big enough bulk submission, one can choose a name for it. That's where the "Colosseum Hoard" or "SPQR Collection" comes in. Note the strike and surface ratings shown on this regular NGC Ancients label. (The hoard mentioned there is an actual historical hoard.)