lordmarcovan

Amphipolis- Sasanian Empire

I’ve ordered three more ancients to add to the prize selection (see gallery link above).

Yep, I bought these to give away.  I do think they’re pretty handsome, if I say so myself…

Mallorca-Attica (or- Athens.  Take your pick.)

Rome-Egypt

Saalfeld-Denver

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9. Probus - Siscia Secvrit Perp

That's the one for me!  I just like the look of it.

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6. Probus - Siscia E1 Double Adventus 

Also very handsome.

Menainon - New Orleans

Stunning!  An Akragas crab is on my "to-do" list for the coming year.

PS- I've always liked Teos griffins, and that is the sharpest one I've seen.

I see we both bought octopus litrae this (oops- last) year.  I wanted to do a side-by-side comparison.  I'd say they're fairly close, though yours is a touch sharper.

Yours (the face reminds me of the features of an old friend of mine, and several of his family members.)

Mine (Arethusa has more kissable lips here, anyway.  Or maybe she's pouting?  LOL)

Admittedly, Byzantine is outside of my scope, though I will say I quite like the Christ portrait on #4 and #1 is just an overall cool looking coin.

The Pisidia obol is cute.  How can you not love a face like that, staring up at you from the mists of time?  (In fact, you've got two faces to look at on that one!)

1 hour ago, DonnaML said:

All gorgeous, but I voted for #'s 1, 2, and 7 as the fairest of them all. Congratulations on a fantastic year!

As did I.  Those three seem to be in the majority.  And yet it wasn't an easy choice, with such a scintillating selection to choose from.

9 hours ago, ewomack said:

I woke up today and it's 2024. Who would have guessed? At least I have an irrational preference for even-numbered years.

We celebrated last night with some fantastic okonomiyaki and amazing mango crepe cake (yes, it was $10.00 a slice, but worth it). The Japanese restaurant we went to even gave us a small private room complete with elaborate door curtain. A great experience overall.

Also, earlier that day I managed to finish reading my 50th book of the year. I read 60 last year, but I'll take 50 given that I work full-time and have some minor semblance of a life (which includes coins, of course).

I hope everyone had a great New Year!

 

The Internet was made for cat pictures and food pictures!

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.)

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

7 hours ago, Hrefn said:

Here is a silver siliqua from the Harptree Hoard, dug up in 1887.  Doubtless it was initially cleaned, and has retoned.   I love the way it looks, and I would wager most Ancient Coin collectors would like it also. 

  

 

 

 

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.

5 hours ago, LONGINUS said:

Always great to see your posts, Rob!

The truth is the illustrations and paintings are out of my eccentric imagination. I’m using an artificial intelligence — A.I. illustration program combined with Adobe PhotoShop and Adobe InDesign to create faux Renaissance paintings. The program works by typing in the elements you want in the artwork and the style of image you want to produce for example — Renaissance, Victorian, Expressionistic, Cubist, and etc. Your typed text is actually creating the illustration. You are literally painting a picture with words. I take the A.I. image from there into PhotoShop and manipulate the image further and then into InDesign for the poster layout. It’s all great fun and creating the artwork to display my coins is a major part of the hobby for me. I love it ❤️❤️❤️!

 

That's all the more amazing!  😲

On 12/30/2023 at 11:24 AM, Qcumbor said:

... and at the other end, across the pond, I've been blown away with what I received from @Curtisimo : no less than a Vespasian denarius from the IVDAEA CAPTA series !

The man is clever, I think Curtis has taken quite some time browsing my collections on line just to make sure I hadn't one already. Spot on !!

I had never thought of acquiring one myself, thinking a nice example would be pricey, and attracting a lot of competition because those are so much sought after all over the world. But he did it !!

Thanks a million Curtis for such a beautiful and thoughtful gift

Vespasian, Denarius - Rome mint, 69-70 CE
IMP CAESAR VESPASIANVS AVG, laureate head right
Captive Jewess seated right, hands tied before, trophy of captured arms behind, IVDAEA in ex.
3.22 gr - 14x17 mm - 5 h
Ref : RIC II # 2, RSC # 226, RCV # 2296

Q

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.

8 minutes ago, Xeno said:

 

IMO this toning is an improvement especially on the Vespasian. Often when you buy a silver ancient coin it has been scrubbed bright white, most coins I have purchased that came this way have toned a bit and I consider it an improvement. As others have said sulfur containing gases is the key agent in this equation. I had some of my coins for years in a wooden cabinet and some acquired super vibrant rainbow toning while a few others darkened in color. Both I consider improvements to the scrubbed bright white coins. I also store all my ancient coins with desiccant packs to keep them nice and dry. I don't know how important this is for silver but I do know its important for bronze.

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.

24 minutes ago, MrZun said:

Also, did It reduced the numismatic value of the coins by having such tooning?

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.

12 hours ago, AncientJoe said:

LM / Rob's influence on coin forums - and my own collection - can't be understated. His posts introduced me to the "Box of 20" concept, specifically focusing on quality over quantity and his world coin collection helped encourage my transition away from US into Ancients (and I haven't looked back).

His posting/community building on the PCGS forum in particular was instrumental in my own building of a website and (in)frequent posts. This directly introduced me to a wider group of collectors and marked a turning point in my collecting journey.

One of these days, I hope to find myself in your neck of the woods, @lordmarcovan, as it'd be great to shake your hand in person!

And, after 10+ years of reading thousands of your posts, I'm thrilled that you've been fortunate to take home two excellent aurei - especially the Titus elephant aureus. Here's to many more decades of collecting!

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.

10 hours ago, GregH said:

Firstly we have a VERY decent Agrippa/ Neptune as. I realise I am a little difficult to shop for, having 155 rulers in my one-per ruler collection. But this is a damn nice coin & I’m keeping it! 

‘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.