EtTu

10 minutes ago, Roman Collector said:

Great job of cherry-picking, @EtTu!!!

 

Thanks! I'm now only 3 reverse types away from having one of each zoo series types!

I won this today at Savoca and it may seem like just an average Dianae zoo coin, but this is actually one of the most rare and hard to find zoo coins and has yet to be represented in this thread. This is the right facing antelope with the gamma mintmark. I was banking on no one knowing what it was and was able to snag it for just 14€!!!

My new imitation zoo coins

This one looks to be an amalgamation of two different zoo creatures. The forepart and the mintmark are Hippocamp, but the tail has two coils which is a feature of the Criocamp, whereas the hippocamp only has one coil. 

A panther

A centaur 

A goat

The rest were purchased from Cédric Wolkow

A panther, this one is unusual for an imitation in that the coin appears to be all silver. 

 Another panther

Judging from the curved horns, I think criocamp

A Pegasus

And a diplodocus, that was Wolkow's description and I added it onto my order based solely on that description. 

Here are some of my more recent additions. 

Right facing griffin, I was ecstatic to get this coin as my previous example with a sigma mintmark was confirmed to be an imitation.

5aa4

Left facing griffin

4aa4

A second seated griffin

6aa4

A couple of antelopes, this first one I just received from @Molag Bal and haven't had the chance to photograph it yet. It has an uncommon obverse, 15 listed in Wolkow. 

13l12

13a12

A couple hippocampi, and my first desert patina

23a9

23m9

An extraordinary example of the Herculean lion

15a1

Bull on a broad fpan with a crack. For some reason I really like the look of coins on broad flans.

28a11

Two more Criocamps, I also have one more on the way which will bring my total to 5 examples and three different reverse dies.

Both 21a8

A capricorn 

24a6

A doe

9aa5

A goat

17a6

And finally, while the Pegasus (or Sol's winged horse) may be one of the more common in the zoo series, this is perhaps one of my most unique coins. It is a pegasus with a bridle and chamfron.

26a1

I say unique, but I did find this coin which I believe to be a die match, but much worse for wear. If it weren't for my other example, I probably would have thought the reins on this coin were some kind of flaw.

I also have quite a few imitations that I've also added to my collection, I'll put them in another post. 

I received my package a couple weeks ago and not-so-patiently waited until today to open it. I received a Probus coin and several uncleaned coins. My Saturn read my previous posts and saw that I had an interest in starting to collect Probus coins. Also, unbeknownst to my Saturn, I have always wanted to try cleaning coins for the experience so I am excited about that as well.

My Saturn did write me a note, but did not sign it. Hopefully they see this so they know I received them and enjoyed them! I had to rush off to work, but I'll try and get pictures at a later time.

I've noticed the change because it makes scrolling somewhat difficult on mobile, I'm 90% on mobile. When I try to scroll the page doesn't move, it just flicks the picture up and down and I have to remember to lift my thumb above the picture, which is hard when you're using one hand and you don't have long fingers...

I use lindner coin boxes. 

2 hours ago, Victor_Clark said:

 

It's not Pegasus, but one of the four winged horse that draws the chariot of Sol

I actually knew that, but it's a bad habit of mine to call it Pegasus. It is most commonly referred to as pegasus, and searching 'gallienus pegasus' will yield much more results than 'winged horse'. Also, Sol's horses were only sometimes winged, and depicted much more often sans wings. But a single winged horse is usually, albeit not always, Pegasus. So ease, commonality, and familiarity are all reasons I say Pegasus even though it is not correct.

I had two coins on my wishlist from the Leu auction and I was lucky enough to win them both. Despite the Herculean lion being a much more rare coin, I prioritized the Pegasus as it's a potentially unique coin, luckily the pegasus was first and I was able to win them both. 

The Pegasus caught my attention because you can see it has reins. Upon closer inspection, you can clearly see a bridle and what appears to be a chamfron, or facial plate armor. I've not seen any other examples of a Gallienus pegasus with tack and armor, but I'm still searching for other known examples. With all the reforms Gallienus made to the military, especially amping up the usage of heavy cavalry, it makes sense that this would be represented on a coin, but less so on a pegasus. Either way, I'm ecstatic to have won it. 

I am also very happy that I was able to upgrade my Herculean lion to this beautiful example. 

My original, which I may be releasing for sale to give other collectors an opportunity to have one, although I'm not sure how many serious Gallienus Zoo collectors are out there. I feel like many beginners collect a few of his common issues and then move on. 

Here's four Neptvno capricorns that I have, the first one I bought is my favorite, the second one is also a very nice coin of a different style, both the first have the distinction of having unusually nice obverses for a Gallienus Zoo coin. The third is a pretty bad coin, but I have yet to come across a nice example of a capricorn with the small, straight horns for sale and I'm also in need of a capricorn with the longer, very slightly curved horns. And the fourth I don't have in hand yet, it is potentially the same reverse die as the first, but I'm not sure as it looks to be bearded and the first is not. 

The more common reverses I have tons of different styles of and am always looking for more! 

I really like animals and mythical creatures on coins and my main collection, the Gallienus Zoo, is based solely on reverses. To be honest, I don't much care about the state of the obverse, I prioritize the reverse style and quality in that order. There are rare military obverses, which are nice, but the prices for those go unusually high so I generally don't go for them. I try to find coins that have different styles, or dies, than ones I already have and there is plenty of variation amongst Gallienus' 30 zoo reverse types, 31 if you count the right facing Ivnoni coin that only features Salonina.

Here's four Mercvrio criocamps, the first three I believe to be the same die and each one upgraded the previous, the fourth is a completely different die which is why I added it to my collection. 

On 11/28/2022 at 7:29 AM, Furryfrog02 said:

On a side note, I was contacted by the seller of the coins I got for my giftee and he couldn't find of one them. Had to make a substitution. Hopefully my giftee doesn't mind.

Same thing happened to me!!!

14 hours ago, hotwheelsearl said:

I don't know enough about the varieties to know whats good, but these two cost me $12 each.

For $12 those are pretty decent. I like the pegasus style where the wings are dotted instead of solid lines. The centaur you sold for ~$7 actually looks like a barbarous imitation. 

On 11/11/2022 at 12:16 AM, Valentinian said:

 

I,  the too, like Gallienus zoo series. Here is mine of that type:

 

19 mm. 3.61 grams.
RIC 163. Sear III 10177.

There is a webpage by Jim Phelps:
https://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=Gallienus Zoo
about zoo types with relative numbers in the huge Cunetio hoard. 
 

That's a very nice centaur and a beautiful bust of Gallienus. I find that on a lot of his coins you have either a nice bust or a nice reverse, but rarely both. 

Yours is actually a different type than mine. There are 3 Apollini centaur types. Mine is 3a7 and yours is 2a7. @DonnaML has a really good post that includes an entire list of all the types here:

After waffling over many coins I finally found one that felt right for my giftee. I added a couple coins for myself and intend to repackage my gift and ship it out myself. Unfortunately, I'm heading into a winter storm that could shut my city down so hopefully there won't be too much of a delay. Eight years ago we had a storm that dropped over 6ft of snow in 48 hrs and that shut us down for a week! Here is a picture of exactly eight years ago today, if you see the black spot in that snow pile, it's my side mirror on my car! 

I'm pretty sure my heart skipped several beats when this coin popped up on eBay from Romae Aeternae. It's far from the prettiest coin, but I'm to the point where I only need a few types from the Gallienus Zoo collection to have every type represented and this is one I just didn't think I'd ever find! I was prepared for some heavy opposition on this coin due to the rarity, but I faced very little and admittedly did a little dance in my computer chair when the auction ended in my victory! 

Gallienus, Rome 267-268AD

23mm, 2.91g

GALLIENVS AVG, Radiate head right

APOLLINI CONS AVG, Centaur rearing right while drawing bow and arrow; Z in exergue

Ref- Wolkow 3a7

As I have very few types left in my Gallienus Zoo collection, I've been thinking of expanding into new territories. I'll still continue to collect exceptional or unusual coins though. One of my recent acquisitions, although not too far out of my of current realm, is this barbarous radiate of Gallienus. I've added a few barbarous coins, but will continue to look for more. 

As for more of an expansion, I've been thinking of collecting portrait Radiates and/or coins of Probus. 

While I can't help with the prices, I can say that the ads on here don't have much reach. The views I have seen on the ads are between mid 20s to mid 30s. Reddit might have a wider audience, and ebay definitely wider, though you're paying for it. I've tried listing my ex-bcd coins on here and on reddit and they've garnered very little attention, I've sold a whopping 2. I didn't even finish listing, or adding details to my current listings on here, once I realized what little reach they have. I will probably just end up stashing them in the back of the bottom most coin drawer I have and forgetting about them.

38 minutes ago, CPK said:

Unfortunately, I can't read German, so I have no idea what the article is about

Google translate. No, it's not perfect, but you can at least get the gist. My main resource for my collection is Cedric Wolkow's Catalogue des monnaies romaines - Gallien - L'émission dite " Du Bestiaire" - atelier de Rome. The book is in French, which I don't speak, so if you ever were to see me referencing it, you'd see me looking first through my phone and then to the book as I use live Google translate when reading it. Here is a screencap of your article. 

... and Hippocamp

Horse, Hydria, Helmet...

@Ryro I figured he didn't photograph bronze coins regularly because of the sheer amount of coins he had. But, he did photograph them occasionally and I was wondering what made him photograph a coin he normally would not have. I should have framed my question a little better. 

Link => Spear and shield

@John Conduitt The very first seated griffin I ever bid on a few years ago was an auction like that. It was under $100 and I clicked bid and the bid jumped to like $260. Thank god someone outbid me because at the time I had left my job to care for my grandma at the end of her life so she could remain home and I had to be very frugal. I lost quite a few coins I wanted at that time, but I have no regrets.

I'm going to be adding some coins to the cabinet and I'm trying to do some research on them before doing so because, to be honest, I know next to nothing about them. One of the coins is this Ex-BCD coin from Atrax, Thessaly. All my silver Ex-BCDs include his photo cut outs, and out of all my Bronzes only this one. I thought I read somewhere that he only photographed the bronze ones that he lent out for research, but I cannot find that reference anymore. Does anyone know why all the solvers are photographed, but only a few Bronzes are? Thanks! 

Link = Ex BCD and horse

Thessaly, Pharsalus

Obv: Helmeted head of Athena right, erect serpents on helmet

Rev: had of horse to right, ΦAR downwards to right