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With respect to the tripod, Crawford suggests that it and the Sibyl refer to the office of the XVvir Sacris Faciendis, a body who were entrusted with interpretation of the Sibylline books in time of need. He suggests that maybe the moneyer held the office; it may also have been held by an ancestor. As priests of Apollo, the XV viri would have had bronze tripods. There are a few other Republican coins with tripods - maybe the one of Cassius is the most famous (Cr. 500/1): ATB, Aidan.

Tindersticks have been a favourite of mine since the 1990s - I've seen them at least four times now. I'd never heard of them before winning two tickets to see them in Cork - they were great and I'e been a fan since. They were the only intersection of musical tastes with one girlfriend and another never got them at all. Oh well. I shared this coin on CT, but not here, I think. I'd wanted one of the L. Torquatus denarii with the Sibyl for ages and finally got one in February. Worn, but stylish. Manlia Moneyer: L. Torquatus Coin: Silver Denarius SIBYLLA - Head of Sibyl right, wearing ivy-wreath; border of dots L·TORQVAT / III·VIR - Tripod, on which stands amphora; on either side of amphora, star. Torque as border. Mint: Rome (65 BC ) Wt./Size/Axis: 3.70g / - / - References: RSC 12a (Manlia) Sydenham 836 Crawford 411/1b Acquisition: Cayón Subastas Online auction Sub. Elect. 80 #30439 28-Feb-2022 ATB, Aidan.

I posted this before on CT, but why not again, I suppose! I've had this since 2013 and only realised in 2021 that it's illustrated in Oliver Hoover's Handbook of Greek Coins. Ruler: LysimachosState, City: Thrace, LysimacheiaCoin: Silver TetradrachmObv.: Diademed head of the deified Alexander with horn of Ammon rightRev.: ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΛΥΣΙΜΑΧΟΥ - Athena enthroned left, holding Nike, resting left elbow on shield, spear behind; lion's head before, two monograms in exergueMint: (After 280 BC)Wt./Size/Axis: 16.95g / 30mm / 10hReferences: cf ANSMN 13, 21 HGC Vol. 3, part 2, 1493 (this coin) Provenances: Tannenbaum Collection Acquisition: Roma Numismatics Online auction E-Sale 1 #153 31-Aug-2013 The HGC entry: ATB, Aidan.

Yes - that's the recent lot I was thinking of. I receive the HJB Bid or Buy catalogues and remember seeing the group - I'd got mine earlier, so I suppose this was a second batch from the study's authors. I guess HJB had hoped to offload the coins to a dealer as one lot - I'd forgotten there were so many in the group and was too lazy to dig it up 😄 My coin isn't there as I got it in 2010 from Grotjohann - he was selling a similar batch of coins individually from the same study and he sent on the RIN paper from Butcher, Ponting & Muona. This is mine from Jyrki Muona's Forum gallery - I was happy to comment on it 😄 https://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/displayimage.php?album=974&pid=78535 This is where I store it online myself: https://www.tantaluscoins.com/coins/37901.php And the drilled hole... I showed this at the Numismatic Society of Ireland's "Show & Tell" in September 2011 and wrote some blurb on it for a subsequent society Bulletin, which appeared some time after: Like most people, I wanted an example of each of the Twelve Caesars of Suetonius - I stilldon't have a Caligula - the silver ones are very expensive and I don't like any of the cheaperbronze ones I've seen. However, I do at least have an Otho, whose reign was the shortestof the 12.It was formerly owned by Jyrki Muona, a Finnish Otho expert, co-author of"The Denarii of Otho: A Stylistic and Compositional Study" [1] which used destructive samplingon 26 denarii of Otho to determine their content. In spite of his short reign (3 months, from15th January 69 AD to 15th or 16th April 69 AD), it's found that three distinct issues of coinswere made, with the first two being of ~90% fine silver and the final issue of ~80% fine silver, withsome evidence of a reduction in weight for the final coins also. A point raised by John Stafford-Langanin September is that it's usual to use different legends to distinguish between issues of differentfineness standards, so that the issuers can distinguish the finer coins and indeed the 3 issues aredistinguished by different obverse legends in the case of the first two (in some cases, the reverse diesare shared between the issues), while the the third issue types all bear the legend PONT MAX, notused in the earlier issues - again, issues 2 & 3 share some obverse dies. (PONT MAX refers to thepontifex maximus title received by Otho on 9th March). This would have enabled the debased issueto be easily distinguished from the earlier issues.Most of the coins used in the study had small 0.6mm diameter holes drilled into their edges to removea small amount of metal for compositional analysis; some coins had quarter or half the coin removedfor additional microscopic examination - in some cases, voids in the metal were observed where thecopper alloyed to the silver had leached out. In such cases, analysis of the metal would give highersilver purity reading than the coin originally was, due to the preferential leaching of the copper.After the work, a number of coins from Muona's collection were sold by Grotjohann Coins on Vcoinsin the summer of 2010 and that's how I ended up with my Otho [2].The coin itself is rare - only 6 examples known, according to its previous owner - it's rated R4 in RIC.It's quite a sacrifice for numismatic study to drill into and even cut up coins from a reign of only 3 months![1] "The Denarii of Otho: A Stylistic and Compositional Study", Butcher, Ponting, Muona,RIN 110 (2009), pp. 291-310 (RIN - Italian Numismatic Review)[2] http://www.tantaluscoins.com/coins/37901.php I mostly collect Roman Republican coins nowadays, so haven't added to the Otho collection. I believe there are either seven or eight examples of RIC 2 known now, though it's probably still the rarest Otho denarius (coin production rates were very high during Otho's short reign, so many types are relatively common, at least relative to the three month reign). Glad you got one too, without having to buy them all 😄 A good provenance indeed. ATB, Aidan.

Ah yes! I bought an Otho denarius that was used for that paper in 2010 - Grotjohann, then on Vcoins, sold several of them. I got one with only a tiny hole drilled into the edge - RIC 2, Ceres, a rare type with 7(?) known, so it was spared more radical mutilation. HJB had more of the cut Othos from that study about a year ago in a Bid or Buy sale as a lot of ten or fifteen. ATB, Aidan.

These arrived during the week from a Jesús Vico auction - they are much darker in reality, overexposed in the photo'. They were sold as "REPÚBLICA ROMANA. Lote de 3 denarios recortados para circular como fracciones. Pesos de 0,4 a 0,9 g. MBC." I realised when I got them that they were probably cut from the same coin - a Q. Marcius Libo denarius (Cr. 215/1) of 148 BC. The little coins: An example of Cr 215/1 that hasn't been cut up: As they came from Vico, I'm guessing they came from Spain. As they appear to have been all cut from the same coin, is it likely that the host coin was cut up in ancient times or more recently? Has anyone seen anything similar? Thanks, Aidan.

Here are better photos. SICILY, Entella. Punic issues. Circa 320/15-300 BC. AR Tetradrachm (25.5mm, 16.78 g, 11h). Wreathed head of Arethousa left; four dolphins around / Head of horse left; palm tree to right, [‘]MMḤNT (in Punic) below. Jenkins, Punic, Series 3a, – (unlisted dies); CNP 267; HGC 2, 284. Toned, much find patina remaining, numerous cleaning scratches, flan flaw on reverse. Good VF.Ex CGB Live Auction June 2021 (15 June 2021), lot 19 (hammer €2600). I'll probably try to take better photos, but this is a first effort! ATB, Aidan.

I like elongated coins and often get them when I go somewhere. I can only find a photo' of one at the moment - from the Tower Of London in 2011: I like the way the original coin is still mostly visible in this. ATB, Aidan.

The whole boring, though at times stressful to me, with twists at every stage story is... The auction was on 25th January - Triton "eAuction session" An invoice arrived a few days later and I paid on 1st February by Revolut transfer I sent an email at the time saying I'd paid and with a shipping address update (I'd been using my office address, but rarely go in these days, so switched my shipping address to home address) In March, I got another invoice... Replied to say "Hang on, I paid 5-6 weeks ago!" Got a reply that the sender information from the transfer had been lost - the information was in what I'd sent but, while I use Revolut quite a lot, I hadn't sent anything to a US bank before, so who knows, maybe their bank somehow cut it off. That's part of the reason I always email when I send a transfer, to help identify any unnamed money Anyway, I was due to be in the US for a few weeks from mid-March, so asked it be sent to my address there This was sent And never made it to the San Diego office As it happened, my trip was delayed 'til May, but I asked colleagues to expect something for me It was out for delivery and "forwarded" three times in the correct San Diego postcode A couple of times, the record said something like "No access to address" From mid-April, there was no tracking until 31st May, when it appeared back on U.S. East Coast And got back to CNG in early June Yayyy As I was back in Dublin then, I asked for it to be sent to my home address It made it to the Irish An Post website on 16th June and I received a bill for VAT A further entry on 20th June acknowledged my payment of usual exorbitant 23% VAT Then, nothing... A couple of weeks ago, I enquired as to where it was, as it had been a month by that stage with no updates Response from An Post was that the package had never been scanned in Ireland, that the request for VAT had been generated before they even had the package and that it appeared not to have been in the container received on 16th June... Last week, they repaid the VAT I assumed it was lost (again!) Last Friday, an update appeared saying it had been sent to a sorting office in Ireland Today, it was delivered! Sorry for the long list... I probably cursed the delivery by posting a pic of the coin on CT when I won it. Twice it fell off the radar - I've no idea where it was forwarded to in San Diego - a colleague had an idea it was sent to Florida as our parent company moved from the building we're in to Florida, but the post office wouldn't tell him where it had been forwarded to and wouldn't allow him to just go to the office and collect it. I spoke to the USPS myself and they had no real idea - they could only ask me if I knew who could have forwarded it and all I could do was suggest a few people who might have forwarded the mail, but it was a futile effort. When it got back to CNG, I thought I'd surely have it in a week, but there was a last little twist to stress me 😄 Anyway, all's well that ends well and I still haven't lost a coin in the post. I'll take proper photos tonight - as you might have guessed, I'm relieved and the coin looks great in hand. ATB, Aidan.

I posted on CT at the end of January that I'd won this coin. For various reasons, it wandered around the US postal system until early June, was then sent to me here in Ireland, where it disappeared off tracking until last Friday. Today... it arrived! I'll take proper photos tonight, but fairly excited that she's arrived after such a long saga. ATB, Aidan

I got a pile of 10 denarii in the post yesterday, to add to the 13 coins last week (11 RR bronzes, 1 Mamertini brone and an RR denarius). Oh, one coin today too - but a modern one. Here's one of yesterday's arrivals, with Spanish description. REPÚBLICA ROMANA. Denario. 67 a.C. PLAETORIA. M. Plaetorius M.f. Cestianus. Anv.: Cabeza de Cibeles con corona mural a derecha, entre CESTIANVS y globo . Rev.: Silla curul a izquierda, en campo rama de árbol. M. PLAETORIVS. AED. CVR. EX. S.C. 3,86 grs. AR. (Limpiada, rayitas). Ex Aureo. 1 Febrero 2000, n. 1047. BMC-3574-95; Cal-1110; Craw-409/2; FFC-978; Se-3. (EBC-). ATB, Aidan.

As far as NAC goes, I've bought a few coins from them, but a lot more from their Naville subsidiary. Anyway, I'm not in the US 😄 This is maybe the ex-NAC coin I like best: C. Memmius C.f. Coin: Silver Denarius QVIRINVS / C·MEMMI·C·F - Laureate head of Quirinus right MEMMIVS· AED·CERIALIA·PREIMVS·FECIT - Ceres seated right, holding torch in left hand and corn-ears in right hand; before, snake Mint: Rome (56 BC) Wt./Size/Axis: 3.95g / - / - References: RSC 9 (Memmia) Sydenham 921 Crawford 427/2 RBW 1532 BMCRR Rome 3940 Acquisitioe: Numismatica Ars Classica Online Auction Auction 114 Part I #462 7-May-2019 ATB, Aidan.

Agreed! I see no value added by the dealer in flipping auction wins. That the dealer has spent hours online buying something adds nothing to its value - for a common coin, it doesn't matter at all to me that you bought it at X and need 2X - 3X to make ends meet if I can go to the next auction and buy another one for X myself (or even 1.5X). If the dealer discovers a new provenance not mentioned in the original auction listing or picks up something cheaply as it was mis-identified or in some obscure auction, then that's a reason for a larger markup - because they've paid a wholesale price. Dealers competing with collectors at auction can't expect huge markups - if no collector was prepared to outbid them at auction, why will they be prepared to pay 3X the price later? I wouldn't want dealers to disappear, but I don't pay more retail than I'd expect to pay at auction. ATB, Aidan.

You'll have found plenty of interesting stuff on the KLF - their DIY book on how to have a #1 hit (with a money back guarantee!); their last gig at the Brit awards in 1992 - (from the Wiki entry for the Brits) "In 1992, dance/art band The KLF was awarded Best British Group (shared with Simply Red) and were booked to open the show. In an attempt to hijack the event, the duo collaborated with grindcore metal band Extreme Noise Terror to perform a death metal version of the dance song "3 a.m. Eternal", a performance that prompted conductor Sir Georg Solti to walk out in disgust.[22] The performance ended with Bill Drummond firing blanks from a vintage machine gun over the audience and KLF publicist/announcer Scott Piering stating 'Ladies and gentlemen, The KLF have now left the music business'.[23] Producers of the show then refused to let a motorcycle courier collect the award on behalf of the band.[24] Later that evening, the KLF dumped a dead sheep outside the venue of an after-show party,[23][24] whilst their Brit Award was reportedly found buried in a field near Stonehenge in 1993."; their post-music K Foundation which gave an award for the "worst artist of the year", giving £40,000 to Rachel Whiteread, who'd also received the Turner Prize of £20,000 for "Best British Contemporary Artist"; their art - (Wikipedia on the K Foundation) "Collectively, the K Foundation's money-as-art works were titled Money: A Major Body Of Cash, "seven pieces, all involving various amounts of cash nailed to, tied to or simply standing on inanimate objects".[26] Nailed To A Wall had a reserve price of £500,000, half the face value of the cash used in its construction, which Scotland on Sunday's reporter Robert Dawson Scott was 'fairly confident... really was £1 million [in cash]'. The catalogue entry for the artwork stated: 'Over the years the face value will be eroded by inflation, while the artistic value will rise and rise. The precise point at which the artistic value will overtake the face value is unknown. Deconstruct the work now and you double your money. Hang it on a wall and watch the face value erode, the market value fluctuate, and the artistic value soar. The choice is yours.'" Of course, they're mostly infamous for burning the £1 million pounds and filming it - that sparked debate on the value of money and indeed on whether they'd actually burnt the money. Here's more of them - the woman with guitar and KLF shirt was then married to Jimmy Cauty, the long-haired guy - she's in most (all?) of their videos and eventually went back to uni and now has a PhD and works in a university (I don't think she's still married to Jimmy). The woman saying "Come on boy, do you wanna ride?" is Wanda Dee, who wasn't part of the band but sued them when her manager/husband discovered that KLF had put some of her samples on two of their songs - this and "I wanna see you sweat" on "What Time Is Love?". As a settlement, KLF paid her, gave her a share in royalties and named her as a co-writer on the U.S. release of their album. That's how she got on the video too! One popular interpretation of KLF is Kopyright Liberation Front - they sampled other people freely and were often forced to withdraw music from sale by aggrieved original artists and their legal teams. Here's a quinarius which has nothing to do with the KLF, though it may have been pieced back together. I was going to post it to the thread on coins with complete borders, but it can go here instead. Gens: Anonymous - MT Coin: Silver Quinarius V - Helmeted head of Roma right MT - The Dioscuri galloping right Exergue: ROMA Mint: Apulia (211-210 BC) Wt./Size/Axis: 1.81g / 17mm / 10h References: RSC 33h (Anon) Sydenham 183 Crawford 103/2a Provenances: Ex. Vitangelo Collection Acquisition: Roma Numismatics Online auction E-Sale 81 #924 25-Feb-2021 ATB, Aidan.

We haven't had the KLF or Tammy Wynette yet... Here's a coin that fits, since Bill & Jimmy were wearing their horn outfits in the video. Ruler: Trajan (Augustus) Region, City: Egypt, Alexandria Coin: Bronze Dichalkon - Laureate head of Trajan right LIZ - Rhinoceros standing right Mint: (a. 113-114) Wt./Size/Axis: 1.72g / 15mm / - References: RPC 4823 Acquisition: Naville Numismatics Online auction NN Live 73 #230 8-May-2022 ATB, Aidan.

Thanks, I'll keep an eye on things! ATB, Aidan.

Thanks, Donna - I like it. It's not rare, but I didn't already have one. ATB, Aidan.

Actually, @Richard Beale, on a related note, has Roma any plans to follow Naville's lead and import coins to the EU through Belgium, a country with low import taxes (6%)? I'd bid more often again, if you did as since Brexit, I'm being hit with 23% charges on things from outside the EU, including the UK. Naville are sending things through NAC's Brussels office, which softens the blow a lot. This likely applies to other EU collectors too (apart from Belgians!) - I don't know if there's any EU country with a lower import tax rate. The only downside to the Naville approach is that shipping is very slow. (I have complained to Irish Customs that I should be paying a 13.5% antiquities rate rather than 23%, but no joy so far) ATB, Aidan.

I got a couple of coins today from a recent Tauler & Fau auction. Cr. 452/2 - Caesar commemorating his victory at Pharsalus. The LII on the obverse refers to his age at the time. And an Ass quadrans - Cr. 195/4. ATB, Aidan.

Thanks, Etcher - looks like the museum on Kildare Street - that and the Natural History museum closeby are good to pass an afternoon. The coin collection was there at one time, but is now housed in the Collins Barracks branch of the museum, close to Heuston Station. coincidentally, St. Gaudens himself was born in Dublin, but moved to the U.S. with his parents as a baby. ATB, Aidan.

I'm a member of the Numismatic Society of Ireland. We have in-person meetings from September to May, which are very enjoyable and it's certainly well worth being a member of a society. Since the Covid lockdowns started in 2020, we've operated over Zoom as well as in-person - all of the 2020/'21 season was virtual, as far as I recall. Since some normality has returned, we've operated hybrid meetings, which have been a bit tricky to get right, we've had problems with lighting and sound, but at least members from outside Dublin and overseas have been able to attend. The 2021/'22 season consisted of: September: Show and tell (virtual) - normally, people bring along coins or other items they've acquired over the summer (or whenever) and talk about them and pass them around. October: "Ireland's Miss Liberty" - about the model for the St Gaudens $10 gold eagle (Mary Cunningham). (hybrid, IIRC) November - AGM & a talk (hybrid) on "The Politics of Ireland's Coinage 1926 - 2002" by Edward Colgan, author "For Want Of Good Money, the Story of Ireland's Coinage". December - Annual auction (hybrid) January - Display competition (virtual). I won a nice medal in this competition some years ago with a display of Roman Republican coins - in fact, buying some representative Republican coins to show kickstarted my collection in this area. February - Emil Szauer Memorial Lecture "Money of the Marchlands: the coinsges of Desmond c. 1185-1690" by Oisín MacConamhna (hybrid). March - "French Medallic Portraiture in a Century of Change, 1830-1930" - I think this was postponed due to the unavailability of the speaker. April - "New Discoveries in 17th Century Irish Tokens" (hybrid); the speaker was Del Parker, US-based dealer. May - Books and catalogues (hybrid) - A number of speakers spoke about coin books an old auction catalogues. I missed this. Usually, a few members travel to the BANS congresses - British Association of Numismatic Societies. I've been to the last 5 (none since 2019, but they're back next year), which are an enjoyable weekend - I've been to Belfast, Colchester, Harrogate, Chatham and Douglas (Isle of Man). Apart from that, we have small outings usually around Dublin - a couple of weeks ago, we got a tour of the the Bank Of Ireland building in College Green - the old Irish Parliament building until the Act Of Union in 1801. If I weren't busy, I'd be at the launch party for the latest Irish commemorative coin tomorrow. We have our meetings in the nice Ely House, just off St. Stephen's Green, 18th townhouse of the Earl of Ely and now owned by the Knighs of Columbanus. Hercules at the foot of the stairs in Ely House. This is the Bank Of Ireland - https://curiousireland.ie/bank-of-ireland-college-green/ A photo' I took of a carronade at the bank - the bank had a militia and a couple of these facing Dame Street. After firing, the gunners would spike their guns and beat a hasty retreat inside. They were never used in anger, though the Irish Army guarded the building until the 1940s. A machine for sorting sovereigns intol underweight and full weight specimens at the bank. ATB, Aidan.

Ah, let me try uploading the picture - thanks. Aidan.

I just got this nice Alberto Zecchi cabinet in the door today 🙂 At my next reorganisation/cataloguing effort, some coins are going into this. It's the CAG11 model with 11 fairly large trays - the one part-open can house 77 smallish coins (denarius-sized); most of the other trays have fewer spaces for larger coins. The CAG11 isn't on Zecchi's website at the moment - this is the last one they had and it will be a couple of months before they make more trays. It's similar to the 6-tray version, CAG06, which is still on the website (I guess you'll not have a choice of trays for that either, or will have to wait). The dimensions are 24.5cm width, 34.5cm depth and 20.5cm height. It seems very well made and looks great. ATB, Aidan.

A pile of mostly RR bronzes from Artemide arrived this morning. There's one denarius and a Mamertinoi bronze too. ATB, Aidan.

Drool 😀