mcwyler

A happy couple. Tranquillina. Caesarea Cappadocia Æ (22mm 6.67g) CΑΒ ΤΡΑΝΚVΛΛΙΝΑ AVG Diademed and draped bust right / MHTP KAI B NE six grain ears bound together, date ET-Z (243-244) across fields. Sydenham Caesarea 618, SNG von Aulock 6534. Gordian III. Caesarea, Cappadocia.Æ (22mm, 6.51g). AV KAI M ANT ΓOΡΔIANOC, laureate, draped and cuirassed bust right / MHTΡ KAI B NE, six ears of corn bound together, in lower field date ET-Z (243-244) across fields. BMC 346-349, SGI 3778.

Belated congratulations! This is Sol, sort of INDIA. Kushan Empire. Kanishka I, ca. 127-152. Ae tetradrachm (8.41 g, 22 mm), Kapisha (Begram?). Kanishka, diademed and crowned, standing facing, head left, holding goad and scepter, sacrificing over altar to left; flame at shoulder. Rev. HΛIOC Radiate and diademed Helios, left hand on hip, standing left, raising right hand in benediction; tamgha to left. ANS Kushan 391-402. Gobl 766 And life begins at 40 Nummi And life begins at 40 nummi This type, Sear 1697, minted in Syracuse, has a claim to be the last issued by the Roman Empire in Italy. If Byzantine counts, which of course it does.

Nice overstrike. What I'm really impressed with, though, is that you got it on December 26th. Here in the UK you'd be lucky to get a delivery before New Year!

I have a high shame threshold, so the only coins I'm ashamed of are a couple of fakes I bought in the first few months of my collecting. Sometimes you need to pay for your lessons. Look, wait, and above all learn before you buy is the lesson. I can only hope I learnt it well enough...

Got a goat:- Divus Vespasian, AR Denarius, 80-81, Rome. DIVVS AVGVSTVS VESPASIANVS, Laureate head right / S C, Legend on shield supported by two capricorns, globe below. 17. 66mm, 3.35g RIC II, 63 (Titus)

The type is popular, isn't it?. The janiform head is always cool. My example shows it's age a bit but I was happy to get it for £26.

Here's mine:- There were several of these in the auction I won this in; I chose this because of the Officina. The ninth Officina would normally have been theta, but these superstitious pagans avoided it because it was the first letter of death in Greek. Instead they used epsilon delta (5 and 4) which kept the grim reaper at bay.

My recent auction experiences follow (I should add I live in England) :- Savoca €18 + 1%, immediate shipping, tracked, insured, very fast. Bucephalus €20 uninsured, tracked within a week which I'm OK with. Top end of what I would pay, but several wins so it spreads the load. Biga €5 uninsured within a week. Sol €6.50 uninsured within a week. Astarte CHF 15.50 + 1% insured within a week. They were all this year, some multiple times. I would also mention London Ancient Coins £6 uninsured within a week, and NN London who despite quoting £35 in their T&Cs did agree to ship for a much more reasonable £10 uninsured, both from last year. Happy with all the above. The booby prize goes to Aphrodite, who charged for DHL Express and sent it - eventually - by snail mail from London after presumably getting it there from Germany in someone's pocket. At any rate it took about a month, they saved a few euros and lost a customer. High buyer's premium too.

Interesting list. Rarity should be absolute and measurable, but it's not. My main focus at the moment is campgates. They're plentiful, normally easily found cheaply, and there are hundreds of types to search for, what more could a collector want? Just this morning I received this in the post: Constantine I AE follis of Arles. AD 329. CONSTAN-TINVS AVG, pearl-diademed head right. / VIRTV-S AVGG, campgate, six rows, dots in arches in top row, 4 turrets, star above, no doors. T-F across fields. Mintmark PCONST. RIC VII Arles 336; Sear 16311. If my attribution is correct, it's an R5 rarity in RIC, and it's by no means my first R5 campgate. Are they really that rare? I do keep my eyes open but I see quite a few in auctions that are rated R3 or rarer. They were rated before the Internet, before ebay (the source of this coin) and before metal detecting was really a thing. And perhaps museums, the collections on which RIC was largely based, may be more interested in getting that aureus than collecting all the myriad variations of the fiddling small change of the Late Roman Empire. If the coin shown here happened to have open doors and S F across fields rather than T F, it would be rated common. Does anybody care? Apart from me, that is! Well yes I think many of us do, we're a strange lot...

I reckon if you're the emperor you're all of those. Until the likely assassination and subsequent damnatio memoriae.

Interesting coins, to add to the long "must get one of those" list. Your map represents the south as Arabie Heureuse, so I suppose those northeastern issues are from Arabie Triste.

Carthaginian Domain, Sardinia, c. 264-241 BC. Æ (20mm, 4.88g, 3h). Wreathed head of Kore-Tanit l. R/ Head of horse r.; letter before. Piras 54; SNG Copenhagen (Africa) 151. I can't help thinking the eating babies stuff is just another example of the victors writing history to suit their narrative. Not saying they were angels mind you. Septimius Severus was born in the town of Leptis Magna and spoke Punic. Well he spoke Latin too but with a Punic accent. Just a bit of trivia for you!

Exactly! My very worn example

I don't think the sellers were duped. The first and third are proud members of this useful list of fake sellers.- http://augustuscoins.com/ed/fakesellers.html#U

Nice! But to emphasise your point, this is what we get in the real world.. £10, so mustn't grumble.

I'm starting to like little coins. Of course the bigger the better for ptolemaic bronzes etc. Or for that matter bars of gold. But there's something about those tiny coins. The artistry? The cuteness? More likely the price...

Ela126 has the better face of Christ, but I like my example of SB1918 too. It's certainly my most attractive trachy, and it came in the post today! 28mm, 4.1g.

I was interested to read this today, thought I'd share it. (Trabzon is what we know as Trebizond.) https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/apr/03/endangered-greek-dialect-living-bridge-ancient-world-romeyka?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

Let's have some more...

Campgates? Now you're talking! I'll have to stop there because I could literally post another hundred and I don't want to make this thread unreadable. But yes, I like a good campgate! Don't mind the bad ones come to that..

Just to prove how "good enough" yours are, here are mine. Swap?

Mine is a bit worn and crusty but I like it, 34mm and 32.64g so not a record breaker but nice and chunky anyhow.

What is a good portrait? If I were a lowly diecutter asked to create an image of the most powerfuL (and usually vainest) man in the world I think I would err on the side of handsome rather than ugly. I agree with romancollector, Val baby was probably what we would call in these parts a bit of a minger. Mine was maybe the best the guy in Samosata could do... That said, perhaps in this case he wasn't the most powerfuL, Shapur was?

Zero feedback, what could go wrong? I note that, in the English translation, the "authenticity guaranteed" bit seems to have been omitted... Probably just an oversight.