Agrippa

2 hours ago, rhj959 said:

Actually the main hoard was not excavated - the empty pot was excavated.  All the coins were removed by the finder (me) and taken away to safety, all 30Kg, in my rucksack. All the coins were handed over to the County Finds Officer on the next working day, two weeks later an excavation removed the broken pot and found a second group of 10 much earlier coins.  It was not possible to leave the main hoard in situ because the field was being harvested and several farm workers saw the hoard and it's location.  The British Museum had all the coins from 2017 to 2021 and each type was photographed in an uncleaned state. In some cases there were over 60 similar coins in the hoard eg RIC VI 6b so not all were photographed.  These images of rare types have been shared within the numismatic academia.

The BM selected about 10% of the hoard to retain (gap fillers, unique and rare types). These were independently valued by the TVC and they rewarded the finders and land owner. Nearly 2800 were disclaimed!  My Rauceby Hoard coins now appear on Ebay, Roma, Naville and CNG and I am pleased that these pieces of history end up in the hands of enthusiasts everywhere.

With hindsight perhaps I could have stored all my sold coin images.  I probably have pictures of about 80% of the 180 I have already sold, in my defence I am a terrible coin photographer, as my ebay pages demonstrate. 

Whow amazing finding such a hoard! Thanks for sharing

Great piece!
And learned a new English word as for mouse I know the word in Dutch (muis) but had to google translate shrew (spitsmuis) 😀

Earlier this year CNG auctioned The English Bicknor, Gloucestershire Hoard of Antoniniani.

2 hours ago, John Conduitt said:

It depends.

Ideally, you want a dealer who bought the original hoard or a significant portion of it, or is selling it on behalf of the finders e.g. Sebastian Sondermann Numismatics and the 2011 Pamphill Hoard, or Victor's Imperial Coins and the 1833 Mildenhall Hoard. In the past, many dealers have done the same.

There are dealers not on VCoins who sell whole hoards recently discovered e.g. Silbury Coins.

Otherwise, you need a dealer who can prove the provenance i.e. give a link to the Portable Antiquities Scheme record and for there to be a photo of the coin (not just a description). For example, Noonans auctioned the Vale of Pewsey Hoard as a whole (which in itself is great provenance) and you can see identifiable photos of the coins on the PAS page for the hoard.

Personally, I wouldn't buy any coins from the West Norfolk (aka Grimston) Hoard without seeing a photo of the coin on one of the many PAS pages, which are listed at the top of this thread.

Sometimes you can find the original hoard sale, and see the specific coin in the sale. An example would be the East Harptree Hoard, which was sold by Spink in 2016 and the coins are almost all identifiable. The Vale of Pewsey Hoard mentioned above is on the Noonans website.

Beyond that, you're down to trust, both in the dealer and the person who sold the coin to the dealer. VCoins dealers are likely more trustworthy, but I'm pretty sure they don't all do much due diligence on hoard coins. Perhaps someone mixed the labels up, or perhaps someone is trying to make their coin more saleable. Who knows. If the dealer has an old ticket that names the hoard or it has been in auction catalogues going back towards the date of the hoard find, all the better. Sometimes, there's provenance back to a very respectable collector, who is more likely to have checked or had privileged access to the hoard e.g. Lord Stewartby, Ken Bressett or RP Mack.

You should also check PAS for the make up of the hoard. I've seen coins advertised by respectable dealers as coming from hoards that didn't include coins from that emperor, and even hoards that don't exist. Perhaps someone along the line made it up, or wrote the wrong name on the card, which the dealer reproduces without research. Sometimes, the patina on a coin will match the hoard e.g. you can spot coins from East Harptree or Nether Compton just by looking at them.

The further down this list you go, the less sure it is to be correct. But there aren't huge numbers of falsely-labelled hoard coins out there...yet. They seem to be attracting a premium now (which they wouldn't not that long ago) so there's an incentive to mis-label.

The Pamphill hoard was originally sold by CNG; auction 103, lot 1295.

Nice coins!

Have a couple of Aurelians I can share:

@Furryfrog02, nice finds and @Octavius nice study.

I only have one Augustus coin in the collection; this one:

Augustus AR Denarius. Lugdunum, 8 BC. AVGVSTVS DIVI F, laureate head right / Gaius Caesar galloping right, holding sword and shield, eagle between two standards behind, C CAES above, AVGVS F in exergue. 

Quality not that good but still a decent piece that I got very early in my “collecting all sorts of Roman coins period” for a very good price.

Another one I can share is a special one and indicates that the Carausius minters also used Gallic coins as a basis for their rarer denominations.

Carausius clasped hands denarius overstruck on a Victorinus ant.

Was able to get this one in 2013. Description of the coin: The obverse shows hints of a radiate crown of the undertype, while the reverse shows a Sol standing left on the clasped hands. Based on the style and the fact that Carausius did overstrike a couple of Gallic ants, we can safely assume that the undertype is a Gallic Empire Antoninian. Since Postumus and Victorinus were the only Gallic emperors to use a standing Sol as reverse type, but Postumus' ORIENS AVG coins being of white metal, the overstruck coin must be a Victorinus Antoninian with INVICTVS around Sol reverse.

Strange that the auction house didn’t noticed this themselves…

13 hours ago, dougsmit said:

I am particularly happy to see the Postumus undertype.  In confirms my suspicion that Carausius made a habit of overstriking the lower silver Gallic coins.  I have not seen any of his on early Postumus or other coins with more silver content.  Have you? Mine over Victorinus / Salus has been shown many times but is repeated here.

 

The other regular overstriker was in the late reign of Trajan Decius (and family) where Severan denarii like my Geta became antoniniani.  The profit in doing this seems obvious.  I am not as clear on why Carausius did his. 

Hello Doug, indeed I suspect as well that it was for a time common practice for the Carausius minters to use low silver coins of the Earlier Gallic emperors. Haven’t seen any silvered ones or F.i. Tetricus coins that are used.

Here a example of a Carausius (PAX) one with a Victorinus undertype. One the reverse part of the crown and legend (VICTORI) is visible. 
 

Some great overstrikes!

I can share some from my collection.

1) Carausius overstruck on a Postumus 

CARAUSIUS AE antoninianus. Overstruck on an antoninianus of POSTUMUS. IMP C CARAVSIVS AVG, radiate, draped & cuirassed bust right. Reverse - PAX AVG, Pax standing left, holding branch & sceptre. 20mm, 2.4g. 

HOST COIN - POSTUMUS AE antoninianus. IMP C POSTVMVS P F AVG, radiate, draped & cuirassed bust right. Reverse - (in line with overtype reverse, lower legs and branch are clearly visible) PAX AVG, Pax standing left, holding branch & scepter.

Bought this one in 2012.

Sellers description and additional pictures:

An interesting portrait, at first it appears as though Carausius is helmeted, and drawn with a Pinnochio-esque nose. Further inspection reveals that the coin is in fact overstruck on a Postumus antoninianus and the phenomena is the remnants of a bust of Postumus (see attached photo). 

@shanxi & @Curtis JJ, thanks for the information and confirmation.

Dear all,

hope you can help me. Recently I bought this interesting bronze of Serdica:

Thrace, Serdica. AE 20, 11,23 g.

Obv.: AV ANTΩNEIN Λ OYHPOC; bust of Marcus Aurelius & Lucius Verus

Rev.: CEPΔΩN; bust of Isis? right

The seller send me this picture of a reference this type is in:

He didn’t however had the name of the reference for me…

As it is not my normal collecting field, don’t have any books on the coinage of Serdica and didn’t found the type pictured online I hope some can help me finding the reference.

From my own try:

From the numbering (12.7.30.1) I think it is in Hristova / Zhekov but it could also be in Moushmov or Varbanov (No. 1884?).

Many thanks for any help

Very interesting; never seen this type before. Many thanks for sharing 

@Spaniard, great way to display and enjoy your coins!

Curious about a coin I haven’t seen before. This one:

Could you share some info and if available pictures of it.

Thanks and enjoy our great hobby!

No not yet. Received last Wednesday probably the same e-mail you have got.

Saying that the invoice xxx is paid and the order will be processed in short order. Tracking number of shipment will be send within the next 10 working days.

@Harry G, congratulations with this great lot. Had the lot also on my watchlist but, besides the pre-bid I already placed, totally forgot to attend the live bidding 😒

Some really great coins in this lot; especially seeing them individually.

The first one you show is IMO also special as this SALVS AVG one has a dot in the right field.

I have the following two coins (die match with yours) of this type in my own collection and so far didn’t seen another one.

Sure:

VALERIAN I Antoninianus.
Colonia Agrippinensis mint

Obv: IMP VALERIANVS PIVS AVG. 
Radiate, draped and cuirassed bust right.
Rev: GALLIENVS CVM EXER SVO (translates into: Gallienus with his army)
Cippus inscribed IOVI/VIC/TORI in three lines, surmounted by Jupiter standing left, holding Victory and sceptre.

Gobl 867a

From Coining Images of Power by Erika Manders:

Same for me; “I don't usually collect Valerian but..”

I couldn’t resist getting this:

Some great coins here! I can add this Ostrogoths INVICTA ROMA one:

Whow impressive! Great collection and presentation in poster form.

Nice @Ocatarinetabellatchitchix created a new Postumus enthusiast. 👍😀

Here some of my Postumus coins:

Here my three Postumus Serapis coins.

With prow and transverse sceptre:

without prow and transverse sceptre:

With prow and straight sceptre:

Victorinus:

Tetricus I:

and without beard but to close the row (and because it is a great portrait): Tetricus II

Hello All,

my very first post on this great Forum! Couldn’t resist to post in this tread as I’m a “Gallic emperors” collector 😀

So here some of my coins.

Postumus:

Aureolus:

Laelianus:

my most bearded Marius: