Amarmur

Here is a Lucilla sestertius with Pietas. She is a pretty coin and her coins are usually cheaper than more popular empresses like a high grade Faustina II

I'm not embarrassed by these as much as I hate the condition 

Commodus as Hercules found in a group lot. Toasted lol

Nero denarius horn silver galore but paid $20. 

6 hours ago, lordmarcovan said:

I was after Caligula for my Twelve Caesars collection.

I did battle over some nice ones at auction, but lost badly (the ones I bid on went for crazy prices!) So I dialed back my expectations a little bit, and ended up buying one at fixed price, from Zuzim on VCoins.

Now I have ten of the Twelve Caesars (83% complete) as of this post, and lack only Julius Caesar and Vitellius!

This Caligula is no showboat, but rather just a middle-of-the-road example with decent-looking surfaces and lightly contrasting patina. Zuzim described it as "VF", but I'm more of the opinion that it will go Fine when I send it off to NGC (we'll see). I'd be OK with that- as long as it achieves that grade with no problem notations. (Fine is my self-imposed minimum grade for my collections.)

Zuzim's description:
 

"GAIUS CALIGULA AE AS

RIC 38, RSC 27, Very Fine, 27.5mm, 11.22 grams, Struck Circa. 37/38 C.E.

Obverse: C CAESAR AVG GERMANICVS PON M TR POT around bare head of Caligula to left

Reverse: Vesta seated to left on ornamental throne, holding patera and scepter, VESTA above

An above average, problem free example of this popular type with nice eye appeal!

Ex: VJM Collection, NJ Purchased from Tom Cederlind, 1982".

Having a piece pedigreed to the late Tom Cederlind is kind of nice.

Great portrait and patina ! I like it a lot. 

Hi, I have some ancients I bought in bulk. Would love some help with id. These are my best guesses. Thanks.

1. Geta as Caesar provincial blue green patina size around 18/19 mm. Goddess with scepter on reverse.

2. Pseudo anonymous provincial Hercules and club on reverse like 20 mm

3.  Half Follis Justinian officina E Constantinople mint 

. 

4.  Constans II Follis? irregular flan 

Sorry I don't have the weights

I had a toxic interaction at a coin show. A dealer acted like a total jerk. I was interested in one coin an unattributed ancient which was a sestertius of Trajan. I said it was cool hold for me. I went to the bathroom, 5 minutes later another dealer bought from him "because he saw and sniped an opportunity right out of my fingers" and then will probably sell it for 10 times the price. People can be jerks. I won't go after someone's target out of common respect. Like there are a decent amount of ancients out there and all of my targets are more or less available. I will not deal with either of those dealers again because that is just slimy and disgusting behavior towards collectors.  
 

PM me if you wanna talk. I'm not exactly an expert but I do love ancients. 

3 minutes ago, AETHER said:

@Amarmur I bid on that Cleo! Was shocked how high it went.

Yeah I really liked the portrait too. I overpaid a bit. 

Here are a few a value quite a bit

Tribute penny Tiberius

Cleopatra VII obol (on the way)

Brutus 

All important and coins I dreamed about getting when I first started to collect ancient coins. 

On 4/28/2024 at 10:00 AM, Nerosmyfavorite68 said:

That's pretty cool!  I don't have that type.

Wouldn't it have been easier to save a picture or printscreen option?

Here are some better pictures. Sorry I didn't think of taking a screen shot at the time I guess I got too excited.

I got a Brutus coin from Savoca on vcoins. This type features Libertas and a very interesting reverse type. The coin reverse features Brutus's ancestor walking among lictors (civil servants) 500 years back when Rome was a monarchy. The coin was was minted in 54 BC. I was debating on getting a portrait type from the same year but I like this one better. Post your imperatorial coins.

I don't have any Quietus but I'll throw in my Shapur into the mix.

What an interesting character. He was the villain in Roman history but he was like Trajan to the Sassanians 

Here are my two Carthage coins. Neither are from the time of the second Punic war but they are very pretty coins. I love the detailed portrait of a horse. Carthage was known and famous for horses. Probably that coin will be on my top coins list of 2024. 

Continuing 

Caligula AS nice shape vesta

 Otho - great portrait denarius 

Vitellius - ugly

Claudius - more interesting reverse and expressive portrait Constantia reverse is neat

Domitian - It's ok has Minerva and owl on the reverse 

Titus - Judea Capta type neat

Vespasian Judea Capta denarius low grade

My set highlights: Tiberius, Caligula, Nero, (maybe Claudius if it wasn't for the scratches), Otho

Needs an upgrade: Domitian, Vespasian, Vitellius (idk I find him too boring) 

Here are a few in my set

Divus Julius Caesar and Octavian Macedon - I like the counter mark.

Augustus - Antioch I like this portrait of Augustus the best

Tiberius - Tribute penny classic

Nero - Dupondius Great portrait and Roma reverse 

Galba - Dupondius Felicilats worn circ cameo 

I wonder if Lugdunum made all the denarii for Tiberius. That mint seemed to have a lot of different engravers seeing the variety of portraits. A lot of wonderful coins. I can't say tribute pennies are the nicest art pieces of Rome but they sure are varied and cool 

18 hours ago, CPK said:

Denarii of Severus Alexander are not hard to find in excellent condition, but even so this one struck me as something special.

- crisply and evenly struck on a wide flan of good quality metal, allowing full dotted borders on both sides

- very heavy, too, at nearly 4 (!) grams in weight

- a very fine, high-relief portrait

- the reverse is sharp as well (look at the detail in Sol's face!) with lustrous fields

- and to top it off, the coin is beautifully toned, highlighting the design and relief.

It may not command much attention among the EF aureii in a high-profile auction, but it's about as good as you'll get IMO! 😉 

 

Thanks for looking, and feel free to post your own quality favorites, coins of Severus Alexander, or anything else!

SEVERUS ALEXANDER, AD 222-235
AR Denarius (20.28mm, 3.95g, 6h)
Struck AD 233. Rome mint
Obverse: IMP ALEXANDER PIVS AVG, laureate and draped bust of Severus Alexander right
Reverse: P M TR P XII COS III P P, Sol, radiate with cloak over left shoulder, advancing left, holding whip in left hand and raising right hand
References: RIC IV 120, RCV 7915
A superb specimen, with lovely old cabinet toning, sharply struck on a broad and heavy flan.

Very nice Severus Alexander. The engravers at this time period were really top notch I noticed. The Severans have really great portrait quality vs the Flavian Dynasty which was all other the place. I still can't find a decent portrait of Vespasian on a denarius. Idk if it's the high silver content or they were too mad about taxes to make Vespasian look less constipated.

Lugdunum made some really nice Nero portraits as well. 

@John Conduitt Yours is great and your Tiberius doesn't look as old as mine

@Edessa Wonderful piece, I like the golden tone

@Postvmvs I'm a sucker for imitations too, especially wild ones of Tetricus and Tetricus II very common but some are like abstract art

@Severus Alexander Wow that Indian imitation is quite close to the original! 

@AETHER not a bad budget piece

A common, yet moderately expensive coin. 

This was a hard choice to make. I think i got a decent one. Many of the portraits on the tribute penny look like Augustus. I bought this one because it's very distinctly Tiberius. It has a lot of personality, but Tiberius wasn't exactly good looking. Post your tribute penny.

Color and toning on ancients is nice. Here are a few. My favorite is my Julia Domna Hilaritas with rainbow toning. The Faustina with Juno has golden toning which is cool. My Vespasian denarius has dark cabinet toning. The Gordian III Antoniannius is pretty colorful. 

15 minutes ago, O-Towner said:

It's a coin of Sardis Lydia. Here's the link:

https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=7451963

 

Thank you! I appreciate it. 

This is a great field. Sassanian art is unappreciated. Here is Ardashir I the first Sassanian ruler and Shapur I, Rome's worst nightmare. These two are my favorite rulers. There are like 40ish Sassanian rulers, most common is Khosrow I, Khosrow II, Peroz I, and Hormizid IV. 

2 hours ago, lordmarcovan said:

Just bought this for my growing Twelve Caesars set, which is now 3/4 of the way to completion, with nine emperors down and three to go!

It's actually the first time I've done business with Ritter. Boy, they sure use small pictures, huh? Still, it looks pretty nice to me.

Roman Empire: ca. 68-69 AD silver denarius of Galba



Galba: 68-69 AD, Denarius July 68-January 69, Rome. 3.29 g. RIC 186.

Obverse: Laureate head right, IMP SER GALBA CAESAR AVG.

Reverse: DIVA AVGVSTA, Livia holding patera and scepter. Good Very Fine (per Münzhandlung Ritter).

Ex-Münzhandlung Ritter GmbH, Düsseldorf, Germany (via MA-Shops store), 6 April 2024.

Wonderful portrait! Mine is kinda ugly but it has a worn circ cameo kinda which makes up for it.

Hey I was looking into buying this. It appears to be a Roman provincial medallion. The diameter is 27mm and the weight is not listed. I think it's from the Nerva- Antonine period but perhaps later. Will appreciate the help identifying this piece.

This indo Greek coin of Menander I was an impulse buy it was relatively inexpensive and really beautiful. I like the Bhuddist wheel on the reverse or it could just be dangling clothes. The heroic bust type is also neat. It was inspired by the Heroic bust of Eukradites. Bactria seems like a very interesting field to enter but my wallet doesn't agree lol. 

3 flea market buys I paid $25 for 3 coins the Carthage horse is especially stunning. The Cimmerian Bosporus coin is pretty neat and the Syracuse bronze is common but is in around Fine shape I seen a lot worse. 
 

My best eBay find was this Lucius Verus Sestertius for $20. It was unidentified. It is an Armenia Capta coin!

Beautiful Trajan. My favorite Trajan coin features the bridge over the Danube