Sol_Invictus

Link: crown

Alfonso XI, King of Castile, León and Galicia, 1312 - 1350 CE, Billon Dinero "Cornado", 18mm, 0.82g, 9h

Obv: Crowned bust Alfonso XI left, ALFONS REX

Rev: CAST ELL-ET LE-GIOnI, three towered castle fascade

Ref: AB# 337

ex. David Connors

Note: Alfonso XI is notable as the only reigning European monarch to die of the plague during the great black death of 1346 - 1353.

Link: Genius

Licinius I, AE Follis, 313-315 CE, Trier Mint, 21mm, 2.54g, 12h

Obv: LICINIVS P F AVG, Bust of Licinius, laureate, draped, cuirassed, right

Rev: GENIO - POP ROM, Genius, standing left holding patera and cornucopiae; TF in field; PTR in ex.

ex Den of Antiquity 2022; ex Huddersfield Collection 1979; ex Bourton on the Water Hoard 1970

Almost looks like someone was trying to cut out the Pegasos by drilling around it, but gave up halfway through when they realized what a dumb idea this was.

16 hours ago, dougsmit said:

My only Mamaea attracted my attention by being an unusual die clash where the damage was on the obverse rather than the reverse.

Interesting! I haven’t seen a die clash coin before. I gather that the feature that indicates the clash is the impression in the field just to the right of the bust?

3 hours ago, CPK said:

I don't understand really why the auction houses include that information if they aren't willing to explain. What is the point? I admit it does sound better to say the coin is from such-and-such collection, but it's ultimately meaningless unless further information is provided.

Perhaps there is still some information that you can glean from such a vague provenance in that you can see the other coins that are also stated to be from the same collection.  Maybe this can tell you some things? For example, if you can tell that the collection probably would have taken a long time to build (e.g., the collection contains every rare sub-variant for some type of coin, and these only show up every few decades, and rarely together), then maybe your prior probability for the date that any particular coin in the collection was acquired by the seller can be pushed somewhat back in time compared to an identical coin with no provenance stated at all.  You still wouldn't be able to tell with any specificity how far back the provenance extends for any coin in the collection (any one of them could have been obtained yesterday), but perhaps it's still a little hint that the coins may have been in a collection for a while?  

@ambr0zie - thanks for sharing your coins!  I like the dark toning on the first Maesa denarius. It looks very nice to me. That's too bad about the Geta vs Caracalla confusion. It's a nice looking coin, but I would have been disappointed too if I had been going for a Geta. Good points regarding the auction fees and avoiding getting into a bidding war. I haven't participated in many auctions yet myself (mostly just pre-bids that I end up losing, but I have had a few minor successes so far that way), so the tips!

@mc9 - wow - Maesa's face is very striking on your coin!

@Severus Alexander - thanks, that's a great suggestion!  It's been several months since I bought the coin, so the window may have already passed, but I might give it a try. Great looking denarius as well!

@DonnaML - thanks, those are good points to keep in mind!  I have noticed that dealers in person are usually willing to lower the price, especially when paying cash, but I haven't been to enough shows yet to meet a vcoins dealer who is selling a coin both in person and online.  Good point also about older coins that have been sitting on the shelf for a while being cheaper compared to the going rate.

1 hour ago, Severus Alexander said:

Back in the CoinTalk days, I put together a 200-coin checklist meant to cover roughly a thousand years starting with the dawn of coinage. Maybe you’ll find it interesting/helpful: https://www.cointalk.com/threads/history-checklist-the-ancient-world-in-200-coins.313927/ . (I’m hoping someone will!)

Wow, thanks for this list!  This is a very helpful indeed! It looks like I have about 25 of the categories filled in so far, only 175 to go 🙂.

1 hour ago, Severus Alexander said:

Here’s an obol of the first Sassanid shah, Ardashir I, when he was starting out on his conquests from his base in Persis:
 

That's a very interesting coin!  I like the bust on this one - the detail on the beard, and the eyebrows is nice.

46 minutes ago, Roman Collector said:

I like how thick and heavy they are in hand!

I totally agree!  I only have five large ( >~ 30 mm) bronze coins so far, but they are my favorite. They're just so nice to hold!

46 minutes ago, Roman Collector said:

I always thought that Julia Mamaea unfortunately looked more than a little like Pete Townshend.

Hah!  That hadn't occurred to me, but indeed there is a resemblance! 

46 minutes ago, Roman Collector said:

I went on a Mamaea bender a few years back and acquired almost every denarius and sestertius issued for her (the middle bronzes are much more challenging). Here's my FELICITAS PVBLICA seated sestertius.

Wow, that must be wonderful to see them all laid out together! Great coin too, I like the patina. Thanks for sharing!

Those are some absolutely lovely coins you all have, thanks for sharing!
 

I paid about $100 for the coin that I showed, so it was too much, but I don’t feel like it’s worth the effort to try to return it. It’s a good reminder to me to be more careful and do more research before buying coins in the future. 
 

My impression is that for a given coin the highest price for it will be at a coin show or a physical store, a bit less expensive on vcoins or similar, and then usually cheapest at auction. Is that what other more experienced collectors find to be the case as well?

I purchased the coin below at a show from a dealer who I had read is very well-regarded. Their inventory at the show was pretty much all high-end stuff, with this being, by several hundred dollars, the cheapest item they had available.  I had a great conversation with them, and they clearly knew a lot about all of their coins!  This coin was tagged as being a sestertius of Julia Maesa, and being new to the hobby, I assumed that was correct.  The dealer even told me a little about Maesa's life, and told me that her sesterces are not that common. However, when I got home and tried to find a RIC number for it I was surprised to see that this is clearly Julia Mamaea, not Maesa. Indeed, if I had been a little more careful and read the inscription before I bought it, I would have seen that it clearly states "IVLIA MAMAEA AVGVSTA" on the obverse (the legend is clearer in hand than in the image below).  I'm happy with the Mamaea sestertius, and had no specific goal of getting Maesa, so I'm not disappointed. I suppose the price was probably a bit high for Mamaea in this condition (it looked a bit on the low side for Maesa compared to listings on vcoins), but I don't think it's worth trying to return it. My lesson, though, is to carefully inspect and look up any coins before buying them in person.

Julia Mamaea, Sestertius, 222-235 CE, 30 mm, ~20 g, 12h; Obv: Bust, diademed, draped, right. IVLIA MAMAEA AVGVSTA. Rev: Felicitas, draped, seated left, holding caduceus in right hand and cornucopia in left hand. FELICITAS PVBLICA S C.; Ric IV Severus Alexander 679

Please share any Julia Mamaea or Julia Maesa coins, or any coins you have that turned out to be something other than what you thought they were when you bought them.

Yes, of course, thank you!  Now I see that actually I had written 95 AH on my paper tag for the coin, but had accidentally entered 93 AH in my database, which is what I used for this post. 😅 Thanks very much for the correction!

Thanks very much!

Hello everyone!  This is my first post on this forum, which I have found to be an extremely useful source of information.  I am still new to collecting ancient and world historical coins--I have been collecting for about a year, and have a modest set of 50 or so inexpensive coins (median cost of ~30 USD). For my first collection theme I've been trying to obtain approximately one coin per century per major culture (as arbitrarily defined by myself), spanning in time from the earliest production of coins to the modern day, and covering all geographic regions.  I've already broken the one coin per century rule for a few cultures, and I can see myself veering off into a deeper dive on some types of coins, but this is only a rough guideline that I'm following initially.  One of the things I've found enjoyable about collecting coins from all times/places is the opportunity to learn about different cultures, and the styles of coins and scripts that they used.  I also find the challenge of identifying coins that have not been fully attributed to be quite enjoyable.  Below are two coins that I've acquired for which only rough identifications were provided by the dealers. I was wondering if anyone on this forum who is more knowledgeable on these coin types could weigh in on the provisional determination of the mint and years that I have attempted for each of these.

The first coin is a Sasanian Drachma of Khusro II which I guess was poorly struck, and/or struck with rather worn dies. The mass is approximately 4g (I still need to get a scale that is precise to 0.01 grams, this is rounded to the nearest gram), the diameter is 32 mm, and the die axis is 2h. I obtained this from a brick-and-mortar coin shop, and the store keeper said they in turn had acquired the coin at the ANA coin show. Portions of the date and mint are visible on the reverse. My best guess for the date is regnal year 8 (599 CE), and for the mint is WYH (Veh-Kavad). These are my own photos - sorry if the lighting/focus makes it difficult to read. It's not much clearer in hand, or through a magnifying lens.

The second coin is an Umayyad Dirham which I obtained from the e-bay dealer Frascatius (2.83 g, 26.4 mm, 3h). The relevant portions of the obverse are reasonably clear, and it looks to me like this is the Wasit mint and the date appears to be 93 AH (713 - 714 CE; time of al-Walid I). 

Thanks in advance for any help!  I'm also happy to see anyone else's Drachmas, Dirhams, or whatever you'd like to post.