Coinmaster

@Qcumbor I vote for your great taste for beatiful coins! All are great, thanks for sharing.

The portret on the argenteus of Galerius/Maximianus is amazing..! Congrats!

38 minutes ago, LONGINUS said:

Congratulations @Coinmaster, on your Trajan acquisition, that’s a great find!

 

2022 has been an awesome collecting year and selecting one favorite is difficult.

I’ll go with my Tribute Penny.

Thank you @LONGINUS, your tribute penny is also awesome, congrats!

The other map links to specific information (in Dutch though) of each mint.

22 minutes ago, John Conduitt said:

It’s because it’s dative (‘to Trajan’), in the sense of dedicated to him. As to why his coins are dative and not most others, I don’t know!

Ah, never heard of this, thanks!

Thanks for sharing, great coins!

This book might be helpful, it gives a wonderful insight in Roman times.

Just.. wow!

Hi all, what was your best buy in 2022? Cheap or expensive doesn't matter, please just show the coin you're most happy about!

I'm very happy with this coin from Trajanus, which I bought for 275,- Euro via ma-shops.com. What I like is that both front and backside have enough details and that all the letters are readable. It's about my most expensive coin, but I think it's worth the price for this famous emperor.
Background info: https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces253046.html and https://numismatics.org/ocre/id/ric.2.tr.151. 

PS: I got a (maybe stupid) question about the text on the front side. The letters are: IMP TRAIANO AVG GER DAC P M TR P COS V P P, what's translated as: Imperator Traiano Augustus, Germanicus, Dacicus, Pontifex Maximus, Tribunicia Potestate, Consul Quintum, Pater Patriae. But I thought the name of the emperor is Traian (Trajan) or Trajanus, not Traiano (which seems to me Italian instead of Latin). Shouldn't it translate into: Imperator Traianus Optimus, Augustus, Germanicus, (etc.)?

PS: this site might be of interest as well: https://www.mittelaltermuenzen.com/the-coins.

Hi all,

soms years ago I bought the 'Droysens Allgemeiner Historischer Handatlas 1886'. It has beautiful maps, including from medieval times.
Fortunately for you, the maps are also online available via this link: http://www.maproom.org/00/08/index.php?fbclid=IwAR1gacS1F0qq3CND9xY_eZ50fMiH9-Bh_aOSHas7J4v8ftPKC44d-N6wSdc.

My favorite is plate 26/27, with alle the German states in detail, including The Netherlands (where I live): http://maproom.org/00/08/present.php?m=0026&fbclid=IwAR2YF-n2KfpTfejAR_f5OScZ-kDyW6xicN3XFCzTa29W99i-jKYWLO2SR8Y. You can zoom in on the map. Many of these areas from bishops, counts and dukes produced their own coins.
My favorite county is that from Kleve (1202-1347). I recently wrote this article about some medieval coins from Kleve in where I made clear coins with text 'NOSNEN' and 'HOSNEN' are to be attributed to the (currently Dutch) city Huissen: https://www.academia.edu/87244877/_2022_De_muntplaats_Nosnen_in_het_graafschap_Kleef.
 

A friend of mine created these interactive maps on my request and with my help. Perhaps it's of use to someone.

Anglo Saxon mints: https://detectoramateur.maps.arcgis.com/apps/dashboards/fe39b0dd6763400eb0c2f6efb44b97b4

Dutch/Belgian mints: https://detectoramateur.maps.arcgis.com/apps/dashboards/90e064b134534790b1c8a1e7f5fdc6a9

Interesting! 

7 minutes ago, shanxi said:

Still less than my Denar example with 85 charcters 

 

Yes, indeed! An impressive denarius, thanks!
https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces247839.html

I found a denarius from Trajanus with 58 characters (https://numismatics.org/ocre/id/ric.2.tr.237) and from Hadrianus with 64 characters (source: https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=1532185)!

HADRIEN (117-138), AR denier, 117, Rome. Droit : IMP CAES TRAIAN HADRIAN OPT AVG GER DAC B. l., drapé, cuirassé à droite. Revers : PARTHIC DIVI TRAIAN AVG F P M TR P COS PP Trajan et Hadrien en toge, debout face à face, tenant un globe entre eux. Ref.: BMC 237, 2; RIC 2c. 2,77g. Rare. Patiné.

See also: https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces254576.html

The 'winner'! One of the best examples I could find online (source: https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=175066).

Quote

TRAJAN. 98-117 AD. Æ Sestertius (27.91 gm). Struck 116-117 AD. IMP CAES NER TRAIANO OPTIMO AVG GER DAC PARTHICO P M TR P COS VI P P, laureate and draped bust right / ARMENIA ET MESOPOTAMIA IN POTESTATEM P R REDACTAE, S C across field, Trajan, laureate and in miltary outfit, standing facing, head right, holding reversed spear and parazonium; Mesopotamia seated left at feet, in attitude of mourning; to left and right, Tigris and Euphrates seated, vis à vis, each leaning on inverted urn from which water flows, and holding reed. RIC II 642; BMCRE 1033; Cohen 39. EF, beautiful brown and olive-green patina. Superb detail. Probably the finest specimen known. ($15,000)
Beginning in 114 AD, Trajan began his campaign against Parthia. The immediate cause of the war was the situation in Armenia, a strategic and semi-independent kingdom which acted as an important buffer between the two empires. Parthia's deposition of the pro-Roman king of Armenia with one that was pro-Parthian upset the tenuous balance and thereby threatened Syria's wealthy cities. Trajan's campaign againt Armenia was swift and decisive; by 115 AD, Armenia had been absorbed as a Roman province. To secure the eastern frontier, he then moved southward through Mesopotamia, capturing the Parthian capital, Ctesiphon, in 116 AD, bringing the "Cradle of Civilization" under Roman control. The reverse type on this coin is a direct allusion to Trajan's conquering of Mesopotamia, and is also interesting in that its personifications correspond to the actual geography of the region.

Many thanks for all replies!

@shanxi I believe your example count about 85 characters.

@Spaniard indeed this is a great example of a denarius. I recently bought this beautiful denarius from Trajanus, that count even 48 characters! Would that be a record for the denarius? It's quite a puzzle to figure this out, see: https://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=ERIC - TRAJAN.

@Ocatarinetabellatchitchix, your example with 96 characters seems indeed the winner, thank you!

Hi all,

I find the text on Roman coins fascinating and wonder: what is the longest text and/or title on a Roman coin? I think these are two questions:
1. most characters
2. most/longest titles

@DonnaMLperhaps you know this answer?

Perhaps it's this one from Trajanus (RIC 681): 
IMP CAES NER TRAIANO OPTIMO AVG GER DAC PARTHICO PM TR P COS VI PP

Perhaps you're familiar already with this great site: https://chat.openai.com/chat. The answer I received was:

Quote

 

The coin type that has the longest title on it is believed to be a bronze coin minted in the 3rd century AD during the reign of the Roman emperor Maximinus Thrax. The full title of Maximinus Thrax appears around the edge of the coin in abbreviated form and reads:

IMP(erator) CAES(ar) GAL(erius) VAL(erius) MAXIMINUS P(ius) F(elix) AVG(ustus) NOB(ilissimus) C(omm) F(ilius) N(oster) INVIC(tus) A(ugustus)

 

Not sure which RIC-number this is, so I don't have a picture for this example. But the example from Trajanus seems better.

Any remarks, additions? Thank you!

@Severus Alexander@SimonW and all others, many thanks for these great references!

I'm a big fan off acsearch myself and helped many detectorists with identifying their medieval and other coins. It's very useful when searching with only a few readable letters on a coin.

Three additions to the above links are: http://dirtyoldbooks.com/roman/id/ and https://www.forumancientcoins.com/moonmoth/ancientcoins.html and

https://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=ERIC - How To Use This Book

Many thanks for the nice replies!

Let me know if you have any questions whatsoever (determination, etc.). My main knowledge and period of interest is the 12th and 13th century in where population grows, cities and markets emerge and coins are made available to most people.

This Facebook group is nice to see what medieval coins are found in The Netherlands by metal detectorists: https://www.facebook.com/groups/853231181422839.

My main interest is in Roman silver coins. For now mainly from Augustus onwards. But my question was just in general. There is an overwhelming lot of websites, so I am just curious what kind of sites you're using (for whatever purpose: information, buying, research, etc.) and what you think might be relevant for others. Nothing more, nothing less. Have a nice Sunday!

Hi all,

This is my personal Academia site with my articles, mostly about medieval coinage: https://independent.academia.edu/AntonCruysheer.

For anyone who's doing research about coins in/from The Netherlands I wrote this English article with many tips:
https://www.academia.edu/85901040/_2022_A_method_for_coin_research_in_The_Netherlands

'Because many coin researchers of Dutch finds origins from outside The Netherlands, I thought it would be helpful to point out the locations as to where to find these coins. The places you can find coins I divided in six categories: coin and archeological repositories, museum collections and platforms, social media platforms, determination fora, and personal websites, auction houses and (private) collections, numismatic and archeological publications. - Enjoy your research!'

If you could share one website tip on Roman coins (beside this great forum :-)) what would it be?

My tip to share is this great website with superb background info about Roman emperors and relatives, etc.:
https://web.archive.org/web/20210921115830/http://www.roman-emperors.org/alphin.htm#a-inx.

My favorite portret is this beautiful Maximinus Thrax denarius I recently bought. Very happy with it!

16 hours ago, SimonW said:

Good question, @Severus Alexander. I can't talk for others, but I am just not that disciplined 🙂 That's why I don't set myself a "hard" limit in the first place. Instead, I usually have a rough range in mind. Many times I even go beyond that and keep bidding until I feel the next bid realy hurts. This said, I usually don't regret the coins I've bought, but the ones I didn't.

It also greatly depends on the coin. Is it one that I "must have" or one that would be "nice to have". In the area I collect and try to complete, there are many rare types that only turn up on the market every 10, 20 or so years and I usually don't want to risk to wait that long before I'll get another chance to buy one at an even higher price.

I bought some of the fractions in that sale. Here is the one that was the "must have" coin for me this time:

What is it? Never seen this anonymous type!