Svessien

I've felt a relief every time I've seen him post ever since he told about his condition. Good to hear he's around and staying optimistic.

I have a template on Word where I make 3x4 48x48 mm frames that I fill with the text I want about the coin. Then I print it out on art paper (for water colors painting) and cut them with a paper cutter. A bit of work, but the coin cards turn out good enough for me.

I don't have an answer to your question, but stars are interesting and I commend you for the die matching and good observation work you have done. I myself have been wondering why Bohemund III, a crusader king, has an inverted pentagram on some of his coins, and an upright one on others, in addition to a horizontal crescent moon. We may never know, but reading the theories on this thread is at least interesting and entertaining.

After having been alive for 50 years, I have finally picked up the Bible. I find it a very interesting book, although this desert god in the old testament is a rather unsympathetic figure.... Also, I came across a book that I knew I needed to have: "The book of symbols". It even has a coin in it.

Here's my defaced coin. It's not a fouree. I believe it's a result from a "damnatio memoriae" decree. Pescennius Niger, 193–194 AD Denarius, Antiochia 193 AD. Damnatio Memoriae? Obverse; IMP CAES C PESCE NIGER IVST, Laureate head right. Reverse: MINER VICTRIS, Minerva standing facing, headleft, holding Victory and spear. Reference: RIC 60, RCV 6117, BMCRE 309 Sixe: 18 mm. Weight: 3.57 g. Conservation: Scratches, flan damage: cleaned - Rare. "The battle of Issus took place on 31 March 194, and Pescennius Niger was defeated. According to the historian Cassius Dio, 20,000 people were massacred. Pescennius tried to flee to his ally, the Parthian king Vologases V, but he was intercepted by the soldiers of Severus before he could cross the Euphrates. His reign had lasted less than one year. He was killed and his head was sent to Byzantium in order to induce the defenders to surrender. Severus punished Pescennius' adherents and sent his family into exile. The Senate convened and pronounced a damnatio memoriae."

A very nice coin, Doug. Congrats. Great pictures, as always. Sear GCV 5788 looks similar, but all the AEs from Paphos in Sear have head of Aphrodite left. I think Broucheion may be on to something.

This is a bit hard, as two rules of thumb are set against each other: 1. Don’t buy a coin you don’t actually like. 2. Don’t wait too long when looking for difficult pieces. They will keep getting more expensive, and eventually move out of reach. I’m definitely leaning towards not buying here, though. It sounds like you don’t like the coin at all. Let’s say you buy it for a ridiculous amount of money, get it in hand and have to work with yourself to enjoy it, and then a sample that you really like and gladly would have paid double the price for, shows up? I think I’d hold.

I believe that would be Bacchus, the man behind the ancient Bacchin Soda.

Not sure if I’ve ever gotten a book as smelly as yours, but I have quite a few that come from the man cave of a smoking numismatist, so there is little to remind one of flowers and perfume. I tend to think that the odor is from my rotting brain. What else can cause me to spend salary after salary on smelly books and coins that don’t work anymore.

Great post and coin, Nero’smyfav. I have stayed away from Byzantine coins most of my collecting years (started in 2003), but got bit by the bug two years ago. I’m also slowly picking up the solidii, starting with Zeno and Anastasius. I recently bought Heraclius, and only lack Justin II and Tiberius Constantine among the easy early ones. I have a question: The auction house stated this coin as Sear 291, Rome mint (DOC 320e). I didn’t fully trust that, but haven’t been able to rule it out either. It’s either Sear 291 (Rome) or the far more common Sear 140. I notice there is a 6-pointed star (as described in Sear 291), but Sear doesn’t say how many points the star on 140 has….. Sear also describes the Rome mint as “more spread fabric”, but I haven’t seen enough of these to discern different fabrics. What do you think?

Really likable coin and even better writing! I agree with your assessment of Constantius II. He really can’t have had an easy job, with his brothers and cousins around. Plus all the rest! I feel his father has gotten an undeservedly good reputation, and the son an undeservedly bad one.

Presumably the present copy was annotated live in 1974 by Hermann Lanz (or Gitta Kastner or the owner of one of the other libraries absorbed by Lanz). Once I have the document I’ll know more. Really nice to see you got your hands on some literature from that auction. I considered bidding myself, but concluded that my coin literature budget is close to spent for this year. My most important purchase was the first 6 BMC volumes of Roman Imperial Coins. I’ve also bought “The coins of Troy” by Bellinger, one volume of SNG Copenhagen, “Ancient Greek and Roman coins vol. 1” by Sear, plus some more antiquated works that are more collectibles than usable material now. I’m now waiting for coins instead. These two are in fact waiting for me down at the post office. Here’s Yazdgird I (399-420) and Varham V (420-428) from the Sasanid empire. I need some reading up on Sasanid coins, when I come to think of it. Any recommendations for books or web pages, anyone?

Hi shanxi Thanks. Could you please point out which 2-3 coins you consider to be tooled?( Didn’t occur to me that any of them were. )

I’m waiting for an interesting group of coins from the last Savoca auction. These coins were 15-25 euro each, so I’m quite happy to see it’s still possible to get a collectable ancient coin for that.

Really glad to see a Parthia expert here, Alwin. I hope Parthicus will contribute to this board too.