red_spork

My favorite victoriatus. I can't give any details about the cleaning process, I sent it to a professional who had it for a few months

Hopefully this guy can come to the party. He's just slightly bigger at about 13.5mm at the widest point measured by my calipers but you don't see these half victoriati often at all and you could be forgiven for mistaking them for a silver sestertius(even though they're about 40-50% heavier): Roman Republic AR Half Victoriatus(13.5 mm, 1.45g). Anonymous("VB" series). ca. 211-208 B.C. Uncertain mint(traditionally, Vibo Valentium). Laureate head of Jupiter right. Bead and reel border / Victory standing right, crowning trophy with wreath; VB ligate on exergue between; S to right. ROMA in exergue. Line border. Crawford 95/2 And of course my silver sestertii. Everyone needs one of these especially if you collect the later big bronze ones: Roman Republic AR Sestertius(12.75 mm, 1.14 g, 2h). Anonymous, first anonymous denarius coinage series. Circa 211 B.C. Rome mint. Helmeted head of Roma right; behind, IIS. Border of dots / Dioscuri galloping right; in linear frame, ROMA. Line border. Crawford 44/7; Sydenham 142; RSC 4; Russo RBW 176-177. Roman Republic AR Sestertius(12.7mm, 1.12g, 11h), Anonymous(Uninscribed sibling of Corn-ear series), 211-208 B.C., Sicilian mint. Helmeted head of Roma right with "spike" on rear of helmet; behind, IIS / The Dioscuri galloping right; below, ROMA in linear frame. Crawford 68/3; Russo RBW 284; Sydenham - I actually recently added an updated "denominations" photo to my website showing the relative sizes of all these types. Those interested can find it here.

Not worth $650. It's from the recent hoard that hit the market from the looks of it. The coins are 80-90% badly struck or with bad surfaces or both like this one and would not sell well to actual collectors but they're a slabber's dream because all are "MS" or "AU" and as such most have been sold by outfits like this that cater to people who know nothing about ancients

Finally getting around to photographing another recent pickup. I won this in the recently closed HJB Buy or Bid Sale, a post-semilibral cast(aes grave) triens, and a surprisingly rare type. Only 4 including this example on ACSearch. This triens is from the period and from a series minted during the changeover from cast to struck bronzes and as such overlaps with some of the earliest struck trientes. Roman Republic Æ Aes Grave Triens(29.5 mm, 25.20 g), anonymous, 215-212 B.C., Rome mint. Helmeted head of Minerva left; •••• / Prow left; ••••. Crawford 41/7a; Vecchi ICC 111; Haeberlin pl. 51 22-27 Berk shipped this coin remarkably fast but it went missing in the mail for 2 weeks. I was worried it was lost until it finally got an "out for delivery" scan out of the blue one morning and was in my mailbox an hour later

A rare half victoriatus, one of the rarest denominations of the entire Roman Republic series. I also shared it here in Phil's thread discussing his really amazing example of the type. Mine is an ugly looking coin but an important type for a collection like mine Roman Republic AR Half Victoriatus(13.5 mm, 1.45g). Anonymous(""VB"" series). ca. 211-208 B.C. Uncertain mint(traditionally, Vibo Valentium). Laureate head of Jupiter right. Bead and reel border / Victory standing right, crowning trophy with wreath; VB ligate on exergue between; S to right. ROMA in exergue. Line border. Crawford 95/2

I'm gonna revive this thread to share a coin I was very happy to recently be able to add to my collection. As is often the case, Phil owns perhaps one of the best examples known of the type and I own one of the worst, but I am happy all the same to own any example of this rare denomination: Roman Republic AR Half Victoriatus(13.5 mm, 1.45g). Anonymous("VB" series). ca. 211-208 B.C. Uncertain mint(traditionally, Vibo Valentium). Laureate head of Jupiter right. Bead and reel border / Victory standing right, crowning trophy with wreath; VB ligate on exergue between; S to right. ROMA in exergue. Line border. Crawford 95/2

And this is still one I somehow don't have either of the coins of. Nice coins! Yes I've been a huge fan of them for a few years now. They are really the best way I've found to store coins. I only store aes rude and aes grave separately since they don't fit my trays very well and I haven't really found a great way to store them.

I'm excited to share a couple of interesting coins I recently picked up and unlike most of my posts I'm going to post the pictures right here at the start: Confused? Think you're seeing double? This pair of coins are two different denominations from the same Crawford 26 series, a didrachm and drachm, respectively. A few of the predenarius didrachm issues have fractional pieces like this drachm but they are all considerably rarer than their didrachm siblings for reasons that aren't completely obvious. The types here seemingly have no extremely special meaning and seem to be recreating the second Roman didrachm, Crawford 15/1, which itself seems to have types inspired by the coinage of Arpi. Full IDs and a picture of both coins side by side so you can see the relative sizes: Roman Republic AR Didrachm(19mm, 6.64g, 3h), anonymous, circa 235 BC, Rome mint. Laureate head of Apollo right / Horse rearing left; above ROMA. Crawford 26/1; Sydenham 27; BMCRR Romano-Campanian 68; HN Italy 306 and Roman Republic AR Drachm(15mm, 3.19g, 8h), anonymous, circa 235 BC, Rome mint. Laureate head of Apollo right / Horse rearing left; above ROMA. Crawford 26/2; Sydenham 28; HN Italy 307; BMCRR Romano-Campanian 69b Privately purchased from a friend in February 2024, privately purchased by him from Andrew McCabe in 2022, ex Roma Numismatics Auction 9, 22 March 2015, lot 492

This isn't my absolute latest but it's part of my backlog I've been meaning to share for a bit. An interesting aes rude with crescent and cross stamps. The meaning of these stamps is not really clear but there are some documented finds around Etruria and later aes grave with similar symbols. Italy, Æ Aes Rude(19.64g), before 4th century B.C.. Irregular cast lump with u(crescent?) and +(star of 4 rays?), mark of value. Cf Vecchi ICC 2.2

I could be wrong but I suspect the auction houses do not control the listing on those sites when they're not actually auctioning the coins on them directly. I've seen this with a few others as well. I believe it's up to the platform to properly detect that a given coin is sold and what the current bid level is and it doesn't work right with some auction houses.

Thanks for the kind words! Yours is a really wonderful example of 46/1 that I've been impressed by ever since you emailed letting me know you'd won it a few years ago. Yours is a better example than mine in several ways and I really hope I can find one as nice as yours but with the spears one of these days. Your website and Pierluigi's papers on this issue have made me want to try and collect all the varieties of 46 though I suspect it will take a long time to fill the remaining slots.

This coin arrived safe and sound at my house yesterday. I was happy to see the toning was as beautiful in hand as expected from the pictures. Here it is beside my rather bright and untoned(despite almost 23 years of provenance) "46A" denarius which I shared back in the Cointalk days. Both of these varieties are very rare and in the 10 years I've been collecting I only recall seeing these two isolated examples of these varieties(46A and 46/1 with no lances) ever come up for sale so I am very to have been able to acquire both of them

You are correct. It is the Sicilian staff series

Sicily. It is a Crawford 68/1b, the anonymous (unsymboled) sibling of the Crawford 68/1a denarius with corn-ear mintmark. The stylistic hallmark of this series is the prominent spike on the back of the helmet that you can see on this denarius with symbol and this sestertius as well. The unsymboled quinarius and denarius are scarce but the ones with symbols are extremely rare and seem to come up for sale once every 5-10 years on average. Also note how close the denarii are in overall style, compare the shape of Roma's head and visor and the cape on the nearest dioscuri

It's a very odd looking coin for sure. I agree, it does look like a plated coin someone has applied some silver paint to to try to pass it as solid. The weight is basically impossibly low so I don't think there's any chance it's an official coin from the Rome mint of this period.