Valentinian

Here is a Roman provincial coin with a long legend: Macrinus and Diadumenian, 217-218Struck at Marcianopolis in Lower MoesiaAsklepios standing, head left, with snake on staff.21 around: AVK OΠΠEΛ CEVH MAKPEINOC(Autok[rater] Oppel[ius] Seve[rus] Macrinus)24 in three lines below the busts K M OΠΠEΛ AN/TΩNINOC ΔI/AΔOYMEC[aesar] M[arcus] Oppel[ius] Di/adume[nian]Reverse: 24 around VΠΠONTIANOV MAPKIANOΠOΛIT[moneyer] Ponitianus Marcianopolis2 below: ΩN (of)1 in field left: E (denomination)Total: 72 letters! (And, two obverse heads.)

Here is my page listing the full AE type set for Theodosius: http://augustuscoins.com/ed/ricix/TheodosiusSet.html Here is one of the scarcer AE types of Theodosius: AE3. GLORIA REIPVBLICE. Camp gate, cross-rho above, TES in exergue. Obverse with consular bust left. [The reverse is the same as type 38, next, but the flan is a bit larger.] 385 [DO, dated 385 because of the consular bust. p. 108] Only at Thessalonica. Theodosius 16 mm. 3.07 grams. 6:00. TES RIC Thessalonica 59b Struck for Valentinian II, Theodosius, and Arcadius. RIC says "scarce" but I say "rare" and seldom offered. From the very small sample of all the coins of this this type offered over the last 30 years, Theodosius examples have been the most available.

Trajan Decius (249-251) is credited with the well-known DIVI series honoring previous emperors, but they don't picture him. He was born in Lower Pannonia and issued "PANNONIAE" types and "DACIA" types which have claims to be iconic for him, but perhaps the type honoring his own army has the best claim. 22 mm. 3.19 grams. IMP C M Q TRAIANVS DECIVS AVG GENIVS EXERC ILLVRICIANI (Spirit of the Illyrian army) Emperor holding out patera (sacrificing) over altar, cornucopia in his left arm, standard behind on the left. RIC 17b. Foss 5a [AD 249]

There is another type with ELAGAB in the legend: It shows the quadriga which carried the stone of Elagabal (which can be seen where the driver would otherwise be) from Edessa, its home, to Rome. According to Herodian, Elagabal walked backward in front of the chariot the whole way (and it was a six-horse chariot). 17 mm. 2.88 grams. RIC 195d. BMC 284-6. Sear II 7545. Struck 218-9 [BMC] This coin ex NFA winter mbs 14 Dec. 1989, lot 990, ex. Dr. Paul Stadler Szego collection.

For Aeilus, designated heir of Hadrian (117-138), I nominate the PANNONIA reverse. Aelius was governor of Pannonia when chosen to be Caesar, but he predeceased Hadrian. Sestertius. 30 mm. TR POT COS II, struck 137 at Rome. PANNONIA and SC across the field. Sear II 3981. RIC (Hadrian) 1059.

That's a very impressive selection. You can be proud of every one. I'm sure it is not the most valuable, but I really like the strike and flan of the Justinian, Ostrogothic, tremissis.

This seller, numis-gallery, has been on the fakesellers list: http://augustuscoins.com/ed/fakesellers.html since August. Note that the surfaces are porous or uneven, unlike well-struck silver. It is too bad there is no way to get eBay to remove criminal sellers. Repeated reporting to them of a firm as a fakeseller does no good. They do not remove the seller. eBay provides a way for criminals to bilk victims. Now they even collect the money and pass it on. Is there no way to make eBay responsible for facilitating criminal activity?

It is difficult to pick a single reverse type for Philip I, 244-249. However, his coins are famous for celebrating the saecular games and the lion is the most famous animal at games, so I propose this type: SEACVLARES AVGG Lion right, officina number "I" below, so they, too, thought it was the main type of the series. 22-20 mm. 4.41 grams. RIC 12. Foss 21 "247-8"

Here is a link to an example: http://augustuscoins.com/ed/MATRI/ The resemblance to the first coin in this thread is remarkable. Thank you, @curtislclay, for pointing that out. I added your comments, attributed to you, to my web page: http://augustuscoins.com/ed/AntiochPisidia/AntiochPisidia.html Here is another coin from that page: Septimius Severus, 193-21133 mm. 26.17 grams.IMP CAES L SEP SEVERVS PER AVGMên standing right, crescent behind shoulders, holding long staff and Victory with trophy on globe and left foot on a tiny prow. A small rooster is on the ground to the left. The left arm resting on a column suggests this is an image of a statue.SNG Copenhagen VI, Pisidia, Antioch 28.Von Aulock III 4924

For Maximinus Thrax (235-238), I nominate Late style.VICTORIA GERMStruck late 236-237 [BMC] for victories over the GermansBMC 186Sear 8318 (photo in this late style--the only style for this reverse)

This coin has IC XC NIKA in small letters either side of the head of Christ. The Byzantines had no "J" and used "I" and the "C" is a lunate "S". "X" is chi, our CH. This is "JesuS CHristuS NIKA" which means "Jesus Christ Conquers". This is a common legend on late Byzantine coin reverses and the "IC XC" part is very common on obverses, too. It is less common to see the "NIKA" part on obverses, but here is a recent purchase with it. . Romanus IV, 1068 - 1071. Romanus IV is most famous for losing the disastrous Battle of Manzikert in 1071. It greatly weakened the empire by ceding to the Seljuq Turks the east and the central plateau of modern Turkey. (More about Romanus IV below.) Sear 1866 30-27 mm. 8.41 grams. 6:00 die-axis as is usual for late Byzantine AE. Pitch black. Obverse: IC XC / NI KA (with bars above which mean they are abbreviations) either side of the bust of Christ. The coin has the same facing bust of Christ found on anonymous folles. Reverse: Square cross with X in center and large pellets at the ends, C R ["C" is a lunate "S". "R" is an epigraphical form of "B"] ΣΤAYΡЄ BOHΘЄI "O Cross, help" [the "R" is deformed by the overstrike on anonymous Class H or I-- you can see traces of the undertype's reverse floral ornament with its bottom at 12:30 and a bit of the design around the "C"] P Δ in the quadrants of a cross (with an X at the center) for "Romanus Despot/emperor" RΩMANΩ ΔЄCΠOTH So the reverse legend greatly abbreviates "O cross help Romanus emperor" or "May the cross help Romanus, emperor." as translated on this page: http://augustuscoins.com/ed/Byz/legends.html which translates Byzantine-coin legends. When Romanus IV lost the Battle of Manzikert he was captured by the Seljuq sultan Arp Arslan, who, after obtaining significant concessions, released Romanus to go home. It was a master stroke, splitting the Byzantines into opposing camps. The remains of the army had promoted Michael VII, Ducas--the proper heir, the son of Constantine X , to emperor not long after the battle. When Romanus was unexpectedly released and returned to Constantinople he found it already had a new emperor. Constantinople was in possession of the Ducas family of Constantine X and his young son Michael VII who was really under the control of his advisor Psellus who wrote the extant book Fourteen Byzantine Rulers. (The book is an inexpensive Penguin Classic paperback, as low as $1.64 plus shipping on Amazon). Romanus lost his bid to reclaim the throne, was blinded, and sent to a monastery in 1078. Byzantine AE is rarely in top condition, but it has great stories! Show us a Byzantine coin with "IC XC NIKA"!

Leu knows this is not needed for Wise.com, so they have agreed to let me remove the 12 CHF fee and just pay the rest.

Not only does paying with PayPal usually incur an extra fee (to cover the fact that the seller gets about 4% less than you send), they also give a very unfavorable exchange rate, 4% worse than Wise.com, making a total of about 8% in PayPal fees. In contrast, the total fees for Wise.com are about 1%. Why should we give PayPal 8%?

The coin has TRP X making it in the tenth year of Commodus, which is when his decennalia was. The decennalia was specifically for the current emperor's tenth year. For more about vota coins, see: http://augustuscoins.com/ed/VOTA/ A type of Gallienus combines the "Victory inscribing a shield" design with the "DECENNALIA" spelled-out legend. Gallienus. 253-268. 22-21 mm. Struck 262-263 at Mediolanum (for his 10th year) GALLIENVS AVG VOTA DECENNALIA around Victory inscribing shield on palm tree, P in field left RIC V.I 540 Very rare. Cunetio 1352-4 had 11 examples with this legend, none with the "P", among 14,429 coins of Gallienus and Salonina.

This reprint (amazingly) got the title wrong on the cover. It is really Historical References on Coins of the Roman Empire. Foss's book is a greatly expanded version of the same idea. C.H.V. Sutherland wrote Roman History and Coinage, 44 BC - AD 69, (1987) which has long quotes from ancient historians and the associated coins. When I got my copy I thought it had been misprinted because photos were missing, such as figures 1a and 1d. They had captions, but no corresponding photos. Maybe someone knows how that actually happened, but I think Sutherland died before the book came out and they just published what he had already been assembled, which did not include all the photos he wanted. It has most of the expected photos, but far from all. I suppose he could have purposely described four coin types that illustrate a quote of an ancient author and decided two photographs were enough, but it is disconcerting. This book differs from Foss by giving far more context for each type cited, but it only covers up to AD 69. If you collect the twelve Caesars you will want Sutherland's book.

Yes, wise.com is excellent.

Prior to the publication of this book I took extensive notes on the historical reverses on Roman imperial coins. My main focus, when getting a coin of an emperor, was to get one that connected to his history. When this book came out I no longer needed to identify historical reverses myself. I recommend this book highly. I agree that Trajan is a good emperor to collect because his has many historical types. Here is my page on some of them, with special emphasis on coins celebrating his Dacian victories : http://augustuscoins.com/ed/Trajan/ Here is one on that page: Trajan. Denarius.Denarius. 19-18 mm. 3.09 grams.IMP TRAIANO AVG GER DAC PM TRPLaureate head rightCOS V PP SPQR OPTIMO PRINCDANVVIVS below river god reclining left, head right, cloak floating above, his right hand rests on a ship's prow and his left elbow on a tipped urn from which flows water.RIC 100. Struck 107-111. Sear II 3138.DAC in the obverse legend shows this was minted after he was awarded the title Dacicus.

I collected Roman coins for over 30 years before I got my first Roman imperial quinarius. I still have an old paper "want list" of mine dated 1998 with "Trajan quinarius" on it. In 2006 I finally got a quinarius, but of Hadrian, which was not my first choice. I hadn't found a Trajan so I settled. Republican quinarii are much more available and I have some, so I was able to write a website on the denomination: http://augustuscoins.com/ed/quinarius/ Well, yesterday the drought was broken and my Trajan quinarius arrived. Here it is, at first compared to a denarius (Photos are to scale. I would take them side by side, but the denarius is in the bank). Notice they have the same obverse legend. The legend seems long on the denarius, so the letters have to be smaller on the quinarius. There are 30 of them around and if the legend went all the way around it would be 35 mm long (diameter to the middle of the letters is 11.2 mm and that times 3.14 = 35.2 mm.) That works out to only 1.17 mm per letter. Quinarius, 14.6-13.7 mm. Denarius 18 mm. Obverse legends: IMP TRAIANO AVG GER DAC PM TRP COS V PP Reverse legends: SPQR OPTIMO PRINCIPI Quinarius RIC 281, King Trajan 54 (52-56 are all very similar) Denarius: RIC Trajan 203. Trajan was COS V from 103 to 111. Here is a hugely enlarged photo so you can read it: Show us some other quinarii or other coins with tiny letters!

Some large provincials were minted for Commodus. Here is one that is especially impressive for it size: 40-38 mm. You can't tell the size of a coin from a photo unless you already know how large the coin is, so I put a US cent in the photo for comparison. It is huge! Minted at Aegeae in Cilicia, CY 234 = AD 187/8. AVT KAI M AV KOMMOΔOC AN Bust right, laureate, draped, and cuirassed. Countermark of Victory, Howgego 258, applied to both sides. KOMOΔIANωN AΔPIANωN AIΓEAIωN ΔΛC Diademed and draped bust of Asklepios right with serpent before Roman Provincial Coinage IV.3 online 9754 [temporary] Ex Leu 10 lot 834, December 2019.

The New York Times has an article about a hoard of gold Celtic coins stolen from the Celtic and Roman Museum in Manching, Bavaria, Germany. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/23/world/europe/germany-gold-coins-theft.html The gold value alone is said to be 250,000 euros. Of course, the numismatic value is far more, but not so easy to realize.

@hotwheelsearl is right that his coin has an unusually long legend for Gallienus. Here is another one: IMP C P LIC GALLIENVS PF AVG (Publius Licinius [Egnatius] Gallienus) 253-268. RESTITVT ORIENTIS It may be that Valerian and Gallienus restored the east (it is not clear if there were two campaigns or one and they may have had success in the first), but if they did, the restoration didn't last long. As we know, Valerian was captured and Gallienus had so many other problems that he did not try to get him back.

I'm a big fan of Byzantine history of that period. I wrote a web page with some of the story of Constantine VII: http://augustuscoins.com/ed/Byz/ConVII.html Here is the first coin on that page. This type is almost always poorly overstruck, usually on coins of Romanus I which were removed from circulation. This coin is clearer than usual. Constantine VII, 913-959 Struck 945-950 26 mm. 6.77 grams.Facing bust of Constantine VII, holding globus cruciger in left hand CONST bA - SIL ROM around ["N" looks like "h" on these coins] "Constantine, emperor of the Romans" Four line reverse legend: CONST/EҺ ΘЄO bA/SILЄVSR/ROMЄOҺ "Constantine, in God (by the grace of God), ruler of the Romans" Sear 1761. Here is the web page, again: http://augustuscoins.com/ed/Byz/ConVII.html

I got one from a different issue from Cyzicus: This one also has the long legend and the "NN" spelling: VAL LICINNIANVS LICINNIVS PF AVG GENIO AVGVSTI (without "CMH" that the OP coin had)Genius standing, altar to leftSMKRIC VI Cyzicus 100 "c. 312-3"

George C. Brauer, Jr. wrote "The Age of the Soldier Emperors," (1975) which I loved when I was beginning collecting. In his preface he says he is a professor of English and "... my hobby, the collecting of Greek and Roman coins. The hobby developed into an enthusiasm, if not an obsession, and led me into reading in the fields of ancient history and culture." "It my have been partly because coins of the mid third century after Christ are plentiful that I became especially interested in that age." My development is similar, and I'll bet some other NF members could say the same. To show a coin, here is one of Philip: PAX FUNDATA CVM PERSIS (Peace founded with Persia). This type was struck after the retreat from Persia (under the Sasanians) after the death of Gordian III. The retreat became necessary even after the successes of Gordian III because Philip undermined Gordian's authority with the army which lead in the murder of Gordian. Philip took over in 244.

Seleucia ad Calycadnum was a city in Cilicia founded under Seleucus I. Now it is called Silifke. (Map from Wikipedia) Here is a Roman provincial coin from Seleucia ad Calycadunm. (Calycadnum is the name of a river: "Seleucia on the river Calycadnum.") This coin is a whopping 37.3 to 36.2 mm and 26.17 grams. AVT K M IOVΛΙΟΨ ΦΙΛΙΠΠΟC CEB, radiate, draped, cuirassed bust of Philip I right. (Julia in the legend is a family name of Philip) CEΛEVKEΩN TΩN ΠPOCTΩKAΛ EΛEVΘEP in exergue, Confronted busts of Artemis/Tyche (with modius) and Apollo, small branch between. Letters between the busts uncertain, maybe KAK/AC SNG Levante 777-8, SNG France 2, 1039-1042 (all with different letters between the busts, none with this combination) To grasp the size, here it is with a US half dollar: Show us some coins from this city!