Valentinian

@DonnaML and @Ocatarinetabellatchitchix, thank you! Those are just the sorts of links I wanted. They are now on my page: http://augustuscoins.com/ed/references.html Let me know about more good links!

Doesn't anyone know of a website like this? 1) It is about the coins of a particular Roman emperor and 2) I didn't list the site on my page. http://augustuscoins.com/ed/references.html I want to make it as useful as possible. Help by posting pages worth bookmarking.

I have a web page with links to sites about coins of particular Roman emperors. http://augustuscoins.com/ed/references.html I just updated it and checked the links. (Unfortunately, many pages with links have lots of broken links.) A number of good pages have disappeared, at least with their former internet address. If you know of other sites devoted to the coins of a particular emperor, let us know and I will add them to that page. You might bookmark it.

I'd pick #3. I'd love the have the chance to buy lots of coins again, now that I have the knowledge acquired since I started.

I, the too, like Gallienus zoo series. Here is mine of that type: 19 mm. 3.61 grams. RIC 163. Sear III 10177. There is a webpage by Jim Phelps: https://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=Gallienus Zoo about zoo types with relative numbers in the huge Cunetio hoard.

Helena, capitol of Montana. 19-18 mm. 3.18 grams. Helena, Mother of Constantine (307-337) RIC Siscia 204 Sear IV 16609

I recently bought this coin at an auction: It is a denarius of Sabina, wife of Hadrian who reigned 117-138. With a search I found some better examples and wrote a short web page about how condition affects price. http://augustuscoins.com/ed/quality/condition.html Take a look. I hope it is food for thought. Let's make this a thread on how NF members balance the competing factors of condition and cost. What are your thoughts?

@John Conduitt, thank you! That works!

Sometimes I want to look back and see my own contributions. How can I find them? The "Activity" link come up like this: I can easily find "Content I started". I can find threads that fit "Content I Posted In", but that does not take me to my contribution, just the thread as a whole. If the thread is long, it can be hard to find my particular post. For that matter, how do I find the posts of any particular member?

Two weeks ago I posted here about my new webpage on Gordian III at Antioch in Pisidia. http://augustuscoins.com/ed/AntiochPisidia/AntiochPisidia.html I looked on vcoins and found a coin listed at $1900 with that attribution, but it was really from Tarsos. I wrote the seller, "This coin is from Tarsos, not Antioch in Pisidia. It says so on the reverse. I hope this helps." I got no response and as of now the attribution has not been corrected. On the other hand, many dealers write back a short "Thank you" and correct the attributions right away. I've had my corrections ignored, but have not received any hostile responses.

Welcome to this friendly and helpful forum. I have been collecting ancient coins for 50 years and in the 1990s I started a website which was intended to be helpful to beginners. Now It is many years later and the site has been revised and expanded almost every month: http://augustuscoins.com/ed/ If you have basic questions, my answers are in there somewhere! It has a page on buying: http://augustuscoins.com/ed/numis/buying.html with links to almost all dealers and auction firms. It has pages on rarity and value and collecting-themes and books and many other topics. Ancient-coin collecting is a great hobby! Enjoy!

"Do these look like bronze disease?" No.

I love coins of Panticipaion (which can be spelled other ways) because of their wild artistry. Look at all the beautiful coins above! Here is my page about them: http://augustuscoins.com/ed/Pan/Pan.html There was a hoard in 2016. In Sept. 2016 I saved this photo of part of the hoard from a web site article, but, unfortunately, now I cannot find the original source. There may well have been another hoard since then. Take a look at that page for more images of coins and information about them: http://augustuscoins.com/ed/Pan/Pan.html

I have a sestertius and an as of Aelius with PANNONIA. 30 mm. L AELIVS CAESAR TR POT COS II, PANNONIA across field, S C Struck 137 at Rome. Old RIC (Hadrian) 1059. Sear II 3981. 25 mm. 10.24 grams. L AELIVS CAESAR TR POT COS II, PANNONIA across field, S C Old RIC 1071a "137 AD". Sear II 3988.

I have that catalog and looked up the PR--2100 CHF + 10%. The Swiss Franc was worth only 32 cents the day that auction closed (Nov. 30, 1974) and now it is almost exactly 1.00 dollar. That is evidence about whether great ancient coins always go up in value.

It is very hard to find a trachy with both sides clearly struck. Here is a coin of Isaac II, Sear 2003, that is not fully struck, but at least Mary's face is clear: 26-24 mm. 3.22 grams.

Most helpful hints in this thread are far beyond what I do. I am only going to remind us of the importance of the angle of lighting. In 2018 I bought this coin from this photo: When I got it I was disappointed because it did not look so clear and sharp in regular light. When I photographed it at the time (with light from overhead or at most 45 degrees away from overhead) the best I could get (admittedly, with merely an old iPad) was this: That's a lot like it actually looked/looks like. However, as you can see, that's a pretty bad photo if the coin really looks like the previous photo. However, it didn't--until yesterday. Yesterday afternoon just before the sun was going down I thought "It's sunny! I'll look at some coins in the light of the sun!" I did and noticed that in extreme raking light that coin looked really great. I guess I hadn't thought of using raking light from a low angle. So, this morning, the sun was out and 20-25 degrees above the horizon. I got out that same old iPad and took this photo. If had used the photography trick that eliminates shadows, the photo would look much like the seller's photo, and it does look just like the coin with lighting at that angle. I had not thought of viewing it with strong light at that angle. So, the coin is as nice as the seller's photo, if you look at it right (which I hadn't until yesterday). Learn the lesson: Pay attention to the angle of lighting!

I think decades ago the word "choice" meant "this a really top-quality coin of its type" and if you had a lot of money and wanted to buy one, this one would be worth choosing and you wouldn't have to later upgrade. That is far from the case for the OP "Ch XF" coin so my old interpretation is not applicable. I can't think of an alternative meaning for "choice" that fits that coin. NGC grades many thousands of coins. For that one, that part of the grade is, in my opinion, incorrect. But, at least they didn't give it 5/5 for strike or surfaces. The lesson from all this is to look at the coin, not just the slab.

I have written a web page on the large-denomination Roman coins (provincial sestertii) from Antioch in Pisidia. http://augustuscoins.com/ed/AntiochPisidia/AntiochPisidia.html Here is one of the coins on that page: Gordian III, 238-24435-34 mm. 27.24 grams, (Sestertii of Gordian III are typically 31-29 mm and 21 grams or less.)This coin is larger than imperial sestertii.Bust right, laureate, cuirassed, and draped. IMP CAES M ANT GORDIANVS AVGCAES ANTIOCH COL (Caesarea Antioch Colonia)SR in exerguePietas standing left holding out patera over an altar, with incense box in her left hand, three standards on the left with the leftmost one surmounted by Victory.RPC 2726 (The main reference is Roman Provincial Coinage, abbreviated "RPC", volume 7.1, which is on-line here.) For more about the city and its coinage, again, see the page: http://augustuscoins.com/ed/AntiochPisidia/AntiochPisidia.html

For a list of all the types and their emperors, see the RIC IX site: http://augustuscoins.com/ed/ricix/ Scroll down a bit to see the reverse types and click on the images to see more about each. Here is one example of Type 20 on that site.

I have all 18 volumes of B&S. It goes up to and stops with Nero. There are no coins as late as Faustina II in it.

Z Zenodorus of Chalkis, struck year 282 = 32/31 BC (Chalkis is inland from Beruit.) Here is a king of a small region you don't hear about very often. 20 mm. 6.41 grams. Octavian/bare head of Zenodorus left RPC 4774, page 662 Hoover Syrian 1454, page 311 Klein 702, plate XXII

Well, I have had nothing but excellent experiences with FedEx and Savoca. For example, I got a coin FedEx today, Wednesday, in Oregon after winning it Sunday from Savoca in Germany. That's remarkable.

A new TV ad from from the investment firm Merrill features ancient Roman coinage! I've seen it many times while watching soccer. It is set in a museum display of ancient coins and the speaker says about a man on his phone, "Do you think he's posting about all that ancient Roman coinage? No. He's seizing the moment-- with Merrill. Moving his investment money to his Merrill account in real time. And that's how you collect coins!" Here is a link to the 15-second spot:https://www.ispot.tv/ad/bCzB/bank-of-america-ancient-roman-coinage

I have a website http://augustuscoins.com/ed/interesting/SECVRITAS.html on the meaning of "SECVRITAS" which I learned from Ted Buttrey. Here is my favorite example: Caracalla, 198-217 Sestertius. 32 mm. 24.00 grams. SECVRITATI PERPETVAE Securitas seated right, languid air, head supported by right hand resting on back of chair, holding scepter Sear II 6952. RIC 512d. "213" Check out that link for the surprising meaning (according to Ted Buttrey, who was a major scholar). Here is is again: http://augustuscoins.com/ed/interesting/SECVRITAS.html