Valentinian

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. 

6 hours ago, Hughie Dwyer said:

Thank you in advance for any helpful advice.

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

On 11/2/2022 at 2:36 PM, kirispupis said:

It does seem that recently a large number of very high quality specimens have hit every auction house, so I'm not sure if some massive hoard were pulled out, but that's what it seems.

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

On 8/5/2022 at 4:41 AM, Nap said:

There is another location- Pannonia- which is only found on Aelius Caesar's coins. 

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.  

On 7/28/2022 at 4:57 PM, Romancollector said:

Here's my only travel denarius. It features the personification of Egypt, ex Sternberg Auction III (1974)

 

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, 238-244
35-34 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 AVG
CAES ANTIOCH COL  (Caesarea Antioch Colonia)
SR in exergue
Pietas 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. 

1 hour ago, Roman Collector said:

Hi, all! I was wondering if anyone who had access to Corpus Nummorum Romanorum by A. Banti & L. Simonetti would be so kind as to look something up in the volume containing Faustina II issued under Antoninus Pius, specifically #114, a sestertius with the anepigraphic (apart from S C) reverse type with Diana standing facing, head left, holding arrow and resting hand on bow. Faustina's bust is facing left on this coin.

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

 

On 10/18/2022 at 3:27 AM, ambr0zie said:

I am very disappointed to read about another FedEx blooper. I was happy with their performance until this spring when they started to deliver with big delays. Not an isolated case as it happened with each and every delivery (I know the OP situation is different but still indicates bad service).
When I signaled to Savoca that FedEx service is  slower than normal post, they assured me things will be rectified soon. It didn't happen. So until I hear things are moving in the right direction, no more houses delivering with FedEx for me.

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

5 hours ago, SimonW said:

Here's another rare Quadrans I was lucky enough to find. It was well hidden in a multiple lot in an auction of Jean Elsen. I've never seen another one for sale.

The obverse shows Mars, but I also see (or believe to see) some features of A. Pius, which would support Joseph van Heesch's theory that (almost) all of the anonymous fractions were minted under A. Pius.

That is a real beauty! I'm sure it is very rare. Congratulations!

There are many wonderful Severus Alexander coins above, including provincials. Year 5 at Alexandria is particularly interesting because there are Alexandrian year 5 coins from two different years and two different mints.. I wrote a website on it:
http://augustuscoins.com/ed/SevAlex/
Here is one of the coins on that page that looks a lot like the middle bronze from Rome.

This is a tetradrachm of year 5, but 26 mm instead of only the usual 23 mm--it is significantly broader and much thinner. The portrait looks like his portraits on imperial coins, not those on Alexandrian coins, and "year 5" is written out as L ΠEMΠTOY.  L is the Egyptian symbol for "year" and ΠEMΠTOY is "fifth". 
The type is Serapis (an Egyptian god, distinguished by the modius on his head) standing left, raising his right hand, and holding transverse long scepter. The obverse legend is long:
A KAI M AVP CEOVHR AΛEΞANΔPOC EVCEB
Imperator Caesar Marcus AURelius SEVERUs ALEXANDERVS Pius
26-24 mm. 13.55 grams. Emmett 3134

The coin was struck for Alexandria, but with dies of Roman style and struck in Rome.

Take a look at that site:
http://augustuscoins.com/ed/SevAlex/
if you like coins of Severus Alexander or coins of Alexandria, Egypt.

Quirinus is a supposedly important Roman god about whom we know very little. Various sources suggest a connection with Mars, Romulus, or the Sabines. He appears on two Roman Republican coin types explicitly labeled with his name, but neither gives us much of a hint as to how he should be regarded.



C. Memmius C.f.  56 BC. Crawford 427/2.
18 mm. 3.77 grams.
Head of Quirinus right with long beard. QVIRINVS down the left, C. MEMMI C F down the right
MEMMIVS AED CERIALIA PREIMVS FECIT (counterclockwise from 11:00) around seated figure of Ceres holding a torch and ears of grain, with a snake before.
The reverse refers to a distant relative, an Aedile, being the first to celebrate the Ludi Cereales, sometime before 211 BC.

One story, with flimsy support, relates Quinius to Romulus. It says Romulus who founded Rome disappeared in mysterious circumstances. One Roman said that he saw Romulus ascending to heaven and Romulus told the Roman he was henceforth to be known as “Quirinus.”  Crawford finds it “self-evident to me that that the type is irrelevant to the assimilation of Quirinus and Romulus.”

Apparently, we actually know very little about Quirinus. He may have been a Sabine war god, assimilated to Mars. Crawford says, “The type may reflect “the moneyer’s claim to possess a Sabine origo.”

Here is the second type which mentions Quininus.

Crawford 268/1, 124 BC.  (Date revised since Crawford who dated it to 126 BC. See Yarrow, "Coins of the Roman Republic to 49 BC".)
N. Fabius Pictor, possibly the grandson of a priest of Quirinus.
17 mm. 3.80 grams
Helmeted head of Roma right
Seated figure of Quirinus, labeled as such on a shield (QVI/RIN), holding an apex (priestly hat) and spear. PICTOR down the left. ROMA in exergue. N FABI up the right. 

There is a lot we don't know about ancient Roman times, including the role of Quirinus. Show us anything related, or maybe some other obscure Republican type. 



 

On 9/20/2022 at 11:36 PM, ambr0zie said:

But in the last 6 months the FedEx quality is getting from bad to worse.

My experiences are much different. I won coins from Savoca on Sunday and got them today, Wednesday, in Oregon! Every time FedEx has been great, and I have had many envelopes delivered FedEx. I am sorry to hear others have had poor experiences, but all my experiences have been excellent.

Collectors wonder how to pronounce ancient names. If you collect Byzantine coins and seek a coin of Heraclius you might like an AE example with much of his name clearly legible (many of his AE coins have little of his name legible in the legend). Also, you’d like to know how to pronounce his name.

Is it
Hair ah CLY us
Hair ACK lee us
or is the H not aspirate, like this
air ACK lee us,
air ah CLEE us,
or what?  [By the way, the best guess is "none of these"]

This coin is relevant because the legend is unusually clear:

25-23 mm. 5.22 grams.
∂N hRAC-PERP AVG
Sear 842

We spell it “Heraclius”. So, in “hRAC” is the “h” an “H” and the “e” missing, or what?

I connected with my good friend and Byzantine expert @Voulgaroktonou. He wrote me,

“The name [Heraclius] begins with an aspirated Eta: Ἡράκλειος. In Classical Greek, the aspirate would have been voiced, and with the stress on the alpha, would have sounded something like
Hair ACK lee us.
In modern Greek, it is unvoiced, so Ἡελλας (Greece) is pronounced Ellas. There is evidence that the sounds of Greek were shifting to the modern pronunciation as early as the Roman period, so it is a safe bet that the name would have had an unvoiced aspirated eta. Also, the modern pronunciation  of eta is “eeta”, not “aita”, so most likely the name sounded like EerAKLios  to contemporaries.”

Back to the coin. Where we might write his name beginning with “HER” (and aspirating the “H”) instead of “ER,” it seems the Byzantines did not need the aspirate letter.

You can see the change in pronunciation as early as the third century, with, for example, this coin of Probus (276-282):

24-22 mm. 3.59 grams.

ERCVLI PACIFERO, Hercules standing left with olive branch and club. Notice the spelling of "Hercules" does not include an initial "H". 
RIC 383v Ticinum. Sear III 11984. 

Does anyone have an AE coin of Heraclius with much of the name legible? How is it spelled?
 

Edit:  
Conclusion. Coin evidence suggests pronouncing the name
ear ACK lee os        or ear ACK lee us
(although actual pronunciation heard at talks and coin shows may vary all over the map [as you can see from the dictionary citation in the next post])

 

1 hour ago, Sulla80 said:

here's my relative of this coin which is an early variant from Rome which lacks the word added later in exergue, "ADOPTIO".

My notes on this coin are here:

Hey Sulla, 
  I enjoyed your blogs and with this post I recommend them to others. I think we all study our coins to some extent, but you obviously extensively study yours and then write them up very well.
  For the rest of you, just click on "Blog" at this page.

https://www.sullacoins.com/

I have a fun Roman overstrike.

Where does your spirit reside? This flipover strike has GENIVS coming out of the back of the head of Claudius II: 

23 mm. 3.32 grams.
[IMP C CLA]VDIVS AVG
[GENI]VS EXERCI
RIC 48K. Sear III 11340.
I think this coin was struck twice with the same dies, the second time after being flipped over. 
The left half of the reverse is still clear on the obverse (left image) from the first strike. I imagine this coin was originally poorly struck on the original obverse (on the right) and was to be struck again. It was (accidentally? flipped over between strikes.The original reverse was fairly well struck (on the left, above) and not fully obliterated when stuck with the obverse die the second time. (The die was struck at an angle.) The obverse die right side (the face and end of the legend) appeared, so we see the head from the second strike,  and the entire reverse image was impressed. This reverse shows traces of overstriking, but I don't see where the original undertype (head of Claudius) was.

I think this is called a "flipover double strike."  It is cute that we got half of each, obverse and reverse, on one side.

Early Byzantine coins have the numeral of the denomination prominently on the reverse. "K" is "20" in Greek; the denomination of this coin is 20 nummi. The mint of this coin is Cyzicus, "Kyzikos" in Greek. Note how the "K" the the denomination serves double-duty as the first letter of the mint abbreviation: KYZ.

Justinian, 527-565, struck year 15 = 541/2.
Sear 208. DOC (184).
MIBE 121a.

I invite you to show us an interesting mintmark. 

2 hours ago, Leo said:

This Constantius Gallus with the LXXII and the Chi-Ro from aquilea was previously in my collection. 

Thank you very much for letting me know. And, thank you for your kinds words about my site.
http://augustuscoins.com/ed/
http://augustuscoins.com/ed/ricix/