Severus Alexander

What a fabulous eye candy thread! (I hope to see more of you portrait lovers in our Roman portrait thread... feel free to post a few of your favourites that we've already covered... we're currently at Carus.) ^Antiochos III

I wanted at least one coin from this collection. I ended up with three: (I definitely don't need both of the first two, but I really wanted a Crispus anepigraphic. Also pleased with the rare VOT X ET XV reverse for the Constantine II, with the "eros" mint mark.)

This coin is my clear favourite portrait of Carus (Siscia):

I agree that's a nice portrait of Justin I, @ewomack! Not that easy to find on a follis. (I also agree with @sand that the coin is double-struck, which explains the way the reverse looks, and why the neck is oddly bent. Sadly not too unusual for Byzantine!) Here's my best portrait of Justin, same type: This is the "cross at the end of the diadem" variety that Warren discusses at his link above. I also like the star on the shoulder.

Probably my favourite Probus portrait is on this first issue from Rome: But I also like two others. First, this Lugdunum. I think overall the Lugdunum style is the most lifelike: I'm also pretty fond of this Siscia portrait: The worst style portraits are surely those from the "uncertain Asian mint"! (Though Tripolis can be pretty bad too...) I bet nobody else has a coin from Probus's short-lived "van Dyke" beard style, very briefly depicted at Lugdunum: 😁

After seeing @John Conduitt's lovely series and @Edessa's extension to the Holy Roman Empire (great coin!) I felt compelled to put together a little display of all my Henries: I've got some filling-in to do, especially for France!

Following up on @Edessa's post, I bought this al Ma'mun dinar for its current melt value including auction fees, late last year: Dated 204h = 819-20 it was issued just as al Ma'mun put down a rebellion in Baghdad and entered the city. Fairly scarce. And a nice bargain I think!

Fantastic group, @Simon! I especially like the Phocas half follis from Cyzicus. I always enjoy the comical portraits from this mint. Also... that's an amazingly round flan! I recently bought a group lot with a number of rare c.700 CE coins in it. One of them is puzzling me quite a bit: At 18mm x 24mm and 4.85g it doesn't really fit any attribution very well. Some possibilities: - First reign Justinian II: It's clearly too small for early first reign. Might it be late first reign? Still too small for a follis, no? Plus the anepigraphic obverse is very strange in this case. (Is the X on the reverse from a double strike or an undertype?) - Anastasius II Artemius - The chlamys is right, but again, the anepigraphic obverse is very weird. Also the portrait isn't right IMO. - Second reign Justinian II: The chlamys is wrong. Unrecorded type? - Leo III: Unrecorded early experimental type? It does match some of his early solidi. I'd welcome any thoughts on this strange coin!

That's a beauty, Donna! I've bid on quite a few of these but in my relentless pursuit of bargains have never come out on top. (I saw your coin in the auction but given its quality and the venue I didn't even bother!) At some point I'll have to pony up. I have both Henry VI and Henry VIII. First, a Henry VI penny from Calais: And this is my Henry VIII groat. I wanted one of the late reign (but still lifetime) debased coins and was quite pleased with this one for only 50 quid! Southwark mint, includes the Arabic numeral "8" at 3:30 on the obverse. Henry opened this mint in conjunction with The Great Debasement and it was closed and demolished under Mary. Southwark coins are almost impossible to find in high grades, i'm happy this has a decent portrait.

Awesome coin, @Orange Julius! Great engraving on both obverse and reverse. I've been looking for a Gallienus like that!

Better late than never! Here are the coins from the sixth officina that I found on acsearch. They're mostly Diocletian, with only one Maximianus, and none for the Caesars: Quite consistent in style, but I wouldn't say these look to have larger, flatter heads. (For example, the bottom right coin looks to be in fairly high relief, and the one above it has a small head.) For comparison, here are some Constantius as Augustus coins from the sixth officina, next issue (RIC 21a): Very similar, including some smallish heads. Missing is the curly-beard style... but as @SteveJBrinkman points out that could just be due to a particular engraver in the second officina and doesn't warrant distinguishing two issues. If we were to do so, however, the curly-bearded portraits should presumably be placed earlier, given the style of the demonstrably later Constantius as Augustus coins.

My Florian is from the Siscia mint:

Sorry for the slow reply, @DonnaML! This is an interesting question, which @Roman Collector and I have puzzled over before. The conclusion we came to? Seriously, though, I wonder what it really is? The most detailed examples on acsearch tend to look like a sphere or disk on a tripod: Given Aurelian's devotion to Sol Invictus, I wonder if it might be a solar disk? It's interesting that the type doesn't occur on antoniniani. If these denarii were intended for distribution to the people (rather than as payment for soldiers, for example) perhaps some subtle religious advertising was in order? More likely, though, is that it depicts a more normal accompaniment to Venus Felix, namely a small representation of Cupid. Below is a nicely engraved Mamaea sestertius (left) and a poorly engraved one (right), both depicting Venus holding Cupid. On a small flan, and devolving from earlier representations, one can see how the triangle plus disk on the Severina denarii could just be an abbreviated Cupid:

I subscribe to the view that Tacitus was another young-ish army type and that later authors got confused. I think his best portraits come from Lugdunum. (Thanks for this one, @Qcumbor!!) Here's my double-ant from Antioch: And here's something you don't see every day, a Tacitus provincial not from Alexandria. It's from Perge in Pamphylia. These are the very last provincial coins issued outside Egypt: The portrait is kind of nifty. I believe this coin may be the best known example (of only a handful). One of my top 10 from last year, for sure!

Here's a coin in the spirit of the thread. In the final throes of the crisis, when the Imperial coinage was at rock bottom, I think there's some amazing engraving to be found on Alexandrian tetradrachmae: Egypt, Alexandria: Claudius II billon tetradrachm, year 2 (269/70), Emmett 3878.2. Well, thanks for the compliment, but having run a grand total of 3 auctions I hardly qualify as a pro! I guess I must fake it well. 😁

Methinks Octavian would be rather unhappy with this reporting...

IMO definitely not, at least not for anywhere near the listed price. (I suspect the two commenters above didn't check the price?) It's heavily smoothed – and I think tooled as well – plus not as nice as examples that have recently sold at auction for much less.

Not as many successes as would follow if Greece had non-idiotic antiquities laws and followed the UK model instead. Think of all the archeological information that is irretrievably lost through this stupidity, upheld by the U.S. and pursued with particular vim and vigour by New York. From last year: I just wish the media coverage on cases like this would include this perspective. No matter the specifics of the case, it bears repeating. Over and over.

Forgot to include Vabalathus!

This happened to me. My winning bid was on this coin: The coin I received in the mail: 🤯 Sadly enough, it all got cleared up in a satisfactory manner. I would rather have had the same experience as @ValiantKnight! 😆

There's lots of appealing variety in Aurelian portraits. Hard to pick a favourite. I suppose if forced at gunpoint I'd have to go with my Alexandrian tet: I also like this Milan: And this Siscia with find patina: I just picked up this new Siscia, which I don't have in hand yet... it's from @Barnaba6's collection: ... and also this Serdica, with its nifty (and rare) half-length portrait: We saw a Claudius II "two for the price of one." Well here's a "three for the price of one" Cyzicus... TWO die clashes on the reverse! (I've never seen this on another coin.) Finally, here's my best Severina portrait, on a denarius like @DonnaML's nice example :

Very nice Milan portrait, @Qcumbor! I was hoping to see one of these. 😊

Pretty sure this is Rome mint... in which case there's probably an H in the reverse exergue, mostly off the flan.

Wow, that's a fantastic array of tiny 3rd century rarities @Ricardo123! Are those all yours? You're probably right in that beaded border/die diameter is a better guide than flan diameter... the reverse of the Gordian must have a border diameter of 15mm or so, looks like, which puts it firmly in the quinarius category. The others are all late third century which IMO is a different kettle of fish. First, mint consistency wasn't great, to say the least! 😁 Second, this late, any of those coins could in principle be a denarius rather than a quinarius... it's pretty difficult to tell in borderline cases. I would bet the Carinus is a denarius, and especially the Gallienus since it's short on flan. Here's my similar Gallienus which is 17.5mm, ID'd as a denarius by CNG (and Holmes) due to the implied beaded border diameter: And here's my Carinus denarius which is 18mm, border diameter 17mm (2.09g): And a pre-reform Diocletian from 384 with a flan diameter of 15.5mm and border diameter of 14 (a little less on the rev.). Weight is 1.83g. Definitely a quinarius:

And now for Quintillus. I love the Quintillus portraits from Siscia: The Milan portrait style is pretty nice too, but I don't have one of those... hope to see some in the thread!