Severus Alexander

Well, I suppose it would have least have been a unit of account even if the actual coin denomination was rare. (I LOVED Asterix way back when and still have all my old books! My kids enjoyed them too, thankfully. Still aren't much into coins though... 😏) My early Republican sestertius, totally the wrong date:

Well, I'm not sure that it does! Excellent stuff, @Heliodromus, thank you!! The moveable weight is fascinating... do you know what range of dates it has been assigned to, based on find location etc.? I dragged out the Lactantius passage for those who know how to read Latin (@Roman Collector, talking to you - any thoughts?) : [4] Imminebat dies quo Maxentius imperium ceperat, qui est a.d. sextum Kalendas Novembres, et quinquennalia terminabantur. [5] Commonitus est in quiete Constantinus, ut caeleste signum dei notaret in scutis atque ita proelium committeret. Facit ut iussus est et transversa X littera, summo capite circumflexo, Christum in scutis notat. Since my experience with Latin was one course decades ago and I promptly forgot it all, the best I can do is plop it into Google translate: [4] The day was threatening when Maxentius had taken the command, which is a.d. On November 6, and five years were terminated. [5] Constantine was warned in quiet, that he might mark the heavenly sign of God on his shields, and thus engage in battle. He does as he was ordered and crosses the letter X, with a head circumflexed at the top, and marks Christ on the shields. I don't know if Google is just canning some known translation, but I don't think that's how it works... and this translation sounds more like a chi-rho than yours does. Not that I'm saying their translation is better! But the issue does seem clearly... foggy? In any case, what I should have meant (did I? maybe not!) by "this coin helps us interpret that famous bit of text" is: it's a relevant piece of evidence. It certainly doesn't solve it! But given the early time of production and the the presence of Crispus & Lactantius in Trier it at least provides an important data point in favour of the chi-rho rather than a tau-rho or some other symbol. And certainly helps support the notion that the whole idea wasn't just made up later too, which is important. Just to post a related coin, here's a weird one I've rarely shown and will take the excuse: It's a Constans as Augustus VICTORIAE DD AVGGQ NN, struck in the late 340s, which has been unofficially overstruck with a very Christian looking (latin) cross. The cross was not widely used as a Christian symbol until after the chi-rho. So I find this coin to be quite intriguing! It was found in Norfolk in 1990, and came to me via @Valentinian, ex Ex Dan Clark, ex Byzantium (Fitling Grange, Fitling, Yorkshire). I'd be grateful for any reflections on it. Looking at the photo with fresh eyes I suppose it could actually be a tau-rho, though I don't think so... I will have to grab it from the bank and have another look.

Thanks so much @Kaleun96 for your help! That's what I'll do. I found that attaching the camera directly to my computer so I have a full size preview helps with all that experimentation - another thing I like about my new setup. I need to figure out a cheap grade 2 tilt method. Right now my kindergarten method doesn't cut it... a bit of kleenex wedged under the coin! 😄 As far as a diffuser for my ring light goes, @dougsmit, this is brilliant!! I can imagine using different thicknesses/sizes to achieve different effects. Time to cut up some foam... Doug is of course the person who inspired pretty much all of the non-photographer collectors who were well ensconced at CoinTalk and who take photography seriously. He taught us 95% of what we know, I'd say. So I'd just like this opportunity to express my thanks: you rock, @dougsmit!! @Kaleun96, I think your approach fits well with where we're coming from. But it's also great to get fresh new ideas from people like Denis (amazing photos!) and @kirispupis (also amazing photos!) Always worth trying something new, and you never know, maybe it'll work for you. I'm probably sticking with the Doug method though, with new Kaleun enhancements... new tricks are hard for me now! Even if they are fun. ☺️ (Also let me say that I like how some disagreements came to resolution here. Nobody flew off the handle. Good place, this, with good people!)

Absolutely those two are worth their own post, @jfp7375! Congrats on your first step into a rewarding hobby / challenging addiction... depending on who in the family's talking about the money spent... 😁 It took me a long while to get a Trajan denarius for some weird reason. This portrait bears the aegis and I think the Genius on the reverse kinda looks like Trajan too! (I wanted this reverse type as a predecessor to Diocletian's new follis/nummus.) This rather unusual portrait of Hadrian really drew me: And here's a transition between the two, part of Hadrian's first issue while he was still trying to assert power after a somewhat questionable adoption procedure: He really plays up the family relationship in the legends: son of the divine Trajan, son of the conqueror of the Parthians, and grand-son of the divine Nerva. Finally, I'm pretty sure this Elagabalus was my first ever denarius; certainly among my first half dozen Roman coins. It was a present from my grandmother around 1984-85. I thought it was amazing! Still like it very much. 😊 Perhaps it's responsible for me not caring as much as most other collectors about centring for many years! I care more now, and I note your two new coins are beautifully centred. Was that something you were paying special attention to? I look forward to taking a new photo of this coin.

Believe me, we want to see yours too!! And don't be shy about posting coins multiple times, especially beauties like yours. ☺️ What a fabulous Knidos Aphrodite!

Yes, there is something so very special about the archaics! I wish I could afford beautiful great honking ones like @kapphnwn's amazing tet! However I was pretty excited to receive this archaic "hemiobol" in the mail this week (7mm, 0.30g) : The tiny unwreathed fractions from this early are generally all around 7mm but with a wide range of weights without much in the way of central tendencies... seems they were probably just used as bullion? I think this one would fit Seltman group H or L, although Jasper Burns (The Early Coins of Athens) argues that the separation of unwreathed fractions into Seltman groups is impossible, and in fact doubts that any group H fractions were minted. He would classify this coin as “AO-2”. Still, the reversed organization on the reverse, non-standard berry + leaf (or 2 berries?), and nicely styled Athena would place this among the earlier fractions. Maybe c. 500 BCE? Although if you're right, Terence, that the owls go back as far as 525 it could well be earlier... which I'd like. There are very few left-facing unwreathed fractions on acsearch, all very expensive. My winning bid: 65 EUR!! 🥳 Tail end of the archaic period, Mysia: Cyzicus (525-475 BCE) - I also like throwbacks to archaic style. This Mytilene hekte c. 454-427 BCE pairs a classical style river god with an archaic style one:

No, I did not! 😳 Not exactly my cup of tea!! 😆

Good to see you here @VD76! If you're quick, maybe you'll have the pleasure of inaugurating Medieval Monday next week! There will be competition for that privilege though. 😄 (I haven't a hope being on the west coast...)

Nero (as Apollo) with lyre, as requested! AE AS, RIC 210: And I finally feel like I can post this Nero denarius, which should be arriving within a week or two after having been lost for months. I'll post it to encourage it to come more quickly: It shows Nero's Colossus on the reverse, which illustrates Nero's ego as an artist. They always gave him the prize, of course... sometimes when he didn't even enter the competition! 😆 (The Colosseum was built right next to Nero's Colossus, which gave the building its name.) Love that c/m @Marsyas Mike, and sure hope to see some of those Balkans coins, @Nerosmyfavorite68!

Very nice! I like the ones with a lived-in look too! I have one of these types but for his son Licinius II from the Cyzicus mint - very not lived-in for this one (sadly?) : However I don't think these are the IOVI CONSERVATORI issues from just after the Edict - your coin dates from late in Licinius's reign, just before he got trounced by Constantine, i.e. 321-4. One key detail is this one: Those symbols have an interesting meaning. I can tell you but maybe you'd prefer to do some digging first! The earlier IOVI CONSERVATORI is this one (mine's from Siscia) : No captive either. (RIC 8 I think.) I guess the seller got the RIC number wrong (I haven't checked your coin), but independent of that, a useful thing to know about RIC rarity guidelines for late roman bronze (lrb) is that... they are next to useless! The major collections that RIC based the estimates on weren't very interested in these common late bronzes for decades/centuries so they were neglected. Add that to the massive modern finds due to metal detectors, opening of borders etc. and it turns out that most of these lrb rarity estimates are way off these days. To close, here's one of my favourite Licinius coins, an unusual earlier Licinius from the Antioch mint, struck 312-313 (ex Dattari collection) : Your enthusiasm is infectious! 😄

Thanks so much @Kaleun96 for the detailed reply to my questions! The cone template generator looks super helpful, and I look forward to using diffusers properly now. I usually turn the ring light off entirely for AE but maybe with proper diffusion I can avoid that. Your top photo of the Hadrian is lovely, and a good example of the sort of coin I find difficult. AE are definitely harder than AR! (I rarely take photos of AU and was quite unsuccessful when I did... until I learned to use white balance properly.) For really tiny coins I currently use a nail head stuck through piece of velvet for support. Not great but I can make it work. I still need to re-photograph most of my collection, not sure I'll get round to it. My oldest photos are crappy iPhone 4 shots when I had no idea what I was doing, the rest are with an ancient low-res digital Rebel using an extension tube... much better but the resolution was definitely limiting. Finally I got a decent (budget!) used Canon, a 70D, and that has made a big difference. Unfortunately most of my photography had to be for AMCC 3 rather than my own coins! 😞 Here's the first shot I tried with that new camera and I was pretty pleased with how well it turned out on a tiny 8mm diameter hemiobol. So much better than my old tiny coin photos: Caria: Kasolaba (400-340 BC), SNG Kayhan 996; SNG Keckman 877 Hopefully I've improved since then, the focus is a bit soft when blown up like that. I'm useless with Photoshop but so far I find the Canon software to be adequate for my purposes. Here's a Sulla denarius I photographed with the "new" camera (not my coin) : L. Cornelius Sulla, AR denarius, issued 81 BCE. Uncertain mint, 3.77g, 19.5mm. Obv: Diademed head of Venus right Rev: Double cornucopia filled with fruit and flowers, bound with fillet; Q below. Crawford 375/2 (fewer than a dozen dies for both obv. and rev.) Also sold, a few AEs: MACEDON, Roman Protectorate: Gaius Publilius, quaestor, c. 146-143 BCE, AE23. 11.61g, 23mm. Obv: Helmeted head of Roma to right Rev: ΜΑΚΕΔΟΝΩΝ ΤΑΜΙΟΥ ΓΑΙΟΥ ΠΟΠΛΙΛΙΟΥ in oak wreath SNG Cop. 1318, MacKay pl. III, 1, HGC 3, 1114 GRECO-BAKTRIAN KINGDOM, Demetrios I Aniketos, c. 200-185 BCE, Æ trichalkon. 11.35, 28.5mm. Obv: Head of elephant right, wearing bell around neck. Rev: ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΔΗΜΗΤΡΙΟΥ; Kerykeion (caduceus); monogram to inner left. HGC 12, 67var.; Bopearachchi series 5C; Bopearachchi & Rahman –; SNG ANS –.
Rare monogram (according to CNG). I enjoy photographing Chinese coins for their amazing colours! CHINA: Western Han, Emperor Wu Di (140-87 BCE) Wu zhu, issued c. 90 BCE. 2.48g, 24mm. Obv: Wu zhu, deficient outer rims, no inner rims Rev: Blank as made Hartill 8.9 If you have any advice for me based on these examples I'm all ears!! P.S. I'm enjoying the expert back-and-forth in this thread, @kirispupis! Though flash hasn't worked for me in the past I might give it another try.

😆 Sadly I lack the excessively rare* Ry-Rho variety! 😔 I just have the extremely rare Chi-Rho variety instead, showing the symbol on the shield just as Eusebius reports from the Battle of the Milvian Bridge. (Eusebius isn't actually clear whether it's a chi-rho or some other symbol, so this coin helps us interpret that famous bit of text!) Interestingly, Lactantius (the famous early Christian writer and advisor to Constantine) was Crispus's tutor in Trier. The coin was issued in 322-23... that's 5 years before the famous Constantine SPES PVBLIC issue (with the labarum and serpent), and so one of the very earliest Christian symbols on a coin. See @Valentinian's excellent page here for details. This coin may in fact be the most historically significant one in my collection, judging by 1) the importance of the relevant events, 2) how much the coin helps us interpret them, and 3) how rare it is (there are only a handful known - the best one being @Valentinian's that you can see on his page I linked. Wow, what a coin!!) * (Note: this is the only context in which "excessively rare" is an acceptable numismatic term. It means the same as "non-existent.")

What an amazing setup! My home made doodads look like they were knocked up by the slacker in grade 2 art class, but are largely trying to perform the same functions. I need to rig up some 45 degree white cones, though I’m not sure how. (Probably work well as white balance reference points too, if they’re in the frame?) My vertical white paper just doesn’t do the job. Also, I’m surprised how well the gel diffusers work. I think I’ve been confused about how to diffuse light. I use a ring light plus some more oblique angle LED’s that have diffusers directly over them. Often I skip the ring light entirely, especially when I get too much contrast, even with the lumens dialed down. I wonder if gel diffusers like yours would help with this problem. (It’s especially bad on coins with pitting/corrosion.) Any tips for AE? How do you mount tetartemoria?

Sure does! 👍

On iOS: tap and hold, then choose preview. If you’ve already visited or previewed that link, step 2 isn’t necessary. But there’s a much better option for you. At the top right of the list of posts on any forum page there’s a “view” toggle where you can choose an expanded view that always includes a substantial preview!

Hey @Valentinian, it was kind of you not to blow away my local museum piece with your Metropolitan Museum example. 😁

Mine is not nearly as lovely as yours (well done!) but it is nonetheless very special. Who can say why? (Only if you don't remember the coin... 😉)

@JayAg47, what made CT great was the community (including you!) in the Ancients forum. Since everyone has mostly moved here, I think you'll have the best chance of reproducing your good experience here now. (Of course some good coin citizens still haven't made the move. Personally I would really like to see @Bing here for example. I hope others might do what it takes to make him feel welcome. The norm here is still no politics, as it should be, though encouraged in a very different and more positive way.) In fact, NumisForums promises to be significantly better than CT even with regard to community, both by avoiding arbitrary banning decisions and by having BETTER SOFTWARE so as to avoid mistakes like these: ... which I think have been responsible for preventing or eliminating membership for many, including @Steve.

I have a few in this theme, but hardly any photos. 😞 Here's a medallion like @Ryro's - these were made to imitate Roman denarii, though actually closer to quinarius size (13mm) : As Q said, quite a few Italian coins fit here. (Great Concordia, @Qcumbor!) I have only one crappy seller's photo though: (I'm sorely tempted to ammonia that coin, but it's a no-no for moderns I guess... someone tell me it's OK! 🤡)

Great idea @Steve! Here's another sheep: Caria: Kasolaba (400-340 BC), hemiobol (0.43g, 8mm)

Gallienus and Tyche are both going on 56 hours with no sleep and considerable alchohol... (Troas: Alexandria, 7.76g 22mm)

Thank you so much for this additional info about my coin, @antwerpen2306! I'm glad to learn it has some special aspects. Before I enjoyed its deep and somewhat colourful toning while rueing its off-centre reverse; now I have new things to appreciate about it! I happened to have the coin at home today and since it deserves a better photo than my old fledgling effort, I whipped out my cell to capture a new quickie that does the coin more justice: Looking at acsearch, it seems the whip version (197/1b) is considerably rarer than the goad. Is that right? I'm assuming the small curve in mine is consistent with a goad, and that the whip requires some sign of the string coming back down to meet Victory's hand. Please correct me if I'm wrong about that! And thanks again. 🙏

I really like this forum but it's too inactive for me to think to check it regularly; also a bit clunky/old style. I wonder if @Victor Clark might be interested in migrating it here in some way? Maybe not as a subforum (like the checkbox things we already have: Ancient Greek, Ancient Roman etc.) but something a little more separate, though still within NumisForums? (Is there such a thing available here, @Restitutor? Might be useful for other purposes too.) I think it would get a lot more action. Just a proviso: this would only be a good idea if it were possible to choose two or more forums for your post to be included in, e.g. Roman AND Late Roman. (Same applies to @Al Kowsky's suggestion elsewhere to add a "migration period" forum, which would require being able to choose Roman, Migration Period, and Medieval for the same new post.)

Wow, that is just a stunner! Fabulous writeup too, thank you! I don't really have anything too special of Probus, but I'm quite fond of three. First, my first issue from Rome (I like first issues) : This one of the "uncertain Asian mint" (quelling the Saturninus revolt?) is quite a nice example, I think: And finally my INV PROBVS from Siscia: Anyway, worth posting these just to help keep the OP on p.1!

Oooh, @robinjojo, super jealous of that Isaac I! 👀 And I don't think I've seen a better year 13 Antioch follis. Great coins!!