Severus Alexander

And, catching up, my best Marcian, Leo, and Verina portraits... Marcian: I have a few for Leo, including my only solidus: I also have the Cherson AE2 that @Qcumbor showed above: And since I love my grotty little AE4's I can't leave this out: My only Verina is this odd thing struck in lead. A solidus imitation having lost its plating? A test strike? (Or just a fake?) Weird item... There are some great coins shown above by @O-Towner, @lrbguy, and others. @Pellinore, that Marcian is phenomenal!

Thanks for the comment, @lrbguy... and good sleuthing! Back in 1992 very few examples of the anepigraphic version were known, as you say, and my officina S does happen to be the coin Speck and Huston mention in their paper (it was sold in Aufhäuser 8 in 1991, lot 704). More have surfaced since then, including at least 2 from officina S. So it's no longer unique, sadly. (Though I do believe it's the best officina S out there.) As a gratuitous reminder for everybody, here's the coin again 😁:

Theo II portraits in AE are difficult. I don't have a good one. Here are a few different mints, all AE4: Rome (by Johannes): Alexandria: Constantinople: Cyzicus (I think): I haven't figured out the mint for this monogram type:

This is a beauty! I had one of these, but it shared the problem most have... the finders of these coins seem to be overwhelmed by the temptation to tool! Yours doesn't appear to have this problem, despite its excellent detail. Great coin! I lean towards Eudocia based on the portrait style... at least it matches her portraits better on acsearch results: Pulcheria (ignore the crappy fake from Emporium Shamburg) and Eudocia. For the latter, here's a CNG example from 2005:

RIC dates this type from 395-401 (RIC X 56-76, pp. 246-7), so it has to be either Arcadius or Honorius. The first letter after "D N" looks more like an A, so I'd agree with the others that it's probably Arcadius. Warren has a nice page on the type here: http://augustuscoins.com/ed/ricix/type45.html ... and some images of the various mints here: http://augustuscoins.com/ed/ricix/type45i.html . So you might take an educated guess at the mint based on style. I happen to have a dead-ringer stylewise, and it's Constantinople: So it's a good bet yours is Constantinople too, though it's impossible to be sure. My coin is 16mm, yours has evidently been clipped down to a later standard. Amazing they would bother to do this with a tiny AE, isn't it? Here's an Esty type 33 I have, cut down to 12mm: When I bought it I thought it was a rare type 73... oops! Luckily only a 7 euro mistake, could've been a lot worse... 😆

@mc9 and @lrbguy: I think both the Valentinian II campgate (here: https://www.numisforums.com/topic/2120-emperors-of-rome-a-chronological-portrait-gallery/?do=findComment&comment=50385 ) and the Arcadius Victory with captive (https://www.numisforums.com/topic/2120-emperors-of-rome-a-chronological-portrait-gallery/?do=findComment&comment=50875 ) are straightforward AE4s (whatever this silvered AE denomination was called at the time), not fractional siliquae. Mc9, you mentioned that the jeweler’s analysis found surface silver, which is perfectly consistent with that conclusion. The interesting thing about these two coins is that they still have a remarkable amount of their surface silvering remaining, which is pretty rare for these. (I suppose one must bear in mind the possibility of it having been added later, particularly on the Val II which has so much of it. Apparently this practice was lamentably common in the 19th century. Though it doesn’t look modern to me in the photo.) I’m not sure if that’s what you meant to conclude, mc9… They are neat coins in any case!

It’s not 3pm Eastern yet! Majorian: Libius Severus (with Ricimer monogram): At least we covered 4 of these difficult dudes!

I happen to have all 3 of today's folks. Johannes: Valentinian III: and a Cherson AE2: Galla Placidia:

Nice AE portraits of Honorius aren't that easy to come by, especially for the dwindling number of western mints. Here are my current best. Antioch: Rome: ^ Hard to find a better VRBS ROMA FELIX than this one. Lifelike portraits are a will'o'the wisp at this point, but this Antioch 3 emperors type has glimmers: Congrats to @O-Towner for having both Constantine III and Jovinus! (I'd love to have a Constantine III, he's actually fairly important. Yours is a really nice example!) @Nerosmyfavorite68, yep, we'll be continuing all the way to 1453 (or even 1461 with Trebizond?) in the Byzantine subforum. Sometime soon I'll put together a schedule.

Yup. Here's the relevant bit: That's for an AE4, of course. @mc9 suspects his coin is actually silver, though. (It looks AE to me in the photo, though.)

Are you sure this coin is silver, @mc9? Could it just appear so due to some unusual patination? (The flan crack at 9 o’clock on the rev. will be useful for checking this.)

Let me just squeak in these Arcadius and a Eudoxia. Probably my favourite Arcadius is this facing bust, the first we see in AE: I also like this little thing: I quite like the style on this Alexandria: And how dopey he looks on this Nicomedia: Finally, here’s the better of my two Eudoxia portraits (it seems quite difficult to find nice coins for her!)

A few more for you!

Well, Magnus Maximus himself may not have deserved the name, but @John Conduitt's solidus surely does!! 🤯 Neither of my two Mag Max portraits are anything to write home about, although the first one is a special coin because it was issued in Constantinople under the authority of Theodosius, proving that he briefly recognized the pretender: Here's my AE4... I'm not sure which portrait is the better of the two: My tiny AE4 portrait of Flavius Victor, on the other hand, would definitely support at least a brief letter home: Finally, this Eugenius siliqua probably sports the better portrait of my two of him: Although my AE4 (Rome, as determined by a die match) is pretty decent too, portraitwise at least:

Bad Cop says: Not ‘til 3pm Eastern time, @O-Towner!! 😠😝

I think my favourite Theodosius portrait is on this AE4, which is ex @dougsmit: I see a couple other Cyzicus coins above with quite similar intense bug-eyed portraits (@mc9 and @Pellinore.) And my favourite Flaccilla: The porosity mars the portrait on my heavy miliarense... but otherwise I wouldn't have been able to afford it! Still the only example known, as far as I know, and a hefty piece at 23mm and nearly 5g. The portrait is actually quite appealing in hand. I've wondered if I might somehow lighten the toning inside the pits on his face, which would help a lot.

Back to the portrait schedule, I'm impressed with the great Valentinian II portraits above in silver, and of course Q's fabulous AE. My offerings are a lot more mundane. Here's a tiny AE4 with a nice portrait, especially considering its size: And an Antioch version of Q's coin which is unfortunately a bit rough:

I think what is essential to provenance (or what others here are calling "pedigree") is simply the history of ownership of the coin. That's what some of us value, but which you don't. A statement or testimony would be evidence for provenance, not provenance itself. Sometimes the distinction you're after is put in terms of intrinsic value. Something has intrinsic value if it has value in itself, not for something else it can get you; the opposite is instrumental value. So for you, provenance has merely instrumental value in that it can be evidence for authenticity (which we both value intrinsically, for its own sake) and because it can make a coin worth more when you sell it... but you don't care about provenance for its own sake. By contrast, we both value testimony of provenance only instrumentally.

There’s a common 2nd century issue from Pergamum that represents Roma as turreted: The legend for the Roma side is ΘЄΑΝ ΡΩΜΗΝ. (The other side represents the senate.) This is a bit weird, I agree!

I’m pretty excited about my new portrait of Constantine, and I figure this is the thread to share it in: Needless to say, the anepigraphic version of this coin is pretty rare and was presumably a special issue, somehow connected with the founding of Constantinople. Some oohs and ahs, please, as I’m sure my family won’t really appreciate it! 😆 Also, I’ve been enjoying the discussion about the kneeling turreted figure on the Gratian coin. I think the best synthesis of @DonnaML, @John Conduitt, and @lrbguy’s comments is that the kneeling figure is an extension of Italia turrita that represents what the coin legend says. Now, my latin is worse than abysmal, but I see some dealers parse the legend as Rei Public(ae), i.e. literally “public things,” which is of course where our term “republic” comes from. So the figure represents the state-supported aspects of the public sphere quite generally. Going back a hundred years, I note that Aurelian’s Restitvt(or) Orientis coins represent the Orient differently at western vs. eastern mints. At eastern mints the figure is turreted, but not at western ones. Seems to me that by Gratian’s time the turreting of figurative representations of general terms like this had moved westwards, perhaps aided by the notion of Italia turrita.

Yep, that is the rumour!

This is a fantastic new page, @Valentinian! And a theme I find particularly interesting. Probably my most impressive related coin is my Antioch mint Victoria Part issue for Valerian: As far as I know it is only the second known example. It appears to be a later issue than the same type for Valerian II (who died in 257). I suspect it is anticipatory of the victory that failed so spectacularly to manifest itself. If these were among the coins that Valerian took with him on his expedition, that would perhaps explain their scarcity. Or perhaps they were simply recalled due to embarrassment? or never released in any quantity for the same reason? Another related coin is this sestertius of Nero, which depicts his Parthian triumphal arch (celebrating not very much, as you discuss on your page): Some related provincials include this one of Commodus featuring Abgar VIII of Osroene/Edessa: (Is the cross a Christian symbol? One might assume not, but it may in fact be... Abgar VIII was reputed to have converted to Christianity.) Here's Severus Alexander from Nisibis (perhaps linked to his campaign? The portrait is quite mature): And this coin of Gordian III from Carrhae: Last, I have to include my favourite Ardashir I, an obol from his earliest issue from the Parthian province of Persis, before his audacious takeover of the Parthian empire: I have lots of other related coins, but I'll shut up now. 😄 Thanks for the excellent new resource!

Thanks so much for posing this, Donna! It looks like the question moves to why McAlee attributes the eagle w/ club tetradrachms to Tyre... again, sources seem to differ on this point. I guess I should just get the book! (The "animal leg & thigh" mint mark is sure bizarre!)

My favourite Gratian portrait in AE: And in AR:

If a significant proportion of the market audience values an aspect of a thing, that aspect adds value to the thing. Clearly a significant proportion (even if it's a minority) of ancient coin collectors value the provenance of a coin, so provenance adds value. (Note: I'm not necessarily saying that's the only way for something to add value.) I take it that the OP isn't questioning this obvious fact! Rather he's saying he's part of the sub-group of collectors who don't value provenance. Well, OK... de gustibus non est disputandum! Yep, I'm sure almost all of us would agree with that. But that doesn't imply anything about whether provenance also adds value, just to a lesser extent. (As has been pointed out above.) This strikes me as the most objectionable claim in the OP (i.e. the alleged fact that most coins have nothing really to say). Almost every ancient coin carries some historical interest, if you dig into it. This became especially clear to me when I had to write auction descriptions of coins that I had previously found not very interesting. I ended up wanting to keep/buy most of the coins in the auction! 😆 Back to provenance: personally I think it's pretty cool, in a nerdy kinda way, that the following coin was previously owned by Nobel Prize winning physicist Murray Gell-Mann! Poland. Sigismund III Vasa (1587-1632) AR 6 Groschen. Danzig, 1596. Crowned and draped bust right / Crowned coat of arms. Kopicki 1240. 4.72g, 28mm, 12h.