Severus Alexander

I agree. I think there's even more similarity between the tet and my denarius (middle), to the extent that I think we're almost certainly looking at products of the same engraver. The denarius on the right used to belong to McAlee himself, and again, the style is so close I think it's the same engraver's work. What do you think? Face shape, head shape, nose, eye, beard style, curls above the forehead, cuirass, curls at the back of the head, laurel wreath & ties etc... the correspondences are very strong indeed: So, for me, it's clear these coins come from the same engraver, so the question is whether McAlee is right to attribute them to Tyre, or whether they're from Antioch. (Or conceivably both: the engraver would probably have moved along with the mint!) CNG and RPC give the tet to Antioch despite McAlee's arguments for the mint starting in Tyre and moving to Antioch. I remember not being convinced by him, but now I forget the details! (Tagging @maridvnvme who may be interested in this issue, given his post a while ago on these denarii.) I'd love to see the details here, if you still have access to them, Donna, and it's not too much trouble. (If the elided passage is too long maybe a photo of the page would work?)

I thought this coin was a first issue, but perhaps not? Obverse legend "IMP CAES TRAIAN HADRIANO AVG DIVI TRA", reverse "PARTH F DIVI NER NEP P M TRP COS". I like how the reverse legend refers to Nerva as Hadrian's 'grandfather': Here's a first issue Antioch (or Tyre? I think it's Antioch) "Adoptio": Nearly the same obverse legend as your Rome denarius: "IMP CAES TRAIAN HADRIANO OPT AVG GER DAC". Since the transfer of power took place in the east, I suppose these Antioch issues are in fact the earliest for Hadrian as Augustus?

Valens, siliqua from Arles (as "Constantina"): And a Procopius from Constantinople: Good to see you here, @lrbguy! Please feel free to post a few of your favourite portraits of personalities we've already covered, as a catch-up... I know our thread Caesar, @CPK, is totally fine with this! Speaking of which, here's a new Galba sestertius I got since the thread started: I've always had a hankering for a Galba sest. with this style portrait, I think because of this illustration on the cover of my old Sear catalogue: Anybody else have some catch-ups they'd like to post?

Giving the benefit of the doubt perhaps they were waiting for the thread Caesar, @CPK, or his deputy, yours truly? But I think it’s clear who to follow, between @DonnaML and @Jims,Coins! 🙃 (That is, if someone can’t be bothered with checking p. 1….) No, there was a discussion of possible schedules and then one was settled on. I guess you accidentally kept an image of the first tentative schedule, which coincided with the finalized one until today. Reminds me of Hume on induction…

I beg to differ… there are reasons for earlier, later, or not at all. 😉 Note that Arcadius, Honorius, and Theodosius II are related and appear together on coins. Same for Valentinian III and Theodosius II. It’s just that a choice needed to be made, and so one was, with due deference to thread participants’ preferences.

Please ignore @Jims,Coins previous two posts. (Jim, you have an outdated version of the schedule there! Can you delete those images, please?) Here is the correct schedule, which is also the one in the OP on p.1: So we are on Valens and Procopius.

I confess that I don't actually have a cat any more... I miss him dearly! But I imagined what he would have said... (Sadly I'm allergic so it doesn't really make sense to have one. 😢) In any case, the excellent cat photos are much appreciated. (I get a cat calendar every year.) I especially love the first photo!

Fabulous photos from a fabulous trip, thanks for allowing us to live it vicariously! My cat is dumb, I showed him the photo and he said "Meowcenae." 😾 Apparently this coin design from Terina is inspired by sculptures from the Parthenon:

A day late, sorry! But I couldn’t miss out participating in this cool nerdy thread. Jabba the Hut goes to Egypt: “It is your destiny. Join me, and together we can rule the galaxy as father and son!” Omitted scene from the Jedi Council: “Oh what the hey, let Obi Wan train the boy. How much harm can it do?”

My favourite Valentinian portrait, because of the sheer “vastness” of the head… “I am a monument.”

I think that’s Valentinian II… 🙃 Cute coin, though! 👍

I like both of my Antioch portraits of Jovian (the first is a double maiorina):

One of the gems of my collection: I don’t think I’ve seen a portrait of Julian that I like better. Though I’m a bit biased! 😁

Looks fine to me. There are several die matches on acsearch which seem to indicate that any potential issues are on the dies. None of these appear to be sources for transfer dies either. Here are 3 of the die matches: https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=5026688 https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=7451686 https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=7758084 I sure hope it proves to be authentic… lovely coin!!

Wow, above there are some amazing examples of what I think of as the classic Magnentian style portrait (@Pellinore, @Qcumbor-that eyebrow!, @Shea19, @Romancollector, I'm looking at you!). I love the more unusual portrait from Lugdunum that @John Conduitt posted too. Nobody posted a coin from Rome, which has quite a different and more realistic style. My favourite portrait of Magnentius is on my Rome coin: My Decentius is a Lugdunum:

My favourite portrait of Constantius II: ^ I find it to be fairly lifelike by late Constantinian standards. We've already seen a couple of these as Caesar, with silly pompoms: A couple more I like: I need to clean this Gallus a bit more: My Vetranio:

But it’s not Apr. 28 yet… 😉

Cool, mystery solved! Now my question is: since these aren’t true tesserae, will you keep them in the collection?

Being holed for wear is quite plausible, especially if these came from eastern Europe… in the Chernyakov culture, both official Roman coins and imitations were often worn, perhaps as a sort of status symbol, or along the lines of wearing one’s wealth.

Thanks to these three experts for weighing in, and sorry, @John Conduitt for getting your hopes up. 🥴 Still, an interesting coin. Looking at the larger heads for Rome for this type, they tend to look a lot more youthful than your portrait. Still, maybe the corrosion could explain this? (And Martin has looked at more of these than me!) However the overall leaning of the three seems to be towards unofficial. So: likely unofficial or possibly Rome? Not Alexandria, though. 🙃

I'll pick a Constantine II as Caesar from Antioch: And a Constans II as Augustus from Siscia:

The earlier issues are harder to distinguish from Rome, but most (all?) of the late ones – the coins associated with the war – are easy because they have a distinct cuirassed portrait: You'll also want one of these: Also an Antioch coin, PAX FVNDATA CVM PERSIS: it "celebrates" the patched-up-peace that Philip arranged before heading west to consolidate his power after Gordian's death.

Great writeup, and such a cool provenance for those coins. Like JeandAcre I appreciate the great map too! I love the wordplay on the Champagne coins, with a comb pictured in the coin's field: "champ" (field) + "peigne" (comb). I don't have much in the way of Feudal France, but I do have one of these, with a castle added (Thibaut IV, 1201-53). I believe these are the last of the type: Another interesting one I have is this coin from Sancerre (located near Bourges), issued by Etienne I (1152-91), one of the feudal lords who rebelled against Philip II Augustus. The obverse legend is IVLIVS CESAR, and that's supposed to be a portrait of Caesar: How's that for a Caesar portrait coin! 😆 The explanation for the weird type is that there was a temple dedicated to Caesar there soon after the conquest of Gaul, and it continued to be a local landmark of some importance into the medieval period. A couple other relevant coins are this denier of Aquitaine, sometimes attributed to Eleanor, if we interpret the legend DVCISIT as Ducissa Itervm (“Duchess again”). Duplessy gives it to Guillaume X, her father: Finally, here's a Richard I The Lionheart from Poutou: As your post shows, the politics of this period were so complex that everyone was connected with everyone else in multiple ways... hard to keep track of it all!

I have quite a few Crispus, but a clear favourite portrait-wise. For D & H these are my only ones. Crispus, Antioch: ^These anepigraphics are fairly scarce for Crispus, possibly due to the damnatio. (I'm wondering if this is from the same engraver as @mc9's lovely example above.) Delmatius, Siscia: Hannibalianus, Constantinople: Hannibalianus is an odd duck. First, his strange name. Why would a Roman name their kid after Hannibal? Presumably this has something to do with his having been born in Tolosa, to a half-brother of Constantine. (Delmatius and Hannibalianus were brothers.) Does anybody know more than that? The second odd thing is his title of Rex, which was of course anathema to the Romans. I understand better the reason for this, which is that Constantine made him King of Pontus and other regions bordering on the Sassanid empire in preparation for an invasion. (Didn't happen until Julian, of course, because Constantine kicked the bucket too soon.)

This strikes me as a very strange coin, @John Conduitt! The portrait style doesn’t look much like Laodicea, but rather Alexandria… see Barry Murphy’s examples from 195 with this obverse legend. Both the protuberant-eye portrait and the drapery match Alexandria, and not Laodicea. I don’t know if this type is known for Alexandria, but it would be worth checking with our experts, @maridvnvm and @dougsmit about the coin. I could be totally out to lunch, but you may have a very rare and interesting item there!