AncientNumis

2 hours ago, Etcherdude said:

If your defaced number 6 was in a Greek museum, @AncientNumis you’d be correct in calling him Heracles. 

Ah ok you're right. Sorry - I always tend to call him Herakles which is a bit weird, even if he's Roman. Should call him Hercules in this case

Wow! What a collection!!! Welcome @NewStyleKing, great to have members like you here 🙂. Looking forward to your posts, I don't know much about new style tets but I'm really intrigued by them so I'm sure I'll learn a lot from your posts 😄 

12 hours ago, Limes said:

Hi everyone,

I was wondering what was happening at CT. Little activity going on there, although I admit I have not been active very much either, lately. Thanks to Ryro, who sent me the link to this place, the first mystery is solved! This place is absolutely buzzing with activity, I like it! Kudo's to Restitutor who, if I'm correct, started this forum? I just finished registration, and will update my profile later. 

About the inactivity from my part; well, the last couple of months have been very busy. On February 1st, our daughter was born (child no. 3)! I thought that the birth of child no. 3 was less special so to say, but I was wrong. I can't describe (especially not in english) how special she is, and how much we love her. And to see the interaction between her older sister and brother, who are very happy with her, is really heaven on earth. Oh, and did I mention I started a education last November? What was i thinking..... busy times, less time for the hobby. But every now and then, when the kids are sleeping, and I have a moment to spare, I browse some auctions, or CT or the facebook group, and try to make a post or a reply. And now this forum too...!

The real reason for this thread, is this. To celebrate the birth of our daughter, I caught my first aureus. The reason I got this one, is because of the reverse. (And I could not afford other appropriate reverses or higher grades ones). Despite the scratches, wear, and so on, it's a coin I will cherish the rest of my life.

Coin-cidentally (haha, I used this word deliberately, thank you google translate!) my wife and I took a day off a few weeks ago, and visited a museum here in Holland with the baby. The ladies did not enjoy it that much, but there was a display going on that I just had to see. It was about Domitian, and according to the brochure the question was whether or not he really was a 'bad' emperor. I added some photo's of the display. The story goes that his relationship with the Senate was horrible, which led to his downfall. His policies however paved the road for the new line of emperors to emerge and usher in the most prosperous era of the roman empire: the time of the adoptive emperors. Not quite sure if this is new info, I don't think so, but the display was really well put up and the stuff on display was amazing, including a lot of coins. 

We were welcomed by the man himself, with a appropriate dagger... I dont think this was the dagger 😉

Busted head of Galba, with some coins on display next to the statue. The show started with the youth of Domitian, which included a 3d short clip of the house he grew up in. Next was the rise of Flavian dynasty (and the civil war in 68/69 AD) and Domitian eventually came to power. 

As emperor, he loved poetry, arts and building stuff. On this rather vague fresco, you can see building projects going on in Rome. Charts are driving, you can see cranes, workers, and so on. According to the description, people actually complained about sleep shortage, because a lot of building material was driven around at night. During the day, the streets were  too crowed. I really enjoyed looking at it. It makes the city really come alive. 

But it wasn't all poetry and building things and so, there was some fighting going on as well. This mask of a roman cavalry man (or some other officer, I forgot...) was found in Germany. Below you can see the sestertius of the heroic emperor on a horse, thrusting his spear into a barbarian. On one the reverses of two aureii, you can see a mourning Germania.

In the end he was killed, the Senate truly hated him. This was really interesting, a damnatio memoriae in effect, on a coin. They showed another complete specimen, next to it: 

So, that concludes the coin and the short museum tour. I will enjoy reading the posts on this forum, and I hope in the near future, I will have more time to post. 

All the best! 
Limes (Martijn) 

 

WOW! Congrats on your first aureus (as well, as of course, the birth of your daughter), looks amazing. Really nice mini write-up too 🙂 . I have no coins of Domitian to contribute, but I'm super jealous of yours 😄 

20 minutes ago, Curtisimo said:

Nice one @Orange Julius

1) Caligula 

2) Trajan

One is right, one is not...

I'll leave this up for a little while before revealing answers.

@UkrainiiVityaznice coins! My favourite is the top one - it seems really beautiful to me. 

3 minutes ago, Orange Julius said:

That first photo looked to be of high quality artistry, so I can see where people were guessing earlier but that hair swoop totally reminded me of my under-appreciated dude G! That was fun!

Yeah! Now that I see it, Tiberius does look a lot like that. I may have guessed that as well 😂. But you weren't fooled, so congrats. Glad you enjoyed it. 

And I've got some other ideas for different guessing games, so those will all come in time...

Haha yeah! Luckily you won't mysteriously get banned either. 

Xaire, welcome to this wonderful forum. So great to have you join, and really hope you enjoy it! 

P.S. Lovely coin too 😄 

Here are 2 more, even though one's a bit pixellated. If you get these right, then feel free to post your own fun close ups! We can make this a great game 🙂 

And 10 minutes after posting, we have a winner! @Orange JuliusCongrats 🎉. You all got the Septimius Severus, but the top one was pretty tricky. I'll get some more pics for you all to try 🙂 

8 hours ago, Etcherdude said:

I'll play. Here are one Greek and one Roman site. They are in the same general region. Anybody know what/where they are?

1

2

I'm not sure, but I bet someone will be able to figure it out! 

8 hours ago, Leo said:

I tried buying a coin in Rome, but all stores were so outrageously overpriced that I just decided to see the beautiful scenery and art instead 🙂

Lovely! Looks like you visited some awesome places - haha I remember those large body part statues outside the Capitoline museum, that was funny.

Ok, here are the answers 

@Etcherdude@idesofmarch01you both did pretty well!
 

1. Public toilets at Ostia

2. Baths of Caracalla

3. Pantheon

4. Famous Augustus Statue (Palazzo Massimo)

5. Hadrian's villa

6. Statue of Herakles (Capitoline Museum) - I edited the area in the middle to keep it SFW by the way 🤣

7. Arch Of Titus

8. Ara Pacis

9. Colosseum

10. Part of Palatine Hill I think...

11. Ostia Antica

12. Reproduction Of Marcus Aurelius Statue Outside Museum

So, this should be my 100th post here. Which, to be honest, kind of shocks me. But, I thought, how about a fun little game?
Here you're trying to guess the Roman Emperor by the close up. I'll give you 3 different ones and if you get them right, I may do some more. I don't know how difficult these are - but we'll see. Good luck!

Ok, lots of promising responses here! I'm gonna sleep now - but when I wake up tomorrow I'll give you all the answers 🙂

Wow, now that a lot more people know about ancient coin chat, the forum’s growing super quickly! This is exciting 🙂 

Welcome! Thanks for joining, I’m sure you’ll love it here and I’m excited to see what you post 😄 

Welcome Erin! 
Oof - sorry it isn’t what you thought it was but I’m glad you still like it! Really great idea to use it as a pocket piece, I’m sure lots of people will be interested by it. Hope you have a wonderful time here 🙂, this is a great place. 

🤣 
Thanks! You should definitely go - I absolutely looooooved it, and there was great food too. 😋

4 hours ago, Alegandron said:

MY GO-TO's:

I acquired (from Warren Esty), a Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum for North Africa Syrtica-Mauretania from 1969 PLATE BOOK that illustrates each of my coins. 

Nice Large reference at approx 15.5" x 11.5" (39 x 29 cm) that illustrates a nice chunk of Carthage issues.

- SNG Copenhagen, the original "North Africa, Syrtica, and Mauretania"
(Warren Esty helped me get this! @Valentinian) - My focus on Carthage

- Sear / Seaby - Roman Coins I & II - Especially book I for my Roman Republic focus

- Sear / Seaby - Greek Coins I & II - My Makedon, Diadochi, Carthage, and Sicily focus

- Thurlow & Vecchi - Italian Cast Coinage - My focus on Aes Grave

- David Hartill - Cast Chinese Coinage

- Flinders Petrie - Historical Scarabs (with several other Egyptian / Scarab books) - opens a whole new world of Historical collecting beyond coinage.

Carthage
Third Punic War with Rome 149-146 BCE
Billon Serrate Double Shekel
12.83g, 26mm.
Obv: Wreathed head of Tanit left
Rev: Horse standing right, pellet below raised left leg
Ref: SNG Copenhagen 403.
Comment: Very fine, several (cleaning?) scratches.

Notes:
Scarce. From the last issue of Carthage before its destruction by a vengeful Rome following the Third Punic War (149-146 BC). The serrate edge is found on both Electrum and Billon coins of the period and is similar to the flan treatments of contemporary Macedonian and Seleukid bronze coins. The reason for this added detail remains a mystery. SCARCE (only 2 listed on ACSearch.)
Jenkins & Lewis pl. 28, 14; MAA 100b; cf. SNG Copenhagen 403 (pellet below back legs)
NONE listed on CNG Coins
Wildwinds: 160-149/6 BCE

Great list of books! Really useful - I’ve got a few but not all of those, my favourites are those by Sear about Roman and Greek coins - I do really enjoy looking through the RR types in the first book (and it’s convinced me to start thinking about a new sub collection of RR coins 🙂) 

Love the coin as well - my only coin from Carthage is a simple bronze one, although i did get a good deal on it. 

4 hours ago, Roman Collector said:

My son, COLLECTOR IVN NOB C, kindly gave me these two books as Christmas gifts.

The first one, Frank L. Holt's When Money Talks, A History of Coins and Numismatics, is refreshingly more about the history and purpose of numismatics than it is about the history of coinage. It's rather scholarly and the end notes comprise several dozen pages alone. It covers such areas as the first numismatists, the development of numismatics as a science, the role of pseudoscience in numismatic history, hoards, the ethics of collecting, and where the discipline of numismatics is heading in the future. You may read about the book here at the publisher's website.

The second one, Jasper Burns' The Roman Sestertius: A Collector's Guide, is a fun read. Jasper himself posted about it at another coin discussion board and I recommend reading his thread for a summary of its contents. It comes in a black and white edition and a color edition. I recommend the color edition -- you really want to see the patinas on the coins illustrated. Jasper covers the history of the sestertius and the sorts of factors to take into account when buying a sestertius for one's collection. He illustrates the book profusely with high-grade examples from high-end auctions and notes the prices realized. The book is helpful for those new to the hobby, to be sure, but even those collectors with decades of experience and hundreds of sestertii in their coin cabinets will enjoy the book.

And since one of the books is about sestertii, here's the latest sestertius to join my numophylacium.
 

Gordian III, AD 238-244.
Roman orichalcum sestertius, 22.88 g, 30.7 mm, 1 h.
Rome, 6th officina. 13th emission, January-February AD 244.
Obv: IMP GORDIANVS PIVS FEL AVG, laureate, draped and cuirassed bust, right.
Rev: MARS PROPVGNAT SC, Mars advancing right, holding transverse spear in right hand and shield on left arm.
Refs: RIC 332a; Cohen 157; RCV 8718; Hunter 148; Banti 52.

 

That second book about Sestertii sure looks great, think I saw the thread about it a while back. I don’t really collect Sestertii but I have a few and am interested in them, so maybe my next coin book buy? I’ll update here if I do get it soon 🙂 ! 
And nice sestertius! 

And a few more: 

8.

9.

10.

11.

12.

And we’ll stop there before it becomes unlucky 🤣

Ok, here are some more pics from my visit, but I’ve got a fun little game! Can any of you guess where or what these are? Most are pretty easy to be honest, but hopefully it’ll still be fun. Beware though, some are from the same sort of place and one or two aren’t super famous I’d say...
 

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

Here’s my only Byzantine coin, really common but it was extremely inexpensive so I bought it! 

On 5/24/2022 at 5:13 AM, Curtisimo said:

Here is a coin from Ragusa / Dubrovnik to kick off the Medieval section.  Testing out with some photos from my trip to the city as well. 

Medieval Croatia
Republic of Ragusa
Anonymous AR Dinar, Dubrovnik mint, struck ca. AD 1337-1438
Dia.: 18 mm
Wt.: 1.11 g
Obv.: St. Blaise standing facing, holding cozier and raising hand in benediction
Rev.: IC – XC; Christ Pantokrator standing facing with mandorla
Ref.: D&D 6.4.1

 

Photos

Depictions of St. Blaise on display in various places in the city  

Game of Thrones fans (if there are any left after Season 8 🤮) will recognize this city as King’s Landing

A truly beautiful place

The Rectors Palace: this is where the coins of Ragusa were struck after 1435. The location of the earlier mint (where my coin was struck) is not known. 

A pretty epic bar that you get to by passing through a tiny little door in the medieval wall. Excellent views!

Great coins and lovely photos, looks really spectacular 🙂 

1 hour ago, Romancollector said:

Just joined! Same Rc from ct!

Welcome! 😃