Helvius Pertinax

For sure! Others have brought out absolute stunners in this thread. So do you - fabulous centering! Spes is a great reverse, onnof my favourites of his.

For sure, the title is a stretch 😅 And the reverse - as you say - is far from the best. Good to see some other absolutely stunning SA's here, it's been a pleasant thread to go through! On another note, I think there's still an argument to be made for the best obverse in Silver, or close. A subjective one, and one I'd have to do much more research on to back it up, but it's a fun thought!

Also a beauty of a coin!

And two damn nice ones!! Nicely engraved reverses and the early obverse also has lots of charm to it. Great style on the late one, too 😁 Congrats on owning these charms!

I am afraid I have disregarded your request as I immediately voted for only one coin, directly upon seeing it, that being the Artabanos. A truly wonderful facing portrait, fierce is certainly a good way to describe it! My own Parthian Drachm was also bought for the portrait (and because I wanted Ekbatana represented in my collection). It is very cutesy, with the pointy nose and happy looking eyes:

I want to add the following: Kampmann has plated in her work a Denarius of this exact type. Her specimen has an inferior obverse, but a more centered reverse. Yet I would argue my specimen is the nicer one, which makes me more confident in it being the nicest overall, as Kampmann took great care of plating only the best examples.

It is thanks to @AncientCoinnoisseur (who, I see, has himself contributes excellent pieces) that I have been reminded of the existence of this thread, and thanks to some other members I feel reassured that my Severus Alexander Denarius may fit it's theme While certainly (to my knowledge, at least) the best of it's type, I would make the argument that no other Denarius of Severus Alexander has an obverse as good as this piece.

Oh, I was not aware that there are coins of him so closely dateable! Neither was I aware that mine is so overweight. Great piece 😃

It still is, a very crisp specimen!

So is yours! Very well centered, on good metal and just as heavy if not more. And I like the attributions you do, great detail, I'd love to see that more often sometimes! Though I am myself guilty of not always including them in my posts. I like the Sol reverse, wonderfully manufactured! Can't go wrong with Sol, that radiate crown is super cute

Today I come to you all with a question (or a challenge) but also a really visually appealing coin to post! Recently, I got a fantastic deal on a group lot. Roman Denarii, not my current focus area, but I couldn't pass up at 97€ a piece for a very high end selection that the auction house luckily didn't take pictures of. Among these, an absolute stunner of a coin. Way better than my previous Severus Alexander, heck, the obverse is better than any Denarius of him that I have ever seen! Only Aureii can compare in style. I've asked myself if this is perhaps the best Denarius obverse known of Severus Alexander? I have so far been unable to find a better one. Is there a bit of delusion in this argument from my side? Perhaps. Well, to find out I am making this post. Please share your opinion as well as other great coins, or your own examples of Romes second youngest emperor!

@kirispupis Here is the image of the Kyros-Dareikon plated in SNG Arabia 1923

Appreciate it! Not one to come across every day. Yours is a nice example too, and of one of my favourite style groups! Here's my double die match: And my other one of this group, just a reverse die match:

Thanks! I like the ones you got, good selection. The Carradice types are IIIb, IVb (?) and IIIb late. Especially the last one is really nicely struck 😁

Very nice Siglos! Admittedly I used to be (and still am) a bit jealous of it 😅 Lovely combination of a well centered strike and cool malachite deposits! The Kyros-Daric is actually one of the topics we talked about with Carradice. He doesn't quite buy into it, there's two known examples both in the British Museum. He said it may be tooled, or a fake entirely, but could also be genuine. Someone has got to examine it in hand (perhaps even us?) because pictures will only go so far, and the best ones we've got are from the last millennium (1923 I think). The coin is plated in about two or three publications with images in various qualities, I've got a decent one on my laptop included in the publication which I can send over later. Also, hugely admire the work you're putting into the Website! It's beautiful and very informative, I am looking forward to seeing the additions you'll make to it 👏🏾