Helvius Pertinax

1 hour ago, Qcumbor said:

#4 is flavian, I'd say Vespasian 

Q

Interesting guess, I can see why. Its not a flavian though!

31 minutes ago, GordianAppreciator101 said:

1. Victorinus

2. Severus Alexander

3. Gallienus

4. Decius

 

Not going to try with the reverses cause I've got no idea lol. 

Also a good guess, but the first one is Septimius and the 3rd one Phillip I. Thanks for participating 😄

32 minutes ago, Zimm said:

Here are my guesses:

1. Absolutely idea who this could be (Maybe Septimius Severus?)

2. Severus Alexander

3. Philip the Arab

4. Valerian

 

1. Julia Domna

2. Septimius Severus

3. Gallienus 

4. Antoninus Pius

Thats a strong guess, nearly everything correct 😮! The first one is an early Septimius, the style looks similar to Albinus:

The only one you got wrong is number 4, first pic.

A few days ago @AncientNumis came up with the idea for this game, so I decided to make my own version 😄

First, you just have to guess the emperor by recognizing their facial characteristics:

Now, to make it a bit more difficult, you'll have to guess the emperor from looking at just the reverse if the coin (should be possible 🤔 If not, just put a guess). And watch out: there's a empress too:

Good luck everyone 😁 I'd make a harder version of this, but I just don't have that many coins 😔

The great king had an interesting face to say the least!

Once you see it...

2 minutes ago, Alegandron said:

Thank you. I captured it from one of @john Anthony’s auctions. 

Oh, he has auctions? I think I heard about that once... would you mind sending me a link? Wont be able to participate anyways, just for looking at the coins 🙂

10 hours ago, Claudius_Gothicus said:

Nice thread, @Helvius Pertinax! It's nice to meet a fellow young numismatist. I've never visited Trier, but I would certainly like to do so in the future. I do not have any coins that I know were found in the city, but I can show one that was struck there - its reverse iconography is also fitting, taking into account the city's famous gate:

Roman Empire, Constantine I (307-337), Nummus, Trier mint.

Obverse: CONSTAN-TINVS AVG, laureate head right;

Reverse: PROVIDEN-TIAE AVGG, campgate with two towers, six rows, no doors; star above, PTR(dot on crescent) in exergue;

RIC VII 475

 

I also own the same 2 Euro commemorative that you have shown:

 

As for my first ancients, those would be the first few low-grade LRBs that I bought as part of a group lot; they were all of very low quality and I've since parted with them. I do consider this coin to be the real foundation stone of my collection, though, as it was my first well-thought purchase and the one that made me begin collecting the coinage of Claudius II, of which you can guess I'm a big fan:

Roman Empire, Claudius II (268-270), Antoninianus, Siscia mint.

Obverse: IMP CLAVDIVS AVG, radiate and cuirassed bust right, seen from the front;

Reverse: P M T-R P COS P P, Apollo seated left, holding olive branch in right hand and leaning left elbow on lyre, P in exergue;

RIC V - ; RIC V Online 770; La Venera 9728; Minster 271;

Finally, in regards to your first coin, I wanted to direct you to its RIC V Online page, in case you haven't attributed it yet - that website is a great resource and I'm sure it could prove very useful for you in the future. Despite yours being a relatively common type, my collection is still lacking it, though I own two related ones: firstly, this antoninianus shares the same reverse type and officina mark as yours, but features the much rarer A3 bust, the radiate head with drapery.

Roman Empire, Claudius II (268-270), Antoninianus, Mediolanum mint.

Obverse: IMP CLAVDIVS P F AVG, radiate head right, with drapery to front and rear;

Reverse: FORTVN-AE RED, Fortuna standing left, holding rudder in right hand and cornucopia in left hand, S in exergue;

RIC V - (c.f. RIC V 151); RIC V Online 88; Mazzini 106; Toffanin 321/5;

 

The other one is this rare consular bust, which was only used at this mint by Claudius II and which is also one of my other favourite coins.

Roman Empire, Claudius II (268-270), Antoninianus, Mediolanum mint.

Obverse: IMP CLAVDIVS P F AVG, radiate bust left, wearing trabea, holding Victory on globe in right hand and scipio in left hand;

Reverse: PA-X A-VG, Pax running left, holding olive branch in right hand and transverse sceptre in left hand, T in exergue;

RIC V - (c.f. RIC V 157); RIC V Online 46; Huvelin 1980, 10; Toffanin 311/4;

Oh, you have to visit it, its beautiful! Nice that Trier minted so many coins of the city gate type, now that a city gate is their main attraction 😅 

I did in fact attribute the coin already, thanks for posting your related coins (that are of course of much higher quality than mine)!

That consular bust is indeed amazing, is he holding a spear? Its hard to seesince its very bright outside. 

Continuing the theme of historic visits, ill visit the Wartburg Castle tomorrow, where Luther hid and translated the Bible to german. The castle itself also has a nice history, reaching back to 1160 I think. Not sure if there are related coins though!

4 hours ago, Alegandron said:

RI Valentinian II
AD 375-392
AR Siliqua 18mm 1.8g
Trier
Victory wreath palm
RIC IX 43

And of course Alegandron steals the show with one of his amazing coins 😂 The way the slight wear and the nice dark patina come together is fascinating!! 

48 minutes ago, JeandAcre said:

Fantastic thread with fantastic coins.  ...I have to gravitate to the pictures of the city itself, mainly thanks to @Helvius Pertinax (brilliant OP), @Lhevae, and @Etcherdude.

All I can summon are these two campgate LRBs.  One could wish the motif could do a better job of evoking the Porta Nigra.

Thanks, I'm glad that there were so many interesting responses! It would have been cool if Trier modified their campgates to look a bit more like the Porta Nigra, but back then it was just one of many city gates - kind of unfortunate. I wonder what the romans would have thought if they knew that this gate would be a great attraction in 1850 years! And thanks for these pictures, lovely busts! 

3 minutes ago, Dwarf said:

As a good tourist in Trier you definitely have to take the "Rome Express"

for a visit of the basilica of Constantine the Great
(reconstructed after WWII, but comes close to the original - real impressive!)

then buy the usual overpriced coins

take a boat trip on the Mosel river

finally returning to your "villa rustica" for a nice meal with your friends
(Villa Borg is fully restored, with lots of activities going on in the summer.
This part of Germania must have been very wealthy!)

Wow, thanks for showing all those pics! It's a shame I didn't take any, would sure remind me of many good memorys 😞 It's stunning how rich this city was! 18.5 kilo of gold in ONE hoard, thats just insane!!

Hello avatar - dad! 😁

31 minutes ago, Lhevae said:

It's funny you created this thread because I actually went on a small trip to Trier last week. The last time I went there was in high school 11 years ago! Back then, I wasn't actively collecting coins (and especially not ancients). As someone whose main area of interest is the gallic empire, I had to go back (sort of a nerdy pilgrimage I guess). Here are a fresh few pics I took.

Cityview from the Mariensäule (can you spot the Aula Palatina?)

View from inside the cloister of the Trier Cathedral

The remnants of the roman amphitheater.

Under the amphitheater!

A big pile of large and silvered tetrarchy folles in the archaeology museum.

And (part of) the Porta Nigra.

I had to get a coin as a souvenir of course, and since I already got quite a few ancients from Trier, I thought it would be cool to go for something more unusual (also, most of the ancients I found were overpriced in my opinion).

Bishopric of Trier, Karl Kaspar von der Leyen, Petermännchen (Albus, 4 pfennig), 1675.

Obv. : MONE.NO.ARG.TREVIR.A.1675 / Saint Peter standing, holding key and book

Rev. : CARL.CASP.DG.ARCH.TREV PE AP / City arms

I also found that design on bigger "coins"!

Thats amazing, thanks for posting the nice holiday pics, the cathedral and hoard in particular - what a COINcidence! And a cool souvenir too. I agree, the ancients there are overpriced - but at least you know where they are coming from. I cant really remember, since my trip was around 10 years ago, but I think I visited the Cathedral too. Might have mixed it up with the Basilica though. And back then I really didn't care about the price, I don't think any history-loving 6 y/o who just discovered you can own something that old would 😂

1 hour ago, shanxi said:

I can add two coins which were found in Trier.

 

Faustina II,
As
Obv.: FAVSTINA AVGVSTA, Draped bust right
Rev.: FECVNDITAS / S – C, Fecunditas standing right, holding scepter in right hand, infant in left hand
11.98g, 23x26mm
Ref.: Cohen 101, RIC 1639
This coin was found in 1987 at the Viehmarktplatz, close to the St. Antoninus Church in Trier, Germany. The find was presented to the Landesmuseum (State Museum).

 

Faustina II
Dupondius or As, AD 145-161
Obv.: FAVSTINA AVG PII AVG FIL, draped bust right
Rev.: S - C, Diana standing left with bow and arrow.
AE, 12.4g, 26mm
Ref.: RIC 1405 (a) [C]
This coin was found in 2006 close to the Fleischstraße in Trier, Germany. The find was presented to the Landesmuseum (State Museum).

 

Wow, these are way nicer than mine! Did you get them I the city (like I did) or somewhere else?

A few years back, I had the privilege of visiting the city of Trier. I have since forgotten most of the details about this visit, but It is still very special to me, primarily because i got my first ancient coin there! 

Many of you will know this city, it was a very active mint under roman rule. Today, archeologists still discover a horrendous amount of roman coins there (for example, in 1993 they found a hoard of over 2500 aureii), which shows how important the city was during the roman period. 

I think the shop I got this coin in was close to one of the citys biggest attractions: The Porta Nigra (=Black gate), a very well preserved roman city gate from the 2nd century AD. Here it is, isn't it fabulous?

Okay, it's not that fabulous, but hey, it's my first ancient 😂 And also the only one where I know exactly where it was dug up: on a site near the Basilica of Constantine! 

As I said, I got it in a shop near the Porta Nigra. Here is the building, I think its absolutely beautiful 😄 (Didn't take pictures myself unfortunatley)

And speaking of the Porta Nigra, I cant get around showing this coin I sometimes see in change. It belongs to a series of coins that feature a new german monument every year. Funnily, the series started in the year I was born, making it really nice to collect. Every year I look through my change if the new coin is I there, lots of fun! Anyways, here's the coin!

Please post your first ancients, coins where you know where they were dug up, or anything related!

1 hour ago, DANTE said:

Instead of watching TV this morning, I quietly whittled away on this one, inspired by @Helvius Pertinax and @Ronalovich's fantastic avatars. The original picture I used isn't really high-res, so it get's a bit blurry and granulated when you zoom in. Tracing the reverse was a labor of love (but also strangely therapeutic and calming). Also, it was surprisingly interesting, tracing every line and every detail the die-cutter has made in the die really makes you appreciate their handywork and incredible skill in a whole new way!). Overall, I'm quite pleased with the result.

 

'Reduced' follis:

Constantine II, Cyzikus, with some smoothing of the fields.

 

 

Im glad you like my avatar, your version is marvellous! Nice work keeping the important details, it's a hideous task - but fun to do! I didnt do the reverse on mine, since it was created solely for the purpose of being my new avatar - here, on discord, and every other coin related discussion forum.

2 hours ago, Alegandron said:

I got this one, @Magnus Maximus, to make YOURS look really good!

However, the collectors mark on mine is kinda cool.

ROME
Arcadius, AD 395-408
AR Siliqua, 16mm, 1.1g, 12h.
Obv.: DN ARCADI-VS PF AVG; Pearl diademed, draped, and cuirassed bust right.
Rev.: VIRTVS RO-MANORVM; Roma seated left on cuirass, holding Victory on globe and reversed spear.

Mint mart unclear ( Looks like the mint worker used his SHARPIE and wrote in "88" for the mint mark...   )

Comment: Collector's number code on reverse - "88" ?
From the @dougsmit Collection, #2829
Ex: @John Anthony

Wow, still really attractive, despite all the damage! Having spoken to a few older german numismatists, i learned that back in the days, it was common for collectors to polish the hell out of their coins, as well as applying numbers to them - mostly with ink, but in the worst case with a small chisel - to make them "easily recognizable". Makes me wonder if some of the things we do with our coins will be condemned by the generations after us! Also, the number on the reverse is definately a 33. Any idea what the spot on Roma's leg could be?

It is my holy duty to post him in a thread about epic hairstyles:

And lets not forget about that amazing beard that set a trend for over a century!

Nice thread, just like the other one! Again, since i recognize almost all the coins from your YT im not gonna spoil anything haha. For animals on my ancients, ill have to go with the eagle, since its my only non - mythological animal on an ancient coin:

And heres Gallienus, he sure was an animal against all these usurpers 😅 Will always stay in my top 10 of ancient chads!

Ive seen all the coins already, as closeups - thanks to following your YT channel (go subscribe, everyone!) so it might be a bit unfair if i spoil the suprise. Great idea for a gane though, i might do that in the future!

I like the style on yours! Cant post the obverse of my Julia, the pic is on my lost phone, but ive shown the reverse here already, so the forum has it saved. Here it is, bought for the nice centering:

14 minutes ago, Ryro said:

next: bird with something in its mouth

Okay, heres a bird with a wreath in its mouth:

Next, a funny coin

6 minutes ago, JeandAcre said:

Terrific, even (or especially?) for people who don't do much Prokofiev.  But what is that ms. leaf your (solid) siglos is on?  Has a vaguely 17th-century look to it, but I can't even figure out what language it is!

Thanks! Im not that much into Prokofiev either personally. But when my classmates blast out Eminem music i just silently slide in my headphones and listen to this tune 🙂 I made a post on these pics, took them last week. Im in an internship at an archive right now, used one of the documents as background. Its german, from the 1830s.

20 hours ago, noname said:

I move my coins around a lot, storage wise, but currently, I have most of my better coins (about 300-350 ish) in my Zecchi coin cabinet, and my two Abafil cases.

I store another 150 ish in Saflips, which I keep in rectangular boxes, and I have a few hundred very low end ancients, mostly lrbs, that I keep in bags and boxes 

I store the core of my Roman imperial collection+coins i'm actively trying to sell (trays 8&9) in my cabinet, my better/more interesting ants in my Miidiplomat, and my better/more interesting Greeks&miscellanious ancients in my minibring

I do have a large amount of ancient and medieval Chinese cash coins (nothing rare/valuable) that I store in a box

For the rest of my collection I store mostly in saflips

That looks amazing, great collection! 3rd pic, 3rd coin in the top row - whats that? It looks beautiful, but ive never seen it before.

Glad to see this thread revived! Ill just post my favourite coin, along with my favourite tune.

Siglos, type IIIa, 495-475 BCE, Darius I - Xerxes I

Epic performance!!

One of my coins would almost have fit in this category, i waited for it to arrive for three months. This was my first online purchase too. Unfortunately the pictures of it are on my phone that i just lost. Its an early type III Siglos. Got me quite nervous, so I was very happy when i finally got it!