Zimm

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

I currently have two letters in the mail; One of them has been in the mail for over 2 months now. I was almost certain it was lost, but just last week I received a message from the dealer informing me that the letter had been returned to him and that he'd mail it again shortly. The contents weren't necessarily interesting aside from a scarce trachy of Andronicus III. The second batch of coins I ordered last weeks is, at least in my opinion, far more interesting. Aside from a few scarce issues of Michael VIII and John III, it has two coins that stand out from the rest. One of them being a rare trachy of Andronicus II with very few examples known (albeit mine is in awful condition) and the second one an unpublished Nicaean trachy that I presume is either an issue of Theodore I Laskaris or John III (though I suspect the former).

Imo Byzantine copper can look fine if you look hard enough for good examples (and in my opinion even the awful ones have their own charm). For instance just this year I found this nummus of Anastasius that still looks somewhat decent, at least in my opinion

That‘s a great example. I‘ve always had a soft spot for Syracusan dynastic folles. The small flans and poor style combined with designs that have so much going on makes the coins just have a different feel to them. Also the emerald coloured patina on your example looks amazing! Here‘s my example of the type (though the patina isn‘t nearly as nice)

What a coincidence, I bought that exact same type just today. You could say the crack problem is a bit more severe on mine (given how a part of it has already cracked off 😅)

Here‘s what the random number generator gave me A follis of Constantine VII and Zoe (as regent), Sear 1758 Although in the photo it may not look that special, in hand the coin great with almost all of the details preserved, which is what drove me into buying it. It simply looked too nice to pass up on.

Here‘s one that got lost quite recently A decently rare trachy of Andronicus III that‘s actually in pretty nice condition for the issue (Sear 2482) I bought the coin (along with some more common types I really didn‘t care that much about in the first place) in early April. After a week of moving around in Germany (where the seller is located) it was, for some unknown reason, sent to France instead of Finland. Then in early May it supposedly left France and arrived in Finland. After that the tracking went silent and I still haven‘t heard anything about it since the supposed arrival in Finland.

Click on your username (next to your profile picture) on the top right, which should open a dropdown menu. From the menu you should go to "account settings". Then on the right you should see a button called "notification settings". Click that and you should be able to customise your email notification settings.

Definitely a very ambitious goal, but with a colossal budget and years of patience it might be doable (Coins of Constantine XI for example can cost over 10000€ for even a tiny 1/8 stavraton. Also emperors like Matthew Kantakouzenos are extremely rare with only a few coins known). I‘m personally only focusing on the more affordable emperors for my "emperor type set". Personally I don‘t mind weird-looking portraits. Sure, I‘d rather have a more realistic one, but squashed faces have a charm of their own. Best of luck with the project!

Here's my only dual portrait type; An AE type from Tarsus with the jugate busts of Annius Verus and Commodus Caesars

An AE trachy of Alexius III Megas Komnenos (Sear 2629) Next: a coin with less than 10 examples known

Here’s a little tip, on PC if you simply copy a picture and paste it into the text field, it doesn‘t actually count as an attachment, but rather as a part of the text itself. Even though I‘ve uploaded dozens of pictures by now, I haven‘t used up a single byte of my attachment limit.

Next up: A coin struck by a ruler who reigned for less than a year

Theodore I Laskaris also happens to be the most abundant ruler in my collection, so I guess I'll be posting coins from his reign too 😅. (I'm not the greatest at taking photos so this will have to do) (Sear 2061, 5x Sear 2062, Sear 2067)

Those are some astonishing examples! I actually happen to also have two of those types, albeit in significantly worse condition than yours

Here‘s a pretty fun coin I bought a while back A small module trachy of John Komnenos Doukas (from the Empire of Thessalonica). The pictures are awful since the coin is about 8mm in diameter and has a dark black patina. It's in amazing condition for the issue though Sear 2208 (Rev. John holding labarum and akakia) (Obv. Brockage)

The silvering actually looks a lot brighter in pictures than in hand. The coin has a greyish patina that makes the surface silvering look a lot less pure than it actually is (though from certain angles you can see the shiny silvering just like in the photo)

My profile picture is quite recent. I made it less than a month ago from one of the trachies of Theodore I Laskaris I bought that I thought had a nice portrait. Even though most of the coin is pretty worn, the face and upper torso are in in great condition, which makes it suitable to be used as an avatar. (I did remove the portrait from the rest of the coin though and used another part of the coin as a background) Here's the coin in question

Here's one of the trachies I bought recently On top of being a desirable (and scarce) type with a seraph, this example also has full legends, which is quite rare for trachies from the period Andronicus II (Sear 2352), Constantinople Obverse: Andronicus holding sceptre and akakia Legend: ΑΝΔΡΝΙΚΟϹ ΔΕCΠΟΤΗϹ O Π — ΑΛΕΟΛΟΓΟϹ (Full legends(!)) (ANDRONIKOS DESPOTES O P - ALEOLOGOS) Reverse: Seraph

Tried it and I can like them just fine

A trachy of Michael VIII with Andronicus II, Sear 2318 Obverse: Bust of St. Nicholas Andronicus II on the left, Michael VIII on the right, holding patriarchal cross between them, crowned by Christ above Next: A coin struck by the Latin Empire