JAZ Numismatics

Wow! Impressive score!

Got this little guy from a TX dealer. Couldn't resist. It's off-center and worn, but how often do you come across little Athenian bronzes?

2 hours ago, mcwyler said:

Just to prove how "good enough" yours are, here are mine. Swap? 

 

Just to prove how "good enough" yours are, here are mine. Swap? 

It's a tourist token. When I visited the UN headquarters in NY back in the 90's, the gift shop had a selection of these kinds of cheap tokens you could get as souvenirs. They were all made in China.

On 6/16/2023 at 4:21 PM, seth77 said:

This can mean that an obverse die was hastily modified for the new political reality, before changing the bust type or the reverses minted for Elagabal. 

This is probably the most likely explanation. The bust on that die is well-done. Why waste it? Just call him emperor in the legend and add the headgear on the next die.

I'm guessing an addirional benefit to the balled-flan technique is that it would help the metal flow completely into the highest points of the devices, which are in the middle of the dies. Sicilian silver is frequently worn from circulatoon, but rarely do you find flat strikes.

32 minutes ago, ValiantKnight said:

Lol why else do you think@JAZ Numismatics wants to use that soil for planting? 😮

Damn straight. Nothing pushes up my daisies like cadavers.

3 minutes ago, DonnaML said:

Anytime! I can't wait for mine to arrive. I wonder how many gold coins I'll get.

Did you get the 50,000 or 100,000 pound bag?

2 minutes ago, robinjojo said:

The included soil might actually be quite high quality for growing stuff!

Good point! I can use it in my planters. Wow, this is like winning the lottery! 😃

Ok I bought a few bags. Thanks Donna! 🙂

46 minutes ago, expat said:

I am in a similar situation in that I was gifted 141 Spanish coins recently. It is from an American who sadly has terminal cancer. He dispersed his entire collection to those who would appreciate them. I got his Spanish ones. Here is an example of one from the multitude.

 It is from a single year issue, at a time of provisional government, 1870. One of few modern types that has no reference to country of issue on it.

 The figure is of Hispania seated right. Ref: KM# 663, Cal# 24

You have the 10 centimos denomination. I received a couple of 1 centimo coins. As you mentioned, the type doesn't reference Spain in the inscriptions, but another interesting feature is that it gives the weight and division of the coin: in my case one gram, one thousand pieces per kilogram; in your case, 10 grams, 100 pieces per kilogram. I wonder how many coin types meant for circulation included their weight in the legends? I don't know moderns very well, so I can't think of any...

In contrast to Alfonso X, here is Enrique IV - so weak and ineffectual that he earned the anti-honorific "Impotent." He did manage to recapture Gibralter from the Muslims, but his nobles fell into warring factions that accomplished little of any good for the Castilian people. At the age of 15 he was married to Blanche of Navarre, in order to strengthen relations between Navarre and Castile, but the marriage was annulled 13 years later because it was never consummated. Perhaps that's part of the reason for his moniker. However, the local prostitutes attested to the fact that Henry was not the least bit impotent, so apparently he just didn't take a shine to Blanche. There's no need to go on about his history - it's the boring history of a mediocre man that did little but pursue his own gratification. However, he did know how to dress the part of a medieval king...

I got three of these billon blancas in the lot, two from the Burgos mint, one from Toledo. This is the best one...

Hello friends, need a cheap numismatic snack? I always have a good handful of quality coins for $50 and less...

Budget Ancients Click Here

Budget Modern World Coins Click Here

Peace and happy collecting! -John

I really like these quadrantes - so many types to collect. And again, your video shows the true character of the coin. But were they actually the price of a tryst in a brothel? I've heard that said before, but I've never found any evidence for it. Were prostitutes really that cheap in ancient Rome?

Post it and let's see what's up. You don't owe the auction house anything, certainly not concealing possible fraud.

A few years ago a Spanish dealer sent me a bag of coins and they didn't look particularly wonderful, so they sat on the shelf until last week. I started poking through them and actually discovered some interesting pieces, so I'll post them in this thread over the next few days. Feel free to post any of your MODERN Spanish coins - we'll leave the ancients for another thread.

For starters, here's a billon meaja from the Kingdom of Castile and Leon, struck by Alfonso X "the Sage", and produced only in the year 1281. Alfonso came as a pleasant surprise to me. He wasn't merely another dumb monarch playing a game of thrones. He was a scholar and musician. scientist, poet, and sponsor of many translations aimed at educating the Castilian people in a variety of subjects. A true "Renaissance Man." If you'd like to get into a medieval mood, listen to some of the music he composed at YouTube here...

Anyway, here's the coin. Apparently it's pretty rare. The only other examples I found were on Numista...

https://en.numista.com/catalogue/castile_and_leon-8.html

22 minutes ago, DonnaML said:

I'm not sure I agree with the author of the essay on Fontanille Coins that smoothing by itself is a type of tooling. I view them as fundamentally different in kind as well as in degree.

Just one caveat to the opinion I expressed that smoothing of the fields on ancient bronzes doesn't bother me as long as it doesn't affect the devices or the lettering. I think that even if it doesn't affect them, if the result is fields as smooth as glass surrounding devices that remain noticeably rough, pitted, or even corroded, the contrast between the two can make the coin look rather absurd -- too much cognitive dissonance! -- and the the smoothing was excessive and overly obvious.

The problem is, if a coin has rough surfaces, it's generally rough on both the devices and fields. If you only applied smoothing to the fields, you would have a very unnatural look. You would definitely have to work on the devices as well to give the coin a unified appearance. As far as I'm concerned, smoothing is fine if and only if it removes dirt and mineral deposits. The patina itself, regardless of its condition, should be left alone.

Case in point. Here's an as of Domitian, quite rough. There's no way you could just smooth the fields without also tooling the devices, or the coin would look half-baked. But as far as I'm concerned, I LIKE this kind of look in an ancient bronze. It looks rugged and, well...ancient, as it should.

19 hours ago, Nerosmyfavorite68 said:

I voted 'yes', with the same caveats as CPK.  I'm generally not cool with overcleaning.

This one could have used some smoothing.

Some coins are beyond help. They just are what they are.

7 hours ago, Phil Anthos said:

Here's 30 of them. Probably easier this way...

https://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=7186

~ Peter 

That's an impressive set of lilliputian coins!

DIFFICILIS QVONDAM DOMINIS PARERE SERENIS
IVSSVS ET EXTINCTIS PALMAM PORTARE TYRANNIS
OMNIA THEODOSIO CEDVNT SVBOLIQVE PERENNI
TERDENIS SIC VICTVS EGO DOMITVSQVE DIEBVS
IVDICE SVB PROCLO SVPERAS ELATVS AD AVRAS

"Formerly [I was] reluctant to obey peaceful masters, and ordered to carry the palm [of victory] for tyrants now vanquished and forgotten. [But] all things yield to Theodosius and to his eternal offspring. So too was I prevailed over and tamed in three times ten days, raised towards the skies under governor Proclus."

The interesting piece of information in that is that it took 30 days to get the thing from Alexandria to Constantinople. That's a long hike with more than a few tons of rock.

Man, that's a difficult type to get your hands on, and that's a very nice example. Well done!

You wanna see a comical tooling of a Christ follis? What have they done to Jesus!! Miserere mei Domine.

Superb coin!! It looks so much better in the video than in the still image.

It's not everyday that you see Byzantine bronzes that nice. Great collection!

Nothing takes the edge off an auction loss like buying a big, fat sestertius!