GinoLR

Nero, semis Obv.: NERO CLAV. CAE. AVG. GERM..... ; laureate bust right. Rev.: CERTA. QV[INQ. ROM.] CO. (Certamina quinquennalia Romae condidit) : "Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (etc.) founded in Rome the Quinquennial Competitions." / S C : table ornamented with griffins supporting a prize-urn and a crown, disc on ground.

This Victoria is on a prow. This coin minted in 73 must refer to some overseas campaign. Why not in Britain?

Please, could anybody tell me what is this AE 16 mm? Thanks in advance

There are also some reverses with the mark of value in Latin numerals Tiberius II Constantine (578-582), three-quarters of follis, Constantinople. Maurice Tiberius (582-602), half follis from Antioch

When we write "King Charles III was born in 1948" we mix Roman and Arabic numerals in the same sentence. On the Byzantine AE coins the Greek numeral M, K, I, IB, Є were reverse types, but the obv. and rev. legends were in Latin. On your coin we read "ANNO / IIIII", that's Latin. On this solidus of Theodosius II, the exergue on reverse has the inscription CONOB : CON(stantinopolis) and OB. Some think it's for OB(ryza), meaning it's pure gold, some others think it's OB', Greek numerals for 72 : a solidus was 1/72th of a pound of gold.

I think there are two countermarks. The first one, which is rectangular, is covered by the second one which represents an owl.

Faustina I posthumous, sestertius, Rome, AE 31 mm, 20.41 g. Obv.: DIVA AVGVSTA FAVSTINA , veiled and diademed bust r. Rev.: PIETAS AVG / S C , Pietas standing l., dropping incense on candelabrum and holding box of perfumes Minted after 141. RIC III Antoninus Pius 1146Ac Next : Antoninus Pius

My profile pic is not a coin from my own collection. Arabia, Lihyan, AE tetradrachm. AE 20 mm, 10.15 g, 9 h. Late 4th - 3rd c. BC (?). Obv. : stylized profile of Athena right, double crescent on cheek. Rev.: stylized owl facing, in l. field stylized olive-sprig, in r. field ☉E, 4 pellets. I could have taken one of my coins, I find many of them nice, handsome and/or interesting. But I specially like this Lihyan AE tetradrachm found on the ground in Hegra, Saudi Arabia. Hegra was an ancient oasis North of Dadan, near al-Ula, known worldwide for its monumental Nabataean rock-tombs (even mentioned in the Quran !). But the local Nabataean period, roughly one century from the Nabatean takeover of the city c. 9 BC to the Roman annexation c. 107 AD, is just a short period in Hegra's eight centuries long history: the oldest coins found there date back to the 4th c. BC, the latest to c. 400 AD. Before the Nabataeans, Lihyanite Hegra minted coins imitating Athenian owls, as did the Philistian cities (Gaza, Raphia, Ashqelon), Egypt and Qataban in South Arabia... The first ones in the early 4th c. BC were close imitations of Greek style in good silver, but later the weight was reduced and silver turned to billion, eventually to copper alloy. The style evolved into a "picasso style" (M. Huth). This coin is supposed to be a tetradrachm but it is copper alloy and only 10.15 g, the Attic design is much stylized and simplified, resulting in this strange profile looking like contemporary art. As found, before cleaning - After cleaning Most of Liyanite coins are imitative and heavily stylized Attic owls like this one. There are many different kinds which can be dated 4th to 1st c. BC, but this coinage is still to be catalogued. I'm working on it...

A coin I previously posted on the other (now defunct ?) forum CoinTalk... Commodus, medallic sestertius. AE 32-35 mm, 21.51 g, 6 h. Obv.: L AELIVS AVRELIVS COMMODVS AVG PIVS FELIX, head left, wearing lion-skin rev.: in wreath HERCVLI ROMANO AVGVST in three lines divided by vertical club Unpublished, only one other specimen known : Gorny & Mosch 169.314, but with S C on rev. This coin was acquired in Paris in the 1970s from a well-reputed dealer, and a senior curator of the Cabinet des Médailles considered it authentic. The only parallel I see is a Gorny & Mosch example auctioned in 2008, AE 21.86 g., apparently from the same pair of dies, but with a conspicuous difference : S C on reverse. The two known specimens (21.51 g / 21.86 g) This coin is a mix of a sestertius (weight, module, slightly irregular flan, reverse die) and of a medallion (obverse die). Why is it lacking S C on reverse? It is from the same die as the Gorny & Mosch specimen that has S C! I suspect tooling : a previous owner in the past centuries might have erased the S C to make the coin look like a medallion, but I see no trace of the erased letters...

The tetradrachms seem to be Trajan Decius, Etruscilla and Trebonianus Gallus, that is to say minted between 249 and 253. At this time there were no Tyrian shekels, not even denarii, just antoniniani. What is interesting is the absence of antoniniani in this pile of coins. All the coins visible on the picture seem to be Trajan Decius and Trebonianus Gallus, then a gap of 60 years, then Constantinian LRB and fallen horsemen coins of different modules. The mid-3rd c. tetradrachms were probably at the time worth 2 antoniniani. But they surely did not circulate in the mid-4th century ! Is it an intrusion?

That was my 2023 Halloween pumpkin.

This is a complex case. The dealer who first bought it for € 150 made extensive research, even a radiocarbon analysis. He found that this mask had a precise provenance, it was brought from Gabon by a colonial administrator in the early 20th c. The radiocarbon confirmed the wood dates back from the late 19th c. An object like this one draws its value from its context. Without context, it's just worth a few hundreds €uros, but with a precise and dated context, it's a piece of history. This is not all. This story attracted some Gabonese people's attention on this mask. They too could add more knowledge : it's a white powerful mask used by the secret society of the Ngil, among Fang communities. The activities of the Ngil were forbidden by the French colonial power in the early 20th c., just the same period the colonial administrator acquired this mask and carried it in France. No one knows in which circumstances he acquired it : presented, bought, confiscated? For many Gabonese people, who value the history and traditions of their countries, this mask belongs to their national heritage. It's not like a mask specially created for the tourists or even the collectors market, this one has been actually impregnated with magic power, according to the rites of the Ngil society. It should be repatriated to Gabon.

Well... that's still compatible with the Masqued Cucumber hypothesis.