ela126

very cool example, was this on eBay? One of my friends from Reddit may have been chasing this was well. He was pretty bummed not to win. Good for you! Hah i do have two examples, although because of Constantine IV and his attempt at a monetary reform, which failed, it mucks it up. The first I think is Deflation, then to inflation with the second example. Please forgive me about the sear numbers, I don’t have my notes infront me me. Constantine VI decanummi, over struck on a Constans II Follis. This is a 6.5g decanummi from ~670, which was overstruck on Follis from 10-15 years earlier. This followed the Large super follis that Constantine IV put out near the beginning of he reign, that quickly fell apart. You can see the crown of Constans above Constantine on the obverse and the crowns of the 3 children on the reverse, in what should be the exegue. now to the inflation, this is a Justinian II first reign Half follis. This example is an obvious cut coin. Harlan Berk has said these were made from the large Constantine iv follis, which I’ve checked and math works quite well. This example is exactly 5.00g. (With the host follis being in the 20g region), so a 50% inflation, 80 nummi made from a follis.

Some tasty coins, probably above my price range but cool to see. That Joint reign is crazy, only saw this in the sear book. One of those mythical coins

that is the most conservative option to clean a coin, but unless the dirt is soft, that doesn't yield meaningful results. If you're in no rush though, that's where to start. I usually soak in distilled water for a few days, then i use, primarily, a very sharp diamond pin in a pin vice under a microscope at 20x mag. using little to no pressure, i run that over the dirt. It makes rather quick work of most deposits. Obviously it can be a bit more invovled, really comes down to a case by case basis

This is MArc Breitsprecher's Rarity bar/scale. I can't claim any credit. I only look at his Byzantine's coins, but i never see anything below a 5, although i've seen coins listed up to 10's. (coins which i've never seen before) I assume it's his 40+ years of experience regarding how he does the rarity's

Dang. Ive watched the hammer groups on FB for several years and I’m not sure if I’ve heard of 2 or 3 of those. Wow

I picked this one up a few days ago from Marc B.. my first Leo 3. Looking at a few other examples, while the strike leaves a bit to be desired, the size of the flan is huge for the type, it’s a wafer thin example, kind of amazing it survived unbent and undamaged. I used Marc’s write up here: Attribution: Sear Byzantine 1530 Syracuse mint Date: AD 721-730 Obverse: Facing bust of Leo, holding globus cruciger Reverse: Facing bust of Constantine V, holding globus cruciger; large M below Size: 26.17mm Weight: 2.99 grams Rarity: 6 Description: VF. ex Bill Rosenblum with his tag priced at $150.

i watched this hammer. awesome price on it! It did seem to be one of the few slabbed pieces that went at a discount. overall i thought the prices were on the higher side., albiet generally nice pieces.

So, I very much dislike the idea of reshowing a recently shared coin (showed this in October or so), but I it is an attractive one. I cleaned this sand patina myself and I felt like I did a good job. happy with the facial expression on the coin, although I wish it were a smile, Anastasius did a wonderful job as emperor and should have more of a smile on there. Anastasius 1 - Antioch - SB 47 - 17.83g

Really like this coin. I’m not a gold collector but I really appreciate this style

that is defnitely the case. sometimes taking pictures, setting the coin down for a while, looking at the picture and idenifying small areas to work on, and just those small areas, is what is needed. Otherwise you get carried away and then you're required to clean the whole thing off. been there a few times

As a follow up to my 2 small purchases on Sunday. I’m happy to say 1 of the 2 turned out nicely. Uncleaned coins can have a lot of potential, the eye has to look for the quality of exposed high points, then make an assumption that there is quality underneath. This coin was pretty easy to make that call. before and after a sand patina cleaning. Probably going to stop for now, no wax on this one as it makes sand patinas look weird. Definitely good for the type. Phocas - Half Follis - Cyzicus - SB 670 - 7.12g 27x23mm before after

"So this is why we aren't renting the beach house this year"

Vasja at Sol is excellent to work with and i always like to exchange a few emails with him after an auction. Just bought a coin from Marc B on his website last night (frankly with money i didn't really have, oh the wife will be yelling about the CC). mentioned a previous coin i bought from him and how happy i was. He kindly responded with some additional information on the coin i just purchased. Really liked that.

Just to jump on board the class I Anon train. Here’s one with a little too much photo editing (but really not all that much) Still not as good as some of the others though, this was a “large snack”.

wow thats a sweet patina and what good detail!

Yes this definitely could be the case. Seems purposefully done being so uniform. Some details being strong and others very weak…

This is an astonishingly good example. You see so many of these types and finally think one of the 95% examples are representative of the best for the type, but then you come across a likely “never circulated” example such as this. The facial relief abd overall strike quality is almost FDC, if one could say that for a Byzantine Bronze. i have two examples of Anastasius SB 19 I’m quite proud of, neither near the quality but still pleasing. i do wonder for both these examples, do they suffer from long lost stripped patinas which have had a good amount of time to heal, potential smoothing as well?… or are they what I’ve come across with Roman coins as “Tiber patinas” which never had dark formations allowed to cover the coin. Certainly the larger flan example might be a better type of this. larger module at 18.07g smaller module at 15.03g

@Simon agreed, until it’s here not much more could be said. Although I do wonder if someone has knowledge of a known fake which could put this to bed now. I have a bit of a cleaners eye and the roundness of the facial features, and legend has some hopes there is something more under a layer of dirt that I’m perceiving. This is a hope though and not a guarantee. Could just be an odd picture of a stripped coin.

Had my eye on this for a a few weeks… is that a super good looking Justinian - Antioch hiding under an oddly even layer of mud?… maybe?! This coin’s weight thought has me very worried, 15.84g… not even close to what an SB 218 weighs (between 20.5-23g for all examples I’ve come across). I asked the AH and they said the 15.8g was correct.. which is even more puzzling as they also confirmed the 40mm size. (Which is correct) won it for 25 euro with BP, and 5 euro super discount shipping, I guess I’m making the gamble. more than likely a fake and it’s just too much hassle to prove so I’ll be out some nickels… maybe I have an interesting fake on my hands, time will tell

Continued improvements! Glad to see you and your coins back.

I’ve shared this one before but I think for a Byzantine coin, with a potential (likely) fake desert patina, it’s still very attractive. justinian 1 - half follis - Antioch - 8.26g - sb 225

@Simon nice example, i jsut got one of these in myself of similiar quality. Yours is massive on comparison though at 9.21. Just weighed mine, 4.73g.. The portraits all seem similiar but your flan and die must have been a bit larger

@ewomack wow, that’s a stellar portrait. Really really good. certainly a coin you won’t need to upgrade, probably ever! Edit: love this website, but had something nice typed up and took a work call. Came back and it had timed out/deleted. Anyway, a brief few of my contributions. Nothing like @ewomack‘s example but interesting I suppose. Justinian 2 first reign - half follis - sb 1262 - 5.02g cool because it’s a cut coin, Harlan Berk mentioned many of these were from large constantine IV follis, which the weight and shape does account for. This is my pride and joy for a Justinian. Quite a rare piece as it has the Retrograde R with the officina. Nice large flan too. Surfaces aren’t perfect but what are you gonna do. Justinian 2 second reign - follis - Constantinople- SB 1427 - 5.92g Justinian 2 - 2nd reign - Follis - 1428 - 2.75g cool because Justinian and son Tiberius are both on it. Not a great example though, these seemed to have become more common recently, probably saw 6-8 sold in the last year.

I enjoyed the article, the Byzantines though, weren’t know for their vast amounts of silver coinage. Although the hexagrams had become rather commonplace by the middle of the 7th century. I don’t have the details in front of me, but since I see some Carolingian coins from Melle being shared, this is my Charles the Bald (I think, possibly Charles the simple, I get them confused. Apologize that it’s slabbed, one of my early acquisitions that I felt had to be slabbed.

very nice examples you have there, thank you for sharing. A little regretable my new piece doesn't contain the date, i bid on it as somewhat of a snack and was a bit surprised to see it closed where it did, so i can be happy with it. Do you agree with my assumption it might be a year 5 (or i guess if its a G it's year 6)?