ela126

Wow that Romanus is good. Love it. Still need one myself. Here’s my Constantine VII, not a great flan but the portrait is nice.

Very handsome example. Thank you for sharing!

wonderful piece, ive come across a number of half follis of carthage, which are similiar, but have never seen a full Follis. Excellent quality for the type no less. Interesting about the S as well, i do want to say i've seen one other coin with a S in this place, although didn't think to make this link. Also, interestingly, there is a Justinian Follis of Carthage currently on the current Sol Numismatik auction with 4 pellets in place of the standard officina mark.

ive seen a number of low grade Athen's Tet's with heavy encrustrations/horned silver on them. Also, from time to time, Denari are very encrusted and i've seen a few good before and afters. i've seen sodium thiosulfate recommended as a solution for cleaning these, however i've nebver done it myself as i only clean cheap bronze. gotta find a couple cheap silver coins to experiment on, however, like you said, they are rare to find in uncleaned condition. My cleaning friends speculate that all when hordes are found, any obvious silver is removed and likely sent to professionals. By the time the "uncleaned coins" reach market, knowledgeable individuals have picked out the good stuff, which is why its uncommon to see.

Awesome piece. i've had my eye on a year 13 Antioch. i'd say the have the most pleasing front Portrait of any of Justinian's coins. Great pickup.

heh, everyone has different definitions of "light". I've cleaned a good handful of coins in the last few years. I have a soft spot for corroded coins. It's not their fault. Shuold they be permanantly left with growths and buboes all over them because of how they were in the ground, or what their poor metal composition was?... I don't think so. Without willfully chiseling into them, coins should be allowed to have dirt and rock encrustrations removed off, so they reflect what their intended look is, not just what a 2 week soak in some DI water and a toothbrush can accomplish. Reforming facil features or legends then.. no no no. It can be a very fine line with certain coins. Usually the more expensive, the more criticism the coins gets.. which is why i like Byzantine bronze.. 😉

Someone has a nice color concoction going it seems, then sprinkle a little dirt on it and wax…

Thank you everyone for the positive feedback and sharing your pieces!

In the end I do admit I conceded on quality with the final acquisition but for now my brain can rest. The Justin II and Sophia follis are as common as the day is long, but like any Byzantine coin, finding good ones takes some work. In 2021 I picked up the Nikomedia example from Leu, appreciated it, and set it aside. In early 2023, I got the Constantinople piece off eBay, I assume the previous owner left no instructions on his coins and it was liquidated for $25 on eBay. I saw the details and cleaned it up, now I’m thrilled with it, maybe one of the better I’ve ever found. The Cyzicus coin was purchased from a friend who wanted to unload it. It was dusty and priced to me for 40 dollars. I received it, looked at it and decided, let’s wax and see what happens… never in the 600-700 coins I’ve cleaned has a patina responded so well to Ren Wax. What color! The details that already exist are accentuated and the lovely green gloss patina is just an absolute cherry in my book. Now I was left itching for the Antioch piece, which up til late 2023 I had no plans on picking up.. in my research I find it’s the least common and usually most worn. After 4 months of searching I finally decided to buy an uncleaned example as a snack along with my targets. Cleaned it up over the last few days and there it is. Seems a little underwhelming compared to the others but I do find coins “rest and improve” for a few weeks after cleaning (or at least I’m telling myself that.) I’ll stay on the hunt for a better example but for now I can check off that box with a pencil mark. please post your Justin II and Sophia pieces!

awesome how you're finding these. just amazing. Looks like this one would benefit for a cleaning. Do you plan on working on it?

very cool, style is 100% Byzantine except for the cross. I've never come across such a thing, although i haven't looked either.

I’ve been getting a bunch of Byzantine (and a few others in). This one isn’t rare but dang is it a nice quality piece. Got very lucky with the purchase, willing to take a risk on possible BD that was just some easily removed malachite. Justinian 1 - Follis - Year 14 - Constantinople - 22.16g - SB 163

I think these guys all qualify (3 nummi might be the biggest). I like the little ones of the late 5th early 6th century.

@Bonshaw Wow, your father had a significant library in general. For the Byzantine pieces, Ratto was a predecessor to DOC i'd say, which then developed into Sear. Ratto has nice plates, with connecting reference numbers to a description in French. I don't think anyone uses the reference numbers though. I'm not sure if DOC's online link was shared. i use it quite a lot. Internet Archive: Digital Library of Free & Borrowable Books, Movies, Music & Wayback Machine Also, Grierson - Byzantine Coinage. Byzantine Coinage : Grierson, Philip : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

In good shipping news, Sol Numismatik offers Slovenia Post now, to the USA, for 9 euro!

@galba68 i'm laughing a bit because i shared Saul's guide with a few new coin cleaning friends last night. I've been following his guide for about 2 years now. Fun read actually as well as being hugely informative.

Byzantine coins are for the most part, only something a mother could love, which is why we like them. So there could still been some great pieces, even tho they don’t meet the classical definitions of attractive

oh i love this. Super job. Dirt looks like it wanted to come up. How long did you work on it?

sseries 3 and 4 were 1 coin per box (i want to say at 200 each but i dont really know). Series 1, 2, and 5 were 3 coin format. so far i believe all of them have sold out quickly, and intially with significant resale premiums (apparently 66% premium during the first day)... crazy that so many rather gamble than just buy the coins themselves

the only benefit i see here is potentially the gambling collectors, who likely will lose money, will see the low buyback amounts of the coins and realize "wow, these are significnatly less expensive than modern coinage... maybe i should look more into ancients as they appear to be affordable" That is if they're not immediately soured at losing 84% of their purchase value.

I think the very top header pic is from @Valentinian's webpage as well. Cool find, i'll check this out

Old Byzantine collection, i'm all ears!! Excited to see what your dad had collected. Wonderful Nero Tet

@Celator and @voulgaroktonou thank you for sharing these. Love the John IV and Alexios II. I don’t know much about these but they seem to be the closest to a medieval styled coin (whatever I mean by that) versus other pieces of the era. I do also like the contrast in quality of the Alexios II to later pieces, showing the sharp decline of the empire.

Won this coin today on Kybele auction #2. This little gem (I think) was stuck in the medieval section and didn’t get a lot of focus. It was Attributed to Alexius II, but unless the flan was very well clipped, I didn’t believe it was an SB 2619 Coin was listed as: Empire of Trebizond, Alexis II (1297-1330), AR asper, Right: Saint Eugene on horseback on the right. On the right, B. Under the horse, a flower. Reverse: The emperor on horseback right, holding a beaded scepter. On the right, B. Under the horse, a flower. Ref.: Sear, 2619 Weight 0.93 gr - Diameter 14.27 mm however, some research seems to match well with Alexius IV. Flan size is a dead match with the later coin at 0.9g, where Alexios II’s are nearly 2.0g. The B’s below the horses, and the AE on the 9 o’clock of the reverse all seem to point to a SB 2641. Coin was priced a bit above what I’d want to pay for a clipped Alexius II but well below a Alexius IV. I welcome all thoights. Feel free to post any aspers you have! another example. B’s are moved but wildwinds shows there are 3 variations of that. This shows lettering on the obverse similar to my example. I think I’ve convinced myself it is surely a 2641 that I purchased

I’m going to say that’s not BD. Looks fine to me. BD is much brighter usually.