Ancient Coin Hunter

Mt. Baker is about 30 miles away, the North and South Sisters, both with glaciers, are about 15 miles away.

Quietus, AE antoninianus won from yesterday's Frank Robinson auction. (A Nauman auction brought $537 8/23. I did slightly better than that). The price is fair considering the usual wear of his examples and retains nearly full silvering or its constituent billon. Quietus, also known as Titus Fulvius Junius Quietus, was a Roman usurper who rebelled against the Roman Emperor Gallienus. Let’s delve into his intriguing story. [Thanks ChatGPT]. Quietus was the son of Fulvius Macrianus and a noblewoman, possibly named Junia. His background is somewhat disputed, as some historians challenge the claim that he served as a military tribune under Valerian I. In 260 CE, during the Sassanid campaign, the Emperor Valerian was captured and became Shapur's footstool, leaving the Roman Empire in a precarious situation. With the lawful heir, Gallienus, far away in the West, the soldiers elected Quietus and his brother Macrianus Minor as emperors. Their father, Fulvius Macrianus, controlled the imperial treasury, which played a crucial role in their rise to power. (My theory is that this loss of bullion led to further and rapid debasement of the antoninianus, which proliferated after 260 in the coinage of Gallienus) and led to the demise of the sestertius and eventually to all of the large bronze assaria pieces struck in the Greek speaking East, since intrinsically the value of the antoninianus in base metal was less than these older and chunkier bronze coins. Quietus and Balista (Praetorian prefect of the late Emperor Valerian) remained in the eastern provinces, while Macrianus Minor and their father marched their army to Europe to seize control of the Roman Empire. However, their campaign ended in defeat and death in Thrace in 261 CE. Quietus lost control of the provinces to Septimus Odaenathus of Palmyra, a loyal client king of the Romans. Odaenathus had helped push the Persians out of the eastern provinces and recovered Roman Mesopotamia in 260 CE. Amongst the coins of Quietus note that he struck tetradrachms in Alexandria but only until the province of Egypt was seized by Odaenathus. Forced to flee to the city of Emesa, Quietus was besieged there by Odaenathus and ultimately killed by its inhabitants, possibly instigated by Balista. Quietus’s story is one of ambition, intrigue, and tragic downfall. He appears as an antagonist in Harry Sidebottom’s historical fiction novel series. If you’re interested in Roman history, Quietus’s brief but eventful reign is certainly worth exploring further! Now the coin: Quietus (260-261) Billon Antoninianus, size and weight yet unknown. Note that I will re-photograph when received in the mail. Obverse: Radiate, draped and cuirassed bust right. IMP C FVL QVIETVS PF AVG Reverse: Sol standing left, right hand raised, left hand holding globe. With star in left field. SOLI INVICTO Reference: RIC 10; RSC 12; Sear 10829. I also am including my matched Macrianus which I acquired in 2020 from FSR too, meaning I have coins of both members of this dynamic duo of usurpers. Type: AE antoninianus, 22 mm 3.1 grams, Antioch mint. Obverse: IMP C FVL MACRIANVS P F AVG, radiate cuirassed bust right Reverse: APOLINI CONSERVA, Apollo standing left holding branch and resting hand on lyre set on a low column. Reference: RIC 6; RSC 2; Sear 10799. On the two here is a passage from the Historia Augusta: "Macrianus and Ballista met together, called in the remains of the army, and, since the Roman power in the East was tottering, sought someone to appoint as emperor. For Gallienus was showing himself so careless of public affairs that his name was not even mentioned to the soldiers. It was then finally decided to choose Macrianus and his sons as emperors and to undertake the defense of the state. And so the imperial power was offered to Macrianus. Now the reasons why Macrianus and his sons should be chosen to rule were these: First of all, no one of the generals of that time was held to be wiser, and none more suited to govern the state; in the second place, he was the richest, and could by his private fortune make good the public losses. In addition to this, his sons, Quietus and Macrianus - most valiant young men, rushed with all spirit into the war, ready to serve as an example to the legions in all the duties of soldiers." Feel free to post any Quietus, Macrianus, Valerian, or Shapur coins. Here is the relief carved at Naqsh-i Rustam along the Silk Road in Iran depicting a bowing Philip the Arab and a captive Valerian...

Sure here is one that happens to be Probus:

What a great portrait and coin! Bellisimo

View of the Cascade foothills through our newly remodeled center window in the living room. View of the second story deck where I ponder new coin additions. Note: Just scrubbed the deck to remove pollen with Dr. Bronner's Castile Soap, won't impact the watershed which flows into the lake below.

I have bought one coin from a dealer in Portugal and was delivered by USPS. Coin flew through the ISC NY and was delivered in like 5 days. The dealer used a signature required form of delivery, not sure of the class of mail. Edit: I was in California at the time.

Maybe because MA shops is based in Germany.

Great coin!

Here's one with a significant proboscis and a bull neck along with the strong jawline which also shows up in the bust above. By this issue date he was styled Constantine the Great. Toned with full silvering.

Nice improvement. The trick I suppose is knowing when to stop the cleaning effort.

Great catch there @Claudius_Gothicus! A gem had for a low price presumably. Certainly a hopeful wish on the part of Gallienus who also struck those VBIQVE PAX aurei. "Peace Everywhere" which was a pipedream.

I usually thank the dealer if a transaction is beyond what is expected or if they have been extraordinarily helpful. For example, Frank Robinson sent an email saying, comically, "don't let some SOB outbid you" when I fell behind in the bidding. It's nice to get a heads up when you are dealing with a dealer selling five or six hundred coins at a single auction.

Great coin @CassiusMarcus - almost has an ethereal quality. Maybe this was a goal of Byzantine numismatic artistry, to link the temporal world with that beyond - heaven.

Very nice acquisition David representing the importance of his legions in Vespasian's success.

With Caracalla and Geta both co-existing presumably plus the imaginary Lucius who knows what the plot turns might be. Gladiator has similarities to the 1960s film Fall of the Roman Empire with Alec Guinness as Aurelius, Sophia Loren, and Stephen Boyd as the favored general and foe of Commodus. It starts with Marcus's death due to a poisoned apple and ends with Commodus played by Christopher Plummer and Boyd fighting in the arena. Commodus dies and with him, the narrator says, did the Empire. I almost shouted at the TV. This early intended blockbuster was a flop at the box office whereas Gladiator with it's higher production values surpassed a billion eventually.

Nice find and recovery

The Vespasian look was sort of typical for the family, both Titus and Domitian clearly are his sons. The celators were focused on accuracy and not looks, per se.

Here's a Max Thrax to illustrate JAZ' point, obverse is in good shape with a well-centered strike. By the time of Decius and Gallus (and especially Valerian/Gallienus) the silver content approached billon and eventually was reduced to the silver washed disks of the latter third century, and hence the decline of the sestertius which could no longer be justified as a denomination. (Alexander Severus coin shown). It was Gallienus who doubled down on debasement and eliminated the sestertius though he had struck them earlier in his reign. Sometimes I think that the revolt of Macrianus and Quietus after Valerian was captured and absconded, we are told, with the Imperial treasury in bullion could have led to this decision.

That's a nice one. Just noticed this thread. I don't have any Sassanid coins, closest I come is a 2nd century piece of Vima Kadphises in India which has both Greek and Kharosthi on the coin. Admittedly, it has very little to do with the Sassanian empire. Probably should branch out. With regard to fire altars, Ammianus Marcellinus' digression on Mesopotamia says that fountains of flaming bitumen are sometimes encountered in that land, referring to a natural phenomenon where oil seeps have ignited either through lightning or some other natural process. According to my late professor of Iranian Archaeology at Berkeley, David Stronach, these naturally occurring springs may have been the motivation for fire altars in religion given the apparent spiritual significance.

Definitely could be the case @Roman Collector!

One can imagine the hard work required by the late 3rd century for the hammer wielder, who presumably was a slave forced to swing the hammer thousands of times per day cranking out mass quantities of antoniniani. The silvering process has been studied but as far as I know no definitive work exists on the technique but there is speculation that the silvering was basically deposited on the struck coin by a chemical process. Clearly though the silvering did not last very long in normal circulation of coins. A similar technique was probably applied to folles (or the nummus) a bit later on. Clearly by the Byzantine era they stopped with the silver wash gambit when Anastasius issued honest to goodness large bronze coins.

Must have been used like an icon. Assuming Leo and Alexander were not iconoclasts.

Here's a recent addition to my collection courtesy of the last Leu Numismatik web auction (end of February). "Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's."

Fascinating, it looks like 35-40% of Pompeii remains unexcavated, who knows what treasures might be uncovered?

Nice additions to your collection.