Ancient Coin Hunter

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.

I also would recommend Ammianus Marcellinus' Res Gestae, of which works from 353-378 survive, though the original scope was much broader but those sections are lost. It is available in Penguin's or Loeb Classical Library. A primary source for the reigns of Constantius II, Julian, Jovian, Valens and Valentinian. The digressions are most interesting and are focused on a variety of topics, illustrating a mid-fourth century perspective on the world, Egypt, Iraq, etc. There are versions in Latin and English freely available online, also the Penguin book under the name History of the Later Roman Empire is a paperback and quite handy to read.

They seem to really decay after 630 or so after the Sassanian war and the Muslim conquest, except for still reasonably well crafted gold pieces. Then in the ninth century there is a revival of style which leads to some attractive (OK, for Byzantine coins) but clearly the style is more Medieval Greek than Roman, at least IMHO. I collect them along with Roman Imperials and Provincials, as the Eastern Empire didn't fall until 1204 then 1453 once again.

Well the group figured that one out pretty quickly!

How about a coin featuring Sol? CONSERVAT AVG Sol in this case is the emperor's protector in this issue of Ticinium, standing rather than appearing as Sol's quadriga (much more common). Hopefully today the rays of Sol's crown will be indeed, radiant, as lady Luna passes in front of his face.

Superb coin Thanks for sharing

Not even something that circulated. Oh well, I guess there are no numismatists on staff.

Very nice layer cake there. I wonder if it had chocolate icing?