Ancient Coin Hunter

Also the series of Consecration antoniniani issued by Trajan Decius in the name of each deified emperor. (yes, even Commodus). The portraits closely crib off of the portrait design of earlier coins, so I agree with your point.

Magnus Maximus ruled from 383-388 in the Western Empire. Initially, as commander of Britain he led a revolt against Gratian. Through negotiation with Theodosius I and the intercession of the bishop Ambrose he assumed control of Britain, Gaul, Hispania, and Africa as an emperor in the West.In 387 he invaded Italy but in 388 he was defeated by Theodosius at the Battle of the Save and was eventually executed. Meanwhile, Arbogast, one of Theodosius' generals executed Maximus' son Flavius Victor by strangulation.Maximus' capital was Trier, from which he presided over the west for a few years. He has a fairly interesting coinage, with coins struck in all three metals. This example is an AE2 of Arles. Magnus Maximus, 383 - 388 A.D.AE 2, 24mm 5.7 gramsObverse: DN MAG MAXIMVS PF AVGDiademed head right, draped and cuirassedReverse: REPARATIO REIPVBMaximus standing left, crowned by Victory, raising kneeled, turreted figure of a womanMintmark: TCON (Arles)Reference: RIC IX, 26A, Sear 20650Feel free to post any Maxmus coins you have! Feel free to post your coins of "Great Greatest"

Also, note that Jovianus, the commander of the Imperial Guard under Julian, was elevated to Augustus and concluded a shameful treaty with the Persians. He retained the large bronze denomination, but died on the way back to Constantinople in the city Dadastana, according to Ammianus, from the interaction of the fumes of a freshly plastered wall in his chamber with a charcoal brazier used for heating the room. "From here also the destined day for ending his life drove Jovian swiftly on. For when he had come to Dadastana, which forms the boundary between Bithynia and Galatia, he was found dead that night. As to his taking-off, many doubtful points have come up. For it is said that he was unable to endure the unwholesome odour of a recently plastered bedroom, or that his head was swollen from the burning of a great amount of charcoal and so he died, or at any rate that he had a fit of acute indigestion from an immoderate amount of food of different kinds. At all events he died in the thirty-third year of his age." Ammianus, Liber XXV

Taurus or the Apis Bull. I tend to think the former...

There is always the Mummy with Brendan Fraser. The Mummy actually speaks in Egyptian. A friend of mine (well-known TV Egyptologist) and former classmate in 3rd year Egyptian, was a consultant to the film. For example, to animate the zombies the mummy says "Weben!" e.g, "Rise" in English.

I wouldn't clean it. The coin seems fine to me. A DJ is a nice find, in most conditions. I'm still waiting to find a nice sestertius of his but have yet to find one. He did strike a ton of them. promising 25,000 sesterces per man in his bid to bribe the Praetorian guard. That works out to around 200 million sestertii in total. It seems, however, that Julianus was not able to pay up, and when Septimius Severus showed up with a real battle-hardened army, they quickly dispatched him.

Belzoni the treasure hunter and former circus strongman. Interesting provenance. Here he is:

Very interesting coins and thanks for the info on St. Tryphon, one I hadn't heard of. I also like to read about trachys - I have 5 of them in my collection, though I don't have too many coins after Manuel Comnenus, plus a couple of gold nomismata from the 11th century.

Nice coin and thanks for the philosophical backdrop. Edit: Here's my Julian double majorina or AE1:

No. Maybe it means it is worth a dupondius? Too small for a sesterce and bright yellowish bronze undertones on the coin.

Here's two Tyche's - one with an elaborate head dress featuring the city walls and battlements, and the other more of a basket of fruit look... Antoninus Pius, Laodicaea ad MareObverse: Portrait of AP rightReverse: Portrait of Tyche left, with city represented on her head Tranquillina, wife of Gordian III, AE 26 of Singara, 10.7 grams, 12hMESOPOTAMIA, SingaraObverse: SAB TRANQVILLINA AVG, diademed and draped bust rightReverse: AVP CEP KOA CINT APA; veiled bust of Tyche right; centaur Sagittarius leaping right and discharging bow above.Reference: BMC Arabia p. 136, 14; SNG Copenhagen 258

I've never had problems with Royal Mail, either for single coin shipments or large lots of 300-350 coins a piece. DHL I have received a few times, also with no issues.

Both arcadius and honorius struck to this type on bronze.

None for me yet but I'll keep my eyes peeled.

Like @Spaniard- fake sand patinas and also photoshopping coins to make green corrosion spots imperceptible.

Kewl I hope it works well!

I have yet to purchase a tribute penny for some of the same reasons enumerated above. Who's to say that the denarius in question was not Augustus, since obviously his coins would still be circulating in the Near East? I find the case for the widow's mite being a prutah or lepton more convincing, yet these coins are very common even if they command decent prices from novices in the field. We do know that the shekel of Tyre was used in the temple as a standard of exchange and accepted by the priestly class that did the work of money changing, thus the chance that Judas Iscariot's payment was in Tyrian coins seems somewhat likely rather than denarii. From my collection I'll share this coin, which also has some unique historical value: The depiction of the baetyl is somewhat unique from a religious perspective (no other emperors were associated with the worship of Elagabal) and therefore also historically interesting. The only high ranking official attached to Emesa who also became a candidate for the Imperium was the pretender Uranius Antoninus. I suppose if a movie was made about Elagabalus he might become as well-known as Caligula or Nero and his coins, which are plentiful with the exception of certain sought after types, would see some increase in prices.

In the Sylvester Stallone lookalike contest...and the guy who saw a chi-rho apparition in the heavens... "Yo Hadrian!"

Nice Aries coin. I bid on one in a past Leu auction but didn't win. I was born under that sign, so it is of some interest, granted I think astrology is poppycock, though certainly it is an old form of divination.

I got an email from Leu saying that the auction remainder was being postponed to July doe to technical issues. I'm a bit surprised as I thought the auction platform they use was very sophisticated. In any case Leu makes a practice of setting low starting prices. One can even make a low bid and be the projected winner after a week or so. However, as hammer time approaches the prices can boom. There was an Antoninus Pius Drachm with a reverse featuring Anubis as a legionary (extremely rare and a bit worn as a specimen) that was offered at $200. It sold for something like $7000 as I recall. Same with the zodiac series pieces.

It seems like the Leu auctions are getting increasingly popular due to the interesting inventory that sometimes is seldom seen, for example a huge variety of antoniniani of Gallienus that someone put together over the course of decades, with reverse types I have never seen. I guess it's helpful that they postpone the auctions, but I will still need to get up at 3 am to purchase stuff that interests me.

Super nice coins of Eukratides! I'm waiting for a gold 20 stater piece to show up at auction!

I haven't opined on this topic yet but it seems like a good idea. Maybe accept both more academic articles using APA style or others, as well as CT style pieces with sufficient documentation of sources to qualify as high quality and well researched prose. At any rate, it would be fun to get this initiative going. I am familiar with the APA style as I used it in writing my dissertation. I only had ten featured articles on CT but once in awhile I'd crank out a well-referenced piece and mostly got those featured.

Glad that you found some interesting coins in your travels. On the west coast, the Stanford Museum of Fine Arts has a large collection of Ptolemaic coins of Egypt, mainly hundreds of tetradrachms from Ptolemy Soter to Cleopatra and Ptolemy XIII.

Here's a deer visiting the house...Folks are surprised that there are deer in Berkeley (home of the counterculture) but they are prevalent in the hills and the urban/parkland transition zone. They like to hang out in the lofty neighborhoods to avoid the mountain lions, which are present but infrequently seen.