Nerosmyfavorite68

I really thought I had it this time; the coin looked good in the phone's preview of the picture. I saved a version with and without the tag. The coin looks a lot better and sharper in person.

I think the previous scyphates came out better. The only difference; I deducted one CD from my super-fancy phone camera stand for this. So, perhaps this will do for flat coins, and for scyphate I need the CD back.

I still haven't gotten around to getting a ring light, but this was the result of today's try. For me, good enough. The note 20 way may be my only way. It doesn't require a giant setup. The downside; I can't get the enormous pictures that I wanted, like the ones Dr. Busso Peus has on their website. However, I would have to get really good at photography to make giant pictures look decent. A step-by-step what to do with your post production photos would be helpful, hint, hint. i.e. step by step on isolating teh coin from the background, making a presentable backdrop, etc.

Quite interesting! Congrats on your best of coin example!

I toyed with ma-coins and there are a few dealers who have their own respective sites, but to answer your question, no. I hate auctions. It's not worth the aggravation. I haven't done a coin auction since Bill Clinton was president.

I'm sure ancient banks were less enraging than modern ones. Does anyone else's bank do something similar to what I described? Bankers' marks are also interesting. Come to think of it, I can't recall seeing any 2nd century or later coins with banker's marks.

Are these same issues Sear's Greek mint?

I forgot; feel free to post any gold or electrum of Manuel I. The History of Byzantium podcast mentions that Manuel sent a lot of gold to northern Italy and also 10,000 Hyperpyra to Jerusalem as a dowry. Are there know Italian or Israeli hoards?

Thanks. Mine is of somewhat similar size, but 1000 x 700-something. I had requested a larger picture, since it's a coin I really care about. It's interesting to learn more about this particular coin's history. Both coins are very enviable, especially the New Style Tet. Thanks everyone for the kind words! There's certainly some nice coins being posted.

I'm wondering how the average banker in Rome would have worked? I'm referring more to their cash-keeping services. I'm sure verification was less enraging than now, but I wonder how it worked? Other than just knowing the customer. I'm sure bankers had assistants. I suspect it's some kind of regulation, but my bank came up with the brilliant idea of forcing one to jump through hoops to access online banking. Receive a call (not a text) and enter the code into the online banking. Enraging! (It's a bona fide bank thing and not some kind of scam). I trust that ancient Forum banks were less annoying? Also, are there any records of how much moneychangers charged during various periods?

That was one of my previous photography attempts. The rose is upside down in my picture.

Well, it's probably only for a while. I've collected Byzantine off and on since near the beginning of my collecting journey. My latest fervor started to wane after I've gone through most of the History of Byzantium podcast and I also checked off a lot of realistic wants this year. I'm always a sucker for 'affordable' Byzantine gold or Grierson's 'Rome style' (the military mint). I also want a halfway decent example of Leontius. Since my coin budget has a theoretical maximum of $600 a month, I could be more disciplined and save up for a Solidus. Die alignment makes sense, thanks!

Cool! I don't have that Faustus in any condition. I have the Pompey signet ring one (3 trophies one), but not that. I'm not always looking, but I only notice about 0-2 coins of this Sulla issue a year on vcoins. Most of those are the VF or EF variety.

After a mere 15 or so years of off and on again looking, I finally obtained a specimen of my (realistic) dream coin, a portrait issue of Sulla. This type seldomly turns up on vcoins, and when it does, is usually very expensive. The last 'affordable' example I recall seeing was circa 2014 and was a fourree. It was a fluke that I even looked. I had created a 'should I buy A or B' thread and I just happened to look, on a whim. A solid silver example popped up and it only took me about 30 seconds to buy it. Thanks to Aegean coins for the extraordinarily fast shipping and the somewhat bigger picture. It's a somewhat humble example but I'm quite happy with it. One can always upgrade at a later date. Dealer's description: 3.37g Head of Q Pompeius Rufus right (Consul) Head of Sulla (Rufus' grandfather) right "Q POM RVFI / RVFVS COS" Cr 434/1 Pompeia 4 I'd grade the Rufus side at aF and the Sulla side at VG. Feel free to post anything of Sulla or Faustus Cornelius Sulla, or any portrait issues of his lieutenant, Pompey. I'd like to get a decent example of the Faustus Cornelius denarius featuring Hercules. Grr, the good ones always seem to have to be from Spain. I'm afraid to order from there. His tomb, according to Wikipedia, allegedly bore the super-cool epitaph, "No friend ever served me, and no enemy ever wronged me, whom I have not repaid in full."

A local chili franchise riffs the old song, it's Twilight time. In this case, it's Trikephalon time (musical notes). I ordered this coin from Belgium, and after 2 1/2 weeks (not too bad) it arrived! I had some difficulty unpacking it, as it was taped to the package wall. After many expletives, I managed to carefully free the bubble-wrapped bundle. I then saw that it was worth the effort; the coin had been carefully packaged (it was even in a Roma felt box to protect it). Add another European country to the success list! While this is probably the end of my Byzantine streak for a while; I think I will pivot back to Roman, I've been pretty active in the Byzantine field this year. I'd consider myself a budget collector so gold is rather difficult to get, so I went with the next best thing for some 12 century emperors: electrum. I now have Manuel I in precious metal, an electrum Trikephalon. The somewhat unobtrusive chip made it pretty affordable. Dealer's description: MANUEL I COMNENUS (AD 1143-1180). EL Aspron Trachy Nomisma (3.00 gm). Constantinople mint. Struck 1152-1167(?). Obv. Christ Pantokrator enthroned facing; IC-XC across upper fields. Rev. Manuel, holding akakia, and the Theotokos, raising hand in benediction, standing facing, holding between them patriarchal cross set on small globe; M-ΘV across upper fields, [MANᏌHΛ] to left, ΔЄCΠOTH to right. SB 1958 | DOC 3a. Near EF; edge broken. Electrum, 3.00 gm, 32 mm, 6 h Somewhat dumb question, but what does 6h refer to, 6 mm in height? The coin has a pretty nice quality of strike; I'd rate it a decent VF. While the later electrum issues aren't as impressive as gold, beggars can't be choosers. It's still pretty cool.

Do what works for you. However, think long term. If these things get scratched up or yellow over time, that's a huge hassle in freeing them. My only slabs are presents; coins from the local coin shop. The slabs really make these coins look worse, in my opinion. Flips in coin boxes would be pretty uniform.

Cool, the coins are admirable examples! We have sale examples of Byzantine pre and post reform AE's showing up in Islamic territory. Was it a vice versa situation? It would also be wonderful if someone could make a thread about the various symbols/provincial mints of the A2 folles, and even a thread about the different variety of anonymous folles. I'll have to dig it up sometime; my billon trachy is very silvery-looking, a nice example purchased from Jon Subak in the 90's (I might have made a boo-boo and said Kern before). The great majority of my Alexius AE are either Allen Berman junk box ones (I loved buying those back then) or something from the local coin shop.

I've been wondering recently; what did they do for small change, 900-1070's AD, when the follis was the only AE's?

Nice set, Simon! I have only a nice billon Trachy from Jon Kern and a junk box Class K.

That is true per things like hamburgers. Or items which require a lot of ingredients. The stock market's been so artificial since 2008, so I really couldn't make any predictions. I'd sure love to see gold go down, down, down. (So I can get coins). A crash in home values would be great for me; less value, less taxes. It's all paid off and I have no intention of selling it.

It's certainly a nice freebie. All I have is a G-VG RECTOR ORBIS Sestertius.

I think we might have to settle for the Note 20 method. The camera setup is just too daunting, the results too frustrating, and I don't want to spend hundreds for something which I won't do very often.

I cut out the middle of some handi-wipes to serve as a background and diffuser on the bottom of the CD spindle. Result: FAIL. (using the Note, pro mode auto raw), also tried manual photography (not pictured). I don't know how silver and AE's will turn out, but the coin on paper method yields by far the best results. Until I get a fancy light setup, I think coin-on-paper is about as good as it's going to get for me. The next experiments should be different lighting, experiments with light diffusion, and a small riser. (I didn't find anything in the garage). If I could have yielded the coin on paper results six months ago, I would have been very happy with those results. It's certainly not the worst photography on the forum. I just have to tweak some things. The Note 20 route is probably the easiest for me.

I found the camera tripod; it's actually a pretty nice one, and has a wide range of heights. However, I wasn't able to lock the camera into pointing straight down, no matter how hard I tightened the screw. But even if I did, that begets the condundrum; how to put the coin directly underneath? I found some handi-wipes, made a cutout for the CD spindle, and experimented. It looked somewhat ok on the phone's preview, but I'll have to see.

Hmm, I guess I could look in the hardware store for dowels. There might be something that will make a decent riser in the garage.