Nerosmyfavorite68

Ok, thanks. I have neither a 3D printer, nor am I very handy at making stuff. I'll look into the stand, though.

I'm thinking of purchasing a coin from a Belgian dealer, but DHL Express would be almost 90 Euros, a full 30% of the purchase price! I put a coin in the cart from NeroNumi (Norway) to see if DHL had massively increased their prices, and it was still 30-something there. I guess I'll have to settle for 'priority registered' mail.

Where did you get that contraption, please? Is it off the shelf? That might just be the key to solve the worst of my photography woes.

I've bought quite a few with patinas and/or dirt.

The figures on 1959 are in exquisite shape. Good job!

The figures on 1959 are exquisite. I myself was looking at Manuel Trikephala last night, and many were $600... I know gold is crazy, but that's a bit much for me. One was almost as nice as quant.geek's. The rest were way less nice.

Wow, I missed these. Very, very nice!

Hostilian, Sestertius, RIC 216e. I have other coins of the male members of the family kicking around, and I think I have a complete Viminacium set (not in very great condition). The Hostilian is rather undercleaned, but that's better than overcleaned.

Cool! I rather like the glossy green one. I've always wanted a Hyperpyron of Manuel, but the only good deals I've come across have been John. I forgot to add; please feel free to post any of the Anonymous Folles you have. Another goal; to find a strong VF A2 in 35-40mm.

How come vcoins never seems to carry the largest of the A2 folles?

This was the first time I purchased from David Connors, and what I heard was true. Everything arrived very quickly. He seems to specialize in budget coins, and certain genres have some pretty decent entries. The four purchases added up to about 100 bucks. I used to not collect these anonymous folles for the longest time. Virtually all of mine came from Allen Berman's junk box coins. I only collected emperors. No Caesars, wives, etc, unless it was something rare. I would like to find a huge Basil II Anonymous (A2?) someday. Anonymous Class C AE31 Follis. Attributed to Michael IV (more attractive in hand) Obv: Three quarter standing figure of Christ Antiphonetes, right hand raised, book of gospels in left. Rev: Jewelled cross, IC - XC / NI -KA in limbs. BCV 1825. 1034-1041 AD. 8.01g. Romanus III AE28 Follis Anonymous class B. Christ / Cross on steps Obv: Christ facing, holds book of gospels. Rev: Cross on 3 steps. Overstruck at least once. 1028-1034 AD. The throw-ins Romanus III AE27 Follis Anonymous class B. Christ / Cross on steps Obv: Christ facing, holds book of gospels. Rev: Cross on 3 steps. Overstruck at least once. 1028-1034 AD. Anonymous issue of Basil II & Constantine VIII AE31 Follis (the most decrepit of the lot). I got it because I wanted an A2 in this order. Obv: Bust of Christ Pantocrator facing, wearing dotted cross nimbus and with five pellets in the arms, right hand raised in blessing, left holding book of gospels. +EMMA-NOVHΛ/ IC X. Rev: + IҺSЧS / XRISTЧS / ЬASILЄЧ / ЬASILЄ ( Jesus Christ King of Kings); in four lines, floral decoration above and below. SB 1813. 976-1025 AD. 19.95g. Class A2. Constantinople.

Yikes! I remember looking at them previously, but I was scared off by the obviously misattributed stuff. There were fairly many at the time. Ok, I'm scared away for now . I'm stressed out enough by trying to renew my driver's license online. Their defective website has me stuck in the 'verify' stage. All very useless, as any self-respecting scammer would already have that information. I'm just going to get better glasses and do the stupid thing in person. Let us know how it goes, TrachyEnjoyer.

Pretty nice! I wish I could read the squiggles. I quite like Sassanian coins, especially the late ones. All I have are Khrusru II.

Cool! Nice patina.

Thanks for the notification! I've never purchased from this dealer before. That's quite a tempting deal. More tempting were the AE's. Other than some being obviously misattributed 'Maurice Antioch' 20 nummi being Phocas Constantinople and at least one 'Heraclius' being a Constans II, the coins themselves are generally attractive and modestly priced. Too bad the Constantine Ducas has a big finder's gash on the face. I don't have any of that ruler. That woudl be a nice one, other than that.

It's teh History of Rome by Mike Duncan. I get mine from Apple podcasts (Downthemall works with it), but it should come up in a google search. Having largely gone through all the episodes, I'm onto another podcast, the Emperors of Rome (various professors), also Apple podcasts.

Another hit! That one works really well!

I don't know, I kind of identify with the guy; I was in a near Constantius-level rage after trying to deal with the totally defective and largely useless 'verify' part of the state website. I haven't purposely bought a coin of Constantius II in 25 years; any one since had just come along with something else, but I have one or two nice AE2's (not photographed). I would like to pick up a Siliqua, however; especially one of the Italian mints. The holed Siliqua looks kind of familiar... Was it from a vcoins dealer? Coincidences, coincidences; I was just listening to the HIstory of Rome podcast about Constantius II last week.

First thing this morning while my hands were at the driest (the glove developed a hole in the finger, I'll have to find new cotton gloves - where can I get those?), I put both the Trikephalon and the Nomisma into soft flips. The one thing I despise about saflips is that it's soooo hard to get coins out of them. I'm glad you mentioned this. The soft flip seems so much gentler on them.

I'm assuming that Romanus is the figure in the foreground? They kind of phoned in the background figures, but everything else is top-notch! It's by far the neatest Byzantine seal I've ever seen. I've dragged this example of Tiberius Apsimar out ad nauseum, but other than the sloppy strike (which made it affordable in my case), this coin, produced during the high point of the crisis period, is of fairly high workmanship. And let us not forget Constantine IV, who tried to revive the Justinianic folles, a remarkable feat during a great crisis. While the artistic execution generally isnt' great (although I'd really like to own one), the large folles were a brave attempt to revive a more glorious time.

Hmm, well it's something to consider. The new saflips are a bit tight. What about the old PVC ones? Gold is rather inert. I generally put new coins in a saflip, so there should be some recent vintage soft flips kicking around. The John II Hyperpyron is still ok (I got it in 2009), but I don't think it's a tight saflip. It might even be in a PVC. The few trachea that I've had since the mid-90's (in the original flips) are still ok. To be honest, I haven't really noticed any noticeable damage from 90's soft flips to my coins. Rest assured, I don't use binders or put anything else on the coins. I also make sure that the gold is stored even more gently.

Wow!!! Who are the figures on the reverse, TrachyEnjoyer?

Very interesting, Quant.Geek. Most of the vcoins countermarked folles either reference the Mardin hoard or speculate that said coin is from the hoard. No worries, TrachyEnjoyer. My coin budget has been on the upswing, but I still count as a budget collector.

Well said, Sand. What a handsome anonymous follis! Furthermore, a point which I neglected. Generally speaking, other states imitated Byzantine coins, not the other way around (there were exceptions), so it shows what contemporaries thought of the coins.

This has been somewhat covered before but the answer can be both. There's a lot of double ugly ones, just like with some of the very late Romans. That being said, there are some quite attractive and majestic ones. One must also compare it to the times and coins of other states. Not many states in 600, 700, 800, etc. were putting out anything better. I'm certainly no expert on the caliphate but from a personal observation, the caligraphic coins of the caliphate were much more tidily composed and produced. There's probably also a practical aspect. During the times of troubles, esp. c. 640-750, the state and the people were just trying to stay afloat. I'm sure Basil Q. Public didn't care much about what the coins looked like. They were something to pay a tax in and scrounge out an existence. To drag out my mom's pejorative for Byzantine AEs, many AE's of Constans II could be justly called 'slag heaps'. However, Syracuse seemed to put out much neater coins at the time. Even though Antioch was going through troubles, some of the pre-reform Justinians of Antioch were very well composed.