Post your latest ancient!

[mark]

Would like to sell

 

[Marsyas Mike]

Just in, a couple of sestertii of Commodus.  Both have problems, but they are late-reign types that are a bit unusual. 

Apollo Palatine reverse:  these are kind of hard to find, and most of the other ones I found have problems; like this one, flans tend to be small.  This one lost most of the legends, but the portrait and Apollo with a giant lyre are, I think, exceptionally well-rendered.  

Commodus Æ Sestertius (190-191 A.D.) Rome Mint [M] CO[MMOD ANT P F]ELIX  [AVG BRIT P P], laureate head right / [AP]OL PAL[AT P M TR P XVI COS VI], S-C, Apollo standing front, head right, holding plectrum and supporting lyre set on column. RIC III 578; BMCRE 666-667. (18.58 grams / 27 x 23 mm) eBay June 2023 Die-Match Characteristics: Obv: Laurel ties drop from loop in knot; EL crooked Rev: Large lyre, thick column, S next to plectrum. Die-Match Obv. & Rev.: VCoins: NumisCorner SKU: 872251 Sold for € 100.00 (US $109.18)

This dual-cornucoipae issue is somewhat more common.  I resisted, but the seller made a $12 offer - for those of you keeping track of overseas shipping, I paid for it June 16 and it was delivered June 27, Portugal to Indiana!  Full customs forms, VAT declarations, etc. were on the package.  I'm lucky if I can get something from California or Florida that fast.  In hand, I was pleased with it.  An over-all black patina makes it hard to photograph, but for the price I was happy to add it to my Commodus collection:

Commodus Æ Sestertius  (190 A.D.)   Rome Mint [M COMMO]D ANT [P FELIX  AVG BRIT P P], laureate head right / TEMPOR FE[LIC P M TR P XV IMP VIII COS VI], S-C, caduceus upright between two crossed cornuacopiae. RIC III 566; BMCRE 655-656. (19.00 grams / 27 x 25 mm) eBay June 2023 Notes:  OCRE/RIC says reverse legend is TEMP FELIC, but it is actually TEMPOR FELIC; many auctions note this as  RIC III 566 var. / corr.

The flan has two chunks out of it; this damage apparently happened a long time ago, as everything has a uniform look to it. 

 

[Victrix]

Picked up this ae as (7.66 g) of Pertinax which seems after some googling an extremely rare denomination for him. It's not a beauty but still recognizable and that will do 😄.
 

Obverse: IMP. CAES. P. HELV. PERTIN. AVG. Head of Pertinax, laureate, to the right.

Reverse: AEQVIT. AVG. TR. P. COS. II S. C. Aequitas, draped, standing to the left, holding a scale in her right hand and a cornucopia in her left. 

 

[robinjojo]

I've been looking for a type Ptolemy II drachm, a medallic-like coin with the two eagles reverse.  The coin I acquired, actually going back to late 2022, delayed by shipping issues, arrived a few days ago in a damaged box, probably opened by US Customs for inspection and not resealed securely.  It is actually quite remarkable that the contents, this coin and a bronze weight, did not spill out during transit.

Getting back to the drachm, it's a good type coin, with typical crudeness, uneven strike and some corrosion.  Still the center is decent.  The patina is dark with some spots where earthen material filled some flan flaws.

Ptolemy II Philadelphus, Alexandria, AE drachm, after circa 265 BC, delta below left eagle.

SV 431

66.91 grams

 

Edited July 4, 2023 by robinjojo

[Qcumbor]

Thanks to @Barzus who spotted it for me, I recently acquired a nice consecratio antoninianus minted for Trajan by Trajan Decius in the famous Divi series. I already had the type (Trajan/altar) that I bought from our own @Alwin 26 years ago. This new example is so nice I could not resist to upgrading it. Sorry Al, I will have to let your coin go after all those years !!!

The old one :

 

The new one :

Q

[CPK]

1 hour ago, robinjojo said:

I've been looking for a type Ptolemy II drachm, a medallic-like coin with the two eagles reverse.  The coin I acquired, actually going back to late 2022, delayed by shipping issues, arrived a few days ago in a damaged box, probably opened by US Customs for inspection and not resealed securely.  It is actually quite remarkable that the contents, this coin and a bronze weight, did not spill out during transit.

Getting back to the drachm, it's a good type coin, with typical crudeness, uneven strike and some corrosion.  Still the center is decent.  The patina is dark with some spots where earthen material filled some flan flaws.

Ptolemy II Philadelphus, Alexandria, AE drachm, after circa 265 BC, delta below left eagle.

SV 431

66.91 grams

 

Nice ending to a long story! I have one very similar, different monograms:

[expat]

Got three coins this morning and the dealer included an extra as a thanks, this is it

Constantine I AE follis. AD 330-335. IMP CONSTANTI-NVS MAX AVG, rosette-diademed, draped, cuirassed bust right. / GLOR-IA EXERC-ITVS, two soldiers holding spears and shields with two standards between them, o on banners. Mintmark RFP.
17mm, 2.54gr. RIC VII, 327

 

[Broucheion]

Hi All,

My latest Ptolemaic, a trihemiobol (3/4 Obol) of Alexandria. This one came from Australia and took 46 days to arrive, mainly languishing over 2 weeks in my local post office. The USPS carrier refuses to deliver any item to my door if it requires a signature. It seems the postal carrier acts as if it's beneath him or her to knock and actually wait for a reply before scurrying away, while 'forgetting' to leave a slip so I could pick it up at the post office. I only knew there was "an attempted" (!) delivery because of the eBay tracking. It took some complaining to the USPS before it was stopped from being returned to the sender because "I was not available". I was available all day of the "attempted delivery". (May such USPS carriers die a slow, painful death and rot in hell for all eternity.)

PTOLEMY III EUERGETES (246-222 BCE)
EGYPT, ALEXANDRIA
EGYPTIAN SERIES 4C: Control mark EP monogram and variants - BRONZE WEIGHT STANDARD 2

Æ Trihemiobol
Size: 27x28 mm
Weight: 13.47 g
Die Axis: 0
Broucheion Collection P-2023-05-19.001

Obv: Zeus-Ammon head, diademmed, facing right. Centration depress ion. Dotted border.
Rev: Eagle on thunderbolt facing left, wings spread. In left field: cornucopia with twist right. Legend to left ΠΤΟΛΕΜΑΙΟΥ; to right: ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ. Control EP monogram between legs. Centration depression. Dotted border.
Refs: Lorber CPE-372 a) with EP monogram: SNG Copenhagen 234; SNG Koln 93; Hist Mus Frankfurt 165. Svoronos-Unlisted.

- Broucheion

[Amarmur]

Picked up this Caracalla Tetradrachm for $62 it was labeled as XF. I disagree, it's VF at best but it's nice. I think it was an ok price not the best not the worst. It has nice details but I wouldn't call it breathtaking 

[Ancient Coin Hunter]

8 minutes ago, Broucheion said:

Hi All,

My latest Ptolemaic, a trihemiobol (3/4 Obol) of Alexandria. This one came from Australia and took 46 days to arrive, mainly languishing over 2 weeks in my local post office. The USPS carrier refuses to deliver any item to my door if it requires a signature. It seems the postal carrier acts as if it's beneath him or her to knock and actually wait for a reply before scurrying away, while 'forgetting' to leave a slip so I could pick it up at the post office. I only knew there was "an attempted" (!) delivery because of the eBay tracking. It took some complaining to the USPS before it was stopped from being returned to the sender because "I was not available". I was available all day of the "attempted delivery". (May such USPS carriers die a slow, painful death and rot in hell for all eternity.)

PTOLEMY III EUERGETES (246-222 BCE)
EGYPT, ALEXANDRIA
EGYPTIAN SERIES 4C: Control mark EP monogram and variants - BRONZE WEIGHT STANDARD 2

Æ Trihemiobol
Size: 27x28 mm
Weight: 13.47 g
Die Axis: 0
Broucheion Collection P-2023-05-19.001

Obv: Zeus-Ammon head, diademmed, facing right. Centration depress ion. Dotted border.
Rev: Eagle on thunderbolt facing left, wings spread. In left field: cornucopia with twist right. Legend to left ΠΤΟΛΕΜΑΙΟΥ; to right: ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ. Control EP monogram between legs. Centration depression. Dotted border.
Refs: Lorber CPE-372 a) with EP monogram: SNG Copenhagen 234; SNG Koln 93; Hist Mus Frankfurt 165. Svoronos-Unlisted.

- Broucheion

My recent purchase from Poland (Probus) came via USPS from the Polish int'l mail service. As far as I can tell there was no attempted delivery but I did get a slip saying "signature required". I filled out the signature spot and left it in the mailbox. When the next day came and the slip was gone plus no coin shipment I started panicking. But the policy of my local post office is to hold items unless the form is filled out and returned to the station. Fortunately it was delivered the next day. My local post office actually has humans that answer the phone and can answer questions rather than the hopeless 1-800 number. Hard to believe since I moved from the busy metropolitan Bay Area where the post office is  overworked and stressed to its breaking point. Now I am in a rather bucolic setting where the employees resemble those in the USPS TV ads.

Edited July 5, 2023 by Ancient Coin Hunter

[Broucheion]

3 minutes ago, Ancient Coin Hunter said:

Now I am in as rather bucolic setting where the employees resemble those in the USPS TV ads.

Dear @Ancient Coin Hunter,

Consider yourself blessed. I live in a suburb outside of NYC. Service was better when I was in Manhattan than out here. I will qualify my earlier post by saying things took a very rapid downturn here as the Pandemic set in.

- Broucheion

Edited July 5, 2023 by Broucheion

[Dafydd]

This is my latest to fill a gap.

Hostilian (Caesar, 250-251). AR Antoninianus (21mm, 3.13g, 12h). Rome, AD 251. Radiate and draped bust r. R/ Hostilian standing l., holding signum and spear. RIC IV 181d (Decius); RSC 34. VF  Ex-LAC.

[Prieure de Sion]

Two silver coins of Gordianus III were brought to my home by the parcel service today....

  

Gordian III AR Tetradrachm of Antioch, Seleucis and Pieria. AD 238-240. AYTOK K M ANT ΓOΡΔΙΑΝΟC CЄB, laureate, draped and cuirassed bust to right / ΔΗMAΡX ЄΞΟΥϹΙΑϹ, eagle standing facing, head and tail to left, holding wreath in beak; SC in exergue. RPC VII.2 Online Unassigned ID 68016; McAlee 860; Prieur 282. 12.45g, 26mm

 

Gordian III AR Antoninianus. Rome, AD 240. IMP CAES M ANT GORDIANVS AVG, radiate, draped and cuirassed bust to right / LIBERALITAS AVG II, Liberalitas standing facing, head to left, holding abacus and cornucopiae. RIC IV 36; RSC 130. 4.55g, 23.5mm

 

[Amarmur]

24 minutes ago, Prieure de Sion said:

Two silver coins of Gordianus III were brought to my home by the parcel service today....

  

Gordian III AR Tetradrachm of Antioch, Seleucis and Pieria. AD 238-240. AYTOK K M ANT ΓOΡΔΙΑΝΟC CЄB, laureate, draped and cuirassed bust to right / ΔΗMAΡX ЄΞΟΥϹΙΑϹ, eagle standing facing, head and tail to left, holding wreath in beak; SC in exergue. RPC VII.2 Online Unassigned ID 68016; McAlee 860; Prieur 282. 12.45g, 26mm

 

Gordian III AR Antoninianus. Rome, AD 240. IMP CAES M ANT GORDIANVS AVG, radiate, draped and cuirassed bust to right / LIBERALITAS AVG II, Liberalitas standing facing, head to left, holding abacus and cornucopiae. RIC IV 36; RSC 130. 4.55g, 23.5mm

 

Man, that tetradrachm is nice. Wish ones $100-200 range came that nice.

[Ancient Coin Hunter]

34 minutes ago, Prieure de Sion said:

Two silver coins of Gordianus III were brought to my home by the parcel service today....

  

Gordian III AR Tetradrachm of Antioch, Seleucis and Pieria. AD 238-240. AYTOK K M ANT ΓOΡΔΙΑΝΟC CЄB, laureate, draped and cuirassed bust to right / ΔΗMAΡX ЄΞΟΥϹΙΑϹ, eagle standing facing, head and tail to left, holding wreath in beak; SC in exergue. RPC VII.2 Online Unassigned ID 68016; McAlee 860; Prieur 282. 12.45g, 26mm

 

Gordian III AR Antoninianus. Rome, AD 240. IMP CAES M ANT GORDIANVS AVG, radiate, draped and cuirassed bust to right / LIBERALITAS AVG II, Liberalitas standing facing, head to left, holding abacus and cornucopiae. RIC IV 36; RSC 130. 4.55g, 23.5mm

 

Nice Gordies!

[John Conduitt]

A type I don't think I knew about before.

Anonymous AE4 (Maximinus II), 312

Antioch. Bronze, 16mm, 1.24g. Genius of Antioch, turreted, veiled, seated facing, the river god Orontes swimming below; GENIO ANTIOCHENI. Apollo standing left, holding patera and lyre; APOLLONI SANCTO; officina Z in right field; mintmark SMA (Van Heesch 3). Found Carlisle, Cumbria.

[Prieure de Sion]

1 hour ago, Amarmur said:

Man, that tetradrachm is nice. Wish ones $100-200 range came that nice.

I buy the coin last 3 days in the cgb.fr shop for 175,00 Euro...

https://www.cgbfr.com/gordien-iii-tetradrachme-syro-phenicien-sup,bpv_812352,a.html 

 

[Amarmur]

1 hour ago, Prieure de Sion said:

I buy the coin last 3 days in the cgb.fr shop for 175,00 Euro...

https://www.cgbfr.com/gordien-iii-tetradrachme-syro-phenicien-sup,bpv_812352,a.html 

 

Thank you! I was loosing faith in vcoins a little. These are actually really good prices.

[Prieure de Sion]

7 hours ago, Amarmur said:

Thank you! I was loosing faith in vcoins a little. These are actually really good prices.

Generally speaking, you can't say that at all. CGB is actually known for high prices (and good quality & service). It doesn't matter where you buy - MA Shop, VCoins, CGB, Naumann, Künker... You can find high prices everywhere, but also low prices. 

The trick is to watch the market again and again and to visit as many places as possible. Then you will always find a good offer in every shop or auction.

[Salomons Cat]

13 hours ago, Amarmur said:

Thank you! I was loosing faith in vcoins a little. These are actually really good prices.

I must say that I only go to cgbfr if I have no other option, so if I really want a coin and I have no hope at all that a similar one might appear in an auction or in one of my favorite ma-shops/Vcoins stores soon. 

The last time when I checked the prices for a few coins on cgbfr they sold the coins for 2.5x the price that the exact same coins were sold for in auctions recently. 

Numiscorner is even crazier. 

There are many Vcoins shops that have very good offers. The only “problem” (if you want to buy and not to sell) is that all coins are quite expensive at the moment, doesn’t matter where you look, I guess it’s just the market at the moment…

*edit*

Maybe my opinion is not very diplomatic, Prieure de Sion expressed it better.

Just an example of what I mean:
I was interested in buying a Faustina II denarius (RIC III 676) because I find the reverse interesting. Although it's a rather common coin, there are at this moment no examples for a reasonable price available, in my opinion. There is for example one in the cgbfr shop, but it seems to have some deposits around the mouth and the same coin was sold for 130 Euros (including fees) 6 months ago in an auction. So in this case at least not 2.5x the auction price but still +50%. 
I think that for this coin, the auction price was not far away from the usual market price, compared to other examples of the same coin it might actually have been rather on the high side already. There are nicer examples out there that will enter the market and cost less... So I will just wait 🙂

I didn't want to say that the cgbfr prices were completely unreasonable... If they wait long enough, at some point (months? years?) someone will buy the coin. From my point of view they're just usually on the very high end with their prices, so it's just not the place where I look for coins first.

Edited July 6, 2023 by Salomons Cat

[red_spork]

Everyone here will probably be shocked that I picked up yet another prow bronze yesterday. This type is the first struck(as opposed to cast, i.e. aes grave) sextans of the Roman Republic. Fairly large at 30mm & 25g

Roman republic Æ Sextans(30mm, 25.00g, 3h), anonymous "semilibral" series. 217-215 BC, Rome mint. Head of Mercury right, wearing winged petasos; above ••; border of dots / Prow right; above, ROMA; below, ••. McCabe Group AA; Crawford 38/5
 

[expat]

3 yesterday and 1 today.

Antoninus Pius AE As, RIC 733, Cohen 450, BMC 1624
143-144 AD. ANTONINVS AVG PIVS P P TR P COS III, laureate head right / IMPERATOR II S-C, Sow facing right under helm-oak, suckling four young, another piglet in front. SC in ex.
25mm, 10.09gr Scarce

Antoninus Pius. Æ. As. TIBERIS. 140-143 AD
ANTONINVS AVG. PIVS P.P. Laureate head to the right.
  Reverse: TIBERIS. S.C. In exergue: TR. POT. COS III.
-Tíber reclining to the left and placing his hand on a rudder.

8.95g 25mm. Very scarce.
C-822. RIC. 706 a-S.

MAXIMINUS I Thrax (late portrait) Denarius. (Ar. 2.56g/22mm). 235-236 AD Rome.
RIC 14, RSC 85a, BMC 99, Sear5 #8316, Cohen 85
IMP MAXIMINVS PIVS AVG, laureate, draped and cuirassed bust right / SALVS AVGVSTI, Salus seated left, feeding from patera a serpent arising from altar. Good Very Fine/ Almost Very Fine.

ALEXANDER III the Great AE16
Obverse: Macedonian shield with thunderbolt on boss.
Reverse: B – A either side of Macedonian helmet with chinstrap. ^E Monogram upper right.
Price 404 var (monogram upper instead of lower).   Uncertain mint in Macedon, ca. 326 BC.  4,65 g - 16 mm

 

[John Conduitt]

I already have enough of Caracalla, but I thought this was an interesting coin. The reverse is typical of Julia Domna’s coins from 198-200.

Caracalla Contemporary Counterfeit Denarius, 198-217

Imitating Rome. Silver-plated bronze, 2.74g. Laureate, draped and cuirassed right, seen from behind; ANTONINVS - PIVS AVG. Pietas standing left at altar, raising both arms; PIETAS PVBLICA. Found near Andover, Hampshire in 2019. Portable Antiquities Scheme: CAM-C08C4B.

[expat]

With the three coins from Castellet Classical Numismatics yesterday, this was included free as a thank you.

After a quick look, I tentatively give the attribution as thus;

Constantine I AE follis. AD 330-335. IMP CONSTANTI-NVS MAX AVG, rosette-diademed, draped, cuirassed bust right. / GLOR-IA EXERC-ITVS, two soldiers holding spears and shields with two standards between them, o on banners. Mintmark RFP.
17mm, 2.54gr. RIC VII, 327

 

Edited July 6, 2023 by expat
correcting a typo

[Amarmur]

Kingdom of Numidia Juba silver denarius coin - 60-45 BC | eBay

 

I picked this up today. Probably the best purchase this year for me in terms of rarity and historical interest. I didn't need to stretch my budget for it! Despite it being worn it is a fairly rare denarius coin king Juba I of Numidia he  is known for being allies with Pompey after Julius Ceasar pulled his beard. Really excited and happy about this coin especially for the attractive price. I pray its authentic because I'm 99% sure it is.