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A silver tetradrachm of Seleukos I struck under his own name, rather than Alexander’s:

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Seleucid Kingdom, Seleukos I 312-281 BC, Silver Tetradrachm 17.06g, 26mm Head of Herakles right, wearing a lion skin. Zeus seated left, holding an eagle and scepter, monogram to left, "ΔI"below the throne. “BAΣIΛEΩΣ ΣEΛEYKOY” SC 117.1c

 

Edited by MrMonkeySwag96
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9 hours ago, singig said:

I bought it for the nice details.

Constans, AE2, Antioch. AD 348-350. RIC VIII 128, Γ    
DN CONSTA-NS PF AVG, Pearl-diademed, draped, cuirassed bust left, holding globe / 
FEL TEMP REPA-RATIO, Helmeted soldier, spear in left hand, walking right, looking left; leading a small bare-headed figure from a hut beneath a tree with long slender leaves. The spear points downwards, between the soldier's legs. Star in upper centre. Mintmark ANΓ. 

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Interesting reverse. I don't know much about late Roman coins, my collection stops at Maximinus Thrax.
Do you know what the reverse means?

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4 hours ago, MrMonkeySwag96 said:

A silver tetradrachm of Seleukos I struck under his own name, rather than Alexander’s:

image.jpeg.08b3f571892befa831391b7f5991a10e.jpeg
 

Seleucid Kingdom, Seleukos I 312-281 BC, Silver Tetradrachm 17.06g, 26mm Head of Herakles right, wearing a lion skin. Zeus seated left, holding an eagle and scepter, monogram to left, "ΔI"below the throne. “BAΣIΛEΩΣ ΣEΛEYKOY” SC 117.1c

 

Ha! That coin didn't take long to disappear off my watch list. 😉 Great score!

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My least interesting purchase of the month, a bronze Prutah of John Hyrcanus:

IMG_2398.jpeg.345f73f2ed8e3cdde69c99fc316ae0bd.jpeg
 

JOHN HYRKANOS I (Yehohanan) Judaea, Hasmonean Kingdom, 134-104 BC. Jerusalem. ‘Yehohanan the High Priest and the Council of the Jews’ (Paleo-Hebrew) in four lines within wreath; above inscription, Greek letter A. Reverse - Double cornucopiae adorned with ribbons, pomegranate or poppy between. Hendin 1131-1132. 15mm, 2.3g.

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Thank you @singig, that's a great explanation.

I am investing heavily in coins this month 😄 And I'm very pleased with my most recent purchases. The coins are not only on exceptionally fine condition, but they also came with 2 pleasant surprises.
 

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Severus Alexander, 226 AD. 18mm, 286g.
Rev: ANNONA AVG, Annona standing left holding cornucopiae and grain ear over modius.
Ref: RIC 133

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Severus Alexander, 232 AD. 21mm, 3.14g.
Rev: MARS VLTOR, Mars advancing right holding spear and shield.
Ref: RIC 246

Pleasant surprise #1:
The coins came with 2 collector tickets that show provenances from 2002 and 2003.
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Both denarii have provenances from British numismatists, the one with MARS VLTOR probably from Graeme Monk and the ANNONA denarius from Andrew Barrett. 

Pleasant surprise #2:
Swiss import customs have a reputation of being extraordinarily strict about the import of ancient coins. Every coin dealer knows that. Probably because Switzerland has had a bad reputation in the past, as a trade platform for illegally looted ancient artifacts.
Quite often, import customs open my letters and packages and usually they charge me with ~ $40 for that. But sometimes they don't. I don't know how they decide when to do that and when not. Maybe it just depends on their motivation. Anyway - this time I did not have to pay import tax. Which is nice, especially since I became increasingly worried recently about the developments and possibly increasing restrictions concerning the trade with ancient coins.

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I built my latest order around this charming Trajan Decius Sestertius. 

The Domitian sestertius is one of my favorite types.  There seem to be some smoothing issues, especially on the reverse.  I also find it a bit strange that the coin would be F/aVG. Perhaps there's some tooling on the obverse?

The ugly Valerian was thrown in because of the unusually high weight.

TrajanDecius-249-251-AESestertius-30mm16.08g-RICIV126d-VFnicegreenpatina.jpg.bb32a63cae4a8b0531e550ab96b2847b.jpg

Trajan Decius, 249-251. Æ Sestertius (30 mm, 16.08 g), Rome. Obv. IMP C M Q TRAIANVS DECIVS AVG Laureate and cuirassed bust of Trajan Decius right. Rev. VICTORIA AVG S C Victory advancing left, holding wreath and palm frond. RIC IV 126d; Cohen 117

Domitian-81-96-AESestertius-35mm_21.16g-RIC702-IOVIVICTORIF-VGSavoca.jpg.48c45dd4c84ea44a0d307554e1b31688.jpg

Domitian, 81-96. Æ Sestertius (35 mm, 21.16 g), Rome, 90-91. Obv. IMP CAES DOMIT AVG GERM COS XV CENS PER P P Laureate head of Domitian right. Rev. IOVI VICTORI / S C Jupiter seated left on throne, holding Victory and sceptre. RIC 702; BMCRE II, p.398, 439; Cohen 314

Valerian-253-260-AESestertius-31mm25.14g-APOLONICONSERVARIC152pittedstrippedF-VG.jpg.e8a1090fbb4985ec5099150bdaac0e7a.jpg

Valerian I, 253-260. Ӕ Sestertius (31 mm, 25.14 g), Rome, 255-256. Obv. IMP C P LIC VALERIANVS P F AVG Laureate and cuirassed bust of Valerian I to right. Rev. APOLINI CONSERVA S - C Apollo standing left, holding laurel branch and lyre set on rock. RIC 152; MIR 72h

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4 minutes ago, Nerosmyfavorite68 said:

There seem to be some smoothing issues

I wouldn't worry about that, almost all big bronzes are smoothed to an extend and looks great as is 🙂

Edited by Victrix
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I picked up a bucket list coin for my birthday coming up. Athens owl Tetradrachm new style 149/148 bc. This beast is 30mm and is beautiful despite not having the nicest surface. I wasn't sure whether to get the old style or the new style but this was $175 so I just went for this one. It's just special. I'm not sure this one is famous as the old owl but it is just as magnificent.

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2 hours ago, Amarmur said:

I picked up a bucket list coin for my birthday coming up. Athens owl Tetradrachm new style 149/148 bc. This beast is 30mm and is beautiful despite not having the nicest surface. I wasn't sure whether to get the old style or the new style but this was $175 so I just went for this one. It's just special. I'm not sure this one is famous as the old owl but it is just as magnificent.

ECBB581A-EF78-4A3C-8EF1-C38F02F796D1.jpeg

3F72BB96-1E60-4DB0-A2DC-E5B939B45A19.jpeg

743D9698-62C7-4051-B043-64E7BA7C2DBA.jpeg

9A545E27-F95B-4835-B97C-FBF8F8ACF4A7.jpeg

Congratulations! That is an awesome coin for the money. 👍

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Added this new Victory type of Gallienus to my collection today. I was very happy that it arrived. The seller was awesome but the USPS wasn't so much...

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Gallienus
Billon Antoninianus
Obverse: GALLIENVS AVG, radiate, draped bust right
Reverse: VICTORIA AVG, Victory walking left, holding wreath and palm, star in left field

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This is my newest fraction from Carthage, what makes it special is the high silver content , I think has more than 70% silver. I was unable to find a similar billon/silver fraction.

Maximianus , Billon Silver Fraction , Carthage , 303 AD , RIC VI Carthage 37b
IMP C MAXIMIANVS P F AVG , Bust of Maximian, radiate, draped, cuirassed, right /
VOT X•X / FK within a wreath , MintMark: FK (Felix Karthago) , 3.34 g

image.jpeg.b7a532f051a799c8d3a630e4ab86060e.jpeg

Edited by singig
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Two new Faustina II denarii, both with Concordia seated, both with all around legend, but long and short legend.

 

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Faustina II

AR-Denar, Rome
Obv.: FAVSTINA AVG PII AVG FIL, draped bust right (unbroken legend)
Rev.: CONCORDIA, Concordia seated left holding flower, resting elbow on cornucopia, which is by her chair; under chair globe.
Ag, 17mm, 3.60g
Ref.: RIC III 502a3var., CRE 167 var.

 

Faustina_II_R867_fac.jpg.b80d5c0208c64013839c214cb51e53cd.jpg

Faustina II

AR-Denar, Rome
Obv.: : FAVSTINA AVG ANTONINI AVG PII FIL, draped bust right
Rev.: CONCORDIA, Concordia seated left holding flower, resting elbow on cornucopia, which is by her chair; under chair globe.
Ag, 16,5 x 19,5 mm, 3.4g
Ref.: RIC III 502a6 (long legend variation) var., CRE 169 var

 

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Here's a rough Arab-Byzantine fals, which I am still researching.  This coin is the "standing emperor" type, but instead of the usual globus cruciger held by the emperor's left hand, there is instead a bird, presumably a hawk.  The bird is a little hard to see, but its outlines are apparent.

The reverse has a small crescent below the M.

Arab-Byzantine, AE fals, Imitating Constans II, late 7th century AD.

3.40 grams

D-CameraArab-ByzantineFalsImitatingConstansIIlate7thcenstandingemperorholdingbird3.40g2-18-24.jpg.4dec3ef643a81ed9e96ed91f6e7b000d.jpg

 

 

Edited by robinjojo
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I won this yesterday making it my new latest coin! I'm very pleased to pick up an example of one of the rarer reverse types for Gallienus from Antioch. In my ACsearching I only found only one of the type properly listed in the past but with a left facing bust. The day of the auction this coin was at a 37 euro pre-bid so I steeled myself for a fight at the live session. When it came up I bid once to 38 and thankfully that was all it took. 😃

gallienusiovipropvg.jpg.9918599a93a0f6830840c8c96c30a579.jpg

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In the last period I bought many Probus, Aurelian and Gallienus coins, I would say that these are my favorite coinages from that period.  I will try to present them in the next weeks as I identify and photograph them, I will group them in several sets.


Probus AE Antoninianus. Ticinum mint, 277 AD. RIC 388    
VIRTVS PROBI AVG, radiate, helmeted, and cuirassed bust left holding spear and shield / 
IOVI CONSERVAT, emperor standing right holding eagle-tipped sceptre, receiving globe from Jupiter standing left, VXXT below. 

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Probus AE Antoninianus. Rome. RIC 184,E
IMP C PROBVS AVG, radiate, mantled bust left holding eagle-tipped sceptre / 
ROMAE AETER, hexastyle temple with Roma seated within, holding Victory and sceptre. Mintmark R thunderbolt epsilon. RIC V-2 Rome 184 var (unlisted officina).
21 mm / 4.5 g

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Probus. Antoninianus. Ticinum. RIC 489    
IMP C PROBVS PF AVG, radiate bust left wearing imperial mantle and holding eagle-tipped sceptre / 
PROVIDENT AVG, Providentia standing left, holding globe and sceptre. Left field: Q. Mintmark SXXI.

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Probus Silvered AE Antoninianus. Rome mint.RIC 200     
IMP PROBVS PF AVG, radiate mantled bust left holding eagle-tipped sceptre / 
SOLI INVICTO, Sol, radiate, in chariot riding left, raising right hand and holding globe and whip in left hand. Mintmark R(wreath)Γ.

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Probus AE Antoninianus. Siscia mint, 277-282 AD. RIC 818, S    
IMP C M AVR PROBVS P F AVG, radiate, mantled bust left, holding eagle-tipped sceptre / 
VIRTVS PROBI AVG, Probus on horseback galloping left riding down enemy. Mintmark XXIS. Cohen 931.

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Probus. AE Antoninianus. Cyzicus. RIC 913 var    
IMP CM AVR PROBVS PF AVG, radiate, helmeted and cuirassed bust left, holding spear over shoulder and shield, decorated with emperor spearing fallen enemy, on left arm /
VIRTVS PROBI AVG, Emperor riding left, holding sceptre, right hand raised, captive before. Mintmark CXXIM. 
24 mm / 3.7 g

image.jpeg.6276657fbc64b11ba8dfca7d974fbc9f.jpeg

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Here's another Alexandrian Roman provincial BI tetradrachm, part of my piecemeal effort collecting this extensive series.  This somewhat rough coin came from the UAE, which many of you probably know just based on the country of origin.  He has some pretty decent buys from time to time.

Nero with Tiberius, 54-68 AD, BI tetradrachm, Alexandria, Year 13 = 66/7.

RPC I 5295

12.98 grams

D-CameraNerowithTiberius54-68ADBItetAlexandriaYear1366-7RPCI529512.98g2-20-24.jpg.be61dd0d996e6ee53ff1bb223d7b3906.jpg

This is the second coin of this type that I own.  I purchased it mainly because of the different style portrait of Nero.  Here's the other coin:

12.54 grams

D-CameraNeroTiberiusBItetAlexandriaDatedRY13AD66-67Kln187-912.54gSal4-11-22.jpg.51fd5e73a932479d5eff9a010efad421.jpg

Edited by robinjojo
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25 minutes ago, Victrix said:

The duality of a crisis coin. Crisp obverse die and a completely battered reverse. Hard to pass Gordian III and Trajan decius coins when they're so cheap in high grade 🙃.

 

 

Nice coin!  The reverse looks as if it was struck with a worn die.

Edited by robinjojo
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