red_spork's Top 10 of 2024

[red_spork]

This year has been a year of changes for me. I packed up my family, sold our house and moved across the country to live closer to family. After selling our house, the apartment I'd lined up for us fell through and my wife and son and I shared a single bedroom with family for a couple very long months until finally 2 months ago, we bought a beautiful, old, 200ish year old Greek Revival home. I didn't have access to my coins for a lot of that because I wanted everything of value far away from contractors, realtors, potential buyers, movers and everyone else in the seemingly endless stream of strangers whom we've invited into both our houses. 

Now, as things are winding down I have some time to reflect and in a few cases really enjoy the coins I bought this year for the first time as many, especially those acquired in the last 6 months, went straight from the mailbox to the safe deposit box. I'm also sitting down to double check references since I just recently took the time to unpack my coin books, many of which have been in storage for 6 months. Ultimately I'm quite happy with the coins I acquired this year, I didn't acquire a huge number of coins but I did check off a number of important  types from my list including a half victoriatus, a drachm and a quartuncia and likewise added a number of rarities to my early denarius coinage collection such as a 45/3 sestertius, a 66/1 quinarius and a rare single die variety of 46/1. The early denarius and victoriatus silver coinage is an area that I am, perhaps foolishly, still striving to achieve a comprehensive collection in and it includes far more types and varieties than many people realize so I am pretty thrilled any time I can add to that collection but especially thrilled when I can add the sort of varieties that seemingly never come up for sale.

Without further ado, my top coins of 2024. Some of these I've posted larger threads on and will simply link to those threads rather than rehash all that information here but feel free to ask any questions or discuss any of the coins here(or in the original threads).
 

#10 Cr. 132/1 ME Victoriatus
No list of mine would be complete without at least one victoriatus. This is a nice example of one of the later victoriati. These are tough coins because they often come heavily worn and seemingly circulated for quite some time, not to mention the terrible surfaces they often suffer from after being improperly cleaned since they are debased silver which is hard to clean properly. The meaning of “ME” on this coin is not entirely obvious but it has been suggested the issue may be attributed to a Caecilius Metellus. This coin very nearly missed this list not because I disliked it for any reason but because I very nearly forgot about it - I purchased it right as we were getting close to listing our prior house for sale and it arrived right as I was clearing the house of valuables and storing them with  a trusted friend and in my haste I only really briefly glanced at it before placing it in the wrong tray and didn’t properly document it, tag it or even upload it to my gallery. It was only after spending some time with my trays that I remembered it but it's a really great little coin and was a welcome surprise.



Roman Republic AR Victoriatus(2.88g, 16.5mm), "ME" series(Caecilius Metellus?), 194-190 BC, Rome mint. Laureate head of Jupiter right. Border of dots / Victory standing right, crowning trophy with wreath; ME ligate between. ROMA in exergue. Line border. Crawford 132/1; RRSC V42

Ex Jason Irving 1 June 2024, ex Naville auction 72, 27 March 2022, lot 398, "From a European Collection"


#9 Cr. 38/8 Quartuncia
The quartuncia denomination has a weird place in Roman coinage. It was really only minted for a short time as part of the semuncial coinage but in large numbers and a number of styles during that time(though some authors have referred to some of the earlier bronzes associated with didrachm issues as quartunciae). They are seemingly always on offer but somehow after 10 years of collection I still hadn't bought one until this year so I was happy to win this one in a recent Naville sale. It's a really excellent example of this tiny denomination and one of the more attractive bronzes in my collection which has earned it a spot on the list.



Roman Republic Æ Quartuncia(2.69g, 15mm), anonymous semilibral series. 217-215 BC. Head of Roma right, wearing attic helmet / Prow right; above, ROMA. McCabe Group AA; Crawford 38/8


#8 Cr. 47/1a fine style Sicilian quinarius
This coin is a nice example of a quinarius I've been meaning to add to my collection for quite some time. This is an interesting medium sized series from Sicily, well engraved and seemingly to my eye related to the RRC 68 series which has similar spikes on back of helmets and somewhat similar helmet styles. Crawford calls it “uncertain mint” but in my opinion it ought to be placed in Sicily, both from the style argument and ultimately the hoard evidence where these types are often found with coins such as RRC 67, 70 and 42 which are certainly from Sicily and the recently published RRSC shares this Sicilian attribution.

 

Roman Republic AR Quinarius(2.05g). Anonymous. After 211 B.C, Sicilian mint. Head of Roma right, wearing winged helmet ornamented with griffin's head and three-piece visor, earring and necklace; behind, V. Border of dots / Dioscuri on horseback riding right, each holding couched spear and wearing chlamys, cuirass and pileus surmounted by star; in relief in linear frame, ROMA. Line border. Crawford 47/1a(uncertain mint); RRSC Bq10

Privately purchased 9 October 2024, ex Ed Waddell inv 56586, 5 December 2022, ex Freeman & Sear Mail Bid Sale 11, 23 November 2004, lot 249


#7 Cr. 41/5- : A gigantic post-semilibral struck as
This coin is an example of one of the earliest and largest struck Roman asses, struck during the transition from cast(aes grave) to struck bronzes. This is the largest struck bronze in my entire collection and a very satisfying and impressive coin in-hand. They're not terribly rare even though they're often sold as if they are when ID'd correctly but they do often come in abysmal condition, so it has taken many years of searching for me to find one I liked enough to actually buy.


 

Roman Republic As(39mm, 54.64g), Anonymous post-semilibral series, 215-212 BC, Rome mint. Laureate head of Janus; above, I / Prow of galley right; above, I; ROMA below. Crawford 41/5 var(no struck as listed); McCabe group A2; R. Russo, Essays Hersh, 1 & 4-7 and pl. 15, 1 & 4-7

Ex Musa Numismatic Art, 20 April 2024, ex W.B. and R.E. Montgomery collection, ex Ed Waddell, ex Bombarda Collection, A. Tkalec AG Auction September 2008, 8 September 2008, lot 206


#6 Cr. 45/3 sestertius, RRSC plate coin
I love the sestertius denomination. You get several tiny coins that are like little shrunken scrunched up versions of the larger denomination pieces and this sestertius is the tiny fraction of one of my favorite quinarii. It shares the overall features of the reverse and the pointy nose, somewhat angular obverse. This type is one of the rarest of all the anonymous sestertii rated R4 in the recently published RRSC(where it is a plate coin), and is the only example I’ve been offered in a decade of collecting. This small series, Crawford 45/RRSC B1 is also often considered the first denarius series, as the denarius has an incuse legend much like many of the quadrigati, and as such this holds a special place as likely the first sestertius. Unfortunately I forgot the auction closing date and missed bidding on it when it came up at auction but was later given a second chance when it was offered privately by a friend who rightly knew I would be unable to turn down this very special coin.

Roman Republic AR Sestertius(12mm, 1.08 g). Anonymous. After 211 B.C. Uncertain mint. Head of Roma right, wearing winged helmet ornamented with griffin's head and three-piece visor, earring an necklace; behind, IIS. Border of dots / Dioscuri on horseback riding right, each holding couched spear and wearing chlamys, cuirass and pileus surmounted by star; in relief in linear frame, ROMA. Line border. Crawford 45/3; Russo RBW -; RRSC Bs1.2(this coin)
Privately purchased from Jason Irving, 28 April 2024, ex Artemide 60E, 3 September 2022, lot 219

 

#5 A perfect, provenanced, plated Cr 422/1 denarius
Full discussion here. From this coin on, the relative order becomes more or less meaningless and arbitrary and on any given day any of these final 5 coins might be my favorite. For me this coin is awesome for a few reasons outlined in the post I've linked but really the thing tht most excites me about it was that I wanted this coin for years, ever since I used it as a plate coin in my paper with Richard Schaefer and I always hoped I'd get a shot at it and after all that waiting I was finally able to buy it. There are many such coins on my mental list and it gives me hope I might be able to check off some of the others I've been dreaming about for years.

Roman Republic AR Plated denarius(2.84g, 18mm). Imitating M. Aemilius Scaurus and P. Plautius Hypsaeus, 58 BC, Rome mint. Camel right; before, kneeling figure, holding reins in left hand and olive-branch tied with fillet in right hand; above, M SCAVR; on either side, EX SC; below, AED CVR. Border of dots / Jupiter in quadriga left, holding reins in left hand and hurling thunderbolt with right hand, ; above, P HVPSAEVS; AID CVR in two lines. Below, C HVPSAE COS; PREIVER in two lines. On right, CAPTV upwards. Border of dots. Crawford 422/1-(obverse 422/1a, reverse 422/1b) & appendix 288(this coin cited), cf. Bahrfeldt, Nachtrage I, page 13(this coin cited) and pl. I, 9(this reverse die); BMCRR I, 3876(obv) & 3878(rev) & cf p 484 footnote 1(this coin cited); Banti Aemelia 42/1(this coin); Jordan Montgomery & Richard Schaefer "A Doubted Variety of M. Aemilius Scaurus and P. Plautus Hypsaeus Vindicated" in KOINON I, 2018, pl I, 6(this coin)

Ex CNG e-auction 574, 6 November 2024, 347, ex Karl Sifferman Collection, CNG e-Auction 171, 22 August 2007, 209, ex Thomas Olive Mabbott Collection, part two, Hans Schulman New York 27-29 October 1969, 4107, ex Ernst Justus Haeberlin Collection, Cahn-Hess 17 July 1933, 2336
 

#4 The third known Cr 66/1 Sardinian "dot" quinarius
Full discussion here, summarized for this post. This is the third known example of the Sardinian "dot" series quinarius, Crawford 66/1. Crawford only knew this type from a unique example in the BnF but rightly ascertained it as a stylistic match to the Sardinian Praetor quinarii Cr 63-65 and placed it alongside them as Cr 66. In the 50 years between the publication of Crawford and the printing of RRSC only a single additional example had emerged on the market from the same dies as the Crawford example. This coin adds a third to the corpus, struck with a new obverse die but sharing its reverse die with the other two known examples. I still don't have it in-hand yet but I am anxiously awaiting it. I am also thankful that it went almost unnoticed at auction, with only one other specialist who thankfully bid unaggressively.  I was prepared to spend a pretty stupid amount of money for such an ugly coin(one of the downsides of being a specialist) but thankfully was not required to.

Roman Republic AR Quinarius(16mm, 1.49g). Anonymous "dot" or "pellet" series. 212-208 B.C, Sardinian mint. Head of Roma right, wearing winged helmet; behind, V; below, pellet. Border of dots / Dioscuri on horseback riding right, each holding couched spear and wearing chlamys, cuirass and pileus surmounted by star; on tablet, ROMA. Line border. Crawford 66/1; RBW -; RRSC Bq35


#3 Cr 46/1 with a unique reverse die lacking the spears
Full discussion here. This example of the rare Cr 46/1 anonymous denarius features a reverse die with an error not just unique among Cr 46/1 but among all anonymous denarii reverse dies: it is missing the usual spears or lances the dioscuri carry, usually executed as two roughly horizontal parallel lines. It would be a wonderful example of Cr. 46/1 even without this error but the condition, error, wonderful style and excellent provenance combine to make it not only one of my favorite coins of the year but also one that I can't help but look at every time I examine its tray.

Roman Republic AR Denarius(4.06g, 12h). Anonymous. After 211 B.C. Uncertain mint. Helmeted head of Roma right; behind, X. Border of dots / Dioscuri galloping right(without usual lances); in linear frame, ROMA. Line border. Crawford 46/1; Pierluigi Debernardi "Studio Dei Conii di RRC 46/1 e 60/1c", Panorama Numismatico 11/2014, p. 16 number 12(this coin) & dies 4/4; RRSC B30.1(these dies)

Ex Niels Bro Rasmussen collection, Bruun Rasmussen Online Auction 2403, 21 January 2024, lot 5019, ex Jens Hermann collection, Museumsbygningen Kunstauktioner Auktion 35, 30 Oktober 2004, lot 272, ex Høeg Albrethsen collection, Kunsthallen Kunstauktioner 376, 15 March 1989, lot 2, ex Luigi De Nicola FPL September 1970 lot 256


#2 Cr 26/2 Apollo/Horse drachm
Full post here. Last year one of my favorite coins was my 26/1 didrachm. When I shared with a friend that I'd bought it, he offered to sell me a 26/2 didrachm he owned with very generous terms. I took him up on the offer and paid in installments over a few months. It's not the prettiest coin but it's an important one for a specialized Roman Republic collection like mine and there's something wonderful about having the didrachm and the drachm right there side by side in my trays. I'd rather not say what I paid for it, and it was a mix of cash + trade, but I will confess that the raw cash value assigned is the most I've ever spent on a coin and it was easily worth it. This coin coming in on the list right after(wait to see #1) of the cheapest coins in my collection is quite ironic but it serves as an example of something that has become more and more apparent to me every year I collect which is that price paid rarely correlates directly with enjoyment of a coin and for me it's best not to focus on price paid on individual coins but overall outlay over time and how it is reflected in my enjoyment of the collection.


 

Roman Republic AR Drachm(15mm, 3.19g, 8h), anonymous, circa 235 BC, Rome mint. Laureate head of Apollo right / Horse rearing left; above ROMA. Crawford 26/2; Sydenham 28; HN Italy 307; BMCRR Romano-Campanian 69b; RRSC Eh5

Privately purchased from a friend in February 2024, privately purchased by him from Andrew McCabe in 2022, ex Roma Numismatics Auction 9, 22 March 2015, lot 492

Caveat Emptor: There are at least two cast fakes floating around made from this host coin apparently before it was sold at Roma in 2015. These were sold in Roma Numismatics e-sale 78, 17 December 2020, lot 969 and Noonans Auction 21, 8 March 2023, lot 132. Among other things the casts reproduce the scratches on the cheek which are obvious sharp scratches on this coin but do not appear to be on the casts. They are also underweight and have an overall porous look that appears to be from casting unlike the crystallization apparent on this coin. For these reasons and others I'm not willing to share I believe wholeheartedly my coin is authentic but I would caution all buyers to watch out for cast forgeries made from this host.


#1 Cr 95/2 VB Half Victoriatus
Originally posted here on Phil's excellent thread about his amazing example of this type. It's really hard to overstate how pleased I am with this coin. As someone with a lot of victoriati a half victoriatus has been high on my want list for quite some time. Unfortunately they are often quite expensive and the couple I've had a chance to bid on I’ve often been below the winning bid by four figures so I had no chance of winning.  I honestly thought I'd never own one until I spotted this one misattributed and for sale on eBay with terrible pictures but from a seemingly honest dealer. It's in the running for "worst known", though probably not the absolute worst. Even so, I am more than happy with it. I will not disclose what I paid but I bought it for a song, far below my average acquisition price and when adjusting for inflation it is one of the lowest prices paid for any Roman Republic coin in my collection currently. For me it's one of the best feeling coins to see in my trays just because it's one I truly never thought I'd be able to check off the list

Roman Republic AR Half Victoriatus(13.5 mm, 1.45g). Anonymous("VB" series). ca. 211-208 B.C. Uncertain mint(traditionally, Vibo Valentium). Laureate head of Jupiter right. Bead and reel border / Victory standing right, crowning trophy with wreath; VB ligate on exergue between; S to right. ROMA in exergue. Line border. Crawford 95/2; RRSC Vh16A

A note on attributions: Pierluigi Debernardi's much anticipated "Roman Republican Silver Coins Volume 1 Beginnings-200 BC"(herein referred to as RRSC) has recently been published as of writing. This revolutionary, revisionist work represents the largest and likely most important contribution to the silver coinage of the Second Punic War since the publication of Crawford 50 years ago. I will later share a longer review of this work with my thoughts or possibly a proper review in an academic journal as it deserves its own discussion. That said, I have just received my copy and have where appropriate added RRSC numbers but I have mostly not updated mint/date attributions. If you are at all interested in the coins attributed with RRSC numbers above, don't wait for my proper review, just go buy the book. You won't be disappointed.

Edited December 31, 2024 by red_spork

[sand]

@red_spork Congratulations on your family completing your move. It's nice to live close to family. And congratulations on acquiring some interesting Roman Republic coins, including some interesting early examples. Early Roman Republic coins is 1 of my special interests. In your 2024 top ten, my favorites are as follows.

My favorite. #7 huge old, early Roman Republic struck bronze Janus as.

My 2nd favorite. #2 very old, very early Roman Republic silver drachm.

My 3rd favorite. #3 old, early Roman Republic silver denarius.

Edited December 31, 2024 by sand

[Gallienus]

I really like #7, the Roman Republican Struck, post-semi-libral As.  I had no idea these things weighed so much!  As the owner of two Aes Grave Asses, I really see this as an important piece to get.

Also I really like the historical write-up, the metrics, and the provenances that you provide with each coin.

[panzerman]

Nice to hear you had successfull move!

 

You also added some nice additiuons to your collection....

 

Thanks for writeup/ coins are beautifull.

JOhn

[Sulla80]

Glad to hear your are on the other side of the move.  A nice all RR Top 10 list - #6 (RRSC plate sestertius) and #2  (Apollo/Horse Drachm) would be my top picks from your list.  I can see why the plated hybrid of Crawford 422/1a and 1b would be a priceless/impossible acquisition.  Best wishes for a joyful 2025.

 

 

[Al Kowsky]

I love the bronze "hockey puck" with Janus on the obverse 😍.

[CPK]

Lovely coins!

[AncientJoe]

Glad that you managed to find time to add some great coins despite the significant upheaval and moves!

[Jason23]

Thanks for sharing this Jordan, amazing coins to pick up for your collection.  Nothing like getting some bucketlist coins!!

[MrMonkeySwag96]

My favorite is the Apollo drachm because it’s a scarce denomination 

[SimonW]

What an incredible year of change - congratulations on finding a new home and settling in! It must feel wonderful to finally be able to enjoy your coins and dive back into your collection after all the upheaval. My personal favorite is your anonymous Denarius #3.

[SteveJBrinkman]

Jordan, I would say you've gathered some blockbuster rarities in 2024.  Its not often that one with an advanced collection such as yours will find even one extremely notable and rare example in a year.  It takes special diligence to page through hundreds of common examples and investigate obscure sales to find an overlooked gem, but you've taken this effort to to a new level.  Congratulations.

#3, the RRC 46/1, RRSC B30 is my favorite and probably the finest known of this major rarity in the early anonymous denarius series.  This unique anonymous variety was on the top of my want list for almost a decade before I finally landed one a couple of years ago.  Yours is superior.

Edited January 1 by SteveJBrinkman

[Alegandron]

Really like them ALL, @red_spork !  Full stop.

[red_spork]

On 1/1/2025 at 1:15 AM, MrMonkeySwag96 said:

My favorite is the Apollo drachm because it’s a scarce denomination 

It is certainly a rare denomination, as are virtually all the pre denarius silver with the exception of the didrachms. It's a frustrating series to collect as many types are only known in a tiny number of examples so I was quite happy to find one.

 

On 1/1/2025 at 8:57 AM, SteveJBrinkman said:

Jordan, I would say you've gathered some blockbuster rarities in 2024.  Its not often that one with an advanced collection such as yours will find even one extremely notable and rare example in a year.  It takes special diligence to page through hundreds of common examples and investigate obscure sales to find an overlooked gem, but you've taken this effort to to a new level.  Congratulations.

#3, the RRC 46/1, RRSC B30 is my favorite and probably the finest known of this major rarity in the early anonymous denarius series.  This unique anonymous variety was on the top of my want list for almost a decade before I finally landed one a couple of years ago.  Yours is superior.

I probably missed more auctions this year than I caught but I do enjoy the hunt. For me it's a lot of the fun, though it does get frustrating when it feels like it's been months since I've found anything interesting.

[Qcumbor]

Wat a truly amazing group of RR coins. Your quartuncia is to die for (very jealous here with a far less attractive example) !

Q