Another Justinian Follis...

[ewomack]

Hello, the search continues. Does this one show any signs of tooling? Is the lighter green on the obverse of any potential concern? I'm still learning how to distinguish tooling, but this one doesn't give me the heebie jeebies like the other one I posted earlier this week.

[robinjojo]

I don't see anything of an obvious nature regarding tooling.  The fields, from what I can see, look okay.  

Is this coin yours or are you considering purchasing it?

If you own this coin, check the light green areas. Is the light green powdery?  If it's hard the coin should be okay, but leave it out an observe it over the course of a couple of months.

That's a very nice example, by the way, very appealing.

Edited August 5, 2022 by robinjojo

[Curtis JJ]

[Moved this over from the previous thread where it started...]

That one looks better to me. Once again, I would suggest going on ACSearch and trying to find an obverse die match (beware this one may have some double striking/die slippage). Just search Justinian Follis CON 14. (Or, if you don't get any good comparisons, instead of 14, try XIIII or 540, but it looks like there are a ton of results just using Justinian Follis CON 14.) I think my example might have the same reverse die as the specimen you showed (hard to tell for sure because both are a bit double struck), but a different obverse die.

Below is my Year 14 CON. The Justinian Plague had probably not yet reached the capital Constantinople in Year 14 of Justinian (or at least Procopius of Caesarea wasn't aware), but it had certainly struck the shores of the Byzantine empire by then, notably North Africa (Carthage and Alexandria), as well as the Eastern African kingdoms (Kush, Axum). Since it was "in the Empire," I count Year 14 as being part of my "Justinian Plague Follis" Collection (I'm looking for an XV CON, though, which is when it hit the capital hard). I can't remember when, exactly, Justinian got infected (if it was at the start in Year 15 or later). But he survived (with scars).

EDITED (BIGGER PHOTO, SAME COIN):

 

Edited August 5, 2022 by Curtis JJ

[ewomack]

Thank you for the feedback again. Sorry for the thread switch, but I figured that more people would see a new thread.

The coin should be on its way to me very soon. It's from a dealer I've purchased from before off of Vcoins, so I'm pretty sure they would not knowingly sell a coin with bronze disease (but I'll check it when it arrives in any case; they have a return policy). I did see some year 14 Justinians that resembled the one above as well, or at least they seemed to (I still have that new Byzantine coin collector smell).

It has been a pretty exciting evening. I purchased my first Justinian Follis and I happened to see Saturn outside of my window through high-powered binoculars. I have seen Jupiter and Venus before, but never Saturn. Not only that, I have a Leo V coin on its way to me, also from Vcoins. Those will help fill in the large gap that I have in my collection that ends with Julian II and picks up again with Archbishops of Vienne St. Maurice Deniers right around the year 1000. Then a Byzantine coin book should arrive. It's apparently all planets and Byzantium here tonight.

Anyway, I'm tired, it's about 1AM, so I'll sign off. Thanks again for the input!

[Al Kowsky]

7 hours ago, ewomack said:

Hello, the search continues. Does this one show any signs of tooling? Is the lighter green on the obverse of any potential concern? I'm still learning how to distinguish tooling, but this one doesn't give me the heebie jeebies like the other one I posted earlier this week.

Is that a happy face in the mintmark C😊N ? Sorry, just trying to be funny 🤣. Looks like a good score 😉. My last "budget" Justinian is pictured below.

[Restitutor]

2 hours ago, Al Kowsky said:

Is that a happy face in the mintmark C😊N ? Sorry, just trying to be funny 🤣. Looks like a good score 😉. My last "budget" Justinian is pictured below.

Lol! I was about to comment saying his face on the obverse looks very sad. Like he just got news that his conquests wouldn’t last very long after his death or something 🤪

Editing to add on: honestly I’d probably buy the coin just for his face. It would make me laugh every time I saw it which would be money well spent IMHO! 

Edited August 5, 2022 by Restitutor

[ewomack]

4 minutes ago, Restitutor said:

Lol! I was about to comment saying his face on the obverse looks very sad. Like he just got news that his conquests wouldn’t last very long after his death or something 🤪

Maybe he had just finished reading an early draft of Procopius' "Secret Histories?"

[Severus Alexander]

I love the sad face portrait too, @Restitutor!  I expect that coin will be a lot nice in hand than the photo.  Congrats, @ewomack!

Here's my favourite sad face follis, a Maurice Tiberius from Cyzicus:

I have a year 15 plague coin, @Curtis JJ, though not from the capital, at least not any more.  I replaced my Constantinople (shown first, now owned by @ValiantKnight) with the Cyzicus shown below it:

 

 

[Curtis JJ]

19 minutes ago, Severus Alexander said:

with the Cyzicus shown below it

Whoa, that's a fantastic KYZ XV! That must be at least 42 or 43mm. I'm sure it feels like a medallion in hand! 

My only XV is a Nicomedia (posted it in the other follis thread), but those ones were a bit smaller, even though it looks big (about 38mm, which would be big by any other standard!):

 

This one -- a Constantinople XII (538/539) -- is my biggest. (For CON at least, that year may have been biggest on avg., the year that the giant follis was introduced.) It's about 45mm and feels great to hold (though, for whatever reason, I always imagine it bigger than it looks in the photo!):

 

In my imagination it's usually about this size:

Edited August 6, 2022 by Curtis JJ

[Severus Alexander]

Thanks, @Curtis JJ!  My Cyzicus is indeed just shy of 43mm and is fun to hold.  I love your CON year 12, definitely on my list!  Let me know if you ever upgrade that one... 😉