Last Ancients for the Frog Collection for the Foreseeable Future

[Furryfrog02]

Hello All, 

Things have been crazy in the Frog household the last month or so. 
I have officially retired from the Navy after 20 years. I have started a new job. AND most recently, we bought a house. Ok, technically we are "under contract"...but we are set to close in 2 weeks to the day - the 26th. 

We have been looking for a bigger house for quite some time due to the fact that our current lily pad isn't big enough for me, Mrs F. and 4 tadpoles. Not to mention the dog, 5 cats and 125 gallon fish tank...Things have been so crazy in the housing market the last year or so and we have put so many offers in on so many houses only to be outbid. Finally, now that things are cooling down, we got our forever home. 

Before we went to see our future castle, I put a couple of bids on coins and ordered on from vcoins. Honestly, I wasn't expecting our offer to be accepted but it was and now we are moving in a few short weeks! Well, the coins have all arrived and I figured I would make a wrap-up post to share them.

First to arrive was a barbaric imitation of a coin of Constantine I. I have loved the obverse of this coin since I first saw it several years ago and was finally able to get an example. The engraver did a good job on the bust but clearly had no command of Latin so decided that IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII would be best.

 

This is listed on @Victor Clark's website as Coin #20 on his Barbarous Imitation page. I wish my reverse was better since I love me some Victory and I would love to have 2 nice Barbarous Victories. Oh well. Beggars can't be choosers

Victor's example was a bit larger at 17mm, 2.4g. Mine is 16mm and 1.82g.

 

The next 2 coins are of the same type but I didn't expect to win the one on the ebay auction so I purchased the other example from vcoins. Both arrived within a day of eachother.

Behold my beautiful big bootied Judys. AKA Julia Domna denarius with VENERI VICTR reverse:
 

I bid on this one on ebay and forgot about it, completely expecting to not win when I placed the bid. I was pleasantly surprised when I got the notification that I won:
Julia Domna
Julia Domna
Denarius
193-194 AD
Obverse: DOMNA AVG, draped bust right
Reverse: VENERI VICTR, Venus, naked to waist, standing right, with back to spectator, holding apple and sceptre and resting left arm on column

I was also notified by @lloydchristmas that there was another example available on vcoins and so I decided to smash that buy button.

 

Julia Domna
Denarius
193-194 AD
Obverse: DOMNA AVG, draped bust right
Reverse: VENERI VICTR, Venus, naked to waist, standing right, with back to spectator, holding apple and sceptre and resting left arm on column

 

 

These 3 coins will be the last 3 ancients added to the Frog collection for the foreseeable future. Between earnest money payments, inspections, closing costs, and moving expenses...I am tapped out. I don't know when we will be able to continue collecting but I'm glad that these 3 coins were the last purchases I made.  

The tadpoles and I will still keep with the hobby; we still have some uncleaned coins that have been soaking for a few months as well as some unidentified coins that we need to work on. Hopefully, we will be able to get back to adding coins sooner rather than later. Until then, we can't wait to see what everyone else has to show!

 

Please feel free to post any barbarous coins, Julia Domna, or Venus coins you think will fit with the theme. Thanks for looking!

[JayAg47]

Those are some nice coins to wrap up things for now!

Here's my Constantine imitation from Sri Lanka! I also like the engraver's attempt to copy the Latin words AAAAAAA... It weighs 1.55 g. 

And here's my only Venus, also the crown jewel of my collection.

[Furryfrog02]

I love the Roman imitations from far beyond the Roman influence! What a great example!

[ominus1]

well congrats on the house & coins...good to hear the Fam is doin ok ff02 🙂....

[Furryfrog02]

4 minutes ago, ominus1 said:

well congrats on the house & coins...good to hear the Fam is doin ok ff02 🙂....

Thanks! As much as I am freaking out about how much it costs to buy  a new house...I know we can afford it. I am also looking forward to having space in the attic for my own man cave.

[Spaniard]

@Furryfrog02...Good luck with your new pond...Nice coins!

Here's a couple of Domna from East and west...

 

[ambr0zie]

Congratulations on your Domna coins (and of course your new castle)! Hope you will find some cash from time to time to add a coin or two anyway.

The reverse is one of my favorite types.

2 denarii? OK, challenge accepted, adding a Sestertius

... and a Titus for a matter of fact

 

A recent Gallienus I bought with Venus, but not rated NSFW

 

As for barbarous coins, my favorite (not that I have lots of them) remains this VRBS ROMA. Initially I thought it's a Greek coin with Athena and I had no clue about the reverse. But it's just a barbaric imitation of the popular commemorative (photo showing it near its official counterpart)

Edited August 13, 2022 by ambr0zie

[Furryfrog02]

1 hour ago, ambr0zie said:

Congratulations on your Domna coins (and of course your new castle)! Hope you will find some cash from time to time to add a coin or two anyway.

The reverse one of my favorite types.

2 denarii? OK, challenge accepted, adding a Sestertius

... and a Titus for a matter of fact

 

A recent Gallienus I bought with Venus, but not rated NSFW

 

As for barbarous coins, my favorite (not that I have lots of them) remains this VRBS ROMA. Initially I thought it's a Greek coin with Athena and I had no clue about the reverse. But it's just a barbaric imitation of the popular commemorative (photo showing it near its official counterpart)

I LOVE that thicc sestertius! And that Titus...amazing.
A well struck and still silvered Gallienus? A rarity! 
And to top it off, a great little VRBS ROMA barbarous. 

Great stuff all around!

[Parthicus]

Hi @Furryfrog02 , congrats on the new house!  Too bad you won't be buying any new coins for a bit, but we've all gone through patches like that, I'm sure you'll be adding to the collection before too long.  I've posted it before, but I really like this barbarous imitation of a Constantine I with two Victories reverse.  The design itself isn't too bad, but for the inscription the die-cutter had some trouble with the Roman alphabet:

 

[seth77]

Congratulations on the new place and for your new family members and good luck with all the work that will "have to be done" at the new place!

[Curtis JJ]

I love all the little "barbs" that I used to pull from group lots. Here's one I've always been curious about, the artistry is really quite beautiful. (Imitating a Constantinian VLPP -- in some places you can see they got the letters about correct, e.g., "ICTORIA".) I haven't quite found any others exactly like it. Unfortunately, it's not quite perfectly preserved, but still neat:

My favorite, though, are the "barbarous imitations" of issues depicting barbarians/captives:

 

For some of the later Roman issues they can almost start to outnumber the "official" ones:

An imitation of an early Roman Provincial bronze:

Then, of course, there are the truly "Celtic" imitative types:

[DonnaML]

@Furryfrog02, congratulations on the new house and the new job! I hope that you are already enjoying the latter, and will soon be enjoying the former. I like all of your new coins, and am very glad to hear that you won't be abandoning us, even if you're out of the buying game for a while. It's always fun to look, and to add to your mental wish list for the future! Best to you, to Mrs. Frog and all the tadpoles, and, of course, to the dog, cats, and fish.

[Ursus]

On 8/13/2022 at 1:34 AM, Furryfrog02 said:

I have officially retired from the Navy after 20 years. I have started a new job. AND most recently, we bought a house. Ok, technically we are "under contract"...but we are set to close in 2 weeks to the day - the 26th. 

We have been looking for a bigger house for quite some time due to the fact that our current lily pad isn't big enough for me, Mrs F. and 4 tadpoles. Not to mention the dog, 5 cats and 125 gallon fish tank...Things have been so crazy in the housing market the last year or so and we have put so many offers in on so many houses only to be outbid. Finally, now that things are cooling down, we got our forever home

Congratulations on both the new job and the home purchase!

And I feel you: My wife and me bought a new place, the first floor of a mid-19th century building,  last October and have been renovating it (mostly by ourselves) over the course of this year. It looks like we will finally be able to move in next month. The whole project has cost us a lot of time and money. I'm definitely looking forward to not spending my weekends doing carpentry and plumbing, and I hope to again have a little bugdet to spend on hobbies, traveling, and other fun stuff soon. Certainly, this point will come for you, too, after you have moved in and everything is set up.

 

Edited August 15, 2022 by Ursus

[shanxi]

On 8/13/2022 at 1:34 AM, Furryfrog02 said:

I don't know when we will be able to continue collecting

I would remain optimistic.

I had the exact same thought when we bought our new home 5 years ago now, but after a few months, when everything had settled down and expenses became fixed, predictable costs, there was again time and money for our hobby. Much faster than I thought.

[NathanB]

@Furryfrog02, congratulations on your retirement and on your new home, too!

On a quite different note, you may very well laugh at me, but this 1996 comedy about a mock naval engagement is one of my all time favourite movies! (And of course, it closes with the song you would expect.)  (That said, I have a feeling that naval personnel would want to take this with a grain of salt.  Hollywood often finds a way to get things wrong even when they are quite easy to get right. But it's a barrel of laughs, for sure--and interestingly enough, prefigured a well-known 2005 naval wargame involving a Swedish submarine.)

Edited August 16, 2022 by NathanB

[lloydchristmas]

My first mention, I'm honored.

Congrats again, bud.

[lloydchristmas]

I don't know nearly enough about these (or any ancients for that matter) and am hesitant to post, but will share since they're on-topic.

All three were purchased from @YOTHR and then photographed by @Furryfrog02

Edited August 16, 2022 by lloydchristmas

[Prieure de Sion]

19 hours ago, lloydchristmas said:

All three were purchased from @YOTHR and then photographed by @Furryfrog02

Oh how beautiful pictures! Great job, better than the pictures I had. Have a lot of fun with your coins.

[Ancient Coin Hunter]

Good luck with the new home with space for all the tadpoles and pets. We bought a new home 2 months ago, and I have found most fixed expenses here (power, gas, insurance on home and auto, water) to be much less than at my old place, and kind of offsets the $75k or so it cost to sell the old house and move. So collecting can again be in your future. 

[Furryfrog02]

14 hours ago, Ancient Coin Hunter said:

Good luck with the new home with space for all the tadpoles and pets. We bought a new home 2 months ago, and I have found most fixed expenses here (power, gas, insurance on home and auto, water) to be much less than at my old place, and kind of offsets the $75k or so it cost to sell the old house and move. So collecting can again be in your future. 

I hope that's the case!
The new place is about 2x the size of our current place so I'm expecting the electric/gas to go up. Water usage should remain the same since we will still bathe/do dishes at the same rate as we do now.  We did some shopping around for car insurance and found a better/cheaper policy. We've had the same policy for over 10 years so it's def time to check around - wish we had done that earlier...

We currently live in an in demand area so I'm not too worried about selling our house even though the market has cooled a bit. I just don't want to carry 2 mortgages for a long time. While doable, it's not ideal. Once we sell the house and replenish our savings, I feel like we will be back in a position to collect again. My goal is by the end of the year/early next year to be comfortable again. 

[Furryfrog02]

Well, it's official. We are new home owners!
It has been a hectic month and an even more hectic day but we are finished signing all the papers. My hand hurts!!ow
Now we are settling down for our last dinner in the old house before we start the move tomorrow morning. 
Once we are out, we need to get our old home ready to put on the market. Not looking forward to that. Hopefully though, we will be down to a single mortgage by the time November rolls around.

To celebrate our move and to keep my mind off all of the packing and stuff yet to come...feel free to post coins that have buildings on them. I know there aren't a lot of "houses" but any ole' building will do! Bonus points if it has columns! 😛

Without further ado, I present the new Frog digs:

[expat]

10 minutes ago, Furryfrog02 said:

Well, it's official. We are new home owners!
It has been a hectic month and an even more hectic day but we are finished signing all the papers. My hand hurts!!ow
Now we are settling down for our last dinner in the old house before we start the move tomorrow morning. 
Once we are out, we need to get our old home ready to put on the market. Not looking forward to that. Hopefully though, we will be down to a single mortgage by the time November rolls around.

To celebrate our move and to keep my mind off all of the packing and stuff yet to come...feel free to post coins that have buildings on them. I know there aren't a lot of "houses" but any ole' building will do! Bonus points if it has columns! 😛

Without further ado, I present the new Frog digs:

Good luck with the move tomorrow. Looks like it will be a comfortable family home.

[Furryfrog02]

Just now, expat said:

Good luck with the move tomorrow. Looks like it will be a comfortable family home.

Plenty of room for everyone. I may even get my man cave!
The schools are top-notch and the neighborhood is great. We've already met a couple neighbors just today when we did our final walkthrough. That's more than I can say for the 11 years we lived at our current place. 
It's nice and all but there is no sense of community. We are really looking forward to putting down permanent roots in this new place.

[Etcherdude]

Sell the place and buy some Syracuse decadrachms

[Furryfrog02]

6 minutes ago, Etcherdude said:

Sell the place and buy some Syracuse decadrachms

Priorities right? 🤪