Thread: Ancient Change of Direction

Lately I have decided to change my direction of "buying what I like" with ancients. With some focusing on lead seals, fallen horseman and whatever else I decided to focus on building a set Lucilla & Crispina ARs. Both dont have a ton of reverse types to gather like Faustina's & Domna. Plus I havent seen anyone compile a set of them like Plautilla & Domna. I might throw in a AE of each too since they arent too expensive.

I havent decided if I wanna add minor differences to the same reverse types like Concordia w/cornucopia & without cornucopia and others with Vesta torch vs scepter. To me its too much $ for something trivial.

I already have a Lucilla & Crispina from earlier purchases and below are 2 additions to the Lucilla side.

Both are fairly scarce reverse wise, especially the Diana Lucifera. I doubt I will look for the "Standing Right" of Diana as its much scarcer.

My ebay bucks paid for the top one, which was also tough to photograph cause its darkly toned and glossy feeling to the touch like a brand new penny from a roll but it isnt waxed.

Diana reverse was a surprise win for me.




Lucilla (164 - 183 A.D.)
AR Denarius
O: LVCILLA AVGVSTA, draped bust right.
R: IVNO REGINA, Juno standing left, holding patera and sceptre, peacock at her feet.
Rome
19mm
3.4g
RIC 772; RCV 41; RCV 5487




Lucilla (164 - 183 A.D.)
AR Denarius
O: LVCILLAE AVG ANTONINI AVG F, Draped bust right.
R: DIANA LVCIFERA, Diana standing left holding torch with both hands.
Rome
17.5mm
3.4g
RIC 762 RSC 14 Scarce

nice coins mat!

Originally Posted by Mat

Lucilla (164 - 183 A.D.)
AR Denarius
O: LVCILLAE AVG ANTONINI AVG F, Draped bust right.
R: DIANA LVCIFERA, Diana standing left holding torch with both hands.
Rome
17.5mm
3.4g
RIC 762 RSC 14 Scarce

Although I don't collect coins, this coin is why I enjoy studying Ancients.

Diana Lucifera, or bearer of light, is a deity I must research more.

The stuff on the web is weak and not very helpful:

http://www.forumancientcoins.com/num....asp?key=diana

http://grammatici.narod.ru/kalendae/may26.htm

Anyone with some real insight into Diana Lucifera?

Great coin, Matt.

guy

Originally Posted by Bart9349

Although I don't collect coins, this coin is why I enjoy studying Ancients.

Diana Lucifera, or bearer of light, is a deity I must research more.

The stuff on the web is weak and not very helpful:

http://www.forumancientcoins.com/num....asp?key=diana

http://www.forumancientcoins.com/num....asp?key=diana lvcifera

http://grammatici.narod.ru/kalendae/may26.htm

Anyone with some real insight into Diana Lucifera?

Great coin, Matt.

guy

Thanks, more info at the page below.

http://www.jesterbear.com/Aradia/otherimages.html

http://www.forumancientcoins.com/num...diana lvcifera

Here regular name.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selene

The nice thing about ancients is that theres not blue folder to pt each one in, with holes of key dates missing. the only holes you have are the ones you make. Aside from "needing" a FH from 3 more mints to complete a "mint set," I have allot of room with how I'm going to go about it (asside from prefering larger to smaller FH.) There allot of non FH coins I want too

Both your additions are very nice, with good portraits! I like the Diana rev allot too. I'm very interested to see how your collection grows.

I do like the Lucilla, too. I must admit that you got my attention when you said you where leaving FH. What is now expendable that you will be sending to Randy and I? My 'mint set' is down to -1 since my only Trier is barbarous. For others wishing to compete in the race for the falling horsemen: The type was made by 13 official mints. One of those mints changed names in the middle of the series so you probably want a coin 14 (Arles and Constantia are the same place). Everyone needs a barbarous so that is 15 coins to make a set for Constantius II. Constans, Constantius Gallus and Julian II each issued the type but not from all of the mints. Magnentius issued the type from at least one mint but sometimes we need to consider whether some of those are barbarous rather than official. All together a 'complete set' could be defined as as few as 50 coins or you could attempt to get all the minor variations which would require over 2000 coins.

Yesterday I was driving past a coin store and something told me to stop. They even had a Crispina sestertius but no falling horsemen. I did not even ask the price since Antonine women have never been a great interest and I have way too many bids outstanding now as it is. My concern is how many other coin shops I drove by without stopping and which one of them had my Trier or even a Magnentius?

Originally Posted by dougsmit

I do like the Lucilla, too. I must admit that you got my attention when you said you where leaving FH. What is now expendable that you will be sending to Randy and I? My 'mint set' is down to -1 since my only Trier is barbarous. For others wishing to compete in the race for the falling horsemen: The type was made by 13 official mints. One of those mints changed names in the middle of the series so you probably want a coin 14 (Arles and Constantia are the same place). Everyone needs a barbarous so that is 15 coins to make a set for Constantius II. Constans, Constantius Gallus and Julian II each issued the type but not from all of the mints. Magnentius issued the type from at least one mint but sometimes we need to consider whether some of those are barbarous rather than official. All together a 'complete set' could be defined as as few as 50 coins or you could attempt to get all the minor variations which would require over 2000 coins.

Yesterday I was driving past a coin store and something told me to stop. They even had a Crispina sestertius but no falling horsemen. I did not even ask the price since Antonine women have never been a great interest and I have way too many bids outstanding now as it is. My concern is how many other coin shops I drove by without stopping and which one of them had my Trier or even a Magnentius?

Huh Doug? I was never in the FH set race. I mentioned you two as well as Bill and others inspired me to focus on building a set of Lucilla & Crispina coinage. I only have the one FH in my collection.

The only thing I was changing gears on was "buying what I like".

I think its healthy to change gears periodically. I find it freshens up your passion for collecting. If I had to stay in one small area of collecting for any length of time I probably would have quit a long time ago. I tend to cycle through civilizations and centuries more than subsections of Romans, but its the same idea. I have never understood those collectors who can collect morgan dollars or lincoln cents exclusively for years.

PLus, concentrating on empresses doesn't surprise me, I have always said you had something about the lady's Mat.

Well Mat, if you are going to focus on something, then focus on the ladies.
Seriously now, what you are doing seems like a reasonable thing to do, and I wish I could as you. However, even after 35 years of collecting, I still have too many different areas of coin-collecting passion, I don't see myself narrowing down anytime soon - Early US coins, Spanish Colonial, Roman 1st and 2nd century, and of course 18th century German all captivate me.
I know my wife would like me to, though........

I still recommend only buying coins you like whether generally or coins you like that fit your specialty. I have way too many coins I bought because I thought I should. I have liked a number of really ugly coins (mostly rare stuff) but buying coins just because I didn't have one it leads to a bad case of too many coins.

Mat - do you have any seals yet? That's an interesting area to look into!

Originally Posted by Ardatirion

Mat - do you have any seals yet? That's an interesting area to look into!

Nope, there has been a few on bargain bin ancients I liked but I pick coins over them. But I do have a interest in them.

Not wanting to bore anyone, but here is some more information about Diana.



From our friends at UNRV.com:

Fertility Goddess. Moon Goddess. Huntress Goddess. Triple Goddess- Lunar Virgin, Mother of Creatures, the Huntress or Destroyer. Goddess of nature, fertility, childbirth, wildwood, moon, forests, animals, mountains, woods, and women. Goddess of the hunt. In Roman art Diana usually appears as a huntress with bow and arrow, along with a hunting dog or a stag. Both a virgin goddess and an earth goddess, she was identified with the Greek Artemis. She is praised for her strength, athletic grace, beauty and her hunting skills. With two other deities she made up a trinity: Egeria the water nymph (her servant and assistant midwife), and Virbius (the woodland god).

Here's an interesting aside:

Diana’s name comes from the Indo-European root di-, which means “shining” or “light.” Her many epithets include:
Diana Lucina (Goddess of childbirth)
Diana Aventinensis (of the Aventine)
Diana Caelistis (celestial)
Diana Nemorensis (of the woods)
Diana Omnivaga (wandering one)
Diana Opifera (aid bringer)
Diana Venatrix (huntress and mistress of wild animals)
Diana Tifatina (of the town of Tifata)
Diana Lucifera (bringer of light)
Diana Latonia (from her mother, Latona)
Diana Ortygia (born on the island or Ortygia, the Roman name for Delos where Artemis was born)

http://www.goddessaday.com/roman/diana

Originally Posted by dougsmit

I still recommend only buying coins you like whether generally or coins you like that fit your specialty. I have way too many coins I bought because I thought I should. I have liked a number of really ugly coins (mostly rare stuff) but buying coins just because I didn't have one it leads to a bad case of too many coins.

And that is the reason many of us left other collecting anyway. For my taste, there is way too much "hole filling" in US and modern collecting. If I don't like a coin, I am not buying it, and I don't care who says I "need" it.

Well I still have a interest in other areas of Ancients & I still enjoy my modern world coins & some U.S. but I am pretty much done with those since I need 18th century coppers, silvers & nearly all the gold is way beyond my means.

I also would like more Roman Republics.

I thought about this sub set for several days and its something I want to do right now. It may not be something most other collectors would probably go for but I want too.