April Romans

So I was browsing various dealers' discount bins and came across this interesting double-struck antoninianus of Diocletian. The reverse die was moved down on the second strike, enough to leave much of the legend from the first strike intact, creating an interesting double line of letters.

Although the coin is somewhat worn, you can also see that the second strike rendered the bust on the obverse in higher relief. These types are common and not terribly desirable, at least to me, but I like finding a bold error.

Dealer's pics.

 

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cool

 

=> Dog-pile on Diocletian!!!

 

Did you buy it? It's an interesting piece as long as the price was right.

 

Yes, I bought it, and the price was quite low.

 

I'll be waiting to see you images. Congratulations

 

I wasn't going to post this coin because I didn't collect it per se. It came in the lot with the AE4 of Theodosius that I wanted. But after photographing and attributing it, I like having the piece in my collection. It's only an average-grade follis of Maximian, CONCORDIA IMPERATORIS reverse, but it does have a lovely patina and some interesting field marks. There's the star in the upper left, and the little blob at the bottom is a rectangle with triangle on top, although it's not terribly clear on this specimen. Officina B to the right, Antioch mint.

It looks quite nice with my only other coin of Maximian, a radiate fraction of similar color, so now I have two denominations from this emperor's issues. It's not at all bad for a coin I wasn't looking for.

 

Here is a new purchase that could rightfully be said to live in the forgotten nooks and crannies of Roman coinage. It’s a scarce issue, limited to a very brief mintage at Sirmium. RIC says, “Sirmium is the only mint at which Valentinian struck the large AE3 of Julian’s standard with rev. Vot v mult x. Like the accompanying siliqua Votis v multis x it has been found with obverse of Valentinian only, and these coins must be dated to a time when news of Valens’ elevation had not yet reached the mint.” (RIC IX, p. 156)

The majority of reverse types during the reign of Valentinian I, and the Valentinian dynasty in general, feature military themes. The predominant types present Victory, or the emperor dragging a captive, or holding Victory, or some variation of the above. Again, RIC offers a pointed analysis...

(RIC IX, p. xv)

This coin stands apart from the common military types on account of its commemoration of Vota Publica - one of those pieces that looks quite ordinary by itself, but presents a very different aspect in the context of its period. I’ve included my Victory and Emperor-dragging-captive types to contrast...

 

Nice grab, JA.

 

Here's that double-struck Diocletian. Much nicer than the dealer's pics, and it photographed quite well.

 

Much better JA. Much better.

 

more nice LRB JA...you made me pick up a few myself.

 

Great pic & coin indeed.

 

Yes JA,that's a score on that dude,very nice coin and a great pic to boot..

 

I received this very nice ant of Volusian from Mat yesterday. He cleaned the coin himself, and did a very commendable job - I assume the dark spots on the piece were crusted over. The coin has excellent detail, and was eminently worthy of conservation.

Please pardon my complete inability to photograph silver.

 

For what it looked like uncleaned, its at the link below.

http://www.cointalk.com/posts/1581677/

 

oh man, nice work mat. I've never cleaned a silver coin before...but the change you made is pretty amazing there!

 

I never wanna do it again unless I know it will be easy.

 

Well, here's a recap of April's Roman acquisitions - a rather motley crew this month, but I count seven new emperors in my collection, and even the little research I've done on these coins has considerably expanded my knowledge of Roman history and numismatics.

 

Nice ... 8 Romans during April, eh? ... that's one every 3 or 4 days ...

=> that's a pretty good pace, brother JA!! (keep-up the good work)