A coin I've had for a while but have yet to share until now. It is definitely a nice addition to my late Roman collection. Interesting bust from the Rome mint. Gratian was one of the two sons of Emperor Valentinian I, the other being Valentinian II. His uncle was Valens (the emperor that got himself and most of the Eastern army killed at Adrianople). Gratian was assassinated in the course of Magnus Maximus's rebellion (my favorite usurper btw). Gratian, Roman Emperor (375-383 AD), AE2 Obv: DN GRATIA-NVS PF AVG, pearl-diademed, draped bust right Rev: REPARATIO REIPVB, emperor to right holding Victory and raising turreted, kneeling female, SMR Epsilon in ex, Rome mint RIC 43A
Nice coin. He has some good coin. Mine is below. Gratian (367- 383 A.D.) Æ 21 O: D N GRATIA-NVS P F AVG, Pearl-diademed, draped and cuirassed bust right. R: VIRTVS ROMANORVM, Roma seated facing, head left, holding globe and spear,Θ and Φ at sides, anta in ex. theta and phi officina Antioch Mint 2.5g
That's a nice Gratian and the patina/sand makes the coin stand out very nicely. Here is one of mine. It is from Siscia. I haven't shown it for a while: Gratian AE 3 OBV: DN GRATIANVS P F AVG, pearl-diademed, draped and cuirassed bust right REV: GLORIA RO-MANORVM, emperor walking right holding labarum and dragging captive. Mintmark DSISCV, F left; R in fileds Struck at Siscia, 367-375 2.1g, 18mm RIC 14c
Mine just arrived today but I'll show it for a slight difference. I did not buy it for that reason (actually I planned to postage piggy back it with another coin from the same dealer but got outbid at 2 seconds for that one so this is all I got). Note Siscia here shows the woman actually kissing Gratian's hand. The coin has enough detail that you can see face detail on both reverse figures. I don't buy many volume IX coins but this seemed nice and came from an eBay seller I have dealt with on several occasions. There is nothing wrong with eBay if you stick to people you trust. Anyone have a 'lip contact' coin from another mint? The standard description of the type is 'emperor raises female' but this one really looks like a photo snapped just before he raised her and perhaps should be called 'kneeling female kisses emperor's hand'.
Your the one who outbid me on it Owell, least it went to someone I know. I liked the coin for the kissing figure actually. Its what caught my eye on it. Plus I dont have any kneeling figure reverse like this so I wanted an example. Agreed about this particular seller, its where my claudius ii came from.
I got nothing this past session from him :/ Got some I am watching though & one I am prepared to go big on
Oh wow I actually know the seller that Doug and Mat are talking about. This is a rare treat I am happy to know he has the seal of approval from you guys. I have bought a fair amount of coins from him in the past. In fact most of my Potin Tetradrachms come from him
Interesting, never knew there were ones that had hand-kissing in them. Looking at the ones I have, I have 3 that I think are pretty close. One being my other Gratian, from Aquileia:
This type of reverse is a good representation of the emperor's absolute power, and follows the late Roman trend of glorifying the emperor more than ever on coins after the old gods were kicked out of the picture.
Bing: What is the weight of your *BSISC? My new coin is 4.66g which is a lot less than my previous BSISCdot at 5.87g. RIC lists both as RIC 26a but mintmark 4 for the dot and 6 for the star. They also state that the four different mintmark versions were sequential but they do not give weights. I wonder if this weight drop in intentional or just sloppy work. Some RIC volumes handle weights and some ignore weight standards. RIC IX is not what I would call a great book. I wonder what the next scholarship will do with these.
Thank you. A quick scan of coins on acsearch suggests coins with the dot after the mint mark weigh more than those without. Obviously the number of examples makes this not very significant but I suspect there was a standard change marked by the dot.
What logic are they using to say this is even an empress? Crown type? Robes? the kneeling figure does appear to be kissing Gratian's hand for sure. Do we know who the kneeling figure is supposed to be? A Roman Empress, Barbarian,Persian? I would like to know more...
