Coin Talk

OK, had the opportunity to add this one to my collection; description in the past Goldberg auction as follows (image courtesy PCGS):

“1798 S-176 R4 Style II Hair, Small 8. PCGS graded VG-8. Struck over a Token. Glossy light to medium chocolate brown and steel. Smooth and attractive showing only a few trivial contact marks. A tiny pinprick over the 9 and a shallow pit in the field over the hair ribbon are good identifying marks. MDS, Breen state V late. Swelling is starting to weaken ES in STATES. What makes this cent so special is that it was struck over an as yet unidentified token, most likely one of the British "Conder" or merchant tokens of the late 18th Century. Clear undertype from the token is visible at RTY and in the opposing area at CA to the denominator. On the reverse you can make out two letters, H and E, and the numeral 8 shows under the second A in AMERICA. Perhaps an expert in the token series could attribute the token, but we are...

Dear friends of ancient mythology!

Here is another myth that can be chronologically classified after the myth of the white sow of Lavinium. It takes place in the time when the Trojans were still looking for land in Latium.

The Coin:
Roman Republic, L. Papius Celsus, gens Papia
AR - Denarius, 18mm, 3.66g
Rome, 45 B.C.
Obv.: Head of Juno Sospita r., on the head goatskin and horns
Rev: She-wolf standing r. with log in mouth, that she wants to throw into the fire burning before her. Next to it an eagle, who with open wings is fanning the flames.
above CELSVS.III VIR
in ex. L.PAPIVS
Ref.: Crawford 472/1; Sydenham 964; Papia 2
VF, attractive toning


Mythology:
Aeneas had made a treaty with the Latin people, which was affirmed by oaths. The natives gave the Trojans as much land as they wanted, i.e. about 40 stadiums in each direction. For this the Trojans had to assist the natives in the present war, and both peoples should help each other...

This is one fella whom I keep telling myself I will upgrade my denarius of his but don't. Partly due to the fact that I like the ghostly almost spooky portrait. Also, because it's just boring old AP.




Antoninus Pius
(138-161 AD). AR Denarius (18 mm, 3.39 g), Roma (Rome), 153-154 AD.
Obv. ANTONINVS AVG PIVS P P TR P XVII, laureate head right.
Rev. COS IIII, Vesta standing holding simpulum and Palladium.
RIC III, 229b.
Nicely toned

The guy didn't kill his own mother, skipped out on sleeping with his sisters, never killed his son for false accusations of sleeping with his wife, if he played the fiddle we never had to hear about it, heck, he was even known as a completely devoted and loving husband despite the salacious rumors of his wife Faustina out prostituting a prostitute!


Diva Faustina Senior
wife of Antoninus Pius (141 BCE). Silver denarius (3.69 gm). Ca....

I was very excited to add this “travel series” coin of Hadrian to my Nerva-Anotonine collection in silver that I have been working on the last couple of years. Of the travel themed coins of Hadrian I have always preferred the types that show the province being referenced as a lone personification with the name as the legend.


Roman Empire
Hadrian (AD 117 – 138)
AR Denarius, Rome mint, struck ca. AD 134 – 138
Dia.: 17 mm
Wt.: 2.98 g
Obv.: HADRIANVS AVG COS III PP; Laureate head right
Rev.: AFRICA; Africa with elephant headdress reclining left, holding scorpion and cornucopia, basket of grain at feet
Ex L. Rose Collection

Hadrian’s accomplishments in Africa
Hadrian’s travel series coins were struck all together near the end of his reign while he was living in Tivoli at his magnificent villa there. The coins are probably meant to reference the accomplishments he made during his...

If ever there was a surprise Roman emperor, perhaps it was Claudius, who ruled from 41 to 54 AD. He may have been born with a birth defect, or he have suffered from cerebral palsy. Whatever his problems were, it left him with “an uncouthness” that left him a family outcast. Some probably viewed him as mentally challenged, but that was clearly not the case.

Perhaps to compensate for the snubbing, he became an accomplished scholar. He wrote 20 books on Etruscan history, eight books on Carthaginian history and eight autobiographical memoirs. Unfortunately, all of these works have been lost, but it is clear that his mind was sharp and clear.

After the insane emperor, Caligula, was murdered, the praetorian guard chose Claudius as emperor. Although there were some plots to remove him, Claudius held on to power by establishing his hold on the army and taking Britain as a new colony, perhaps as a diversion. He named his son Britannicus in honor of that addition to the empire.

Although...

Dear Friends of ancient mythology!

Here I have a Republican coin I want to present together with its mythological background. It is one of my most beautiful Republican coins and I'm a bit proud to have it in my collection.

The Coin:
It is a denarius of the mintmaster C. Sulpicius C. f. Gala of the gens Sulpicia.
AR - denarius, 20mm, 3.67g
Rome, 106 BC
Obv.: Conjugate heads of the Di Penates, laureate, l.
D.P.P. before (abbreviation of Di Penates Publici)
Rev.: Two male figures standing vis-a-vis, both holding spears, the right one points
with r. hand to a sow, laying between them to left.
above N (control mark)
in ex. C.SVLPICI.C.F
Ref.: Crawford 312/1; Sydenham 572; Sulpicia 1
rare, EF

The scene of the rev. is often called an oath scene. But the depiction of a Fetial sacrifice at an oath scene is not much likely because the victim animal was always killed with a silex sacrum (a sacrificing key made of stone), and this is not seen here....

I’m not a knowledgeable ancients collector as many on this site already know but from time to time I cross over to the dark side and I think I was just lucky today. My intended bid was outbid by a lonnngg way and then I checked.....I had inadvertently added another digit to my bid amount making it a 6 figure sum....stupid...YES!!!


I'm so grateful all the other bidders had their wits about them and had not put in ridiculously high bids otherwise I'd certainly be in a spot of bother. My excuse was that it was 6AM here and unfortunately due to a minor crisis, I had only managed to get 3 hours sleep at night . End result.....I got the coin.....

I had done some brief research prior to bidding, of course, and I'm aware these coins are highly sought after, not found easily or plentiful. So if I have to sell some bullion or even some lesser tetradrachms or denarii, I think this is something worth keeping for many years.

I realise it is not the famed decadrachm but I found...

Introduction

We often say on the forum that we are just temporary custodians of our collections and that someday we will pass them along to future generations of collectors. Many of the coins in our collections, however, have already spent many decades (or more!) in the collections of the past. Sometimes we know nothing of the history of our coins and sometimes we have little more than a name of a past collection from sale listings or old tags. Since it can often be hard to find information on these previous collections and collectors I thought I would start a series of threads that highlight some of my own research as I make progress toward learning more about the old collections that some of my coins once resided in.

In this thread I would like to highlight the Dr. Walter Neussel Collection.


Dr. Walter Neussel Collection

My notes on the...

I went to the Getty Villa in Malibu, CA the other day and was amazed at their incredible collection of very nice, very valuable, very old gold and silver coins. Here are some of my favorites!
(apologies that some pics are blurry, I didn't review each photo after taking)

Athenian Owl Tetradrachm


(forgot attribution) Sea Turtle

(forgot) Goat

Opontion Soldier tet?

(forgot) tet?

(forgot) Lyre tet?

Aureus with bust of Sibyl by L. Cestius and C. Norbanus.
Rome Mint, 43 BC
Has a very neat "collector's mark" of the Este family to left of portrait.


Medallion of Tetrarchs (no denomination)
Augusta Treverorum (Trier) AD 293-294

I got this by accident in an eBay lot and had a hard time attributing it. I thought it was Constans II or something from Heraclius. Apparently this is an Islamic imitation of a Byzantine follis - I found a couple of others online in auction records (see my attribution notes below).

Interestingly, they both had the same fake Byzantine reign-date, although mine is out of order compared to the two I found in auctions. I enhanced some of the details, since my specimen is pretty cruddy. That loopy thing around the emperor seems to be a characteristic of these Umayyad imitations - I've never really seen that on a Byzantine coin, although many of you out there have a lot more experience than I do at this sort of thing.

Any corrections would be welcome. And please share any of this sort of thing you might have.



Umayyad Caliphate Æ Fals
Mu'awiya I ibn Abi Sufyan
(c. 660s - 680 A.D.)
Dimashq (Damascus) Mint
Standing imperial figure, with...