Coin Talk

2019 has been a great year for me collecting-wise - and this most recent acquisition is a fantastic reason why it has been. When a coin surfaces in trade you've only seen examples of in catalogues it is a cause for celebration!





Vespasian
Æ Dupondius, 14.36g
Rome mint, 71 AD
RIC 282 (R2). BMC 596.
Obv: IMP CAES VESPASIAN AVG COS III; Head of Vespasian, radiate, r.
Rev: TVTELA AVGVSTI; S C in exergue; Tutela std. l., with a child either side
Acquired from Praefectus Coins, July 2019. Ex The Morris Collection.

Tutela, the goddess of guardianship, is a rare personification on Roman coinage. She first appears on the dupondii of Vitellius and later under Vespasian during his great bronze issue of 71, both on the dupondius and a unique sestertius. The type under Vespasian is extremely scarce with only two reverse dies known for the dupondius. The unique sestertius was acquired by Curtis Clay, for which he wrote the following concerning the TVTELA...

Trying something new... a video presentation. The coins are below if you don't want to spend 5 minutes listening to me talk . Perhaps tomorrow I'll post a transcript of the video.



ISLANDS BETWEEN SICILY AND AFRICA, Melita.
c. 218-175 BCE. Æ 29 mm, 10.82 gm
Obv: Veiled and diademed female head right
Rev: Mummy of Osiris standing facing, head left, between winged figures of Isis and Nephtys, each holding a palm frond; Punic ‘NN above
Ref: SNG Copenhagen (Vol. 8) 458-9


ISLANDS BETWEEN SICILY AND AFRICA, Melita.
c. 218-175 BCE. Æ 29 mm, 10.84 gm
Obv: Veiled and diademed female head right
Rev: Mummy of Osiris standing facing, head left, between winged figures of Isis and Nephtys, each holding a palm frond; Punic ‘NN above
Ref: SNG Copenhagen (Vol. 8) 458-9


ISLANDS BETWEEN SICILY AND AFRICA, Melita.
c. 160 BCE. Æ...

Eight Cents for a Matte Proof Lincoln and a Proof Nickel!! You gotta be kidding!

Matte Proof Lincoln Cents were issued by the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia, starting in 1909, in a minor set that included a proof Liberty Nickel at a cost of 8 cents plus postage (only 2 cents over face value! WOW.).


The Matte Proof Lincolns were not received very well by collectors of the day since most didn't understand or appreciate the Matte (rather than the Mirror) finish. Because of the lack of collector excitement or demand, the mintages were quite low, with most dates having mintage totals in the 3 to low 4 digits.



In 1912, the cost increased to 12 cents per minor set plus postage. (I wonder if there were complaints about the 50% price increase (4 cents additional) in 1912? HA!). From 1913 to 1916, the minor set included a proof Buffalo Nickel. The short 8...

One of the great benefits provided by private collectors to the study of ancient coins is the attention paid to relatively common coins that are of humble preservation. Large institutions, such as museums, have a hard enough task properly attributing and photographing their rare / high quality items and as such the low quality coins (like the ones below) would stand very little chance of being published individually online.

However, to an individual collector these little slugs are beautiful pieces of history and well worth the time it takes to take high resolution photographs and post them on a forum or website. My long term goal is to photograph all coins in my collection (not just my favorites!) and get them cataloged on my future website. Below are five previously unattributed coins I received as Christmas presents from family which I just now have gotten around to looking into further. Hopefully you all can get some enjoyment, as I have, out of looking over these ugly...

As most of you are aware, this year marks the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing. The mission lasted from July 16 - 24, 1969. Over the next 9 days I WILL BE ADDING POSTS TO THIS THREAD with what happened on that day 50 years ago, along with pictures of items from my space collection. I won't necessarily be posting every day, as many of the days 50 years ago were basically coasting/traveling from the Earth to the Moon or from the Moon to the Earth.

IMO what makes the Apollo 11 Moon landing so memorable were that humans were aboard. Over the last decade there have been many 50th anniversaries of robotic Moon landers, but they were either ignored or only briefly mentioned. While I will touch on some of the technical aspects of this mission, the predominate aspect that I wish to write about is the human efforts and the people that allowed Mankind to finally realize it's age old dream of flying to the Moon.

Some of you are probably wondering why I started the Apollo...

(Images Public Domain ex-wikipedia)
Last week I shared a coin from Brutus, that celebrated his family history of tyrannicide, in this thread. This week, a much humbler coin, linked in time to an equally compelling story (and to Julius Caesar). This coin is an anonymous denarius which also has variants that are signed by Gargonius, Ogulnius and Vergilius.

This relatively affordable, and common coin, is easily ignored or dismissed. To me it is always surprising how readily available a 2000+ year old coin can be from Rome from a storied time of social unrest and civil war, linked to Marius, Sulla, Cinna, the young Julius Caesar, and others.
...

Dear Friends of ancient mythology!

Today I want to talk about Janus, the God with two faces. I have gathered here everything I know to the best of my knowledge and conscience.

The double head of Janus is well known for numismatists and coin collectors from the Republican asses.

1st coin:
Roman Republic, A. Caecilius, gens Caecilia
AE - As, 22.99g, 33mm
Rome, 169-158 BC
Obv.: Double head of bearded Janus, laureate, above I (value mark)
Rev.: Prora r.
above A.CAE (AE ligate), before I (value mark), below ROMA
Ref.: Crawford 147/1; Sydenham 355; BMC 8112; Caecilia 8; Albert 653
about VF
Pedigree:
bought at Kricheldorf/Stuttgart, before 1970

Note:
According to some numismatists the prora should be an allusion to Janus' journey from Greece over the sea to Rome.

The 2nd coin shows the uncommon depiction of Janus as frontal standing deity. Please, look at the next note.

2nd coin:
Geta, AD 209-211
AR - denarius, 19.8mm, 3.02g, 0°...

In the year 200 or so the emperor Septimius Severus completed his second trip to the east. His campaign had been against the Parthian Empire, reportedly in retaliation for the support it had given to Pescennius Niger. Septimius' legions sacked the Parthian royal city of Ctesiphon and the northern half of Mesopotamia was annexed to the empire. Right around the same time, for reasons which can only be guessed at, the Rome mint ceased striking bronze coins, in all varieties - sestertius, as and dupondius. This followed a trend that had been going on for a few years with each year progressively less coins were struck in bronze. (Curtis Clay has an article that discusses this on the Forum coin site). By the year 200 AD, such a small number of bronzes were being struck that the conclusion is that those that were struck were presentation pieces given out on special occasions - no doubt to the delight of those who received the coins, along with, a couple of...

I have a fairly large collection of 1860 and 1864 Lincoln campaign tokens. My favorite pieces for all the candidates are those tokens that have slogans that covered the major issues. Here are a couple tokens that mention three of Lincoln’s talking points.

The first piece has the same obverse as the white metal token I posted a couple of days ago, with Lincoln’s first name printed as “Abram.” The reverse of this piece hits on two issues.




The slogan around the edge, “Free territory for a free people,” refers to the homestead act proposal and Lincoln’s opposition to slavery. The Homestead Act was passed during Lincoln’s first term in 1862. It provided that settlers could gain a clear title to 160 acres of public land after they paid and small fee and maintained continuous residency on it for five years. Slave owners generally opposed this act because it encouraged settlement by farmers who did not own any slaves. Historians...

The “campgate” reverse type is one of the most affordable ancient coins showing an architectural scene that you can get. They are common enough that many people specialize in them and find interesting meaning in all kinds of minute details. I don’t pretend to be an expert on campgates but I have always liked the type. I recently picked up a very nice example of Constantius II as Caesar with a provenance to the Zachary “Beast” Beasley Collection of Camp Gates.


Roman Empire
Constantius II as Caesar
BI Follis, Arelatum Mint (Arles), 4th officina, struck AD 328
Dia.: 19.9 mm
Wt.: 3.2 g
Obv.: FL IVL CONSTANTIVS NOB C; Laureate, draped and cuirassed bust right
Rev.: VIRTVS CAESS; Campgate with 4 turrets, star above, gates open, each door with two panels, each panel ornamented with two dots; S – F flanking sides; QCONST in exergue.
Ref.: RIC VII Arles 323...