Coin collectors are a strange lot. I'm as strange as any. Evidence: My latest coin arrival is a not-so-special falling horseman bronze of Constantius II (337-361 AD). These are quite possibly the most common of Roman coins. There are a thousand minor variations and very few people are trying to put together a set (impossible, anyway). The standard catalog, RIC rates this one as common but it is the first one I have seen in person. It is made distinctive by the fancy letter E with < on the middle bar as used to distinguish its issue at the mint of Constantinople. There is a rare version with a dot next to the E but this is not that one so it is common. Usually collectors like me like good looking coins with clear legends but most important is clarity in the mintmark at the bottom of the reverse. The mintmark reads CONS for Constantinople followed by a Greek numeral specifying which of the eleven workshops at that mint produced the coin. Unfortunately this example is not clear. I had to photograph it ten times to get this image that shows, even weakly, the top part of the workshop ID which I will guess to be H (Greek numeral for 8). Usually I avoid common coins with unclear marks but this one was going cheap on eBay so I bid on it and no one else did. I admit that part of the attraction was that the footnote in RIC mentioned this issue seems to have rough style and they rather rarely comment on style. It also appealed because of the E< and the 'rough' portrait with a big nose. After all, how great does a coin have to be to be worth $3.99 plus $3 postage? The point here is that we each should buy what we find interesting. I got $6.99 worth of run out of shooting the photo so many times to get the weak tops of the workshop letter to show. If I were to sell it, I doubt I would get my $6.99 back but I do not recommend ancient coins as a investment. I consider it more like a trip to McDonald's with fewer calories. If you like the coin, enjoy the photo; if not, there are a million other ancient coin types for you to consider a good number of which will cost you less than something you will have to hide from your dietitian.
Not bad for $7, I wouldnt have bid on it either but im still a newb to ancients. I look for clear legends when possible unless something else over shadows it on said coin.
Nothing is boring unless you make it boring. To me, nothing is more boring than standardization and by extension mechanically stamped coins. It is so bad people willingly go through thousands of coins a night looking for the tiniest possible deviation and then get excited about their new find. I could never get into errors, why spend time looking at perfect coins just to find an imperfect one? Perfect is not good enough? Heck, I willingly go through groups of Byzantines looking for a decent one, let alone perfect. Lol. Anyway, its why I like ancient coins. Every one is unique in its own way, every one has its own story, and just like snowflakes if you ever find two alike something is probably wrong. It sounds like you bought yourself at least $7 worth or happiness Doug. Cheap at any price. What they are worth after we are done with them is our heirs concern, right? I read your posts and it makes me want to spend more time with my coins, I have groups I have not looked at in ten years, and you find great enjoyment out of the simplest late Roman. I need to get my hands dirtier. Chris
Seeing my first fallen horseman on this site is what kick-started my growing interest in ancients. Nothing wrong with that coin!:thumb:
There was an old saying about news reporters asking who, what, when, where and how. To this we need to ask an occasional why. This same mindset need to be applied to coins if we are to get full value from their study. We study the people who issued them, their types, their history, their mints and the techniques used to make them. Why can be a problem in many cases but it is still fun to ask why a certain coin was made the way it was or to fill what need. Studied this way, we can get a lot of fun out of one little coin.
I agree with what you said. I tend to go on eBay and browse the world coins and sometimes I impulse buy things I don't really need, but that's the fun of the hobby. I just bid on and won a coin from the Kingdom of Navarre and a French coin from the time of Napoleon, both of which I know nothing about. I liked the one from Navarre because it's a country that doesn't exist anymore, and I liked the Napoleon because of the history behind Napoleon and the "N" with a crown over it on one side. No one else bid on either so maybe that means they were overpriced, but I think they are cool so I'm happy.
Heres a recent trip to Mc Donalds that made me happy, also a bit hard to photo the ex. (SMANA) edit: pic didnt upload,sorry lol
You're right, I do find this coin itself boring. What makes it interesting to me is your write-up and general passion for it.
To me these are not boring at all. Due to their affordable nature, they were my first introduction to ancients more than thirty years ago, so they hold a special place in my heart. Also, as a Christian, I like the history behind Christian Roman emperors and how they adopted Christianity and blended it with Polytheism. The coins may be inexpensive, but they are rich in history and meaning.
Coins with Christian links are generally not quite as cheap but they are out there. As you study them, pay attention to what variety of Christian each ruler was. Constantius II was Arrian which should have made this coin offensive and may explain why there are not a lot of them.
They don't have to be devout Christians for me to enjoy the turbulence and upheaval in that time period. I realize that even Constantine made serious pagan concessions as was the case with most Roman emperors. That was the only way for them to introduce Christianity to a polytheistic culture. My point is that just about any emperor had some sort of drama. I suspect the more the drama, the more the demand, with some exceptions of course. I suspect that Tiberius wouldn't be as popular if there was no connection with Christ ,or Nero's connection with the fire in Rome, etc, etc. I use the Phillips Roman Checklist when I collect. In fact I have several of them because I have duplicates as well as more spreadsheets for the Provinces and coinage struck by barbarians and imposters. I don't know how many other collectors use the "Whitman" method of a checklist and filling "holes", but Phillips has sold over 5000 checklists, and I suspect many collectors use Excell and PDF documents to track their collections. I like your coin a lot. For $7, its even more appealing. Doesn't have to have Brutus on the obverse and daggers on the reverse to be special, although it helps, lol
Learned something today: I had never heard of the Phillips checklist. It is probably just as well because my style of collecting is completely opposite of 'filling holes' and I have absolutely no intention of ever owning a coin of a couple dozen rulers while there are others that I would feel wronged if I could only have a couple dozen of their coins. That is what makes the hobby fun. You can do it your way and not have to explain why you did it to anyone but yourself.
I had never heard of it either Doug, though I have bought from Wayne Phillips. He is a nice old time dealer who issues paper catalogs a few times a year. I am not surprised that many coming from US collecting would like a definitive list that they can base their collection off of, just like filling holes in a folder. I understand how many would like the idea of a "set" so they know how far they are from completing it. Its not for me either, but completely understandable. So what is this checklist? A listing of every "official" Roman Imperial coin? Does it include mints and varieties or just basic types?
Here it is. I love it. I now have several and for someone like me who needs to have organization (OCD ), its a lifesaver. Here it is http://www.vcoins.com/ancient/waynephillips/store/viewItem.asp?idProduct=130
If there has been one way of collecting that I have never understood it is the idea that a Roman collection must have one coin per emperor and a Greek collection needs one coin per city. That means that I need a Britannicus as certainly as a Constantine and a hundred Greek places that no one knows where they were on par with an Athens. With enough cash, one can aspire to have a complete year/mint set of US coins (although the 1933 double eagle may hang you up a bit). A complete set of ancients to the level of type/mint without getting into minor varieties would not fit in my bank's vault (not my box but the whole thing) and I'd miss learning about some of the minor varieties so my want list would be multi-volumes. I appreciate that some of you want a Saturninus but If I got one I'd sell it and buy 10,000 other coins duplicating rulers I already had.
So what is it? 794 entries, 32 pages, is it just a listing of people on the coins? I cannot imagine they can list types in that short of time. Portrait collecting is a big part of Roman coin collecting. I find it a little superficial, though, since the reverses are very interesting and important. If I get another Trajan, I am not looking for "just" a Trajan, but something like a Trajan's column reverse, or a Dacian War triumph, or something similar. I am just saying if you want to use this list, great, but also read up on the reverses and pick some out that are historical and interesting. A case in point, I was looking for some Elegabalus coins recently, and found a few from Antioch. Instead of the normal SC and wreath reverse, I bought a coin with Antioch standing, with Orontes in the river and showing the city. Besides being a bigger coin, this reverse is 100 times more interesting and historical to me than a common SC reverse would be. Collect how you want to man, I am glad to have a fellow ancient collector, I was just suggesting opening up to the other side of the coin as well. The downfall of portrait collecting is that soon you run up to some very scarce coins, (Otho, Gordian I and II, Johannes, etc), and it becomes very expensive to continue. I am too cheap to be forced to buy expensive coins just to check it off, but to each his own.
