[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]T[/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]hese are my latest pickups. The information provided is from the sellers and I haven't done any research on either to confirm the accuracy. If anyone wants to add info or comment, you are more than welcome to do so. [/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] [/FONT][/FONT][/FONT]Constantius II as Augustus (337-361AD) [FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] s481 / AE follis 15-17mm. 1.47gm. Siscia mint.(VF) [/FONT][/FONT][/FONT] This second coin was partially cleaned and hopefully when I receive it I'll be able to clean it a little more. The seller states that it looks much better in hand than from his pics. I'll update this when the coin arrives. PROBUS, 282-283 A.D. AE Silvered Antoninianus Roman Empire, Probus, 276-282 A.D., AE Silvered Antonianianus, Cyzicus mint. IMP C M AVR PROBVS AVG, radiate, draped & cuirassed bust right/ CLEMENTIA TEMP, Jupiter standing left with sceptre, giving globe to Probus with stands right holding eagle-tipped scepter, XXIV in ex. Cohen 87.
Santa is going to be very upset if you buy something that he already got you! Great looking coins. I might be tempted to pick up a few ancients of my own now...
I always liked the ones with angels playing ping pong..... but wheres the table? cool additions, can never have too many
Really nice additions. I especially like the first one. Got 2 new ones also arriving tuesday or the latest wednesday. Cant wait! Maybe Doug or someone can answer this, but why is there ALOT of Probus coins available? Was it due to many hoards being found?
Probus ruled for several years and was pretty successful partly due to taking good care of his large army. That means making a lot of coins. This Probus shows quite a bit of retained silver wash which is a blessing and a curse. The silver makes the coin look like it did when new but it is very hard to clean such a coin without damaging the silvering on the surface. Sometimes the coins look better when all the silver is gone and you are left with a pretty copper looking coin rather than a patchy gray mess. They are not the easiest things to photograph and can look better 'in hand'. The ping pong coin was the last thing before the currency reform that brought us the larger Falling Horseman coins. They tend to be pretty scrappy. This one is pretty nice. They are not very popular because kids of all ages seem to prefer the blood and guts of the Falling Horsemen to ping pong (AKA 2 Victories with wreaths).
At the risk of starting a run on coins I like: When I have addressed school groups, the coin story that gets the most attention is the one answering the question about how you carry coins when you have no pockets. One answer is 'in your mouth'. In the 5th century BC, Athens had a range of small silver denominations most common of which is the obol. The Greek poet Aristophanes wrote a play 'The Birds' in which a man was so awestruck by a magnificent bird flying overhead that his mouth went agape and he swallowed the money he was intending to use to pay the miller to grind his grain into flour. The theory is that these small (obol = .7g) coins could be secreted between cheek and gums and spit out when needed. It also prevented robbing to a degree since you could swallow them and retrieve them in a couple days. This gets their attention. Many kids have no idea that Louis Pasteur pointed out that germs were bad for you only a little over a century ago so Greeks could accept spitting coins out and popping change back in. The average man did not have coins like tetradrachms and certainly did not carry them around all the time so this only applies to the minor silver that was terribly inconvenient to keep in a purse. The coin shown here is not my nicest looking obol but a little imagination might show tooth shaped dents in the middle of both sides. Of course these could be other damage. Would I pay extra for an obol with clear chew marks? No, too easy to fake. Horseman gore is cool but 'Eeewww Gross' wins every time. :mouth:
Did that know that, pretty interesting. I love the owl coins. Makes ya wonder if yours being brown is old feces,
@Dougsmit- Great story! The "owl" coins are one of my favorites. I've been looking for a nice but affordable example.
Will do.... If I find any! I sure got a shock when I thought it would be interesting to add a nice early example of a Lydian electrum (lion's head) to my collection!
Be careful when buying Athenian obols and hemiobols. There are ancient copies made in the East that are more crude than the real thing and should sell for less especially considering their condition which is usually not so good. Real obols are not scarce and cost less than the more common real tetradrachms but not as much less as you might like.
I like eastern owls. The one caveat Doug I would make is that some of these eastern issues can be attributed to the issuing authority, and then become more expensive usually than Athens issues. This is due to their extreme rarity. I guy could make a lot of money if he were an expert in these issues and cherry picked dealers. Just like a lot of areas in numismatics, knowledge pays, (literally). Btw, neat story Doug. I had read similar. Did you notice, though, that the coins are almost always silver or gold, not copper? Silver or gold you do not need to worry really about germs, I always wondered if the ancients knew that, and that is why they were free to do this with expensive coins, but not the coppers.
Copper would taste bad and be large for even small denominations. The silver of the day was pretty pure. What is the smallest copper/bronze ancient coin? There are silver, electrum and gold coins under .1g with several denominations under 1g. I have more fillings in my teeth than an Athenian would have had coins in his mouth. I believe these factors probably outranked any knowledge of germs.
