New Domitian

IDK sir. I used to clean "uncleaned coins" but was lucky and did it when you really could get coins from the ground from a couple of sellers. I have had some large bronzes, after cleaning crud off them come out VG and shiny with a thick layer of patina. I would not say that isn't possible, its the pattern of wear I believe is more indicative that the smoothness of the surfaces. Not all coins coming out of the ground are crusty, especially any coins found in small pots which is fairly common. I would even receive at times coins barely needing cleaning at all, and when I asked was told they came from a small pot that was found while metal detecting.

 

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Both Flavian coins I posted are also very shiny, though not quit as shiny as yours. The one of Vespasian seems to have been roughed up a bit before it became as smooth as it is now (weather in ancient or modern times).

Edit: Your Galba does has a great look about it though.

 

Thanks. The patina is actually pretty close to an nice AE of Claudius I have, a really nice patina I like as much and river and bright green patina.


Your Augustus has a great portrait. I can see what might be tooling but might be corrosion too but it does seem a little flat in the fields.

 

I was lumping polishing and smoothing into the same catagory sorry. I actually wanted to ask about that though. I kind of just assumed that some silver ancients had been polished or smoothed down a little bit.

 

Here is a coin that fits well in the category "well worn, not appealing, yet still interesting"

A sestertius of Vitellius with reverse Concordia - a pretty scarce coin as most Vitellian sestertii are, and more so with this reverse. I was lucky to find this coin in the late 80's at a coin show, together with another vitellius of the more common Pax type, both for a really good price.
Not much left as far as detail is concerned, and the reverse legend is gone, but the type is clearly identifiable, and of course Vitellius' bust cannot be mistaken.

 

If there ever was a bunch that could be identified by portrait with no legends, the rulers of 68-69 lead the way.

 

A worn coin most collectors would like to have.

 

Well, to be fair, all of the coins Eduard ever shows us are "...coins a collector would like to have". He has some great pieces.

 

Thanks guys.
I started collecting ancients prompted by a denarius of Vitellius I found metal detecting. This really got me going, and i tried to find some of his bronzes, and soon found they were much scarcer than his denarii. I believe that his bronzes were much more plentiful up to about 1980 or so. I remember auction catalogues from the early 80's carrying up to 8-10 Vitellius sestertii....
I wonder where they have all gone.

 

Your dupondius is definitely smoothed a bit too much for my liking, and probably has some light tooling around the legends too.

 

I find this a lot. Coins just come on the market for a few years, get absorbed, and become scarce again. I believe that without new material coming onto the market all of our coins would get much scarcer since ancients seem to be held in pretty strong hands. This is why I am a firm believer in buying into hoards as they come onto the market. I bought over 100 of the Nabatean bronzes that hit the market a few years ago, and try to do the same with other rare coins that for the moment appear common, like Hormizd II dirhems.

Basically, buy what you can today, because in ancients there is no guarantee they will be for sale tomorrow, especially in the US.

Chris

 

Indeed. I went on a spending spree today.

 

Cool, what did you get? I got 6 sogdian coins yesterday, (well I won them and will be receiving them.

 

2 new empresses. One I needed & one I didnt but thought long and hard about for over 2 months or so and and bit on it.

 

Photos will be expected. My next opportunity is a sale closing Tuesday. I hope I will get something to photograph.

 

I am looking at that sale right now as we speak Doug. I just got the email earlier today.

Chris

P.S. Yeah, photos, my old nemesis, we meet again..........

P.P.S. Here is a photo of one from the seller, its one of the Chinese cash style with Sogdian script. These are from the Ferghana region the Tang controlled around the seventh century.

 

Leave some for me!

 

Here is another Soghd coin I got. This is my favorite amongst my purchases, but in the worst condition, (well the flan is, the strike is about as perfect as I have ever seen). Basically I bought it due to the rare cross on the right obverse field. The Soghds of the period were Eastern Christians, and any reference to Eastern Christianity is rare, and this is a rare subtype of this scarce coin.

 

Crosses? How do you interpret these two?

 

The first is a different variety tamgha on the reverse, pretty scarce. I have not read of that is a cross or not. Sometimes a mark is a mark, but again I would like to find one of those for sale, having only seen them in books except for an extremely poorly preserved specimen. Maybe I would have something you would like to trade for it?

The second is a swastika, I actually bought the exact same coin Saturday, but its a duplicate for me. These are scarce enough I buy what I can without going crazy. They had a Kai Yuan Tong Bao local imitation with an extremely weak reverse mark go for $200, I would have liked that coin but cannot buy everything.

For others here, both are coins of the Chach oasis. It was part of greater Sogdiana and used Sogdian scripts and tamghas. All coins like these are very rare in the scheme of things, maybe existing 1 to a 1000 Roman coins, and I am pretty sure that is understating their rarity. The soil of Sogdiana area was rich, but highly acidic. Copper just didn't survive well, but unfortunately they didn't struck silver or gold often.

Chris