Antoninus Pius Gold Aureus Cos III? Help!

Hi All,
I'd really appreciate your help with identifying this coin. I cannot seem to find this exact variety anywhere online (I do not have a paperback guide yet). There are multiple varieties similar to this one, but most are COS IIII. thanks in advance.

 

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Very curious location of the holes. Usually two holes means a coin was used as an amulet in India or Central Asia, and if Roman gold I would wonder if it may be an Indian contemporary imitation.

However, the location of those holes are weird. usually they are at 9 and 3 to either the obverse or reverse, whichever side they were wishing to display. With this one at 12 and 6, I wonder what purpose these holes were serving?

 

The holes are consistent with a coin that was threaded for ornamentation on a string or chain. Identification is as this: https://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=122361

 

Interesting. For what reason was such threading made? To wear on clothes? For jewelry? I had only really studied the differences between western and eastern practices of piercings made for use as an amulet. I have to admit Eastern practices work much better than western ones.

 

This configuration is more effective when multiple pieces are hung on a string. You see it a lot with Islamic silver that was used in wedding ornamentation.

 

I could see that. I never paid attention to the orientation of the holes in islamic silver, but have seen lots as large as 500 pieces of holes Turkish akces. Seems a whole lot of islamic silver was pierce in antiquity.

 

coin0709 Its Marcus Aurelius

 

I saw immediately it wasn't Antoninus Pius.

Looks like Marcus Aurelius RIC 20.

Wildwinds:
http://www.wildwinds.com/coins/ric/marcus_aurelius/t.html

 

Good eye, Randy-G

 

Lol, I bet Bill is looking at this thread and thinking.......what the ?

 

I had to check a couple of times to make sure you guys didn't i.d. it lol. I find that fact that it holes interesting though and enjoyed the posts.

 

Wow, thanks guys! RIC-20 it is. Its unfortunate its been holed. Would you grade it as VF Damaged? I've done some searching online for recent auctions of this variety, and found a few in tact coins. Is there an annual guide that I could consult to find the FMV for this variety?

 

The holes don't bother me in the least, considering the coin is in otherwise great condition. It might bother someone else, and I could understand that, but I simply accept it as a coin that was once jewelry - not necessarily a damaged coin, but a coin of a different category.

 

No annual guides for ancients. Best you can do is find a recent sale. The duel holes will have a pretty severe crimp in the price though.

 

Agreed, but this coin should garner a lot of bids and a high selling price.

 

High is relative. I bet you not more than half a recent sale of a non-holed specimen. Yes, for most of us its still an expensive coin, i just didn't want the op to expect the same price as a pristine example.

 

What would you guesstimate to be 'HIGH'?

 

Thanks Medoraman. I'm planning to list this specimen on Ebay in a week or less. I hope you're wrong. Thanks for your input everyone!

 

Here are a couple eBay listings that might help you ballpark your holed gold. These are gold ex jewelry pieces. The Nero is slabbed, and it's a gold Nero, I'd say that's the high side of what you might get.

The Valentinian is still stuck in an pendant, that's probably low side.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Ancient-Roman-Gold-Coin-in-14kt-Gold-Pendant-Valentinian-I-A-D-364-375-/121070093499?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1c305704bb

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Ancient-Roman-Empire-Nero-54-68-Salus-Gold-Coin-NGC-EX-Jewelry-No-Reserve-/230958319609?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item35c63047f9

The truth is though you never know until you list it yourself.

 

Still a nice coin....:thumb: