It's a beautiful day in coinland. Spent the morning watching the Greeks go by in the Roma auction. This afternoon I'm cleaning and protecting my Alexandrian coins (prone to corrosion/BD), working on my coin pictures website, and generally having fun going through bunches of mixed lot coins which haven't yet had their day in the sun. The mixed lot of Byzantines purchased from Gorny & Mosch last fall really needs work-- attributions, pictures. I hadn't even taken a picture of my one and only ancient gold coin yet! It's just a beat-up wafer but I'm happy to have it Constantine IV looks a bit like Jagger on this coin. Constantine IV Pogonatus, 668-685 AD AV tremissis, 1.4 gm, 17 mm Constantinople mint Obv: DN CONSTANTINUS PPAG; Pearl-diademed, draped, and cuirassed bust right Rev: VICTORIA AVGUS; cross potent; CONOB Ref: ? (if anyone can tell me the reference, I'd appreciate it) Taken without a flash, the gold has a nice Fauxscoreale hue Reading about Constantine IV was pretty interesting. He appears to have served his people well, fending off attacks from Arabs in the Siege of Constantinople, 674-678. Anticipating the siege he stockpiled provisions. During these battles the navy had great (and surely gory) success with the first military use of 'Greek Fire', which sounds a bit like napalm.
Hi, Coin Princess ... => wow, congrats one your first goldie ... huh, it does look a bit like Jagger, eh? The cross-potent reverse is also kinda cool .... I often look at these byzy-golds but I haven't yet pulled the trigger (perhaps your cool first-purchase will be an ice breaker?) ... very cool ... again, congrats on a very sweet new pick-up Cheers
Interesting coin. It's seems odd to see the degradation of artwork progress over all the years from the Greeks and through the Romans. You said wafer thin. At 17mm and only 1.4g it would have to be thin.
Ahhh, thanks for that. Hadn't listened to the Stones in a while. Followed up with some YouTubes of them. Gimme Shelter (love the way Merry Clayton's voice breaks at ~3:00 on the word 'murder' and Jagger whoops in the background), Can't You Hear Me Knocking, You Can't Always Get What You Want...
Fauxscoreale, heh. Will have to remember that one. I also had to look up what Pogonatus meant ("the bearded"). But now that we know, the facially hirsute among us can adopt that as a surname.
i hear tell someone struck gold up in these parts!? yeeeeeeha! seriously, that's a great byzantine coin TIF. here's a similar one i found at vcoins with some references on it...but i'm not familiar with the type. http://www.vcoins.com/de/stores/dio...s_constantinople__di_7234/113010/Default.aspx
I was wondering when we were going to see a small showcase of this coin after you bought the Gorny & Mosch lot. It may not be the prettiest artistically but it still is a beauty of a coin.
I went a bit overboard last fall and haven't caught up with examining, photographing, and cataloging all of the mixed lot coins. The Byzantine lot in particular has been neglected. I'm editing pics of my Alexandrian coins now and when those are loaded to my website I'll start on the Byzantine lot. I did take photos of many of them-- several times-- but am not happy with them. Will have to reshoot all of them. Still don't have attributions for many.
The quantitative meaning of "overboard" will mean two different things to you and me, but I'm exactly in the same boat. I've got a bag full of coins that I need to re-photograph, verify attributions, research, and post in my gallery. Maybe we should buy less and organize more?
You two do enough buying for the three of us. I have the same problem on a smaller scale. I only have 10-12 coins that need to be photographed/rephotographed.
