Show us your biggest bronzes!

Experimenting with photographing bronze coins I thought why not take 2 of the biggest ones I have to play with:



I was happy with these photos but I am sure others could do better.

Ptolemy III Euergetes 246-222 BC
AE Drachm
Alexandria Mint
38mm! 48.45 grams!!!
Obv: Head of Zeus Ammon right wearing tainia
Rev: Eagle standing left on thunderbolt with head turned right, cornucopia over shoulder
Weiser 95, Svornos 1172
Ex. Ken Dorney, master of cool coins.

Here is a beefy Hardian:



The reverse is cockeyed, doh! I will have to fix that. The lighting is tricky for me on these dark bronzes. It is not this bright looking in hand.

Hadrian 117-138 AD
AE Sestertius
34 mm 26.8 grams
Obv: Laur. and cuir. bust right with aegis on far shoulder
Rev: Virtus stg. left holding spear and parzonium
RIC 614a

Any comments or tips appreciated.

Let us see your biggest bronze coins!

John

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

A Roman Repubican Triens is as big as my bronze gets. I've always aspired to be the biggest bronze on the block, but I've always come up a wee bit short. I'm currently in counseling.

Anonymous. Circa 225-217 BC. Æ Triens (45mm, 95.85 g, 12h). Helmeted head of Minerva left; four pellets below / Prow of galley right; four pellet below. Crawford 35/3a; Thurlow & Vecchi 53; HN Italy 339.

 

Very nice RRB. How much does it weigh?

I meant to say that I really like your punic tetradrachm from the other thread!

What a beauty!

John

 

Thanks John. Posted the particulars above. I'm mobile at the moment and didn't think I had it...but the wonders of FileMaker Go and a sort of fresh database download on my iPad...

 

Kingdom of Egypt
Ptolemy IV, 221-205
AE Drachm, 37.8mm x 5.5mm thick, 42.43g
Obv: Diademed head of Zeus Ammon r.
Rev: Eagle standing left on thunderbolt, head right, holding cornucopiae on shoulder...
(Struck during Republican Rome's 2nd Punic War)

 

AND yes, it HAS been FREED from the slab!

Kingdom of Egypt
Ptolemy IV, 221-205
AE Drachm, 40.01mm x DUNNO thick, 69.46g
Obv: Diademed head of Zeus Ammon r.
Rev: Eagle standing left on thunderbolt

 

Sorry, I found the FREED from slab pics!

Kingdom of Egypt
Ptolemy IV, 221-205
AE Drachm, 40.01mm x 6.5mm thick, 69.46g
Obv: Diademed head of Zeus Ammon r.
Rev: Eagle standing left on thunderbolt
(Struck during Republican Rome's 2nd Punic War)

 

NICE little pig of cast bronze you got there Mr Carthago!

My biggest Aes Grave is a measly 55g / 37mm... (I still love it though!)

Anonymous.
Circa 270 BC.
Æ Aes Grave Sextans
(37mm, 55.28 g, 12h). Libral standard.
Uncertain mint.
OBV: Head of Dioscurus right; two pellets (mark of value) behind
REV: Head of Dioscurus left; two pellets (mark of value) behind.
Crawford 18/5; ICC 37; HN Italy 283.
Fine, attractive dark green patina.
Ex Auktionshaus Meister & Sonntag 2 (20 September 2004), lot 1031.

 

Mysia, Pergamon. Alliance with Ephesos. AE34 of Commodus
Obv: laureate-headed bust of Commodus (short beard) wearing cuirass and paludamentum, r.
Rev: to l., Asclepius standing, facing, (head, r.), holding serpent-staff; to r., cult statue of Artemis of Ephesus standing, facing, wearing kalathos, having supports.
34mm and 20.8g.
Howgego 70, Caracalla laureate, and reported on 114 coins from Pergamum.
Howgego 811 meaning revalued to 6 assarii, and reported on
32 coins from Ephesus.


Mine is quite a bit smaller, but it's not the size that counts!

 

monster coins! i want one! but what was the purpose of the center indent on them ? just a centering point?

 

I understand it as that: a centering point to lathe the blank flan to weight and size. The AEgyptians were pretty advanced at that time. AND, my personal feelings are: The Ptolemies were pounding out some MASSIVE size coins... you want to make sure that you did not OVERDO the bronze weight... that is real money they would lose!

 

Ptolemy II AE46 90.1g. Someone here has a heavier one as I recall from the last time we did this.


Those wanting to understand the centration marks need to read the several pages starting with the one below. Skip pages and you may miss details.
http://www.classicalcoins.com/flans1.html
Some of us are strange enough to collect coins with interesting 'pits':

 

THANKS Doug! I was trying to find that article / link!

 

Very interesting article Doug. Wow, that looks like a heck of a lot of work to make a flan. That plus the carving of dies and then the actual striking process would mean quite a lot of sweat equity would go into those coins.

 

As a huge fan of ancient bronze I am drooling over this thread. I wonder if we could get a smallest bronze coin one going too!

 

I'm not sure what you mean by biggest. This Gordian is thicker, but has a smaller diameter...



than this Victorian.

 

Nice coins all.
I like BIG bronze pieces!
on left a 746 gram Aes Formatum, or unmarked bar
on left a 375 gram Aes Rude broken from a cast plate
on top middle an As and Semis

 

Fantastic examples, coin-gang ... wow, there are a few super huge monsters!! (great coin, Doug)

Sadly, I only have a couple of those sweet and hefty philopators ...

=> both are roughly 41 mm and 71 grams ... yup, they're fairly big-babies!!




Yah, I couldn't decide which one to buy, so I bought 'em both!! (ahhhh, the good ol' days, before the sweet wife strapped a budget to my arse)

 

My largest by diameter is 48 mm.


EGYPT. Ptolemy II Philadelphus
285-246 BCE
AE48 mm, 91.8 gm
Obv: laureate head of Zeus Ammon right
Rev: eagle standing left on thunderbolt looking right, wings partly spread, E monogram between eagle's legs
Ref: Sear 7782, Svoronos 446
ex Professor James Eaton Collection

With a 5 mm fractional atop (and a better image-- I need to reshoot the plain images):


My heaviest is 95 gm:


ZEUGITANA, Carthage
early 2nd century BCE
AE 15-shekels, 45 mm, 95 gm
Obv: wreathed head of Tanit left
Rev: horse standing right, left foreleg up; solar disk with uraei above
Ref: Alexandropoulos J (2000) Les monnaies de l'Afrique Antique, 103; Müller L (1861) Numismatique de L'Ancienne Afrique, 131; Luynes 3782; Jenkins GK and Lewis RB (1963) Carthaginian Gold and Electrum Coins, Royal Numismatic Society, London, pl. 28 12

 

Very few base metal ancients are thin. What we accept today as normal coin fabric required the invention of round blanks punched from sheet metal. Does anyone know when that practice began? Some early coins were trimmed down to size but the standard technique was pouring metal into a coin shaped mold as so well shown by TIF's petrified peanut butter photo. Early Indian silver punch marked coins might be considered cut from sheets but these were not struck from dies afterward. I find fabric fascinating.
http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/fabric.html