Ancients => Magnia Urbica => yup, another chick-chick-chick!!

Wow, apparently 2016 is my year for scoping babe-coins!!

Yup, here is another sweet female for my Roman collection ...

I think that the coin has great eye-appeal .. it has an easy and cozy feeling about it, plus, I really love the reverse => Venus carrying the helmet never gets old, eh?

Magnia Urbica. Augusta, Antoninianus
Ticinum mint. 5th emission of Carus, August AD 283
AD 283-285
Diameter: 21 mm
Weight: 3.45 grams
Obverse: Draped bust right, wearing stephane and set on crescent
Reverse: Venus standing left, holding helmet and scepter; shield at side; SXXIT
Reference: RIC V 347; Pink VI/2, p. 29
Other: 6h … cozy brown surfaces (flan crack)
From the J. Eric Engstrom Collection. Ex Justice Frederic Rockwell Sanborn Collection (Sotheby Parke Bernet, 24 February 1977), lot 89



dougsmit just sent me an interesting tidbit ...

"Without looking, can you tell me who she was? The interesting part is that answer has changed in the time I have been collecting"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnia_Urbica

... Doug rocks, eh?

 

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Oh, and apparently this babe is #133 out of 207 on the ERIC-II Rarity list (*whatev*)

=> "please" post any of your examples of this chick, or Carus and/or Carinus (*awkward family get-togethers*)

=> Daddy, get-off my girlfriend!!
=> Son, get-off yo mama!!

 

Super cool Steve!!!

My example is far inferior but I've learned to accept her, whomever she was actually married to LOL....Sheesh, talk about keeping it in the family


With a barely legible Juno Regina Reverse.

 

Nice high-grade example of a rare empress - great score indeed!

Well, since we know so little about her, she could have been the wife of her husband AND her son. The Romans did weirder stuff than that. Anyone wanting some nice bedtime stories of an Oedipal nature should look into Severus Alexander and his mother Julia Mamaea.

 

sweet lady ant stevex!

my first thought was "who the heck is "magnia urbica"....had no clue. how interesting!

i don't have one of her, i do have this coin of numerian, another son of carus...which is her...son? ...stepson? ....brother in law?

 

Thanks => those are two sweet additions, coin-bros!!

 

Hey, here is a grungy ol' example of Mag-Urb's husband ... ummm, or her son ... arrrggh, or maybe he's just the guy that tweeked her melons at the market?



Carinus Potin, AR Tetradrachm
Date: Year 2 (283-284 AD)
Diameter: 18.9 mm
Weight: 7.3 grams
Obverse: Laureate bust of Carinus
Reverse: Eagle between standards

 

Nice acquisition little brother. I do not have one of her.

 

Thanks Bing ... oh congrats, you have both of her boyfriends, eh?

 

Very nice score of your Magnia Urbica on the rarity scale! Did they just call her Urby? MAGMA? Mommy Dearest?


Roman Empire
Carinus (r. AD 282-285)
Egypt, Alexandria
Potin Tetradrachm Dated yr. 2
19 mm x 8.14 grams
Obv: Laureate bust right. Greek Legend - A K M A KAPINOC CEB
Rev. Athena seated left holding Nike and Spear. Dated L-B
Ref: Emmett 4001 2a
Ex: @Ancientnoob

 

And I have her husband Carus. This is a REALLY cool one that I got from Warren Esty... I am not into Imperials, but I really like this one:


Roman Empire
Carus. 282-283 CE
Consecration Tetradrachm, struck 283-284.
6.65 grams, 18mm x 4mm THICK!
Sear 3.12406. Emmett 3995
Sear Greek Imperial 4777
flaming altar. Greek for "CONSECRATIO" (very unusual for Alexandria).
Ex: Warren Esty

 

i recognized that coin from warren's page aleg, i strongly considered buying it myself.

 

It's an Imperial? ... huh, now I'm a tailspin once again!!

 

If you are asking me...probly Provincial on my Carus... I just call everything from Augustus onward as Empire (sorry if I am confusing you... But, if I AM, GOOD FUN!)

 

No, it is a Provincial tetradrachm of Alexandria. I believe the statement was made to mean that he usually did not like the Empire since he is a Republican collector but the term Imperials is reserved for Latin language coins of the Roman denominations. Below is an Imperial lifetime Carus antoninianus


and a posthumous Carus Imperial antoninianus


and a different Provincial of Alexandria posthumous tetradrachm.


Note that Carus was bald and should show no hair in front of his laurel wreath or radiate crown.

 

Thanks Doug ... yah, I almost bid on a cool bald Carus at today's auction, but I had Mag-Urb waiting in the wings so I didn't pull the trigger and bag that bald fella (but he's on my wishlist)

... thanks again for clearing-up the Imperial/Provincial thingy (I'm really trying to get a good handle on that, so I got confused for a sec) ...

SQUIRREL!!

 

Thanks for the help Doug. Curious... so that small AE 18mm diameter (but 4mm thick) is a TET? Wow, I learned... I thought being a "Consecration" piece that it was like a medallion. But, you are right: I am focusing my learning on Republican, and unfortunately, I do not have as much room in my brain to fit all that Imperial stuff! Learning! and Thanks!

 

Alexandria issued debased silver tetradrachms and copper drachms in the early empire. After the second century, the drachms became very rare and the tetradrachms became both smaller and more debased until the end was reached under the Tetrarchy with really little things called tetradrachms with no visible silver. This parallels the fall of the silver denarius and its double the antoninianus.

A problem with photos unless they are made to retain scale is that we lose the feel for just how big coins are. I could post a series of Alexandrian tetradrachms to illustrate this but the point would be lost unless I were to reshoot them as a group. Maybe I should.

 

Thank you for the info. Inflation wreaks havoc...

 

You know, Gol, I had this one my watch list... but I didn't hit the bid button, I sensed there would be a disturbance in the Force if I did!