Share your rarest coin

A medley of my rarest coins, all finds.

1. Dronrijp class tremisses.

2. Denarius of Claudius; IMPER RECEPT

3. AV stater of Dumnovellaunos, Corieltauvii

4. Raven penny of Anlaf Guthfrisson

5. Aethelred I 1st reign Y series sceat

 

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I love the Claudius. What a lovely coin.

 

Agreed.

 

I'd love that claudius too, beautiful coin.

 

I'm also a member of the 'LOVE that denarius of Claudius' fan club

 

I agree too, and think it's a glaring omission that this coin (AV or AR) isn't included in Harlan Berk's 100 Greatest Ancient Coins.

 

I must first apologize for these pics...I tried in every lighting including natural sunlight and these are the best I could get. This is a coin that was a gift and I placed it away with my collection not knowing anything about it. I read all the posts and I admire you folks that collect the ancients and I do read each post. I know there are some important finds remaining out there but the ancients not being my genre, I paid little attention to it. Perhaps it is so worn as not to be discernible but I thought perhaps some of you Ancient" collectors may provide some information that might be interesting to your particular genre. Thanks in advance for your help.

 

Probably my rarest ancient:

Corcyra (Corfu) Ca. 433-360 BC. AR stater (22mm, 10.72m, 9h). Cow standing right, head reverted, suckling calf standing left / Double stellate pattern within square border; K to right; all within incuse square with rounded edges. HGC 6, 34. Very rare. NGC Choice VF 4/5 - 3/5.

 

Nice coin and welcome Jeff.

 

These are all amazing. But I am most impressed by the Claudius (Romanist's prejudices, I suppose).

 

As an R5, with only one known obverse die, I think this has to be the rarest coin I currently own (I did have a Hadrian sestertius with unlisted obv/rev. combo, but that's gone now). It's a little beat up, but attractive enough (if you think it's a common type, look very closely at the obverse legend).

 

Beautiful coin Eric K. BTW, I don't think I've welcomed you here. Glad to have ya.

 

Thanks!

 

=> Welcome, Eric-K

 

Here is still another Licinius II (317-324) with the same ruler and almost the same reverse we saw above.

18 mm. RIC Nicomedia 34Delta
dot over Delta (instead of A) in right field,
bust right, unlike the first one of these we saw.

The point is, the details can make varieties of late Roman bronze "very rare" even when the type is common. Since most collectors collect types, not varieties, the desirability and value are almost entirely due to the type, not the rare variety.

 

Ancient Chinese State of Chu Gold Ying Yuan (minted sometime between 400 BCE and 220 BCE):

 

Etruscan Gold 10 Asses (minted in Fufluna sometime between 300 BCE and 250 BCE):

 

Spectacular!

 

This is probably my rarest coin. It's a post-publication addition to RPC Volume III, and an apparently hitherto unlisted type for Trajan. Unlike many rare provincial coins, this one doesn't just differ in a date, or bust type; it's a totally different and historically interesting reverse design. At this point, there are only two specimens known - both illustrated on RPC Online:

GALATIA-CAPPADOCIA, NEOCLAUDIOPOLIS
Time of Trajan
AE (26.02mm, 11.44g, 6h)​

Struck AD 109/10
Obverse: ΑΥΤ ΝΕΡ ΤΡΑΙΑΝΟϹ ΚΑΙϹΑΡ ϹΕΒ ΓΕΡΜ ΔΑΚΙΚΟϹ, laureate and cuirassed bust of Trajan right, seen from rear
Reverse: ΝΕΟΚΛΑΥΔΙΟΠΟΛΕΙΤωΝ ΕΤΟΥϹ, Dacia, bound, seated on rocks right; ΡΙΕ in exergue
References: RPC III 2906A.2 (this coin) This coin illustrated on wildwinds.com
An interesting and extremely rare type, apparently unknown except for this coin and one other specimen, both cited by RPC Online.​

 

Hi All,

My avatar coin. This was the coin I always thought would cap my collecting. I got it only after 10 years or so of active collecting. Sweet.



∎ References: Svoronos 1509, pl lii, 11-12 [4 listed, specimen δ subaeratum]; CPE-II 1122 temp. Three obverse die links known, per J Olivier.
∎ Hoard: Keneh, 1923 (IGCH 1708), Newell (1927), pl iii, 3.

The date should be read across both fields, as L?C KAI A. This double date appears in two other Ptolemaic documents, a demotic papyrus (P. Dem. Fouad) and a stela (I.G. Fayum 198); in both cases it takes the form "year 36, which corresponds to year 1," a standard dating convention in Ptolemaic texts. [NB: This system of double dating is known from papyri also and is now known to have been used only between July & August 145 BCE.] RS Poole (1883, pp. lxvii-lxviii) interpreted the double date as referring to a brief coregency at the end of the reign of Ptolemy Philometor, and he identified the newly elevated heir with Ptolemy Eupator and numbered him Ptolemy VII. This historical reconstruction, or an alternative involving Philometor's younger son, has been accepted by most Ptolemaic historians. O Mørkholm (ANS MN 20 1975, pp 9) submitted that subtle evidence of obverse die wear established this issue to be earlier than the year 36 issue of Philometor alone (CPE 1121 temp) and hypothesized that the double date was used only at the moment of the elevation of Ptolemy VII. More recent scholarship has argued that there is no real evidence for this brief joint reign in the dating formularies of documents. M Chauveau (1990; 1991) suggested that the double dates on the coin and in the inscription may reflect a new set of regnal years for Ptolemy VI in Syria, exactly as can be seen on the Syrian coinage of Cleopatra VII more than a century later. W Huss (2001, p 588 n 409) expressed the belief that Ptolemy VI was already dead at the time of this coin issue; he interprets the double date as equating the last year of Ptolemy Philometor with the first year of Ptolemy Euergetes.


ACCS #51EO/GK/CO/OC: 21-Dec-1993. Same dies as ET Newell (Standard Ptolemaic Silver, 1946), pp 9 & pl v, 3. Sixth known specimen of this type; Don Doswell (ex-Spink) had #7, #8 sold on vCoins a few years back. ANS specimen is ANS 1944-100-78775. BMC listed this type as "not in British Museum Collection."

Ex-COLOSSEUM COIN EXCHANGE, Inc (NJ, USA): Auction 72 (13 Oct 1993), Lot #20

- Broucheion