Marcus Aurelius Sestertius, Mars Reverse

I bought this coin a few months ago, but have not photographed it until now.

This is a bronze Sestertius of Marcus Aurelius minted at Rome in AD 164, the reverse depicts Mars resting on a spear with a shield at his feet. It is SR-5002 and RIC III 861

 

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Real nice sestertius! Attractive bust, mostly full legends, and I like the Mars reverse.

Mine is but beat up and I have shown it hear before but here it is:

 

Very nice. Great portrait and color.

Nothing like the large bronzes.

 

I need to get my hands on a Sestertius and after seeing this I need to make that a priority! Nice coin. -d

 

Very nice chunk of Roman bronze. If I collected sestertius coins, these are the kind of coins I'd be after: well used but with tons of awesome details remaining.

I like my silver VF and XF, but I think these large bronze coins look their best at gF to aVF, like yours! It's just perfect.

 

When you hold one in you hand and feel the heft (a touch over 25g in this case) and admire how the engraver took advantage of the space that such a large coin gave him to work with, well sufice it to say I am a big fan of this denomination.

 

That's a beautiful sestertius. The wear, colour and style all come together very nicely.

Here's one of his co-emperor Lucius Verus with a walking Mars reverse.

 

The surface on the OP coin is excellent. I love it when some of the warm orichalcum color still shows.

 

I do too. Awesome coin

 

oh man, show the edge..i bet it's thick and sexy.

nice lookin' coin for sure!

 

Like it very much!

 

Wow, that's a very cool OP-sestertius!! ... congrats Aethelred

Ummm, I happen to have a pretty sweet MA-example as well ...

=> and here it is again (big, comfy and green)

Marcus Aurelius, AE Drachma (Alexandria)




Aethelred => congrats again on a fabulous new winner!!

 

That's a strange crack on the obverse of the OP coin. It doesn't go through to the other side. I wonder how it formed. Do you think the flan was very slightly concave so that when it was struck it split a little bit?

 

You know I have wondered about that myself. You'll notice that it extends a bit in front of the emperor's bust as well, but isn't on the bust. I assume it was a planchet defect that was obscured in the areas where metal had to flow a long distance to fill recessed areas on the obverse die.

 

I think you're right. Now that I look at it more closely, I don't think it's a crack but rather some kind of "wrinkle" that was probably there before the coin was struck.

 

Here my little brother to Aethelred's coin, in silver:

 

Great denarius!

 

I have this sestertius of Marcus Aurelius with Roma on the reverse, since Remus and Romulus , founders of Rome, were the sons of Mars I think its a nice match.

 

Men are from Mars and women are from Venus, no? Here's the wife with Venus on the reverse to complement your lovely Sestertius.


Faustina Jr., wife of Marcus Aurelius, Augusta 147-175 AD
Rome, issued under Antoninus Pius, 147-150
22.96 gm; 30.4 mm
Obv: FAVSTINA AVG PII AVG FIL, diademed and draped bust, r.
Rev: VENERI GENETRICI SC, Venus Genetrix standing l., holding apple and child in swaddling clothes.
Refs: RIC 1386b; BMCRE 2145; Sear 4718

 

Nice piece, great color.