Well, at $400 on vcoins.com, this one is certainly one cheap Caesar...what little of him is actually on the coin. LOL At least it's real, which is more than I can say about the eBay one, or most alleged ancients on eBay. I go to eBay every time I want to laugh at the fakes. It's really a minefield on that site.
Congrats Sallent!!! That is milestone coin for sure and I would love to be the owner of one as nice as yours!! An attractive coin, both obverse and reverse, but I really like victory on the reverse. Congrats on a great coin!!
Nothing against our coin bro @Sallent, but this is a coin you should have put up for auction. Unless he is paying top dollar, you probably would have had some furious bidding. But, oh well, it's @Sallent's now.
Very nice, and the Venus Victrix on the reverse is rendered with particulary fine style. Lovely addition to your collection.
That's a lovely example, @Sallent! And it sounds like you got an excellent deal, thanks to JA. For comparison, I paid nearly $1100 for this one last year (all included), and I was very happy (also jumped around a lot). That was after being the losing bidder on probably 25 others: Strictly speaking higher grade, but yours is prettier. I hope you're right about the Scipio portrait, @Alegandron. Maybe a good hoard study could narrow down the date...
I hope so too. Every reading that I have on Scipio really points to his personality being the type to had minted them. I also note he was careful NOT to mint them in Silver. Regardless, they are cool coins! I also have a recent Caesar that I just captured: Roman Imperatorial Julius Caesar Moneyer P. Sepullius Macer. Ar Denarius Jan. - March 44 BC, 19 mm. 4.1 gm. Obv: CAESAR – DICT PERPETVO Veiled and wreathed head of Caesar r. Rev: P·SEPVLLIVS – MACER Venus standing l., holding Victory and sceptre resting on star. Ref: B. Julia 50 and Sepullia 5. C. 39. Sydenham 1074a. Sear Imperators 107e. Crawford, 480/14.
Venus' jaunty baseball cap is especially appealing. On higher grade examples you can still read the R for Rome and admire the details of the popular Dying Gaul team logo.
Although I enjoy my Caesar, it is NOT a good feeling that he murdered the Republic... an institution lasting almost 500 years. The Republic's leaders were rolled in and out, limiting power vested into one person, and only holding office for a year. Yes, I understand that the last 100 years of the Republic were rife with power-mongers. But, I feel the majority of the Emperors that inherited the Republic were just plain decadent. (Yes, of course, there were a few GOOD exceptions.)
Relax, the Republic was dying long before Caesar. Ever since the Gracchi brothers 100 years prior the Republic was dying a slow death. Marius acceletrated the decline, Sulla sealed the deal, Pompey the Great set the stage for the last play, and Julius Caesar delivered the final masterful performance, leaving his successor Augustus to build the new Imperial system to replace the ailing Republican system.
I had a dream last night that someone found a hoard of 2000 coins just like my JC coin, and everyone here was bragging how they got their new JC portrait denarius for $250.00 or less. Not so much a dream as a nightmare, really.
Would a glut of only 2000 more examples have any affect on the market? I'm not so sure it would. These coins are in very high demand. If a new hoard were discovered and disseminated, my prediction would be that you'd see some very aggressive bidding by a lot of collectors.
This raises the question of how many ancient coin collectors there ARE in the world. Does anyone have a reliable estimate? I think it's a small club.
It's also very fitting that the founder of the Republic was a probable ancestor of Brutus the assassin.