new arrival. stoked!

I'd like to believe the London mint look is true to life, after all, he spent a lot of time in Britain... enough to become one of the locals if you ask me. So he was pudgy and effeminate, and vain, and bloodthirsty. Accept it! Not all Emperor's could be an Augustus or a Trajan.

Anyway, London is one amazing city. Not only the capital of the province of Britannia, but also one of the two capital cities in the western empire during the late 3rd and early 4rth century. And then the capital of a united England, and finally capital of one of the largest empires in the world, on which the sun never set. What an incredible city.

Speaking of incredible cities...I'll be in Washington DC next week. First time there. Staying in a hotel only 1000 feet from the Capitol building.

 

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lol, Sallent, if you think ol augie and tra baby wasnt' like that too, i've got ocean front proptery here in Missouri i'd sell ya

 

Cool, I always wanted to go whale hunting in Missouri. I will say this about your state, I love those nice little tobacco corn cob pipes that come out of there.

 

hahaha! i can make ya "the real deal" here, i'll just step out to the field and get ya one

 

Sallent, yor a purdy kool dude, i'll send ya a hand made corn cob pipe if ya want one

 

I plan to get something a little bigger than 20mm for my next ancient. At least nickel size and even quarter if I can pull it off.

 

If you want a big coin, consider a Ptolemaic bronze (up to ~100 gm & ~50 mm!), or any number of large bronze provincials

Wait, no. Scratch that. I collect those. Stay away

 

Absolutely. I love corn cob pipes. I'll send you a PM.

 

Here is a larger Lugdunum portrait. The arched eyebrow seems quite exaggerated.



The Siscia portrait is much more stylised that realistic unless he had massive eyes.



Ticinum was more human.



As was Trier.



I don't have enough Rome mint examples.... this must be remedied.

 

Terrific OP David!!

All the posts wonderfully depict the incredible variance of his portraits.

I have to suspect that the London mint more accurately displayed him as he appeared in life, but who really knows.....

 

That's a great portrait gallery, Maridunum.

BTW, what are the letters to the right and left of Sol on the reverses of those Soli Invicto types? "R over X on left, F on right"; S-F; A-F. Are these simple mint control marks of some kind, or do they stand for something?

 

While the larger AE1 coins of the Tetrarchs may satisfy your desire for a big coin, I'd suggest you try a sestertius from any time before Philip I because the additional thickness will strike you as bigger than the same diameter from the later period. These may be expensive unless you can deal with some wear. The other option would be to stay thin but go for a Byzantine follis of Justinian years 12-14 when the things got really large in diameter.

Vespasian sestertius (worn)


Justinian follis year 14 Nikomedia

 

Mine is from the Antioch mint after the man had some work done to his nose.

 

I cringed a little when I read this.

Here is a before picture of the coin.

 

It's for me only. No kids to hand stuff down to. So take no offense Victor. I knew what I was doing.

 

uhhhhhh...what's magic wadding?

nice new coin!

here's my favorite constantine....




constantine with his sweet mustache ....and zeus don't mess with the 6 pack...he got the 12 pack abs!

 

I THINK I've seen smaller cans at Auto Parts stores.

 

On a 2000 year old coin, I would never think of cleaning that harshly. I would either use water, or leave it to the next generation to decide ...

 

There are those of us who do not consider the coins in our collections to be our property free for us to do with as we please. Instead we hope that our collection will someday be enjoyed by a generation yet unborn. When we see a coin 'Magic Wadded', we are not thrilled. Sure it was just a common Constantine; no big deal. I have a coin that was cleaned by a previous owner reducing it from the $300 he paid to the $100 I paid a few years later. I never would have bought it had it been a fair advance over the $300 so I guess I should be happy with him.

For the record, I have ruined coins trying to clean them, too. It is something most of us do at some point but not something we are terribly happy to admit.

 

Fair enough. You'd never believe how ugly my Samarian coin was. I couldn't even tell what it was. But mostly I make Zincolns and such shine