Picture repost- some of my old 2007-08 Roman Imperial collection

Discussion in 'Ancient Coins' started by lordmarcovan, May 23, 2017.

  1. lordmarcovan

    lordmarcovan Eclectic & Eccentric Moderator

    Photobucket is so awful nowadays that it's time to bring these pictures over here, I think, for archiving purposes.

    This was my very first (novice) collection of Romans, started in 2007 and forced into selloff in 2008 when I got laid off in the recession. So it was a fairly short-lived endeavor, lasting only a little over a year.

    My goal was to get as many different portraits/persons as possible, in an "A to Z" (Augustus to Zeno) collection. My newfound enthusiasm for ancients burned hot indeed, and I was grabbing them up right and left. By the end, I believe I had over 100 different emperors and empresses. My primary goal was a decent portrait, and secondary criterion was as clear a name as possible in the obverse legends. I did not pay as much attention to exotic or interesting reverse designs yet at that time.

    I bought a lot from Steve McBride at Incitatus Coins, Marc at Ancient Imports, a few from FORVM, and got some from @Aethelred, my oldest numismatic friend. Mostly they came from VCoins dealers. I did not yet trust myself on eBay much (but made an exception for a plate-coin pedigreed Pupienus sestertius which I've sadly lost the pictures of).

    The last coin was a Zeno solidus from the Eliasberg Collection, which also doubled as the centerpiece of my trademark "Holey Gold Hat", since it was a holed piece.

    I'll just make this thread an image dump, for the heck of it.

    Unfortunately, I lost some of the pictures in a simultaneous double-whammy of hard drive crashes on two separate computers. But here are the rest, mostly salvaged seller pics.
     
    Last edited: May 23, 2017
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  3. lordmarcovan

    lordmarcovan Eclectic & Eccentric Moderator

    Augustus
    RS001-Augustus.JPG

    Agrippa
    RS003-Agrippa.JPG

    Tiberius
    RS004-Tiberius.JPG

    Germanicus
    RS007-Germanicus.JPG

    Caligula
    RS009-Caligula.JPG

    Claudius
    RS010-Claudius.JPG

    Nero
    RS011-Nero.JPG

    Galba

    RS012-Galba.JPG

    Otho
    RS013-Otho.JPG

    Vitellius
    RS014-Vitellius.JPG
     
    Last edited: May 23, 2017
  4. lordmarcovan

    lordmarcovan Eclectic & Eccentric Moderator

    Vespasian
    RS015-Vespasian.JPG

    Titus
    RS016-Titus.JPG

    Domitian
    RS017-Domitian.JPG

    Nerva
    RS018-Nerva.JPG

    Trajan
    RS019-Trajan.JPG

    Hadrian
    RS020-Hadrian.JPG

    Aelius
    RS022-Aelius.JPG

    Antoninus Pius
    RS023-AntoninusPius.JPG

    Faustina Senior
    RS024-FaustinaSenior.JPG

    Marcus Aurelius
    RS025-MarcusAurelius.JPG
     
    Last edited: May 23, 2017
  5. lordmarcovan

    lordmarcovan Eclectic & Eccentric Moderator

    As you can see, I wasn't terribly consistent in my novice days. The coin quality is all over the place, as is the quality of these images. The ones I imaged myself are scans. (That Marcus Aurelius at the bottom of the last post is an example of one I scanned. In hand, that was a nice bright and beautiful piece, but it looks pretty horrid in the scans). But oh, well. I'm just grateful I archived this much of my first serious ancients collection.

    We continue ... (I'm doing them ten coins per post).

    Faustina Junior
    RS026-FaustinaJunior.JPG
    Lucius Verus

    RS027-LuciusVerus.JPG
    Lucilla

    RS028-Lucilla.JPG
    Commodus
    RS029-Commodus.JPG

    Septimius Severus
    RS032-SeptimiusSeverus.JPG

    Julia Domna RS033-JuliaDomna.JPG
    Caracalla
    RS034-Caracalla.JPG
    Plautilla
    RS035-Plautilla.JPG
    Geta
    RS036-Geta.JPG
    Macrinus
    RS037-Macrinus.JPG
     
  6. lordmarcovan

    lordmarcovan Eclectic & Eccentric Moderator

    Diadumenian (or so I was told and thought, but it wasn't, was it?)
    Edit- no- Caracalla. RS038-Diadumenian.JPG
    Elagabalus
    RS039-Elagabalus.JPG

    Julia Soaemias
    RS042-JuliaSoaemias.JPG
    Julia Maesa
    RS043-JuliaMaesa.JPG

    Severus Alexander (horn silver and ugly-ish, but hey- I wasn't picky over a $10 denarius)

    RS044-SeverusAlexander.JPG
    Julia Mamaea
    RS046-JuliaMamaea.JPG

    Maximinus I ("Thrax")
    RS047-MaximinusI.JPG
    Gordian III
    RS051-GordianIII.JPG
    Philip I ("the Arab") - first example bought
    RS052-PhilipI-sold.JPG

    Philip I ("the Arab") - second example bought (upgrade)
    RS052b-PhilipI.JPG
     
    Last edited: Dec 21, 2018
    Theodosius, GregH, dlhill132 and 11 others like this.
  7. TIF

    TIF Always learning.

    You could also/instead dump the images to a CoinTalk gallery, and then you'd have them in a place where you can more readily access them in the future (or at least have some redundancy of storage).
     
    stevex6 likes this.
  8. lordmarcovan

    lordmarcovan Eclectic & Eccentric Moderator


    Otacilia Severa
    RS053-OtaciliaSevera.JPG

    Philip II
    RS054-PhilipII.JPG

    Trajan Decius
    RS055-TrajanDecius.JPG

    Herennia Etruscilla

    RS056-HerenniaEtruscilla.JPG

    Herennius Etruscus
    RS057-HerenniusEtruscus.JPG

    Hostilian
    RS058-Hostilian.JPG

    Trebonianus Gallus
    RS059-TrebonianusGallus.JPG

    Volusian
    RS060-Volusian.JPG

    Valerian I
    RS062-ValerianI.JPG

    Valerian II
    RS063-ValerianII.JPG
     
  9. lordmarcovan

    lordmarcovan Eclectic & Eccentric Moderator

    Yeah, I might just (should) do that, too.

    But sometimes I like the top-to-bottom linear nature of a thread. Maybe 'cause that's what I got used to in all those years over on CU.

    Once they're here and lifeboated off StinkyPooPooCraptasticAdWorld Photobucket, it'll be easy enough to put them in the Gallery here and on CollectiveCoin as well.

    Gradually I'm moving most of my old CU content over here, if it means anything to me.
     
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  10. lordmarcovan

    lordmarcovan Eclectic & Eccentric Moderator



    Gallienus (this was a nice, bright, fully silvered-piece with lovely orange toning- looks wretched in the scans)
    RS064-Gallienus.JPG

    Salonina
    RS065-Salonina.JPG

    Postumus
    RS067-Postumus.JPG

    Claudius II
    RS070-ClaudiusII.JPG

    Victorinus
    RS072-Victorinus.JPG

    Quintillus
    RS073-Quintillus.JPG

    Aurelian
    RS074b-Aurelian.JPG

    Vabalathus (with Aurelian)
    RS075-Vabalathus.JPG

    Tetricus I
    RS076-TetricusI.JPG

    Tetricus II
    RS077-TetricusII.JPG
     
  11. lordmarcovan

    lordmarcovan Eclectic & Eccentric Moderator


    Tacitus
    RS078-Tacitus.JPG

    Florian/Florianus
    RS079-Florian.JPG

    Probus
    RS080b-Probus.JPG

    Carus
    RS081-Carus.JPG

    Numerian
    RS082-Numerian.JPG

    Carinus
    RS083-Carinus.JPG

    Diocletian
    RS084-Diocletian.JPG

    Maximian
    RS085-Maximianus.JPG

    Carausius
    RS086-Carausius.JPG

    Constantius I
    RS088-ConstantiusI.JPG
     
    Last edited: Sep 7, 2020
    Theodosius, GregH, Jwt708 and 8 others like this.
  12. lordmarcovan

    lordmarcovan Eclectic & Eccentric Moderator



    Galerius
    RS091-Galerius.JPG

    Maximinus II
    RS094-MaximinusII.JPG

    Maxentius
    RS095-Maxentius.JPG

    Constantine I ("the Great")
    RS097-ConstantineI.JPG

    Fausta
    RS098-Fausta.JPG

    Licinius I
    RS099-LiciniusI.JPG

    Crispus
    RS100-Crispus.JPG

    Licinius II
    RS101-LiciniusII.JPG

    Delmatius
    RS102-Delmatius.JPG

    Constantine II
    RS103-ConstantineII.JPG
     
  13. lordmarcovan

    lordmarcovan Eclectic & Eccentric Moderator

    Constans I
    RS104-ConstansI.JPG
    Constantius II
    RS105-ConstantiusII.JPG
    Magnentius
    RS106-Magnentius.JPG

    Constantius Gallus (?)
    RS108-ConstantiusGallus.JPG


    Julian II (?)
    RS109-JulianII.JPG
    Jovian
    RS110-Jovian.JPG

    Valentinian I
    RS111-ValentinianI.JPG

    Valens (weird flan, but part of the "raggedyness" is photo artifacts)
    RS112-Valens.JPG
    Procopius
    RS113-Procopius.JPG

    Gratian
    RS114-Gratian.JPG
     
  14. lordmarcovan

    lordmarcovan Eclectic & Eccentric Moderator



    Valentinian II
    RS115-ValentinianII.JPG

    Theodosius I
    RS116-TheodosiusI.JPG

    Magnus Maximus
    RS118-MagnusMaximus.JPG

    Arcadius
    RS120-Arcadius.JPG

    Eudoxia
    RS121-Eudoxia.JPG

    Honorius
    RS123-Honorius.JPG

    Theodosius II
    RS124-TheodosiusII.JPG

    Marcian
    RS127-Marcian.JPG

    Zeno (ex-Louis E. Eliasberg Collection)
    RS130-Zeno.JPG
     
  15. lordmarcovan

    lordmarcovan Eclectic & Eccentric Moderator

    And there we have it. What's left of the pictures of my first serious ancient coin collection, when I was a novice Roman collector. (Not that I claim to be anywhere above low-intermediate status now).

    Quantity over quality, particularly with the rather junky later stuff, but I had fun "filling holes" and checking them off the list.

    I'm missing quite a few. Some empresses are gone. Here's a few I notice missing that I did have coins for:
    • Livia
    • Pupienus (a decent sestertius)
    • Clodius Albinus
    • Helena
    ... and no doubt more.

    After my 2008 layoff and distress sale (I kept the Zeno solidus for a few more years, on my Holey Gold Hat), I sort of got disorganized.

    Counting what's here, I come up with exactly 100 pieces. So maybe I had 110-120 different personalities.

    It wasn't the most beautiful collection, but I was mighty proud of it at the time, and looking back, a decade or so later, I'm somewhat impressed that I got so far with it in such a short time. I learned a whole lot, too.

    Thanks for visiting, if you did. That's my "blast from the past" for today.
     
  16. Aethelred

    Aethelred The Old Dead King

    This was a neat thread. It was interesting seeing most of a collection that is no more.
     
    LaCointessa likes this.
  17. Eduard

    Eduard Supporter**

    Nice collection you had there, lordmarcovan:). A bit of everything - that is the way that I collect also,
    So sorry you had to let it go. I hope you are able to start again.
     
    LaCointessa likes this.
  18. lordmarcovan

    lordmarcovan Eclectic & Eccentric Moderator

    I started again and did the Twelve Caesars in ... uhmm... 2011-2013 or so?

    Then I broke that up but still include some Romans in my Eclectic Box of 20.

    Will I ever go for the A-to-Z run again? Maybe. Maybe not. It sure was fun, though.

    I'd be much pickier if I did it now. And I'm not so sure I could afford to be pickier, on my budget.
     
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  19. LaCointessa

    LaCointessa Well-Known Member

    This is a great resource for me @lordmarcovan. The photographs are very clear. Some of those coins -- incredible. I loved this early morning exhibit of ancients. And just when I was feeling serious about the things I need to do this morning, I read: "Stinky poo poo" and now I'm giggling and can't stop. Thanks for that!
     
    Justin Lee likes this.
  20. lordmarcovan

    lordmarcovan Eclectic & Eccentric Moderator

    Photobucket has indeed turned into a big bucket of... ermm... stinky poo-poo.

    There were a lot of fun, cheap <$50 coins in here, Cointessa. I did all this in my first year!

    The Otho was the only coin over $500 (=575). There were some other 3-figure pieces. Caligula and the gold Zeno at the end were both $350-ish at the time. But a great deal of this stuff was in the $30-50 range. There were some $10s and even a few single-digit coins.

    I went hog-wild in the beginning and snapped up anything that sounded reasonable to me. Only later did I slow down some and try to focus a bit more on quality (eye appeal). That's why this set is rather inconsistent.

    But it was a proud accomplishment for such an enthusiastic novice.

    Mistakes? Aside from grabbing some ugly pieces, I think I did OK. Stuck with trusted dealers on VCoins, almost exclusively.

    Had fun. Learned a ton.
     
  21. LaCointessa

    LaCointessa Well-Known Member

    That Lucilla coin is gorgeous...and Caligula..Yikes! I'm going to come back here later and spend time looking at them and getting to know them. I can see them so well which is unusual for me.
     
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