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

    The Lucilla was indeed nice. It had a sweet portrait. I think she looked better in that portrait than on some other coins. (If memory serves, that was a ~$200-ish coin.)

    An interesting thing about Roman coins is how much the portaiture can vary, even within the exact same type of coin. There was a Lucilla thread here fairly recently, which I posted that coin to. Look at the range of portraits. Some are slightly frumpy, some look grumpy, others look glamorous.

    To cite another example, I've heard it said that the coin portraits of Caracalla are like The Picture of Dorian Grey. He starts out young, fresh-faced and innocent looking, morphs into a hard-faced mature man, and finally ends up as the scowling tyrant.
     
  2. Avatar

    Guest User Guest



    to hide this ad.
  3. lordmarcovan

    lordmarcovan Eclectic & Eccentric Moderator

    Oh- here's one that got missed that was also part of the old collection.

    Crispina (wife of Commodus)

    I believe hat's Salus feeding a serpent on the reverse.

    [​IMG]
     
    Deacon Ray, Curtisimo, Ajax and 4 others like this.
  4. Sallent

    Sallent Live long and prosper

    Nice coins. I really like them. However, would you allow a tiny bit of friendly commentary?

    This is just my personal opinion but I think you limited yourself by being a hole filler. I see you only had one example of each.

    I'd rather have multiple examples of an emperor I care about or coin types I care about (and have some emperors missing from my collection) rather than simply having a coin of each emperor just to have one. To each his own though.

    As far as quality. I think you had a nice collection. Maybe it wasn't as "fancy" as your box of 20, but coins with honest wear still have merit and deserve a little love.
     
  5. LaCointessa

    LaCointessa Well-Known Member

    @Sallent - You bring up a good point about the many directions a collection can take. I have been thinking a lot about this question. For me it is difficult to figure out just what to collect with a limited budget. If I were independently wealthy it might be even more difficult. I was photographing my newly acquired world coins last night and realized I was totally enjoying them. But then I look at some of the ancients here on CT and I feel actually short of breath! Perhaps it is too early for me to decide where to concentrate my coin attention.
     
  6. Rifleman47

    Rifleman47 New Member

    Thanks for posting this. You had some nice coins in your collection. I enjoyed looking at them.
     
    lordmarcovan likes this.
  7. HoledandCreative

    HoledandCreative Well-Known Member

    A very nice collection acquired in just a year. Well done!
     
    Jwt708 and lordmarcovan like this.
  8. IdesOfMarch01

    IdesOfMarch01 Well-Known Member

    It seems to me that it's a fundamental characteristic of most (not necessarily all) collectors that they have a sense of (or obsession for?) completeness when adding coins to their collections. Focusing on sets or subsets of emperors is a natural result of this characteristic.

    Especially with the 12 Caesars, I've always maintained that the whole is greater than the sum of the individual parts, even if some of the individual emperors are less appealing or interesting than others. I understand this focus, just as I understand others' focus on diverse collections or small groups of specific emperors.
     
  9. Sallent

    Sallent Live long and prosper

    That's why I said it was a friendly commentary and my own opinion. There is no right or wrong way to collect. His methods of collecting are just as valid as mine or anyone else's.

    Frankly, I don't even have any guidelines for what to collect. One month I might go crazy on medievals, another month on silver denarii, maybe the month after that on provincial Tets, or focus on a specific emperor/ruler. I let my mood, feelings, and desires guide me. It has led over time to a diversified collection that is a fair representation of the variety of coins get the ancient world has to offer, but with few (if any) complete set of any kind.
     
    Last edited: May 24, 2017
    LaCointessa likes this.
  10. lordmarcovan

    lordmarcovan Eclectic & Eccentric Moderator

    Whoa, H&C is in da house!

    Good to see you on CT.
     
    Deacon Ray likes this.
  11. lordmarcovan

    lordmarcovan Eclectic & Eccentric Moderator

    Sallent- your commentary is on the mark. In fact, your last paragraph describing your philosophy pretty much echoes the way I am now, in my "eclectic" phase. Since the big 2013 purge and transition, I've pretty much abandoned the constraints of structured "sets" and followed my heart a lot more. I think that's reasonably apparent to anyone comparing my (admittedly much smaller) "Box of 20" of today to some of these earlier collections.

    "Filling holes" to progress towards a predetermined goal is fun. I enjoyed it for decades and miss the structured approach sometimes. But going "freestyle" was liberating, even if it has taken me a while to get used to.
     
    LaCointessa and Deacon Ray like this.
  12. Aethelred

    Aethelred The Old Dead King

    I keep a checklist of Roman emperors and personalities, because it is fun to add a new one, but that is not my primary collecting goal.
     
    LaCointessa, Deacon Ray and Svarog like this.
  13. HoledandCreative

    HoledandCreative Well-Known Member

  14. dougsmit

    dougsmit Member

    Caracalla
     
  15. lordmarcovan

    lordmarcovan Eclectic & Eccentric Moderator

    Yes, thanks. That's what I (subsequently) had thought.

    Rather a young Caracalla, eh?

    That was one of those heavily-worn pieces that was appealing despite (or maybe even a little bit because of) the wear, if you know what I mean.

    It had "character" if you'll forgive the overused term.
     
  16. dougsmit

    dougsmit Member

  17. dougsmit

    dougsmit Member

    Last edited: May 25, 2017
  18. Ancientnoob

    Ancientnoob Money Changer


    Just go for what appeals to you, let the coins pick you, then run some by your friends ... just be careful what you shoot for. Once you have the target and have the support of all your ancient coin friends it will be like...



    ...and don't be suprised if the target still escapes!
     
    Last edited: May 24, 2017
  19. LaCointessa

    LaCointessa Well-Known Member

    Alrighty then! You convinced me @Ancientnoob. I am heading back to my desk covered with wheaties! And I don't mean the cereal.:nailbiting:
     
  20. Kentucky

    Kentucky Supporter! Supporter

    Don't be in too much of a hurry...it's a large field.
     
    Deacon Ray and Jwt708 like this.
  21. dougsmit

    dougsmit Member

    I believe Kentucky has the answer here. People tend to rush in and soon crash and burn. This is not a hobby that awards being rookie of the year to the person who spends the most in the first few months. You will never have them all or know everything you might wish you did even after 50 years in the hobby. There is no end of the road so you can enjoy the trip and not worry about it.
     
Draft saved Draft deleted

Share This Page