And A Sanguine Saturnalia To All!

A huge thank you to @TypeCoin971793 for three awesome coins! TheRed is an economist by trade with a love for all things regarding monetary systems, inflation, and economic shocks. The first coin I received is a Huo Quan of Wang Mang. As emperor of China he introduced coins of nominal values, modern fiat money, in place of the previous Han gold standard. Needless to say, I love the coin and want to collect more of Wang Mang's.

The other two coins are kopeks of Ivan IV the Terrible and Peter the Great. Once again, two perfect coins for TheRed. I love Russian history, from the days of the Rus to the blood soaked 20th century, and these two Tsars are giants in said pageant.

Thank you again for such great coins TypeCoin. If you can recommend any good references on the coinage of Wang Mang I would greatly appreciate it.

 

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As with everything having to do with this forum, I was shocked by outcome of my first SS. The generosity of people here never ceases to amaze me. The sender left his name and hometown location on the package (I think), but I don't recognize it. Although I didn't search very hard so the secret stays a secret.

Here is my SS gift. I am truly thankful.

(Oh, and the gift I sent has already been posted...I have t decided whether to out myself yet.)

 

Nice Titus denarius.

 

I will try and get a better pic posted because the current pic doesn't do the coin justice. To say I'm ha

 

Well, I opened my SS package this morning and was completely shocked to receive such a nice gift. Thank you Nick. And I appreciate the letter explaining your thoughts behind the gift. Very thoughtful. Nick looked through my gallery on Forum and found I only had two of the three types of Sabinus denarii, and with his gift he completed my set. Very thoughtful and a very nice gift. Thank you so much.

L. TITURIUS L.F. SABINUS ROMAN REPUBLIC; GENS TITURIA
AR Denarius
OBVERSE: Bearded head of King Tatius right, SABIN behind
REVERSE: Victory in Biga right, bearing wreath, L TITVRI below, control mark in ex.
Struck at Rome 89 BC
3.75g, 17mm
Cr344/3, Syd 700, Tiituria 6

And just so everyone sees the complete set in one post, here are the other two:

L. TITURIUS L.F. SABINUS ROMAN REPUBLIC; GENS TITURIA
AR Denarius
OBVERSE: Head of Tatius facing right, SABIN behind, palm below chin
REVERSE: Two Roman soldiers, each holding a woman in his arms, L.TITVRI in ex.
Struck at Rome 89 BC 3.8g, 20mm
Cr344/1b, Syd 698a, Tiituria 2

L. TITURIUS L.F. SABINUS ROMAN REPUBLIC; GENS TITURIA
AR Denarius
OBVERSE: Head of Taitus facing right, SABIN behind, palm before
REVERSE: Tarpeia buried to her waist in shields, fending off two soldiers about to throw their shields on her; L. TITVRI in exergue
Struck at Rome 89 BC
3.2 g, 20 mm
Cr344/2b; Sydenham 699; Tituria 4

 

My gift came via New York,

Julius Caesar AR denarius
Spain 46-45BC
Obv: Head of Venus facing right, Cupid behind.
Rev: Trophy with two Gallic captives seated beneath.
Ref: RSC Iulia 11; Sydenham 1014

This is so cool, and a huge THANK YOU!!! to Saturn!!!! My quick phone shot doesn't show the CAESAR on the rev, but it is quite clear, and AWESOME!!!

 

A very thoughtful gift!

 

Sorry in advance if the smartphone photos are sub-par; out of camera batteries again (it burns through so many of them that I actually wouldn't mind a multipack of AAs as a gift lol).

I had to do a double-take when this greeted me when I opened the package, to make sure I was really seeing it. I never imagined that I would receive a rare Ostrogothic coin as a gift. Ostrogothic coins are some of my absolute favorites to collect and so they are one of my main collecting niches.





My SS seems to also know about my fondness for old Spanish coins (which I feel a personal connection to due to my Hispanic background, making the following two coins even more special):

1761 Charles/Carlos III 2 reales (in hand the reverse toning looks about the same as the obverse; again, phone photos)



Early 1600s, Philip/Felipe III 2 maravedis (I love how it feels like an LRB)



And finally, a nice interesting small bronze of Nabataean king Aretas IV, or as I like to call him, Arepas IV



Can't forget the group shot:



A huge thank you, Secret Saturn!

 

Some great gifts folks, I opened mine a few minutes ago and was blown away,
two fantastic coins one a Claudius Libertas As and a 1511 AD Polish Half Groschen. Both with excellent detail and eye appeal. Just happens that in recent times I have been looking to upgrade my Claudius Libertas, problem solved by my giftor as the one he sent me is heaps better than mine. I am so grateful. also with the Polish coin he has opened up a new collecting interest for me. Now I wonder who this person is? they did not leave their avatar so I have been
guessing, playing around with letters from Christian and Surname....... maybe the first two letters of both, doesn't matter who it was, I am very gratefull for two wonderfull coins.
Peter.

 

I was floored when I open mine. Thank you so much!


Trajan
IMP CAES NERVA TRAIAN AVG GERM, laureate head right / PM TRP COS III P P, Vesta seated left holding patera and torch. RSC 214. RIC 40


Sextus Pompey Denarius. Sicily, 40 BC. MAG PIVS IMP ITER, bare head of Pompey the Great right between lituus and capis / Neptune left, foot on prow, between brothers Anapias and Amphinomus, parents on their shoulders, PR’F above, in ex CLAS ET OR’ / MARIT EX SC. Pompeia 27, Cr511/3a, Syd 1344 RIC 17

 

There are some sweet coins posted so far! I was blown away when I opened the package this morning. What an awesome gift. Thank you SS!

Pretty sure I got the attribution right.

Diocletian, Post abdication Follis, Aquileia, AD 305-306. DN DIOCLETIANO FELICISSIMO SEN AVG, laureate bust right, wearing imperial mantle, holding olive-branch and mappa / PROVIDENTIA DEORVM QVIES AVGG, Providentia standing right, extending right hand to Quies, standing left, holding branch and sceptre. S-F across outer fields. Mintmark AQP. RIC VI Aquileia 64a

 

Wow, what a wonderful gift for you...just perfect.

 

Mine came a month ago via Ken Dorney. I thanked him profusely, but he said he was only the sender. My Secret Saturnalia remains anonymous!


RI Gallienus AE silvered Ant 21mm 2.7g Radiate CuirassedR - Jupiter L tbolt X RIC 214

 

Awesome tradition and I'm glad to have been a part of it this year for the first time! My Secret Saturnalia gift is from a place that I am only today learning about. I crammed a bit this afternoon but what little I've learned is fascinating!

Many thanks to my anonymous secret Santa!

 

Some awesome coins here!!!

I have to admit, I was a bit bad this year and opened my presents yesterday!

WAIT! WAIT! Let me explain. We had clear skies yesterday and I knew we wouldn't today, and I wanted good pics. So I opened a day early to get pics with sunlight, which looks way better than anything I can do artificially.


I got TWO coins.

An Aurelian tet...tet with standards and eagle was on my list!




And a Domitian!



I was unsure what this was exactly, I thought it was a fouree, but it is a limes denarius! Limes denarius was also on my list!

Thank you so much secret SS! I had the same SS I had last year, I recognized the writing on the envelope when I first got it!!

 

For about a week now my Secret Saturnalia package has been sitting under the tree taunting me! I resisted the urge to teach it a lesson by ripping it open to see what was inside only with great difficulty. The 17th could not come fast enough and I was not disappointed!

My Secret Saturnalia sent me a present all the way from Great Britain! Awesome!

So without further ado my SS sent me... two awesome new books for my library!!




Thank you SS! I love books and I didn't have either of these.

 

Very nice gifts received by everyone!

I am late in posting my loot because we had the perfect storm of holiday parties, our church chili cookoff, and wife's work potluck party. We spent the first half of the day cooking and the second half driving around town and eating. Now I can present my awesome Saturnalia gifts. The box they arrived in was much bigger than I expected. The box rattled in a way that sounded like Legos.

Opening the box, first up was this cool chocolate chip cookie tin tree ornament!

Followed by a very nice greeting card containing a coin (later!).

Followed by a hot cocoa tree ornament and a homemade lollipop.

The secret of the rattling is revealed in another favorite treat. I don't know why but I connect the holidays with eating nuts.


These are all very tasty treats and much appreciated, the finale is the coin. I have seen other CTers post these before, but this is the first one I have ever had.



Roman Republic
Q. Titius, moneyer, 90 BC
AR Quinarius, 13mm, 2.1g, 12h
Obverse: Draped bust of Victory right.
Reverse: Pegasus right, below Q TITI.
References: Crawford 341/3.

I am super happy to get the first of a new coin type! I have been picking up some Republican coins lately, so this is a timely arrival.

Thanks for all the gifts, much appreciated.

John

 

I’ve been so busy recently that this thread reminded me to open my gift from my not-secret-at-all Santa, @Nathan401.
I received a very nice letter and an awesome Postumus. I love it and seeing everybody’s gifts I think I need to step up my game next time.




Postumus 260-269 AD
Silver Antoninianus
Lugdunum mint
22mm 3.61g
OBV: IMP C POSTUMUS PF AVG
Radiate, draped and cuirassed bust of Postumus right
REV: PM TR P COS II PP
Postumus in military attire standing left holding spear and globe
RIC 54

 

I moved back home yesterday, and I had a pile of mail waiting for me. There were four packages I was not expecting. Two were quickly identified as auction catalogues, which left two mysterious packages. One was from Marc's Parts, which I had assumed to be some Lego, so I opened it. It turned out to be my Secret Saturnalia gift, so oops.



So what was it? It is an Aurelian ant that I have never seen before (not that that means too much given my inexperience with Roman imperials). It has a portrait of Vabalathus on the other side (reverse?), which effectively makes this a two-headed coin. Now I shall win every "heads or tails" game! This coin raises many questions, which shall propt me to do some research in the near future. I am really curious and excited. We'll see if I can share an interesting write-up. This bodes to be interesting.



Now the second mysterious package was a mysterious mystery of strange mystery. If it was not my Sectret Saturnalia gift, then what the heck was it? I was greeted by this note:



That raised more questions than answers. Did my name get sent out twice? Was someone so generous as to send me a lovely coin for the fun of it? Did my Secret Saturn order a coin from someone and send me one of their coins? I am stumped, but I love the coin. I think I recognize from one of @John Anthony's auctions, but I am too lazy to go back and see for sure.

It is a drachm from the Sasanian Empire. I had been wanting one of these for a while due to the styling of the headdress on the obverse. I wonder if he ever said "Do you like my hat?" The 2x2 insert identifies the fuler as Khosran II. Looks like I have some more research here as well.



So yeah... I was a bad boy and opened my gifts before Saturnalia. But I plead my case from simple confusion! @Sallent will you represent me for this case?