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#7 Heraclea featuring Romulus and Remus

 

The Heraclea one is really nice and I thought pretty reasonable. It's kind of funny in that the first one that was labeled Constantine I did not photograph well for me on this at all. In hand, that one looks so much clearer for the image and is a prettier brown and actually gleams in hand. I will have a lot to learn, as the first is said to be from the Kyzicos Mint and the one you have chosen as a favorite is given as a Sears 16517. Coin 5 is also similar, and the label gives no number... just says has helmeted bust of Roma 1 and the She-wolf and Romulus and Remus. Really not great condition, but was really inexpensive, so I thought I would compare similar coins and see if I like any in particular and use as to looking to identify more properly. Photography for now, the greenish one (#7) is pretty striking.

Here are the three in individual photos... but again, the first one looks really nice but did not photograph well. And my photoing is not the greatest anymore. I will have to re-try sometime.

 

The others as individual photos are:

 

7, 6, 2

 

That was what I chose as well.

 

A while back Valentinian started a thread on particularly attractive versions of fairly common coins I think that Heraclea commemorative qualifies.

 

3, 7, and 8 for me. I like the Heraclea, a seated half dime is always nice, and Hanover has a neat monogram.

 

@lordmarcovan the grade for the Half Dime is XF40. I really liked the CircCam type look of it, which is kind of why I got this one instead of either something else or passing it by. I usually don't get that sort of thing, but I've been admiring some of the CircCams posted here on CT. The other two are more what I've been looking for as far as grades. I got the Dime with a MS62 and the Liberty Nickel as an AU58.... looks of a MS62-64 in a way but a lot less $$$ and I am happy with it. I really do like this one as it has the die crack that is very common with this issue and which, though it did not photo that well, seems to be almost completely around the coin... possibly completely, but I think I would have to have higher magnification to see that and better looks under light. Via eye and my 7x loupe, I can see it all around except for between the 5th and 6th star on the coins right hand side (at about 3-4 o'clock area)

 

6, 7 & 4 here (4 has a very good portrait stylewise, but lacks a bit of obverse legend and the reverse is a pity, otherwise it would be #1)

Q

 

You are posting in the Ancients section so I had to choose one of those, but I still have an affinity for the US with which I cut my teeth.

Fav is #8 (now you need the No Arrows at Date, which if you want one in similar grade will cost you quite a bit more)

followed by #10 and #7 respectively.

and I agree with LM in liking the woodgrain toning on the 2 pfennig and is that a die break on the 1883 w/Cents? (I just read the Replies - nice crack!)

Here is the closest I can come to what you've shown and what I liked:

a half-dime:



a dime I just recently got rid of (Cough, Cough! Uhm, where is @lordmarcovan) and converted into another ancient for the collection!



and a URBS ROMA Commem:



All in all nice scores @Kasia !

 

Feel free to comment, I am just learning about the URBS ROMAs. I weighed and measured the three ones that are Rome Commemoratives and are bronze follises. The one from Cyzicus (Coin 1) is one of two AE3s, and weighs almost twice as much as the other this size. It weighs 3.118 grams. Coin 7 is also an AE3 but it only weighs 1.783 grams. Coin 5 is a smaller AE4 and weighs 2.158 grams. I learned that these are likely not to have been minted while Constantine I was alive, but were later ones and all the busts are of a helmeted Roma (a female deity who personified the city of Rome) and the ones with the she-wolf and the twins sucking are the founders of Rome, Romulus and Remus. The two stars above the she-wolf are representative of Castor and Pollux (and I learned a new word: Dioscuri, which simply is referring to these two twins together --- as does "Polydeuces"). I learned to measure the diameter on a ruler to figure out AE sizes, too. Wow!
The mints are the letters in exergue are the mintmarks, and the one from Cyzicus is from the asian area (Kapu Dagh, Turkey) as is the one marked Heraclea (Eregli, Turkey). Cyzicus has the SMK and Heraclea the SMH, and the last letter is maybe the office that did this. Offices at each mint varied in different times. I am not sure exactly what an 'office' is, but I am suspecting it might simply mean that each mint site had a certain number of minting facilities and these were called offices. Who knows??? I don't yet. The smallest one, an AE4, is evidently minted at Rome, as part of the mintmark has RO in it.

I have not figured out which ones these three are actually of. Might not be able to figure out the Rome mint one, as some place said that the AE4s were common as anything and it is pretty worn. The other two, one is already identified and it seems so far that is likely true, and the other is not identified but is maybe going to be somewhere near ones (similar to) id'd as RIC VII 90 or something. You can see I am so confident (LOL), I don't even know for sure. I'm just guessing, maybe.

Lastly, these are all Roman Imperial Coinage (and I am guessing that is what RIC in Ric numbers stands for).

Even though these are all not different emperers on here, I learned a lot so far and expect to learn a lot more. I am glad I bought the three URBS ROMAs.

 

I posted in this section because most of my newps were ancients. And making two of the same type thread seemed redundant (though it might get a few non-ancient collectors to see these are really cool). So... and I love your coins, @dadams -- I actually do have more expensive taste, but my wallet just does not permit it. I found this out as a kid when my mom would take me shopping, and everything I liked turned out to be the most expensive or 'best'.