Need Roman ID

Discussion in 'Ancient Coins' started by 7Calbrey, Jul 27, 2019.

  1. 7Calbrey

    7Calbrey Well-Known Member

    I suspected Alexander Severus on obverse of this bronze coin weighing 13.1 g. The reverse shows a male standing, holding scepter with left hand and pathera over altar with right hand. Could you please guess the name of the Emperor on this coin? Thanks. Alxcon.JPG Alxcord R.JPG
     
    ominus1, Ima Dragon, Plumbata and 3 others like this.
  2. Avatar

    Guest User Guest



    to hide this ad.
  3. Finn235

    Finn235 Well-Known Member

    I'd bet a button that's a young Caracalla.
     
  4. Sulla80

    Sulla80 Well-Known Member

    Ima Dragon and 7Calbrey like this.
  5. octavius

    octavius Well-Known Member

    I agree with Finn and Sulla - looks like young Caracalla.
     
    7Calbrey likes this.
  6. 7Calbrey

    7Calbrey Well-Known Member

    Thanks guys. Yes Caracalla from Amaseia- Pontus. It's listed as "very rare".
     
  7. gsimonel

    gsimonel Well-Known Member

    Not to be snarky or anything, but I'd assume most provincials would be very rare since most of them were intended for local trade. There are exceptions, of course--Markianopolis, Antioch, Nicopolis--but when you consider that most cities minted coins of different emperors and with different reverses, and the percentage that are still well-enough preserved to be positively identified after 1500-2000 years, I'd guess that the odds of there being more than 100 or so of any one particular type of Roman provincial coin to be pretty low. Am I off base about this?
     
    7Calbrey and Ima Dragon like this.
  8. Roman Collector

    Roman Collector Well-Known Member

    Not off base at all. There's an old saying about ancient coins that applies particularly to Roman provincials: "Rare coins are common."
     
    7Calbrey, ominus1 and Ima Dragon like this.
  9. lehmansterms

    lehmansterms Many view intelligence as a hideous deformity

    "Rarity", per se, is one of the most overused concepts in marketing coins. If you say "Rare!" on every coin you list for sale (as I see way too many sellers using it this way), it becomes just like the sellers who always boost their grading at least a whole level in print, too. The use of a posted grade is virtually meaningless in, say, any ebay listing of an ancient or medieval coin - saying it's "rare" is also right up there in the meaningless stratosphere.
    People don't buy any but the most important and published coin-types on the basis of rarity. The je ne sais quoi of "eye appeal" is WAY more important in 99+% of sales situations than any empirical combination of technical grade and rarity.
    If you wish to make rarity a dimension and parameter of your personal collection, that's fine, but "possibly/probably unique" pieces (particularly among Provincial issues) are almost literally more common than "common" Provincials.
     
    ominus1 and Ima Dragon like this.
  10. ancient coin hunter

    ancient coin hunter 3rd Century Usurper

    Yes, "rare" seems to be a bit commonplace with Roman provincials. I agree that eye appeal is probably a better guarantor of future marketability.
     
  11. ominus1

    ominus1 Well-Known Member

    ..whoever it is ( i don't think its Sev.Alex meself) it's a dang fine lQQkin' portrait coin Charles...:)
     
    7Calbrey likes this.
Draft saved Draft deleted

Share This Page