Today I completed my subcollection of Julia Mamaea denarius reverse types! Post your Mamaea coins or anything you feel is relevant! Note: Several of the denarii listed in RIC do not actually exist or are ancient imitations. Here is the list of dubious issues in RIC and why I do not consider them official issues. Fecunditas: RIC 331 RIC 332 Felicitas: RIC 335 RIC 338 Juno: RIC 341 RIC 343
Nice job completing the collection @Roman Collector ! Always a cool feeling. After a short while, though... you begin to get this empty feeling and a new yearning to assemble and complete ANOTHER cool collection! Big fun, AGAIN!
Collections need never finish. Just tweak the requirements a bit. Obverse die clash. My peacock looks a bit like a Dodo bird. Do it again in bronze???
Great looking set, RC. Impressive. Like Doug said, time for the bronze...or Provincials. Here she is via Bostra, Arabia:
Neat! I love small sub-collections with a mini-theme with a few or several coins that can be completed, or almost completed. I can think of very many large themes (e.g. some listed on my site: http://augustuscoins.com/ed/catalogs/themes.html ) but they are too large to hope for anything like completion, even in decades. Setting yourself small mini-theme collections, but not being exclusive, in addition to the bigger themes that interest you, gives you a chance to try to fill out a small group. That's a lot of fun.
Definitely time to start on the Provincials now. JULIA MAMAEA AE27. 11.42g, 26.5mm. MESOPOTAMIA, Nisibis, AD 222-235. SNG Cop 236; BMC 10 var. (crescent below bust). O: IOV MAMEA CEBACTH, diademed draped bust right. R: CEΠ KOΛO NECIBI MH B, turreted, veiled, draped Tyche right, topped by Aries the Ram leaping right with head turned left; in front of chin, a star.
Congrats! A very nice set! I have (rather idly) wondered if the portraits without the diadem/stephane were actually issued under Elagabalus. It seems only commonly found on the Juno Conservatrix type (also issued under Elagabalus, e.g. for Julia Paula and Julia Maesa) which is never found with diadem, the portrait style seems similar to Soaemias, and she typically looks younger than in the diademed portraits. She could well have received the title of Augusta before Alexander's elevation. Any thoughts on this?
Congratulations on completing your set. Please forgive the ignorant question, but are these all from the Rome mint?
The bare-headed issues are early in any case. BMCRE considers the IVNO CONSERVATRIX type to have been the first denarius issued by Severus Alexander for his mom and dates it to the first emission, AD 222. The bare-headed bust version of the VENVS GENETRIX type is the second denarius issued for her, dated to the third emission, from AD 223.
Let me offer my congratulations to you for reaching the first plateau on the antoniniani of Julia Mamaea. I remember the satisfaction that came when I completed the basic set in 2017. But, soon enough, I realized that there is more, if you are up to it. In three articles in this forum you have given very little space or credit for the contributions of Harold Mattingly via BMCRE to the study of these coins. They are not given any mention in your list of references, and you have bypassed his work to return to RIC. May I ask why?
