What's Your Favorite Coin???

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Oh my goodness, a single favourite coin?
That's like picking a favourite song. Or a favourite child
Impossible I say!

When I set up my collection for gazing, I usually stick to one tray of 20 coins and making that cut is miserable enough.

Anyway here are my 2 favourites today

One just came in the mail this morning..



The other has just finished 1 month of soaking, cleaning, and bronze disease rehab; I'm quite happy with the results!

 

Don't think I could pick just one! I do have a few top coins from each of my areas of focus...

Roman Imperial:
Caracalla AR Denarius, LIBERALITAS XIIII

I have not yet ventured into the world of $1,000+ coins, but this inexpensive denarius has what I would consider a "masterpiece" portrait, the work of a true artist and unique in its embodiment of this emperor's trademark snarl


Greek:
Alexander the Great lifetime Tetradrachm, Tarsus mint
Price 3027

This was the fulfillment of a childhood dream - this is a coin I had always drooled over, yet never thought I would actually own one day. I left it out on my desk to drool over it for at least four months before I finally put it up in my binder.

Indo Sassanian
My Avatar! Finn type 1.3.1

I started out collecting these with the goal of collecting just a handful, but this was my "Aha!" moment in which I began to understand the puzzle of these coins as a whole, and in my digging for more info, I came to realize how much there was left to discover. This type is still one of my favorite variety, mainly for the bizarre aesthetics at play here.

 

I have always really liked that coin of yours Randy - the patina is lovely.

 

Although I have other Ancients which have cost me multiples of this one, I like the coin for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it was one of my earliest Ancient acquisitions and set me up to look at collecting ancients seriously. Secondly its state of preservation for a coin that is almost 2,500 years old.

Ozbaal/Azbaal Shekel 400-340 BC. War galley proceeding left with prow terminating in lion's head, containing three hoplites with crested helmets and round shields, on zigzag line of waves; below, Phoenician inscription OZ above back of hippocamp facing left with murex shell below. Phoenician inscription 'ZBL' MLK GBL, lion left attacking bull. SNG Copenhagen 132. HGC 10, 133.

MS 5/5 and 5/5

 

Great coins everybody and thanks for sharing your faves.

 

Like many of you I can't choose an ultimate unchanging favorite as that depends on the mood of the day and the sub-collections being worked on at the moment, but here's the favorite coin obtained within the past week.



Big heavy 1,297 gram (rather larger than normal for them) 19th century copper "Katanga cross" ingot coin from the Congo. It's quite young but feels ancient and looks right at home among my copper and bronze age artifacts. I've wanted one since I saw one in a children's history of coin and money picture book when I was a little kid, and now 25 years later was lucky enough to stumble upon a cheap poorly listed collection with 3 katanga crosses plus a variety of other interesting African artifacts.

 

@Plumbata All I can say is WOW!......I lived in the Congo (Zaire) for nearly a year working as an O.N.G.....I actually saw some of these cross coins being traded for food, clothes etc and didn't know what the hell was going on!....Thanks for letting me know I wasn't dreaming! Great finds!

 

@Plumbata I see me having to find me a Katanga cross now.

 

I can't choose 1, but my top 2 are the one my great-grandfather passed down (for reasons unknown, but it could have been passed down from his dad)


Then there's the one I purchased that could have been held by my 15th-great-grandfather


It's honestly hard to choose.

 

I'll answer this a bit differently than I have in the past - by metal.

My favourite silver coin.



Vespasian
AR Denarius, 2.84g
Rome mint, 74 AD
Obv: IMP CAESAR in exergue; Vespasian stg. r., with branch and sceptre, in quadriga r.
Rev: VESP AVG across field; Victory on prow r., with wreath and palm
RIC 688 (R). BMC 147. RSC 569. BNC 121.
Ex Nomos Obolos 4, 21 February 2016, lot 575. Ex GH Collection. Ex Superior Galleries, The Moreira sale, Part II, 10-11 December 1988, lot 2374.


My favourite bronze.

Vespasian
Æ Sestertius, 24.45g
Lyon mint, 71 AD
Obv: IMP CAES VESPASIAN AVG P M TR P P P COS III; Head of Vespasian, laureate, r.; globe at point of bust
Rev: CAESAR AVG F DES IMP AVG F COS DES II; S C in exergue; Titus and Domitian stg. front, each with spear and parazonium
RIC 1132 (R). BMC 799. BNC -.
Acquired from Romae Aeternae, June 2019.

 

I like @David Atherton 's answer ...(and his coins!).

Favorite Silver:


My super young looking Trajan portrait...

Trajan, AD 98-117
Roman AR denarius; 2.92 gm, 20.1 mm,
Rome, AD 114-117
Obv: IMP CAES NER TRAIANO OPTIMO AVG GER DAC, laureate and draped bust, right
Rev: P M TR P COS VI P P S P Q R, Mars walking right with spear and trophy
Refs: RIC 337

Favorite Bronze? That is tough as the vast majority of my coins are bronze.... so I will post two...



COMMODUS AUGUSTUS AE sestertius. 184–185 AD. 30mm sestertius
M COMMODVS ANT-ON AVG PIVS BRIT, laureate head of Commodus right. Reverse - VOTA SVSCEP DECEN P M TR P X IMP VII COS IIII P P, emperor, veiled and togate, sacrificing left from patera over tripod, S—C across field. RIC 454a


Large AE portrait of Julius Caesar. Imperatorial Era:
Octavian/Augustus and Divus Julius Caesar,
Orichalcum Sestertius, 29mm. Mint in Italy, 38 BC.
Obv: CAESAR DIVI F bare head of Octavian right
Rev: DIVOS IVLIVS laureate head of Julius Caesar right
(I have JC on the left here.. because awesome...)

 

I love this coin.

 

Yeah Athenian Owls are great!

 

Great Coins, everyone

Its really hard to pick my favorite...I like them all

But here are my three coins from different time periods, ancient/ medieval/ baroque

AV Stater ND/ Salamis Mint
Nikokreon Satrap of Cyprus under Ptolemy 330-10BC
AV Saluto d'or ND Naples Mint
Carlo D'Angio King of Naples 1254-1285
AV 2 Dukaten ND Danzig Mint
John III Sobieski of Poland 1674-96

 

Mine is this Seleukos coin.

 

Well I think i don't have access to image post.

 

Seleukos Nikator coin I got this year It's actually quite shiny compared to the photo.

 

As a majority here says, they are all my favorites, but one that sticks out to me.
M. Aurelius Scarus 118 BC AR Denarius
3.95g 19mm Narbo Mint
M AVRELI ROMA XVI monogram behind helmeted head of Roma right
Gallic warrior driving biga right, SCAVRI below/ L LIC CN DOM

 

Good to see this thread up again - since I often feel the latest coin I acquire is the "best," this could keep going forever. That's how fickle I am.

Here is my latest "favorite" - and I don't even know what it is. Yet another countermark about which I really have no clue - a Roman Provincial, I think, with a big "N E" (in a 10 mm wide oval) countermark on an AE 22 (9.82 grams). Is that Tiberius on the obverse?

Somebody please tell me what it is! I'd like it so much more if I knew something about it. For now my favorite - until the Post Office makes another delivery.