Year End list 2019 - dougsmit

You always have interesting coins and interesting reasons why you add them to your collection. These are no exception.

 

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Great stuff, @dougsmit ! I enjoy them all, but am drawn to Niger, and am fascinated with the holed-with-wire loop.

Great year, Doug! And thanks, as always, with the informative write-ups!

IO SATURNALIA
MERRY XMAS
Namaste,
Brian

 

Love your top ten list! Really interesting and diverse coins. My favs are the Baktrian and Parthian examples/ but have to admit your AR John I cut Farthing is nice. I am glad another one of Steves coins found a good new home.
Merry Christmas! Doug....
John

 

I really enjoyed your top 10 list, Doug, not only for the coins, but for the reason you sought them as well as your sometimes mixed feelings about some of them.

You really should consider doing a "worst of 2019" list - I for one would like to see it. This because it is a mystery to me why some coins I think I'd really get interested in do not seem to maintain my interest, while others I didn't think I'd get too worked up about I find very compelling. For instance, as in your list, I think hammered UK pennies would tickle my fancy more, but after a couple of hours staring at crowns and trying to see if I see a trefoil, I find my enthusiasm waning. These collecting endeavors that don't work out can be instructive, I think.

Since you brought up the Julia Domna with the Venus reverse, I thought I'd horn in and share one I have that I believe is from Emesa (corrections always welcome). The Empress looks to be in a bad mood:



Julia Domna Denarius
(193-196 A.D.)
Emesa (Homs) Mint
IVLIA DOMNA AVG, draped bust right / VENER VICTOR, Venus standing right, naked to below buttocks, resting elbow on column, holding apple, palm cradled in arm. (ex-Cederlind)
RIC 633; RSC 189.
(2.64 grams / 17 mm)

 

Yes, this is the mint Mattingly assigned to Emesa but sometimes we see it as Emesa or Laodicea and some recent writers have moved to Antioch or Cappidocea. It might be better just to say 'Eastern' but I prefer to stick with "Emesa" in full realization that "I don't know" is at least as accurate. M personal tendency is to assign these coins to a mobile mint operation travelling with the emperor but that is no more than a romantic pipe dream either.

Your coin has the VICTOR reverse I mentioned above. From style, I suspect these are later than the VICTR coins but attaching exact numbers to things like that is above my pay grade. I know I tend to dismiss changes proposed by students that have no better comments than they are sure the old answers are wrong. I believe Emesa was a guess based on the theory that Antioch was disgraced by supporting Pescennius Niger and Emesa was politically correct as the home of Domna. The question is whether we should post guesses, however educated, and have them copied and parroted as if they were certain fact. I can live with Eastern or "Emesa" (quotation marks significant) until I feel comfortable with the other proposals. I won't be around to see what 22nd century scholars have to say about all this but I would really like to know both what and why.

Some dies are cuter.


Some are not.

 

Thanks for the info, Doug!

 

I regret not being able to post my appreciation for this wonderful list until tonight. Doug, it won't surprise you that my favourite is the Domna. I will miss that delightful booty and the elegant portrait (which your photo shows very well), but I'm very pleased to know the coin has found its rightful place. I wouldn't have given it up for anyone but you, you know that, right?

I'm also glad the Emesa double dot made your list! Otherwise my favourites are the ex X6 overstrike, the Antialkidas, and the Niger.

Everyone will probably be interested to see what I got in return for that trade this month. Nobody needs to feel sorry for me, that's for sure. I now have two things that I've been after for quite some time. The first is something that Doug introduced me to, via this very coin:



It is of course a Severus Alexander Alexandrian tetradrachm, but the neat thing about it is that it was minted in Rome. Obviously something I needed! And this is a beautiful example. The photo doesn't do it justice (I'll have to redo it).

The second is something I've been after for much longer. They don't come up that often, and although I've taken a swing at a few, they were always misses. Fortuna must have been smiling down on me, because now I get to have one with a Doug Smith provenance and a perfectly centred reverse:


T. Didius (113-112 BCE) AR denarius, Rome. Obv: Helmeted head of Roma right, Roma monogram to left, mark of value below. Rev: Two gladiators fighting, each holding shield, one attacks with flail, the other with staff or sword. Crawford 294/1.

The bit of obverse porosity doesn't bother me, because it's the reverse I care about: what an action shot! The composition and especially the depiction of the gladiator on the right are really special IMO.

Anyway, we both ended up very happy with the trade. Thanks Doug, and congrats on a great year! I'm glad I could help make it better.

 

@Severus Alexander - It is a good trade when both get something they like. You got two great coins, and my favorite is the whip guy -