Zumbly's 10 Favorites of 2019

@zumbly - all fascinating coins and your descriptions and context make them more so. Your top three are my top three - although I do keep looking at the leafy wings on Salonina, and the fox, and the iridescent...best wishes for the new year!

 

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Thanks for the comments, everyone!

Same here, Brian. I'd love to be able to see your amazing collection in person... but I'm afraid I'd be so tempted to pocket one of those rare quinarii or Marsic denarii.

Hah... I had to give a rueful chuckle over "Pozzi scheme". I do think the coins in that collection were nice ones, and could have done without the confusion over the pedigrees. I was excited when the name came up in the auction as well... until I took a closer look at the detailed provenances.

 

A really interesting list. My favorites are the Republican denarius for its iridescent toning, and the circus ship reverse for the fascinating write-up and context.

 

I love your Decius double sestertius ! That is an impressive coin. I'm partial to that emperor, but still don't have one of those. Have a great New Year.

 

Z! Bro! I love your collecting style, I love your collection and I love the interesting way you write about your collection. All 10 are fabulous, my friend. You have a great eye for quality.

My favorites are your #9 and #2. Both wonderful coins that offer everything from interest, to eye appeal, to fascinating provenance.

 

What a fantastic list – each and every single coin on it is stunning! Also, I greatly enjoyed reading your comments.

It's enormously hard to pick favorites here. To me, the Longinus denarius and the Epeiros stater stand out for eye appeal, the Septimius Severus denarius and the festival of Isis coin for historical interest, and the Metapontion didrachm for its Pozzi provenance. But really, all of the coins on this list are in some way special.

 

Great acquisitions! #3 is a type I've been wanting to add to my collection for a long time.

 

Thanks for the comments and coinpliments! I can’t help but notice, @Curtisimo and @benhur767, that you guys haven’t posted your year end lists yet. I hope you’re working on them as I’m really looking forward to seeing what’s going to show up on them!

 

All the coins are excellent and are chosen with a lot of knowledge and experience. My favorites are Septimius denarius with ship and Valens Festival of Isis.

 

All are wonderful, especially the Epirus stater and the Decius double sestertius.

 

You’re too kind Z. I should my list up as early as tonight. I was waiting and holding out hope on one final coin but it looks like I didn’t get it. Oh well, can’t win ‘em all.

 

Fantastic year! I love the boar hunt and the Harpocrates, but my favorite is the Salonina/Artemis. It's lovely!

Have a great 2020!

 

So this is what counts as a "slow" zumbly year, eh? What does a fast year look like?? My favourites are the boar hunt, the harpodile, the Ephesus, the Decius double, the circus scene, the Ambrakia, and the Isis. Erm, well, never mind, all of them. TIF does a great job of summing up their many virtues. I would add that the faun on #5 is particularly cute.

Umm... I've mentioned the possibility of a visit before, but now I'm thinking maybe we should keep this relationship loooooong distance?

This looks to me like a lamination defect - some impurity or porosity in the metal causes a layer of it to shear off. My understanding is that this can happen on fairly pure silver. (But my understanding is minimal... you probably already considered & rejected this possibility?)

!! Might yours have been issued for the same occasion? Wow!!

 

Nice!














#2 is a beauty!

 

Awesome @zumbly ! Any one of those would have landed on my #1 spot by a mile!

I got to go with the great silver man, the didrachm and stater are lovely ...hard to pick third place for me...awesome festival of Isis for weird coolness but the toning on that RR denarius is HOT!

 

It doesn't look like sort of lamination defect I'm familiar with, but my knowledge here is limited to a few pieces I've seen. My copy of Boutin actually arrived today, but not surprisingly, it makes no mention of this coin being plated or being anything other than a regular didrachm of Metapontion. I can imagine impurity/pitting/porosity as possibilities. The damage reminds me alot of what I often see on those Fulvia-as-Victory quinarii of Mark Antony. Like this one below, not mine, from the McCabe collection, and not noted as being plated.

Mine is from the same period (426-404 BC), but I don't think Ravel considers the ivy-wreath type as being from the same issue as the laurel-wreath type. Perhaps it commemorated some other important local event... Dionysian wine festival where everybody got epically sloshed? Either ways, super cool.

Oh, you don't have to worry on that account, Sev... nothing from your collection I really want anyway.

J/k. Here seems to the right place to share this honorable mention that, honestly, was one of the highlights of my coin year. Thanks, bud!

CRISPUS
Rare type, esp for Crispus. AE3. 3.35g, 19.9mm. Thessalonica mint, AD 319. RIC VII Thessalonica 69. O: D N FL IVL CRISPVS NOB CAES, laureate and cuirassed bust right. R: VIRT EXERC, plan of Roman camp(?), Sol standing left at center; TSЄ in exergue.

 

Thanks, Chris. I hope you have a year-end list coming out soon... or at least more Sabina fan fiction.

 

I'm working on it. Catching up with photography, so hopefully before the New Year!

 

Wow @zumbly beautiful additions this year. That Ambrakia stater is absolutely top notch with the encircling wreath of ivy! The festival of Isis coin is interesting as well. and cool that fox coin