I am more collector of silver Roman coins so this is my last buy at CNG auction from ex Phil Peck collection and I love to watch them. Photo credit to CNG. Lucius Verus. AD 161-169. Æ Sestertius (31mm, 30.47 g, 12h). Rome mint. Struck AD Struck AD 166. Laureate head right / Victory standing right, holding palm frond and fixing to palm tree shield inscribed VIC/ PAR in two lines. RIC III 1456 (Aurelius); MIR 18, 142-16/30; Banti 140. Green patina, scrape on obverse, numerous cleaning scratches on reverse.
I should look for it RIC 666 as silver is not really scarce to find a good one. Thanks to all of you.
i'm with ACH, its very nice...i have a smaller bronze provincial of him, cause he is one of the '5 good' ya know...
That's a pretty cool coin. Just be careful not to get hit by the BBV ( Big Bronze Virus). Here is the first Big Bronze of Verus I bought years ago. Lucius Verus Ae As 26mm 11.11g Rome IMP CAES L AVREL VERVS AVG / CONCORD AVGVSTOR COS II S-C Ric 1291
Indeed preservation of Sesterce particularly against Bronze disease bother me , some advice to avoid it ?
Nice first time sestertius. I really like that portrait. Mine is lower grade...and I don't want to jump to conclusions, but is this an obverse die-match with the OP? Lucius Verus Æ Sestertius (166 A.D.) Rome Mint [L VERVS AV]G ARM [PARTH MAX], laureate head right / [TR POT VI IMP IIII] COS II S C: Victory standing r. [holding palm?] attaching shield inscribed VIC PAR to palm tree. RIC 1456, Cohen 206. (20.48 grams / 28 mm)
Congrats. I'll bet it won't be your last! One of my first sestertii (if not my very first) was a Lucius Verus not dissimilar to yours. It was not quite as nice, but was relatively inexpensive, as I recall.
Mine was less than $50 USD, if I remember correctly, but that was 12-13 years ago. I think I bought it from Ancient Imports (Marc Breitsprecher) on VCoins. That's where I made all my first Roman coin purchases for that first collection.
You got a rise in prices for Roman coins at least VF, when I read the RCV pricing it is unrealistic on many VF coins nowadays first because of inflation rates and a bigger premium on VF grading for Sestertius. One of my dealer told me than all old collectors in the past were buying lower grade coins and some higher grade mixing their collection, now buyers want first at leat VF or good VF sestertius so good ones are not anymore cheap. I love this coin so the price is not cheap but fair for me.
Actually, if you have really, really low standards (like I do!) you can get a sestertius pretty cheap. I am unreasonably pleased with this yellow, ugly monster from Hadrian - part of a lot off eBay that worked out to less than 2 dollars each: The reverse damage is interesting - horribly cratered, yet some of the legend/devices survive. Bronze disease rescue? Tooling? I don't know why anybody would bother. Hadrian Æ Sestertius (134-138 A.D.) Rome Mint [HA]DRIANVS AVG COS III P P, laureate head right / FEL[ICITAS AVG] S C, Felicitas, draped, standing left, holding caduceus in right hand and cornucopiae in left RIC 748d (see notes) (25.81 grams / 30 mm) Attribution Note: This appears to be a non-draped head, but wear makes this not entirely certain. OCRE does not list this, though I found several auctions not draped; all use "RIC 748". Only one auction note RIC 748d. Numsimatik Naumann Auction 65, lot 621 June 5, 2018
Paradoxically, you may have low standards but you have good taste in low-end coins, and there's quite a lot to be said for that. At two bucks from a bulk lot, that Hadrian is a great cherrypick, in my opinion. I think the reverse damage was caused by Mother Nature, and is merely the aftereffects of pitting. I've had detector finds that looked like that.
I promise it will not remain your last Sestertius . I ended up discarding everything else and just decided to just concentrate on big bronzes. Here is my Lucius Verus - with honest wear but lots of eye appeal due to original Orichalcum tone: