Saturday Night Free For All

Kinda fun having a coin minted in the Country by the Authority of Him or His Father, whom became the Buddha. He could have touched or spent this coin. For me, it is purdy cool!

 

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I love those Cyzicus Claudius II coins. When I made my Milan mint thread, I almost made another for Cyzicus. I think the coins from Cyzicus are probably the most artistic and interesting of Claudius II's coinage. I'll see if I get get some photos and post a few of mine tonight too! Great coins.

Anyway, a new arrival this week that I haven't yet shared is the below coin of Constantius I from Alexandria. I have coins of the other emperors of this period (mostly) but a Constantius Genio with a curly beard had to this point evaded me. I put in a bid, expecting to pay less than I finally did. It ended up going for more than I'd expected but won anyway... yay me? Anyhoo, I still like it. The photo isn't great, I'll work on that.

I mainly like it due to Constantius administrating so far from Alexandria but still having coins struck for him there.

Constantius I - Alexandria - GENIO POPVLI ROMANI - RIC VI 31a

 

The above coin joins my earlier Diocletian that I love...

 

Heres's one of my favorite Claudius II coins from Cyzicus...

Claudius II - Cyzicus - VICTORIAE GOTHIC - RIC V-1 252V

 

Sometimes when going through my boxes I find a coin that I had found some extra info on. Phaselis Ar Tetradrachm In the name and types of Alexander the Great 206-205 B.C. Price 2853 16.77 grms 30mm, Photo by W. Hansen.
When I bought the coin I knew it had a pedigree dating back to 2003. However while searching for another coin I found it in a auction dating back to 1996

 

Though I had promised myself to stop adding small bargain coins to my collection, I couldn't resist spending €4 on this barbarous imitation of a Claudius II "Consecratio"-issue. It has comic value:

 

It's Saturday night where I am, and I just took pictures of this recent addition. I'm not fully happy with how they turned out. The coin has very bright and shiny silver, which I find hard to photograph:


Roman Republic, moneyer: P. Servilius Rullus, AR denarius, 100 BC, Rome mint. Obv: RVLLI, bust of Minerva l., wearing Corinthian helmet and aegis. Rev: P SERVILI M F; Victory in biga r., holding palm-branch in l. hand and reins in r.; in field, P (for ex argento publico?). 20mm, 3.90g. Ref: RRC 328.

 

It's Saturday again time flies. It's also autumn and I can't believe how fast this weird summer just passed. This summer was also a period when I bought far more coins than usually, mostly cheap late roman bronzes, coins that take me back to when I first fell in love with ancient numismatics. With the fields I work in being hit hard by the pandemic and mostly the lockdown, kids and lots of cats and other critters at home, I don't know for how long I'll be able to keep adding coins (even cheap ones) to the fold.

But for now, here are two specimens from Tareq Hani's collection:

 

Liking that one a lot, @Orielensis. Yes, Comic value. That eagle looks like somebody just threw a rock at him. (...Hope he got out of the way in time.)

 

@seth77, from here, the second one is especially great. Involuntarily evoking the Carolingian deniers with reverse legends consisting of vertical lines in the field.
Another example to illustrate someone's graduate thesis on the appropriation of specifically late Roman motifs during the Carolingian Renaissance.

 

This series is well known as Constantine's "dynastic" coinage minted for his vicennalia in 324/5 to 326 during his journey throughout the Empire as the sole ruler and emperor, starting in the East and ending in Rome in 326. This specimen belongs possibly to the second issue of the series, minted at Antioch in 325, before Constantine began his vicennial route. The series started at Antioch and could be put in the context of the arrival of Constantine in the city in early 325 (or December 324), after the defeat of Licinius and the takeover of the East.

The type is plentiful in Antioch, marking probably the long stay of Constantine and of the Imperial Court there before starting the journey towards Rome. Such a long stay would fit with so many of these coins being minted from around the end of 324 to mid 325. While plentiful as far as dynastic coinage is concerned, these issues are still fairly scarce and have a direct connection with Constantine, as they were only struck in different places while the emperor was there, very likely to be used as donative pieces during his triumphal processions.

 

Sometimes when I go through my boxes I find coins which I have owned seemingly forever but hardly ever look at. I am thinking I should start a thread. L. Aemilius Lepidus Paulus Ar Denarius 62 B.C. Obv Veiled head of Concordia right. Rv. L Aemilius Paulus standing to the right facing Perseus King of Macedon and his sons left. In between a trophy. Crawford 415/1a 3.84 grms 18 mm Photo by W. Hansen

 

My summer has been the opposite of @seth77 with few coins added (all shown here before) so my coin population is still -40 from the group sold through AMCC2. Of course the new coins are much more expensive than the ones delisted. Much of my time has been spent planning and preparing images for two Zoom talks I have scheduled with coin clubs in places I do not live. Trying to show things that will contribute to the points being made has required more thought than I had considered. It can be hard to explain something that seems obvious to me but not to everyone else.

The DC group (ANSW) talk will be on coin photography repeating the one I gave to them about 22 years ago when I was a resident member and officer in the club. On that day I was using a film camera and took a photo for each member of the group who brought one for the purpose. I gave them the prints and only have saved one image which appeared on my website. That coin was the only aureus I had ever touched and it still is. I doubt that will change. I do know people with aurei but getting a camera and coin in the same place is harder today that in was long ago. At the time I was under pressure to make pages load quickly for people who paid by the byte for Internet. I do wish I had saved a larger file of that coin. I did not plan ahead.

Marcus Aurelius, AV(gold) Aureus, 161 AD

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This website fails to present a balanced overview of ancient coins in one major respect. There is almost no material presented on gold coins. While they exist in reasonably large numbers, these coins remain out of the price range of most collectors including this student and most of the people who have allowed him to photograph their collections for the purpose of illustrating these pages. Our exceptional example (not my coin, to be sure!) shows the standard gold denomination of the early Empire, the Aureus of 25 denarii. Only slightly larger than the silver denarius in diameter, the greater weight of gold places most aurei around 7g or twice the weight of the denarius. The coin was issued just after the death of Antoninus Pius, the time when Marcus Aurelius had first became Augustus. The reverse shows Marcus shaking hands with his co-emperor Lucius Verus promoting concord between the two men sharing power in the Empire. This time of two Augusti was a first for Rome but it was a situation that would be repeated many times over the coming centuries.

A sample image from the group made for the ANSW talk on coin Photography is below. I wonder if it will illustrate the point for which it was made to people who be guessing what I am thinking. I will not label it here. Can you tell what it illustrates? This image is larger than most I post here so clicking on it will make it easier to see the point. Should I add 1, 2, 3, 4 to the arrows?


Not buying as many coins has not been cheaper since I did buy a new lens for my camera. I took a few coin photos with it (including both of the large images shown in this post) but find it less appropriate for coins than my old 100mm macro so it will have to earn it's place in my life in other ways.

Taken with a 35mm macro lens (much too close to the coin)


We are well. I hope all of you are also.

 

Is that a slide on describing image or shot stacking (not sure what it's called)? It's a process where several photos are taken, each with focus on a different part of the coin. The point is to combine many photos with an outcome of one image with focus on every part of the coin. Correct?

 

A pretty slow week here... the only new coin is this Valerian.

I've seen a lot of talk about the big auctions but even on ebay, common coins are selling for a lot more than they were pre-pandemic. Anyway, I spent a bit more than I would have liked to get this common but nice coin.

Valerian I
IMP VALERIANVS AVG, radiate, draped bust right.
P M TR P V COS IIII P P, Valerian and Gallienus standing
facing each other, resting hands on shields between them,
two spears behind.
Antioch
RIC 277; RSC 169; Goebl 1598a.

 

Really nice - so hard to find a lovely coin of Valerian. Great one!

 

Inexpensive Bee arrived this week... only 11mm



To add to my larger 16mm Bee:



I really find it amazing how the natural world was chronicled by the ancients. As annoying as bees may seem we know now how important they are to the world we live in, amazing that this was understood and honored by our ancestors.

 

I've always wanted to snag on of these bees... but have not yet been successful. Both are great but that smaller one must really be beautiful. At 11mm, it's got a lot of detail for a little coin. Nice grab!

 

Looking into this coin, it is said that it imitates the below coin of Augustus.

Note on this coin... I bought this one broken and glued for $10. I'd always meant it as a hole filler and to buy a replacement but have not to this point. But an Augustus denarius, although broken and beat up for $10... that's not bad.

 

Amazing!!!!