[Ancients] Top 10 Index

No it doesn't include shipped goods that's why I asked for a refund.

 

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Yes, I didn't think Australia was completely cut off from the outside world. It isn't quite an "On the Beach" situation. Not yet, anyway!

 

No but the dealer said he asks everyday....who's he asking a kangaroo?

 

hmm that dealer sounds either incompetent or shady. I’m not sure I’d even try and buy off of him again. Still a super cool coin though. You’ve got good taste my friend.

 

Something kind of similar happened to me. I bought but then lost out on a nice Byzantine follis of Leo VI several months back because the seller in Germany told me they were not allowed to send to the US due to pandemic. Got refunded and from another seller I bought a small Byzantine coin lot. That one was successfully shipped out from... Germany.

 

Blatant bump alert...

This post made me want to go back and find my photos of this temple and the still intact doors. Even though Romulus was not an important person in history I think the building would qualify as important for what has been learned from the rare original elements on it. It is remarkable that the doors are still intact and were not melted down to make cannons or cannon balls like much of the metal from the Pantheon was.

 

LOL, whoah! I HOPE we are not getting to that point!

 

I saw the movie and read the book in my teens. Scary.

 

Ditto.

 

I just want to point out that we have now matched our total number of lists from 2019.

So the obvious question now is... who is going to be the one to put 2020 over the top? Great lists from all involved so far.

 

We have now passed our number of lists from last year. To celebrate here is a lifetime coin of Alexander III the Great minted in Macedon.

A Lifetime Issue of Alexander the Great with Interesting Interpretations

 

Here's one that just arrived today. Though it didn't make my Top 10, and exceeds the upper limit of my $1-$100 list by about ten bucks, I thought it was too nice to not share.


MARCUS AURELIUS
AE26. 12.74g, 25.6mm. THRACE, Pautalia, AD 161-180. Varbanov 4433; Ruzicka, Pautalia 54 var. (obv legend); RPC Online IV.1 temp 10208/2 (this coin). O: ΑVΤ Κ Μ ΑVΡΗ ΑΝΤΩΝΙΝΟC, bareheaded, draped and cuirassed bust right. R: ΟΥΛΠΙΑC ΠΑVΤΑΛΙΑC, River god Strymon reclining left, holding vine branch and reed; left elbow resting on water-urn.
Ex E.L. Collection; ex Gorny & Mosch 138 (7 March 2005), lot 1653

 

That is a wonderful coin @zumbly . It is a testament to the quality of your top 10 this year that such a fantastic coin didn’t make the cut.

 

Classic denarius from one of the adopted good guys, and some new photo equipment:


Antoninus Pius 138–161 A.D. denarius RIC 313c struck 160-61 Roma
ANTONINVS AVG PIVS P P TR P XXIIII / PIETATI AVG COS IIII
Pietas, draped, holding child on each arm; at her sides, a child standing looking towards her
Ex El Medina

 

Another bump for this thread before I post my $1-$100 list. This coin's from the same auction as the one I posted above, and like that one, doesn't make either of my year end lists. It is, however, my first Apollo Sauroktonos, which was a type that had been on my want list for a number of years. I believe Doug calls this the "darting" type. Patricia Lawrence, on her webpage that catalogues all the lizard-slayer variants, refers to this as the Rousse Sauroktonos, and considers it "a modest masterpiece."

SEPTIMIUS SEVERUS
AE17. 2.0g, 17mm. MOESIA INFERIOR, Nicopolis ad Istrum, AD 193-211. Hristova-Hoeft-Jekov (2018) 8.14.7.18; Varbanov 2246. O: AV KAI CE CEVHPOC, laureate head right. R: Apollo Sauroktonos standing right with legs crossed, holding arrow in right hand, resting left hand on tree stump (on which a lizard creeps upwards?).

A month after I won this coin, I actually managed to win a second Sauroktonos variety. Unlike this one, that coin will make an appearance in my $1-$100 list!

 

This coin would have made my list had it arrived earlier. I consider it my inofficial no. 11. It came from Tauler&Fau, and since Spanish export licenses can take a while at this moment, I didn't expect to have it in hand this year. Yet, it got delivered just after Saturnalia and right in time for Christmas!

@Sulla80 did a good write-up on this somewhat scarcer Roman Republican type a while ago. On the obverse, it features Saturn, the harpa he castrated Uranus with, and the stone he swallowed instead of Jupiter. The reverse, on the other hand, refers to the Ludi Victoriae Sullanae, the games in honor of Sulla's victory, which were first held in 81 BC and organized by a relative of the moneyer.


Roman Republic, moneyer: M. Nonius Sufenas, AR denarius, 59 BC, Rome mint. Obv: S·C SVFENAS; head of Saturn r.; behind, harpa and conical stone (baetylus). Rev: PR·L·V·P·F; SEX·NONI: Roma seated l. on pile of armour, holding sceptre in r. hand and sword in l. hand; behind, Victory holding palm-branch in l. hand and crowning Roma with r. hand. Ref: RRC 421/1. 19mm, 3.92g. Ex Tauler y Fau, e-auction 69, lot 2150.

 

I have a top-10 coin flying in from Europe, which is that last coin I’m waiting for for my top-10 list, but chances are I won’t get it until January. I could go ahead and just post the list with the sellers photo anyways but I am definitely not going to jinx it, but more than likely I’ll just post another coin in its place. At this rate I’ll likely be the last one to post my thread; hopefully by then people aren’t tired out from reading and looking at Best of 2020 lists.

 

Every once and a while you run into that well struck coin that reminds you of a frozen Han Solo.








Trajan 98-117 A.D. denarius RIC II 243 Anona struck 112-114 Roma
Trajan Collection; Adoptive Emperors
IMP TRAIANO AVG GER DAC P M TR P COS VI P P
S P Q R OPTIMO PRINCIPI ALIM ITAL
Annona standing facing, head left, holding corn ears and cornucopia, child at foot left / worn die.
RIC II 243

 

There have been a lot of good almost-made-it coins posted to this thread this year. Thanks to all for sharing on the thread.

Here is another coin that I like from 2017. Nothing overly special with the exception that I appreciate the “restorer of the world” type for Aurelian because I think it is appropriate.

Roman Empire
Aurelian, AD 270-275
BI Antoninianus, Serdica Mint, struck ca. AD 274/5
Wt.: 4.1 g
Dia.: 25 mm, 12h
Obv.: IMP C AVERLIANVS PF AVG; Radiate, cuirassed bust right.
Rev.: RESTITVT ORBIS; Woman standing right presents wreath to Aurelian standing left holding spear, star between, KAA in exergue
Ref.: RIC 288
Ex JAZ Numismatics