18 Sestertii of Elagabalus - Part 2

Thanks - you are correct! It is Fredrich. The CNG catalogs are June 8, 2005, with the George His collection of Roman bronzes, and September 21, 2005 with the John E. Sullivan collection. Is Turcan's catalog online?

I have many if not most of the CNG catalogs from 2002 through 2008 or so and they are amazing, as are many of the other catalogs put out by major auction houses during this period. In fact, anyone who collected ancient coins from, say when I started in 1999 to about 2008 was lucky since the market was awash with coins from Eastern Europe, prices even for high grade coins were cheap (certainly by today's standards) and as a result there was an enormous enthusiasm among those in the hobby - either that or it was my own excitement of discovering ancient coins. And (I think) the dollar was trading well over the euro, at least for a time.

I remember going to the New York show ca. 2004 or 2005 and there were huge trays with thousands of coins from recent hoards - I thought this was normal since I was relatively new to the hobby. On ebay you had Eastern European sellers Ancient Auction House and Paganecoins, among others, selling beautiful coins at prices that seem incredible today - I still have loose leaf notebooks filled with many of their offerings. I recall at one time seeing a large shopping cart filled to the brim with "uncleaned" coins, which another Eastern European dealer sent over to the West by the ton. And back then ebay was purely an auction site, and the Eastern European sellers started the auctions at $1. I think a well known member of this group found a Jotapian in one of the incredible 100 coin ebay lots of high grade Constantine era coins offered by Paganecoins - these used to go for about $300 for the entire lot.

There was an incredible amount of enthusiasm for the hobby, as reflected in the early postings on the Moneta online board - of course there is still enthusiasm, but seems to me back then there were many more people interested in ancient coins. At the time my own means were limited since I had three young children but I did manage to buy some sestertii at prices that would not be possible today, to put it mildly.

Then the party ended - it started to wane in 2007, governments cracked down on the diggers and sellers, cultural property became a big deal, especially after it became more and more politicized after the second Gulf War, and I guess things went back to normal until by 2010 or so it was all over.

But, not to sound like a broken record (kind of an outdated phrase today), I still wonder what happened to the thousands and thousands and thousands of coins that were sold back then - even the so called "uncleaned coins. What happened? Are these just sitting around in drawers somewhere, all but forgotten?

 

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I missed the party but I doubt that the uncleaned lots that flooded the market from Eastern Europe and the Middle East included that many Sestertii. Must have been mainly Ants, LBRs and Provincials that used to circulate there while most Sestertii and Denarii seem to have been found in the western provinces of the empire.

Turcan´s study is not online, but I find it interesting that the oldest coin was struck under Augustus and was obviously still in circulation by the time the hoard was buried during the joint of Valerian and Gallienus.
Who ever collected and found it did not pick out rarities because the likes of Pertinax, Didius Julianus, Manlia Scantilla, Didia Clara, Macrinus, Diadumenianus, Julia Paula, Aquilia Severa, Paulina, Gordian I and II, Aemilian and Mariniana are all present.
Only for coins of Geta however (seems to suggest Damnatio Memoriae) and none of him as Caesar (but 10 of Caracalla as Caesar alone).

 

My recollection is that the uncleaned lots were almost all fourth century, with a few very common ants - and nothing over 22mm, and certainly no sestertii. There was a seller for awhile who would sell lots of 100 very worn sestertii - charging not much more than a few dollars apiece, if that much - they were still overpriced, which is an indication of the condition.

I am intensely curious about Turcan's study - will be looking for it in the bookseller's. That is an awful lot of sesterii in one place - Blake

 

Blake, That's a great series of sestertii !

 

I just purchased a Caracalla sestertius, RIC 509, and I am told that Banti lists one of this type. In fact, I just posted an article on this site with a photograph of the coin and I am looking for die matches of it - does Banti have a drawing of the example of RIC 509, or say if it is in a museum collection (which might be online) and if there is a drawing in Banti is it detailed enough to tell whether the die is the same as the coin I posted? Thanks!

 

Looks like a different coin from the same pair of dies.

 

Music to my ears - that's conclusive on the issue of whether this is genuine, although I was convinced already. Thanks so much for letting me know - Blake

 

Is Banti posted online anywhere? - it is probably long out of copyright - probably a monumental task to put it online but you never know - Cohen is now online.

 

This is an Aquila Severa sestertius: 30mm/16.39 grams, RIC 310. A pencil mark on the flip says ""Weber Collection" but elsewhere it says "really Wallers collection." Interesting - it was purchased from Heritage some time ago. It belongs with the images of Elagabalus. Like many of these the condition is not so good.

 

No. Banti´s work was self-published and distributed, translated and edited by Anna Banti (his wife?). It should be under copyright for another 40 years or so.

 

Your coin is from the same obverse die as mine (AV 1 in my die study), but from a different reverse (RV 6 in my study, mine is RV 4). I found three specimens from the same pair of dies as your coin in a total of 67 Sestertii of Aquilia Severa.

 

This is wonderful information! I keep a series of loose leaf notebooks where I put interesting posts or online information about sestertii, as well as photographs of sestertii. especially from the Severan period - this is going in there. Where is the total of Aquilia Severa sestertii from? Acsearch.info, my go to datebase, lists 54, but that includes the same coin in different sales, other emperors and in one instance a mis-attributed Octacila Severa (shame on the auction house that made that mistake!). The real number of different coins is probably just over half that - it is based on major auction house sales since 1999.

 

Too long a wait!

 

I found the total of 67 different Sestertii of Aquilia Severa (from just two obverse dies) taking into account AC Search, older catalogues, museums, collections, and info from Curtis Clay‘s cast collection.

 

This is such a helpful post that I come back to again and again - thanks so much!


BTW - I have searched for Turcan’s study online - no luck so far.

I just picked up another sestertius of Elagabalus that I’m going to post from Emporium - RIC 291 - Roma reverse but TRP II - a modest example not in great condition but these are not common and it was an opportunity.

There is a nice LIBERALITAS AUGUSTIII that I think is different from mine in the NY sale going off in a few days but I think I’ll let it pass because there is something else I want and funds are limited.

it may be a hot market for better ancient coins but except for the early 2000’s when was it not a hot market for the better examples?