Top 5 Of 2021- Joshua Lemons Vote For Up To Two

I've been lurking around the ancients boards. As a collector of world coins, ancients seemed to be a natural progression for me. But, it's certainly intimidating. I present to you my top 5. I've bought these coins from reputable dealers because of three reasons: I liked them, I could afford them, they're silver. I know my photos are sub par and I hope to work on that this upcoming year. In no particular order.

1. Salonina, silvered antoninianus, Sicia mint

2. Caracalla, silver denarius, Rome mint, c. 214 AD.

3. Severus Alexander, silver denarius

4. Trajan Decius, silver antoninianus

5. Maximinus Thrax, denarius, Rome mint, 235-236 AD

Thanks for looking!

 

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I'll take the bad boys for $200 Max Thrax and Caracalla!
Thanks for sharing

 

Of course, I forgot the poll, always something with me...smh

 

You found a good group for a start. I like Salonia and AEQVITAS holding scales. I like that you can see the proper way hold a scale.

 

Nice coins @Joshua Lemons and welcome to the ancient forum!

My favorites are your Max Thrax and your Caracalla denarii. Nice detail!

My favorite Caracalla denarius suffers a bit in the eye appeal category but I bought it partly for the 1940’s provenance.


I look forward to seeing more of your ancient coin acquisitions in the future.

 

Welcome aboard, @Joshua Lemons. Looks like you're off to a fine start .

My faves are the Caracalla and the Severus Alexander.

 

Agreed!

 

Love that Caracalla denarius, although he was the last person one to love!

 

Caracalla and that Thrax guy

 

Very nice!....As you said the photos are a little bit out of focus but I can still tell all the portraits look nice including the Salonina!...Especially find the Caracalla and Max sweet looking coins...Welcome to ancients...Congrats on a fine quintet.

 

Good group! Technically the Salonina is not considered silver since by that time the alloy used was very, very low and a thin silver wash was placed on the coins to make thm look silver. Sometimes we see them described as 'silvered'. Yours is a very nice specimen. Many you see have lost all the original silver wash and look like the one below.

 

So more like what we'd call billon?

 

I too, voted for Caracalla and Max Thrax. I don't think your photos are far off: it's just that they're all a little blurry. Are you holding the camera in your hands when you take them?

 

Nice coins! I too focused on world coins for many years, with ancients in the background. Now, things are reversed, with world coins now relegated to the odd purchase.

I really like the strike on the Caracalla denarius. The modeling of his portrait is also very good for this period.

I also voted for the Salonina antoninianus - very nice.

 

I'm not, but I think I know my error, I zoomed in a bit, then put that photo through an editing program. I'll try again without zooming in with 4 coins that didn't make the list because it added up to nine. A top 9 would've been odd. I have been practicing a lot lately with my photography, but all I have is a phone.
I actually have a 10th ancient coin, but it's Greek and I've posted it previously, so I tried to keep this post cohesive with just Roman coins.

 

Just get the clearest photos you can without zooming in, and then simply crop the results.

 

Welcome! I went with the Caracalla and Decius. The Genius of Illyricum type is a nice one to have for Decius.

 

Those are the two I actually chose personally from the lot.

 

Good start with ancient coins; nice coins @Joshua Lemons. My favorites are #2 with a great portrait of Caracalla, and also # 5 with a great portrait of Maximinus Trax.

 

Caracalla and Thrax would be my choices, with a plus for Caracalla.
Regarding the photos - I am not the best photographer from CT and I was rarely able to get a decent photo with my phone until I bought an old cheap digital camera, more like an experiment as I didn't think a low-mid range product from 2007 can beat a new(ish) phone.

The results are excellent - on some occasions the pics are out of focus but the cause is the photographer, not the camera. I also need to make sure the light is appropriate and the flash/zoom cannot be used with macro (as expected) but the results are overall excellent.