This is over the course of about two weeks: Marcus Aurelius, AR Denarius Severus Septimius, AR Denarius Aurelian, AE Sassanian AR Drachm, Khusru II Trajan Decius, AR Antoninius Antoninius Pius, AR Denarius stainless
Ive been looking at Marcus Aurelius but havent found one with a reverse style I love that isnt too pricey. The Severus Alexander is nice. That Aurelian & Sassanian look familiar Cool Trajan D. & Pius. Guess my two week spread of good luck has worn onto you now. Im losing bids left & right :/
I like the beefy look of the Aurelian. In all honesty I have a lot of trouble finding Pius or Aurelius with interesting reverses. They issued a lot of types and most of them are somebody just standing there. I did just (Baltimore) get a Pius with boring reverse but I got it because I lacked a late portrait. This is TRP XXIII or the next to last year for him and he looks even more tired than he did 23 years earlier.
Beautiful Pius, I like that one alot, especially the toning. The Aurelian & Sassanian were mine but were part of a trade with Stainless. I wanted a Aurelian that wasnt so worn on the portrait so thats why I parted with it. I like my newer one better, just never posted it here due to being common. http://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/displayimage.php?album=3303&pos=2
The condition is nice and the portrait is quite normal. I'd have to prefer a nicer example of that big bruiser portrait but I don't have one of those yet. Most Aurelians have long necks (some excessively long).
Not a lot of Sassanid collectors here I have noticed. Whenever I get the new camera I will post a few. I know they are a little different but I would encourage Roman collectors to consider the coins of Rome's arch enemy, the Parthians and Sassanids. If you are even more brave, there are Hepthalite and even more exotic coins even further east. FWIW the Khosrau II are a good starter Sassanid since he ruled for a very long time, but if the style scares you rest assured the early one are quite beautiful, matching or exceeding anything the Romans ever put out. In fact, you can think of them as "recycled Romans" since many Roman coins were smashed down and recoined into Sassanid issues, but that is another story. Chris
Im not a fan of the long necks either. Alot of Crispina's are like that, usually at the price I want to pay for her but long neck loses out. The non-long necks are more then I want to pay :/ Also my newer Aurelian was $14 with free shipping, couldnt beat that.
Great additions! I really like the denarius of Pius, very nice Severus Alexander too. I plan on getting at least one Sassanian coin, but that a low priority for me right now.
If a collector of Roman coins is to get just one Sasanian, a good one would be Shapur I who used Valerian I as a footstool. There are a lot of interesting guys included in the king list so owning just one may be hard if you read about them.
Great coins stainless! Very cool additions stainless!!! I really like the portrait on that Severus Alexander Denarius as well as the portrait of Antoninus Pius on the last coin you posted in your first post. The Emperor Decius - 'ADVENTUS' Antoninianus is also one of my favorite types, nice example! I have an 'ADVENTUS' myself of Decius in a bit lower grade I think, but I love the 'emperor on horseback' look. I have noticed that on the 'ADVENTUS' Antoninianii of Emperor Philip I, the horse and rider(the Emperor) tend to be a bit out of proportion to eachother, either the horse looks too small in comparison with the rider, or the rider looks too big in comparison with the horse..... but no such problem with most of those of Decius it seems. Interesting what dougsmit said about finding interesting Antoninus Pius reverses.... but seems true in my case as well, I only have two, well three if you count posthumous issues, Silver coins of his, one has Aequitas on the reverse, fairly common, not too special, but the other one is the ITALIA reverse, with Italia seated holding a cornucopia, kinda interesting reverse, I like the 'travel' series coins that were done by various Emperors. The Italia still just has someone sitting there on the reverse though, so I guess it isn't all that interesting, aside from the reverse title and who it is sitting....
Good point, especially considering Shapur I is arguably the finest style of Sassanid issues as well. That would be a fine coin, especially high grade. My choice would be Ardashir I, the founder of the dynasty, or one of the "family" portraits. As an aside, Khosrau II in Stainless' pics is the emperor I believe that sacked Jerusalem and took what was called the "true cross" away as war pillage. The Byzantines later recovered it. He also took over Egypt and struck some pseudo Byzantine coisn there.
Oh Whoops..lol I have no idea why I put Septimius. Thanks for the correction just in case if people are decieved by that. stainless
A true True Cross collection has to include a coin of Helena who was credited with discovering it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/True_Cross I always liked the old saying to the effect that if all the pieces of the 'True Cross' circulating during the Middle Ages had been gathered together in one place, there would have been enough wood to rebuild Noah's Ark. I have no idea what Helena found but assume that whatever it was Khousrau stole it and Heraclius recovered it. Khoushrau II's other claim to fame was how he died. One story was that his son Kavadh II killed him along with his 18 other sons. I guess we now need another Sasanian coin (Kavadh II), a Byzantine (Heraclius) and a Roman (Helena).
Kinda of like 8 degrees of seperation, though I suppose 8 could easily turn into a much larger number
