Coins from my collection

At least you have a caligula

 

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Funny you should mention that reverse, since the Caligula as that I have is of that type:



GAIUS (CALIGULA)
AE As (11.31 g.) Rome 37 - 38 A.D.
C CAESAR AVG GERMANICVS PON M TR POT Bare head of Caligula left. Rev. VESTA S C Vesta enthroned left.
RIC 38

Still, it's a good historical bronze, and Caligula's coins are typically fairly uncommon.

Another historically interesting reverse type is the highly collectible Vespasian sestertius with the Judaea Capta reverse:



VESPASIAN
AE Sestertius (26.01 g.) Rome 71 A.D.
IMP CAES VESPASIAN AVG P M TR P P P COS III Laureate head of Vesp. r. Rev IVDA - EA CAPTA S C Captive seated r., Vesp. standing r. holding spear & parazonium.
RIC 167

There have been a number of these coins at various auctions that aren't 100% untouched, with evident tooling especially on the reverse to make the features sharper. This one appealed to me for its untouched patina, no tooling, and little, if any, smoothing, plus the somewhat unusual separation of IUDA - EA on the reverse.

 

And thats why I tend to stick with my ARs cause I cant tell tooling/smoothing thats done to big bronzes unless its really apparent.

Latest two are beautiful.

 

Wow! Some more great coins!

Mat, I have and extra Caligula if your looking lol

 

Lol nah thats alright. His bronzes are cheap enough.

 

Excellent coins Thanks for sharing.

 

Initially the patina of bronze coins was a difficult adjustment for me, since I couldn't judge a "good" patina from a poor one, and I wasn't sure that I even liked the greenish patina that is characteristic of high quality Roman bronzes. One of the coins that I almost declined was this Claudius sestertius, due to its mottled patina:



CLAUDIUS 10 B.C. - 54 A.D.
AE Sestertius (29.21 g.) Rome 41 - 54 A.D.
TI CLAVDIVS CAESAR AVG P M TR P IMP Laureate head right. Rev. SPES - AVGVSTA Spes, draped, advancing left, flower in right hand, raising skirt with left, S C in exergue.
RIC 99

However, the detail in both the obverse and reverse is very high, and I've even grown to like its patina -- in person, the mottling is much less apparent than in the picture. So I've pretty much made the adjustment to bronze coins having a dark-to-dark-green patina and understand that this is usually a desirable feature of those coins.

 

Wow, thats a lovely piece. And thats one of the best engravings of Spes I have seen on here.

 

Indeed, Spes looks great. A good portrait of Claudius too

 

Given the choice between great condition and great style, I take style any thime. Most of these are both. If you are to have just one Caligula, let him look mad; Nero - a fat slob. This Claudius makes hime look a bit more regal and capable than we expect from the popular histories but it is a very nice portrait and a worthy coin. The feature that makes or breaks a Claudius Spes is how well the drapery on Spes is shown to be transparant. If you can see through it with well defined legs, it is a nice coin. The only thing I see as a shortcoming of this coin is the reverse lettering is not of perfectly consistant size. That alone would make me want the coin examined in person by a real expert so it is the kind of coin I would not buy except from a top level dealer. I know enough about photography to know that you can not tell everything you need to know to but a high end coin from a photo. What you have posted makes me want to see your Galba. Quality there is ugly as sin.

 

I share your concern about pictures not being 100% representative. The dealer through whom I purchase coins has been in the business 40 years and can spot tooling and other manipulation in a nanosecond, so I'm comfortable relying on his judgement implicitly. In addition, he physically examines any coin that he recommends to me so that he doesn't just rely on pictures. The Claudius sestertius went through his usual due diligence process and in fact has a pretty good provenance.

As for Galba, he is certainly a difficult emperor. If your question above ("What you have posted makes me want to see your Galba") is referring to a Galba bronze, my first posting had been a recently acquired Galba sestertius with a slight double-strike on the reverse:



I like the portrait quality here, although my Galba aureus doesn't exhibit the same level of portrait quality -- aureii of Galba are notoriously difficult to find in high quality.

 

While a very nice coin, your Galba makes him look stern but not brutal. Watch for really extreme Galba portraits. His sestertii can be the peak of Roman portraiture in my opinion. Yours is more wonderful than I will ever dream of owning but there are some that are truely brutal, ugly and beautiful all at the same time.

 

Galba does not only look stern (or at least severe) in his coinage, he was in fact was a very
stern commander and administrator.
That is in one of the reasons why his troops decided to remove him. He refused to pay the usual generous benefits to the legions under his command, considering that it was their duty to
perform. He was old school in that way.

I consider Galba's coinage so interesting partly due to the extraordinary strength show in his
portraiture. Here is one of my Galba sestertii. A different portrait and character than shown
by the o.p I think.

 

Agree!

 

Late last year I was fortunate enough to find a Domitian sestertius to add to my collection:



DOMITIAN 69 - 81 AD
AE Sestertius (26.88 g.) Thrace 80-81 AD
CAES DIVI AVG VESP F DOMITIANVS COS VII, laureate head right / S C across field, Mars walking right, holding spear in right hand, trophy over left shoulder
RIC 509 Titus

The coin is actually a bit less greenish than the picture indicates, but it does have those small areas of bare bronze that provide some insight into what these coins may have looked like when they were originally struck.

I note, without additional comment, the engraver's apparent penchant for anatomical correctness on the reverse portrait of Mars.

I'm still looking for both Titus bronzes, and it seems to me that most of the ones available are almost identical to those of Domitian. I'm hoping to find some that are a little different from Domitian.

 

I really like this one! I'd like to get most Flavian coins, especially with artistry like this one.

 

Keep posting

It certainly is nice to see high grade coins like this. They are easy on the eyes as I am always trying to learn the basics about ancient coins.

It's nice when the legends are legible.

 

When I started my collection, I learned that portrait coins of the 12 Caesars are not 100% available in all denominations. For example, Otho issued no bronzes (I'm not counting "provincial" bronzes) and neither did Julius Caesar. In addition, aureii with Julius Caesar's portrait were issued only posthumously and even these are very difficult to find.

A few years ago I saw a Julius Caesar aureus that simply "spoke" to me:



OCTAVIAN & JULIUS CAESAR
AV Aureus (8.15 g.) Mint moving w/Octavian late summer-autumn 43 B.C.
Bare head of Octavian right; C CAESAR COS PO(NT) (AV)G. Rev. C CAESAR DICT PERP PO(NT) (MA)X around wreathed head of Julius Caesar right
Crawford 490/2

Although I've seen others of this type, this one had by far the best style for the portrait of Julius Caesar, and I was fortunate enough to acquire it. It's classified as a "good VF" which I don't dispute, but clearly the grading standards for certain Caesars' aureii are different from others. It's among my favorites.

 

Wow, a gold Julius even if it isnt lifetime. Doesnt get much better then that

 

The coin that I use for my avatar is one of my favorites. Aureii of Caligula are difficult to find, especially in better grades, and this one was one of the few that I had an opportunity to acquire over the years:



GAIUS (CALIGULA)
AV Aureus (7.66 g.) Lugdunum ca. 37 - 38 A.D.
C CAESAR AVG GERM P M TR POT Laureate head r. Rev. S P Q R / P P / OB C S within oak wreath.
BMC p. 148 note * RIC -, cf. 19

Caligula looks a little demonic in this portrait -- it's not just the photo of the coin. I also liked the rarity of this particular coin. RIC doesn't even list an aureus with this obverse legend.