New Probus to share with our CT coin club :)

Probus
AE Silvered Antoninianus
A.D. 276-282

3.88 gms, 24 mm

Obv: Rad. Bust facing left w/ rad helmet and holding eagle tipped septre.

IMP.C.C.AVR.PROBVSP.F.AVG.

Rev: Probus on horseback raising right hand.

ADVENTVS AVG. XXIO in exergue

Grade: EF, large, lustrous, & centered with all legends clear.

Other: R.I.C. 157, like Sear 3340. Probus strived to revive the failing Roman economy but was ultimately killed by mutinous soldiers that didn’t want to perform civilian labor. From David & Grace Barbone September 2013.

 

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That's a choice piece! The detail, centering, silvering - gorgeous. I've had my eye on a few nice big silvered antoniniani of Probus. You might just push me over the edge.

 

Spectacular reverse especially. Its easier to find nice obverses, but a nice reverse like that is truly scarce!

 

Very common looking obverse, but, like med-man said, spectacular reverse. Well struck and centered. Great detail. (just a comical note, however, it looks like Probus is wearing a clown nose).

 

C89, great look'in coin w very good details...i like it...

 

Very nice indeed.

As a Probus collector I can echo the commennts about how nice a coin it is.

I would like to provide some clarifications however.

The obverse legend is:- IMP C M AVR PROBVS P F AVG

The exe is in fact XXIQ, where the Q stands for the 4th workshop

The mint is Siscia

The RIC attribution should be RIC 624 Bust Type H

The coin is attributed to the 5th Issue of Siscia and dated to A.D. 278

An additional reference would be Alföldi type 5, n° 95

I have a similar example but from workshop V i.e. 5



Regards,
Martin

 

Very nice!

 

Apropos to Martin's post, it's a curious fact that many dealers don't describe their coins correctly. I've come to no longer trust any dealer's attribution. A particularly egregious example is the Constantius II Phoenix I bought yesterday, which was sold as a Constans. Why? Because RIC doesn't list the type for Constantius II, but only for Constans. Therefore it must be a coin of Constans, even though the legend clearly reads CONSTANTIVS!

 

Wow Collect89 (and Martin)!!

=> that's an amazingly beautiful new animal-coin ya got there!! (totally jealous!!)

Great new pick-up (nice, big, generous flan!!)

 

Unfortunately way too many dealers do not own or use the reference works they quote but find a similar coin somewhere and copy the information there without considering the minor differences in the coins that change the numbers, mint ID's or even rulers. Certainly there are hundreds of sellers who know their coins but at least as many have as little background in coins as our newer members here. I'm certainly part of the problem since I buy coins I want from sellers even if that seller is a complete fool. I do believe that those of us who can not look at a coin and understand why (why on this coin, not just that it is) an M is not a C or a Q an O would be well advised to avoid dealers who can not assist you to learn more about your coins while they are taking your money. There are plenty of good sellers. Learn from them while you patronize them.



I'm sorry I do not have an RIC 624 to show but I believe mine here is a 632 with the addition of PROBI to the reverse legend. The sharp eyed among you may say that it also has a captive at the foot of the horse and is from workshop B but neither of those facts are enough to change the RIC number. To RIC, it makes no difference that the officina number was listed in a Greek numeral (B=2) rather than Roman ordinal (2 would have been S for secundus, I believe, which would require some care to tell from the Greek numeral for 6 which looks like an S but is a bit more squiggly). I've not seen both from this issue together but hope I am not leading astray here (help, Martin, please). The shop letter could even be moved away from the XXI an placed up in the field according to the RIC listing and my coin would still be a 632. Example of 624 in field:
http://probvs.net/probvs/R624/R624.260204.PG.JPG
I'm a bit more bothered buy both 624 and 632 listing the captive as "sometimes a captive at foot" so his presence or absence is not important enough for a new number either.

RIC is the best book I own on these coin but that is not saying that it is any good. I realize there are other works I never bought in languages I never bothered to learn. My bad. There are websites of value:
http://probvs.net/probvs/

My continuing song here is that catalog numbers are either important enough that you should buy the book and make an effort to get right or unimportant enough that you don't need them in a write up about the coin. The OP coin is a really nice specimen deserving of a proper identification at least NOT to include erroneous numbers copied from unreliable sources. I suppose most will say I am being too picky complaining that Probus here is not wearing a 'rad helmet' but a 'radiant crown'. If you are going to allow this spiky thing to be called a helmet, what will you call the ones where he has this crown on top of a visored and fancy metal hat? Traditional listings would call this a radiant bust (not using the word crown) 'in Imperial Mantle' (or sometimes 'Consular Robes'). This portrait highlights Probus as the leader of the civilian state. When he wears a helmet and wears armor, he is being shown as Commander in Chief of the armies.

I wish I could afford to collect Probus. He has a thousand really neat coins from mints with distinctive styles. It is no wonder that his coins are so popular.

 

I for one, have started buying RIC a bit at a time. If I'm going to refer to it, I need to study it. In the meantime, I'm leaving references out of my attributions.

 

Not posting mine since I have done so recently, but thats a lovely coin!

 

They are all lovely coins. Almost enough to make me want to collect Romans, (almost).

 

Thanks for all the coin complements and the great information posted about this Probus coin. Here is the revised label:


Probus A.D. 276-282
AE Silvered Antoninianus
Struck in A.D. 278
3.88 gms, 24 mm
Obv:radiant bust in imperial mantle facing left holding eagle tipped septre. IMP C M AVR PROBVS P F AVG
Rev: Probus on horseback raising hand, no captive at foot. XXIQ in exergue. ADVENTVS AVG.
Grade: EF, large, lustrous, & centered with original silver plate & clear legends.
Other: Siscia mint workshop #4 (Q). 5th Issue of Siscia. R.I.C. 624 Bust Type H, Alföldi type 5, n° 95, like Sear 3340.
Probus strived to revive the failing Roman economy but was ultimately killed by mutinous soldiers that didn’t want to perform civilian labor. From David & Grace Barbone Sept 2013.

 

IMO this thread is a super example of how CoinTalk makes the coin collecting hobby (and the World) a little bit nicer place for everyone. Thanks again for all the coin complements & super duper data.

 

Its Doug, Randy and some others fault I even got into them

 

I hear ya, brother (this place is nuthin' but a bad influence!!) ........ I'm lovin' it!!

 

My coin show yesterday produced a new Probus to share also so I hope you'll not consider this resurrection of last week's thread inappropriate. The coins has several things going for it not the least of which being the Lugdunum mint (3rd emission 277AD RIC 31, I believe). The coin has quite a bit of the original silver but, best of all, is from an old collection and has not been poorly cleaned recently. The dealer that provided it had a lot of nice coins from this collection but I had spent my limit by the time I visited his table so I only bought a couple. I will see him again in a few weeks and hope he still has some of them.

Standard line: The coin is better in hand. I'll have to try another photo that will do it justice.

 

Yup, that's a real beaut!! (again, the whole idea of actually roaming around a building full of ancient coins is foreign to me ... sadly)

... good luck scoring a few more in the near future so we can take a peek at 'em!

 

Nice looking Probus Doug. Good looking portrait.