I was browsing Ebay and Vcoins, when I noticed that there seems to be quite a large supply of high quality Probus tetradrachms lying around. How common are these things? On a related note, Elagabalus tets look like they have far different surfaces that any other ruler I've seen. Any explanation for this?
The majority of Probus tets are very common indees. Year 1 and year 8 coins are slightly scarcer due to the shorter production year. There are some types that are scarcer but in general these coins are quite common especially the eagle types. I built up a collection of these in quite a short period of time. My collection can be seen here:- http://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=1721 Regards, Martin
Probus was emperor for several years during a period that produced many coins so his are probably the most common of all Alexandria tetradrachms. You have to expect them to be more common than short term rulers like Tacitus. Elagabalus was about the end of the era where there was enough silver in the coins to make them gray. Different alloys will wear differently and could give the smoother appearance common with this reign's coins. His tetradrachms are relatively common compared to the really rare earlier Severans so we see a lot of them but that was not the question. I would not be terribly surprised to find out that at least some Elagabalus Alexandria tets, or dies to make them, were actually made in Rome and sent to Alexandria for use. This is just an observation of style and does not mean I have any proof. It could also mean that the mint at Alexandria imported a team of workers from Rome who brought with them different techniques. The only way I see that this might be studied would be to compare trace elements in the coin alloy to see if there was any relation to metal sources one place or the other. In this case I don't believe that this is the reason but there is always a possibility that something like the observation that surfaces were different could mean that most of the coins on the market in that group came from one large find (perhaps a hundred years ago?) that had that characteristic.
Martin => wow, that's a fantastic collection of Probus coins!! (top-drawer, Griffith!!) Griffiths, eh? ... hmmm, perhaps that is where your attraction to "Griffins" stems from?
For Elagabalus I was more wondering about the graininess of the surface, I've noticed that many almost look matte.
