Hello all, I was heavily into Ancients for a brief period before I quit. I parted with most of them, but came across a couple coins I had left over from my Ancient collection. Below is a picture of a beautiful Black Constantine piece (has some interesting green corrosion but adds a nice contrast to the piece IMO) that I was curious about. I picked it up relatively cheap at the time, and I am curious as to: Its grade Price Attribution? (Is this the right word?) I do want to re-enter ancients, and this coin is a way for me to build my start. Thanks ahead of time if anyone can help =) (P.S. Sorry for the poor pictures - my phone is the best that I have at the moment) Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
The grade is Fine, in my opinion. I can't quite tell what the last letter in exergue is - T? If so, that's an Arles mintmark, and it would make the coin much scarcer than a Constantinople issue. Can you provide higher-resolution images? Valuation depends on that little bit of information.
What I am not seeing is a P or S in front of CONS(T?) in the exergue. Doesnt even look like theres room for one, so my initial guess is CONSA, ie, Constantinople. Need better resolution pics....the green deposits would make this a hoard coin in my opinion, especially with the condition. The bust style leads me to think its an eastern mint......
Going through RIC, there are some silver issues from Arles with the mintmark CONST, but all of the GLORIA EXERCITVS coins have officina letters before CONST, so YOC is right - that rules out Arles. CONSA is probably correct, although RIC lists an H officina as well.
I will try to get better resolution pictures tomorrow when I return to campus =) Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I believe we could go VF in grade as long as you are OK with the coin likely being fully processed and retoned to the current color. I believe it is RIC 59 page 579 listed as C2 (or every museum they checked has one degree of common). Rarity is not a major factor on such a coin when it comes to price since so few people are trying to get a complete set of workshops. Clarity is a big deal. The photo makes the obverse legend hard to read so the coin could be better than it appears. If so, the coin would bring $10 where I live and $20 in a large city (just like my house would be worth more were it situated in a city with high property values). It is an excellent beginner coin of the most popular and most common of the later emperors. My example for comparison is slightly later when they deleted one of the standards on the reverse and a bit of the weight of the coin. I paid $5 in 2000. Yours is nicer because of the more clear mintmark. For those more into such trivia: This coin brings back memories. It was one I bought from Victor Failmezger from the large lot he bought from NFA's sale of the Bavarian collection. It came with its original handmade envelope from WWI vintage. The theory was that the collection was put together from donations to disabled veterans or someone similarly lacking in funds. No coin was worth much but a great deal of care was shown in crafting the envelopes and writing up the collection. I bought some nicer ones from Victor at $10 but he later had a half price sale of the ones that would not move. This was from that last bunch. http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/feac16.html
Just my opinion, but I doubt the coin has been retoned, perhaps stored in olive oil? The hoard I found had many coins with this coloration when it came out of the ground. many of the hoard coins still are very dark and almost black.....again perhaps the result of having been stored in olive oil? I think it unlikely also that the coin has been 'processed', because any effective method would remove the green deposits, which are still present. if you are going to re-tone, then you would surely have used a method which stripped both the deposits and the patina, to require retoning. Its a nice coin, if cleaned properly, would be £10-15 in the UK. I think RIC 59 is the one, either an A or a Delta after the CONS, making it a c2 or r2 respectively. Of course as we have discussed here in the past, RIC rarity seems to be an oddity, dependant on which museums have the coin, rather than how many coins are known to exist.
Here are a few of mine, from the Constans 2-standards mint set I'm working on... Arles... Thessalonica... Siscia... Roma... Alexandria... Nicomedia...
Thanks for the help so far everyone I will get more pictures soon - the semester started so it is quite hectic.
