Well, after 5 years of collecting ancients, I finally got my first sestertius, which is of Crispina. After doing a set of AR Denarii of her I wanted at least 1 big bronze. This coin has an uneven patina but is alot nicer in hand. Also what looks like a pit on reverse is extremely shallow, as if the patina chipped off. I also got this coin published on Wildwinds. Crispina (178 - 182 A.D.) Æ Sestertius O: CRISPINA AVGVSTA, draped bust right. R: HILARTAS S-C, Hilaritas standing left, holding long palm and cornucopiae. Rome 18.8g 33mm RIC III 668 (Commodus)
I prefer silver & also I havent really learned out to distinguish a coin thats smoothed and tooled *unless the tooling is beyond obvious*. Lastly, because of bronze disease.
Gorgeous => yah, the big, fat sestertius are probably amongst my favourites (oh, and the AE drachms are also super-cool) => Mat, that's a fantastic addition (congrats) "Big Bronze Women" => apparently that's your new hunt!! (I like it!!) ... ummm, well maybe not? *yikes* edited Oh, and sadly I don't have a Crispina-Coin, so I can't really add anymore to this thread ...
I was a wrestling fan for over 20 years, but I was never a fan of chyna *shutters*. You can keep her.
Thanks, Zumbly. I may try taking better photos in time, its tough due to the patina breaks :/, but the portrait won me over.
Mat, great lookin' Crispina, nice well centered and color coin..i have one its a duponius.. Crispina.. Ae..duponius.. 28mm x 10.82 g.
Mat, welcome to the 'green side' ! - well, not all sestertii are green, but anyway. When I first started collecting 1st and 2. century Roman coins (1990) I quickly saw how scarce well preserved bronzes were compared with denarii. For many years I did not collect silver at all, only bronzes. That has changed over the last 8 years or so, but by and large I still prefer Roman bronze to silver.
Great portrait on that one, Eng. And I have been the opposite, I always preferred silver. But this coin was cheap enough to add and I have a Lucilla in better shape too that I will share in time.
Very nice coin! I don't have one of Crispina just yet. Maybe in the future. That's a nice coin as well, ENG!
When I initially started my 12 Caesars collection, I focused solely on aurei and denarii, ignoring bronzes for the first few years. However, when I completed these two denominations and started collecting sestertii and small bronzes (dupondii and asses) I found that I regretted not having started collecting them earlier. There are two outstanding features of collecting bronzes, especially sestertii: (1) the larger flan gives the engraver an opportunity to be much more artistic than the smaller aureus and denarius; and (2) the tactile sense of holding a 27g. bronze is amazing, even compared to an aureus. As an example of what I mean by (1) above, consider these two portrait coins of Galba: GALBA 68 - 69 A.D. AR Denarius (3.71 gm.) Tarraco (?) April - late 68 A.D. Laureate head of Galba, globe at point of bust / Virtus RIC 64 GALBA 68 - 69 A.D. AE Sestertius (28.10 g.) Rome late summer 68 AD IMP SER SVLP GALBA - CAESAR AVG TR P Laureate and draped bust r. Rev. LIBERTAS - PUBLICA Libertas standing l., holding pileus and long scepter; S - C in field RIC 309 While the portrait on the denarius is certainly very good style and very high quality, the portrait on the sestertius is, well, simply on another level. It feels great in your hand, too. The drawback to collecting bronzes is that they're all smoothed to a certain extent, and a very large percentage are tooled as well. Without the guidance of my dealer, who has 30 years' experience in this field, I would not have started collecting them.
Its mostly the tooling and bronze disease I have a phobia of. Ive had several coins get BD when I started out, so I took a loss on them, but they were Potin Tets. Cause of that, I turned the other cheek with these big bronzes. But I do agree the portraits are more pleasant to the eyes then denarii and of course the heft. Im not too sure how many men I will acquire. I have no plans of doing a 12 caesars of them, way beyond my budget. The silver is challenging enough.
