Purchased/traded for these two. The first one is a stunner which seems to be choice for the type. I don't know much about these Celtic designs, however as a previous collector of satirical medals, the "look and feel" resembles satiricals - I saw reference to this type as "The Boxer" given the broken nose which was not there in earlier emissions. The second is simply a nice Roman Republic piece which struck me, primarily for the reverse design - why not designated as fine style, not sure. Celts, Middle Danube Area. Imitation of Audoleon. Pannonia (Burgenland). Ca. 2nd CENTURY BC. AR Tetradrachm. 23mm, 12.50gr. Kroisbach mit Reiterstumpf type. Obv: Diademed head right of male with heavy brows and prominent protrusion on bridge of nose. Rev : Diademed head and torso left of rider on prancing horse; above right, eye-shaped device; twisted exergual line terminating in torques. Lanz 743–5; OTA 469; CCCBM I 152-4; KMW 1391. NGC Ch AU* 5/5, 5/5, Fine Style. Roman Republic. C Servilius ca. 136 BC. AR Denarius. 20mm, 3.9gr. Obv. Helmeted head of ROMA right, behind, star and wreath; below, ROMA. Rev. The Dioscuri riding apart; in ex. C. SERVEILI. M.F. RRC 239/1; BMCRR Italy 540; B. Servilia 1; Sydenham 525; Catalli 2001, 312. A beautiful specimen with iridescent highlights. NGC Ch. AU, Strike 5/5, Surface 4/5.
Atta-mang, Zohar => you keep keep bringin' bringin' winner, after winner, after winner, after ... You're apparently "awesome" (congrats => I'm a huge fan!!) Ummm, I have a lousy example of C Servilius ... do ya wanna see it? ... again, that's an absolutely cool-cool-cool example (yummmy ... congrats)
Steve - thanks for sharing yours. I researched it a bit and saw quite a few varieties. This one having the horses looking away from each other while the riders face each other was attractive. Yours seems to be very much of similar theme. I am sure Doug will soon chime in to elaborate on the nuance. Thanks all for the continued support.
*yikes* => Doug scares me ... it's like he sees right through me (apparently I suffer from impostor syndrome)
IMHO the slabbers got it right. The Celt is really fine for these but the Servilia 1 is middle range on style. There were several members of the family that issued coins so we can't compare Steve's later issue to the OP early one. If I could have but one, I certainly prefer the OP design or the one from even later with the action scene. I can't recall seeing really nice ones of it. http://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=1194184 Grading has a lot of room for opinions and the Fine Style business is even more open to personal tastes. If I had been forced to guess, I would have lowered the strike score of the Republican to 4 but raised the surface of the Celtic to 5. That is why we always warn that you should buy the coin and not the slab. Of course there will be those of us who wold not have either coin precisely because they are in slabs but that is another rant from posts of the past.
Doug - thank you. Question: 1) Are there many varieties of different reverse "scenes" for this type? 2) The celtic surface is 5/5. What struck me is the patina/original look to it while the denarius seems to be retoning as many other specimens are after being dug up. 3) To your last comment - I hope to become "slab independent" at some point as I get comfortable with grading. As a newbie in this area of collecting I see a lot of room for manipulation in grading given the subjectivity involved. The 3rd party opinion. while not perfect, at least takes it out of the seller's domain. Thanks again.
Zohar444, "You don't grade colonials, you price them". Wise words from a different field, the speaker was referring to the fact that some coins have too many factors to be graded properly and consistently. I believe ancients fall into this category, the wear sometimes doesn't matter as much as the centering or the strike.
I agree with Vlaha completely. Wear is nowhere near the top of the list of things I consider important in a coin and there are ancients that are worn to VG that I would rather own than the same in EF with a long string of footnotes after the EF.
I'd say half a dozen major types by several members of the family with a couple minor variations for most. It was a big name family in the Republic.
