With 2014 coming to a close soon I wanted to share a coin that I had never expected to own. Most here know I built a set of Lucilla silver denarii featuring all of her reverse types. There was 2 that are considered pretty rare so I never expected to own them. Well as luck would have it, I acquired one of them a month ago. It was listed on ebay & I had to wait several days to get paid, meanwhile it was collecting watchers like crazy, but for some reason no one bought it, lucky for me! Plus, it was way less then I would have paid for the type. This looks like your normal "boring...standing god" reverse, but it's pretty rare. Although 10 are listed to have been in the reka devina hoard, I have only found 2 online, with one matching the same reverse die. Now all that left is a reverse with "Concordia Standing". Maybe I will get one in 2015? So never judge a coin boring due to a "standing god", cause it just might be special to that particular emperor or empress. Lucilla (164 - 182 A.D.) AR Denarius O: LVCILLA AVGVSTA, Draped bust right. R: LAETITIA; Laetitia standing left, holding wreath and rudder. Rome, 166 - 169 A.D. 18mm 3.5g RIC 773; BMC 346; RSC 45
I'm afraid I know about squat on the subject, but I'm happy to see you've acquired a coin you really like and got it for a good deal. Congrats!
Very, very nice. I was one of the watchers I think. Glad I got the RR I wanted so that you could get this nice Lucilla.
Sweet, sweet coin, Mat ... Hmmm, I have an example ... but it's a lowly AE example (hopefully it's worthy of your new thread) ... LUCILLA – SESTERTIUS 148-182 AD Diameter: 30 mm Weight: 25.9 grams Obverse: LVCILLA AVGVSTA draped, diademed bust right Reverse: IVNO / S-C Juno standing left with sceptre, peacock in front
The Reka-Devnia numbers tell a lot about rarity in that time period. Maybe many collectors do not care, but you found something special and they helped you know. Good for you, Mat.
good 2014 cap off mat! i have only a very poor lucilla AE, stevex's coins is gorgeous compared to mine..so i wont post it.. a nice coin of her is on my list!
It is great when the right coin falls into the right collection and this very nice lady belongs with our local specialist in coins of empresses. It might help understand the Reka Devnia numbers better if we compared the 10 rating here with a few others. Lucilla's Venus Victrix leads her coins with 205 specimens of the total of 1049 Lucillae. Julia Domna tops out with 300 Pietas Publica (and has another 204 Pietas Augg) out of her 3409 coins. There are a number of coins from many rulers listed as 1 in the hoard and there are quite a few coins that you have seen here (mostly Martin's) that are unlisted since there were none in the hoard. Years ago I bid on an original copy and lost. It went very high as I recall and was in quite poor shape which I was told was common for the type high acid paper used in 1934. The reprints sold new for $25 + postage and I can not recall seeing any of them resold used. Most of us that bought them must still want ours. The book has faults. It is arranged by Cohen numbers so you can not tell how many, for example, Eastern mint Domnas are included in the count for a type used at Rome and one or more of the Eastern mints. The plates only show coins not listed in Cohen. I would love to hear if anyone sees a listing for a used copy (original or reprint) just because I am curious what people might pay for it today. The greatest shame is that it is the only huge hoard we have for such reference. It would be great to have an overview hoard of 80,000 coins from the later 3rd century or the periods covered by RIC VI through VIII (even if there was no separation by mintmarks?).