Thanks everyone! I enjoy seeing the diversity of preference, as Doug predicted. It certainly explains why no two collections are the same!
Most of these coins have older pedigrees, and all are accompanied with export certificates if purchased internationally. As for a specific "provenance document", there isn't any standard paperwork for it, but matching images in catalogs/published books is the usual procedure.
Holy cow.. (with the age and quality there, I'm actually surprised to not find an example of the golden calf while Moses was on the mountain.. ) I love the Persian Daric (#9) -- it is MUCH nicer than my silver one.. and #5 (Alexander Stater) is breathtaking.. I've never seen a profile of Brutus as such.. Just looking at him.. I certainly would have been watching MY back..
As always Joe your coins never fail to impress. I am surprised the Titus Sestertius isn't in the list. Or was that a 2013 purchase? I look forward to drooling over your coins this year. As much as I love the EID MAR the Vespasian is the winner for me. I love the colour and the history behind the coin.
I'm particularly glued to #7 personally. The obverse just bulges out! It looks lovely really. Doesn't hurt to have an Ides of March coin either. Very cool list.
How about we sell both and we split it, you have it Sun-Tues and I will have it Wed-Friday, we fight for Saturday, Glue and Glass 3 rounds.
Thanks! The Colosseum was indeed a 2013 purchase, along with my Agathokles tetradrachm which would also make my "Top 10" overall list. 2015 is shaping up to be rather productive so far as well, having added a significant number of coins in just the first couple weeks
Okay, if we are going to pick favorites, I pick 5, 2, and 9. I realize 1 is the "best" by far, but I am leaving that type out of the running.
Great photography of great coins. The quality of each of the ancients was absolutely fantastic. Thanks for the EYE CANDY.
It would be impossible for me to rank them other than #1 ex aequo. Those are all dream coins, and I consider myself privileged enough to just be able to say "I know a guy who owns them, and I can stare at them whenever I want".... Thanks for sharing your treasures with us plebeians AJ Q
When I look at coins like these, each coin is my favourite. If I were to pick one, it would have to be the Pompii, just because we know where it was on a given day in history. I console myself with the thought that at least I get to play with my coins. AJ's site is pinned to my menu bar and I look in frequently. A huge thank you to AJ for allowing us to see his wonderful coins.
I could spend days going back and forth trying to list them by sequential preference and then alter it each subsequent passing day... But I tend to go with your ranking at first glance... Needless to say they are all gorgeous, museum quality examples ...and I hope to own just ONE like them before I 'kick the bucket' LOL
Wonderful listing of extremely high quality numismatic coins. I can see by your listing why President Teddy Roosevelt wanted to RE-VAMP our US coins in 1906. Those old coins celebrated their predecessors who lived longer than they did; rather like Hollywood celebrities. Jupiter was none other than Japheth (Shem was his brother who lived 600 years - his dad NOAH some 950 years) as NOAH'S son that took over all the European countries with his kids that lived shorter and shorter lives. See JAMES USSHER's 1648 book - "Annals of the World" recent reprint 2010. I love to find out about all the old coins via this book like the BRUTUS coins from Queen Polemocratia (re: KOSON) page 677. Amazing.