I tried to narrow in down to a "Top 10" but it was an impossible task. By changing the the list to "Most Beautiful," "Most Fun," and "Coolest" I found it easier to at least put six together. Most Beautiful: #1 Mazaios, Satrap of Cilicia AR Stater CILICIA, Tarsos. Mazaios. Satrap of Cilicia, 361/0-334 BC., 10.78g. AR Stater O: Baaltars seated left, head and torso facing, holding eagle, grain ear, and grape bunch in extended right hand, lotus-tipped scepter in left; TN (in Aramaic) to left, M (in Aramaic) below throne, B’LTRZ ("Baal of Tarsos" or "Baaltars" in Aramaic) to right R: Lion attacking bull left; MZDY (Mazaeus in Aramaic) above, monogram below. - Casabonne Series 2, Group C; SNG France –; SNG Levante 106. #2 Domitian AR Denarius AD 85 Domitian. AD 81-96. AR Denarius, 20mm, 3.50g. Rome mint. Struck AD 85 O: IMP CAES DOMIT AVG GERM P M TR P IIII; Laureate bust Domitian right with aegis R: IMP VIIII COS XI CENS POT P P; Minerva standing right on capital of rostral column with spear and shield; aegis draped over back with snakes around; owl to right. - RIC 334 Most Fun (These were particularly fun to acquire because they were all misattributed as more common types.) #1 Vespasian in Quadriga Vespasian AR denarius, 2.95g 18mm, Rome mint, 71 AD O: IMP CAES VESP AVG P M; Vespasian, laureate head right. R: Vespasian in triumphal quadriga, branch in right hand, scepter in left. Most examples of this reverse type are Antioch mint issues which copy the Rome mint type. This example is unusual because of the obverse legend IMP CAES VESP AVG PM. RSC records this reverse with COS IIII, which is the Antioch type. An extremely rare official variant. #2 Vespasian / Neptune Denarius Vespasian. 69-79 AD. Denarius, 3.10g. 18mm. Lyon Mint, 70 AD. O: IMP CAESAR VESPASIANVS AVG TR P; Laureate head of Vespasian right. R: COS ITER TR POT; Neptune standing left, foot on prow, holding dolphin. - RIC 1109 (R), BMC 375 note, RSC 93. #3 Titus / Quadriga Titus. As Caesar, AD 69-79. AR Denarius, 17mm, 3.25 g. Judaea Capta commemorative. Rome mint. Struck under Vespasian, AD 72-73. O: T CAES IMP VESP PON TR POT; Laureate head right. R: Titus standing right, holding branch and scepter, in quadriga right. - RIC II 371 (Vespasian); Hendin 1483; RSC 394. Coolest #1 Valerius Gratus Prutah With Countermark of Cohors II Italica JUDAEA, Roman Administration. Tiberius. AD 14-37. Æ Prutah (14mm, 1.72 g). Struck under Valerius Gratus, praefectus Iudaeae. Dated RY 5 (18/9 CE). O: Unstruck [TIB/ KAI/CAP within wreath] Round countermark, palm branch flanked by the letters C and Π. R: Upright palm branch; IOY ΛIA (Julia) and L Є (date, year 5 = 18/19 AD) across field. - Meshorer 328 var.; Hendin 1339; RPC I 4965. These countermarks are always applied to the edges of the coins. According to Lönnqvist, (New Vistas on the Countermarked Coins of the Roman Prefects of Judaea) the countermarked coins of Gratus were probably struck in Jerusalem, 36/7 CE, to endorse them as pay for the Roman soldiers. (Meshorer notes that perhaps the countermarked coins became tokens for special purposes, e.g., receipt of equipment or for services in a Roman army camp.) Lönnqvist also convincingly argues that the C and Π on the countermark stand for the word σπεîρα, referring to the cohort of soldiers that were apparently in Judea. He notes, “An interesting account in the New Testament has remained until now unverified, since the passage has not been supported by any other sources. The Act of the Apostles 10:1 mention an officer and a cohort, ‘Cornelius, a centurion of a cohort being called Italian…’. This unit, thus, was comprised of Roman citizens. The passage suggests that the unit was the cohors Italica civium Romanorum, probably a detachment of one of the imperial legions stationed nearby, perhaps in Syria… I may suggest that the Italian cohort recorded in Acts is, in fact, the cohors II Italica, which, consequently, had been the detachment which applied the countermarks on the coins of the Roman prefects of Judaea… This new evidence… lends strong support to the credibility of the New Testament on this point."
Gosh, in this instance I just have to be shallow and say the two in your Beautiful category are my favourites.
The stater is fabulous very nice, I have one small obol on the way from Mazaios with a lion. thanks for the post.
I like the way you broke down your favorites. I really like your "Coolest" because that's a topic I'm interested in. All are very nice coins.
Super cool!! (congrats on 6 total winners!!) => oh, and the lil' owl on #2 makes it my favourite (very cool coin, overall) ... obviously your #1 is also killer!! (congrats again on a very sweet greatest hits!!) cheers
All of them are fantastic, but your Vespasian RIC 49 quadriga is something very special. It's so rare that the authors of the new RIC had to use my specimen as the plate coin. Yours would've made a better example. You had a very good year!
Let me see if I can grade your coins... , that sums it up. The first one for Most Beautiful and the Coolest are my favorites Nemo!
Love your coins and the 'most beautiful' are simply gorgeous!!! And I love your approach as well---it certainly makes perfect sense and I'll copy it next year too.. Wonderful coins!!!
Tuff call between Most Beautiful #1: well struck and preserved coin from new dies of an artistic celator and the best coin description I have seen a long time in Coolest #1. Great coins.
Thanks for the kind words everyone, it's very much appreciated. This year has been the best by far for my collection, due in a large part from learning from all of the collective knowledge on these boards. Adding rare Flavians is always a special treat. For me, Flavian silver is as rare as V70 says it is, regardless of any other measure, end of story. The "V70 Recherche Scale" if you will. I'm just happy you don't collect doubles V! Here's my write up for the Mazaios stater, most of which came from great articles written by Walter M. Shandruk and Reid Goldsborough. It is hard to pack this much history into one coin. The obverse of the coin depicts the Baal of Tarsos. "Baal" is a Semitic word for "Lord" or "God." The symbols of an eagle, wheat stalk, grapes, and a scepter may represent Baal’s capacity as a god involved in the seasonal cycles of life and death. The reverse features a lion-and-bull motif as did earlier Anatolian coins of Kroisos/Croesus. But here, on the reverse, the full bodies of both lion and bull are shown, and the lion is ferociously jumping on the back of the bull, who's kneeling. If you assume that a kneeling bull (without a lion) on the scores of later Greek and Roman coins is symbolic of Zeus, a position that Marvin Tameanko has persuasively argued for (Celator, Jan. 1995, pp. 6-11), and that the lion is symbolic of the supreme god, or Baal, of the Celicians, the symbolism of this coin, may be direct and simple: Our god is more powerful than your god. The Baal obverse of Mazaios' coinage may have been used as the model for the Zeus reverse of Alexander the Great's huge output of silver coinage, though Martin Price believed that both coinages were based on similar models. Price did feel, however, that the celator who engraved the latter Mazaios staters also engraved Alexander III's Tarsos tetradrachms. Mazaios (also referred to as "Mazaeus" and "Mazday") was the Persian satrap of Celicia beginning c. 361 BC, then the satrap of both Celicia and the larger territory of Transeuphratesia/Transeuphrates (Syria and Palestine, also known as Abar Nahara) beginning c. 345 BC. Mazaios fought Alexander the Great at the Battle of Gaugamela in 331 BC. After this loss, he fled to Babylon. With the Great King Darius III of Persia also fleeing Alexander's army, Mazaios was the person who surrendered the capital of the Persian Empire, Babylon, to Alexander later in 331 BC, which prevented the sack of the city. For doing this without a fight, Alexander appointed him governor of Babylon, which at the time was the world's largest city. Mazaios died in 328 BC.
I suspect each of our specialties have these same three groupings of which most people can appreciate only the first. I know the Flavians in Most Fun have parallels in Eastern Septimius coins which Martin and I show here to the regular boredom of most. The new category here is Coolest which will fly over the heads of most of us even after reading the excellent explanation. I can see the coin but no letters on the c/m penetrate my skull. I do find it interesting that many countermarks were applied with some sort of pattern. I'll show again my countermark of the bull of Ba'al on a stater of Aspendos just to assist those of you in basic Aramaic. Note my three letters match the first three letters reading up the right side of the mot beautiful coin. Do remember that Aramaic is written right to left so the B’LTRZ is actually ZRTL'B making the LUY read YUL. I have two coins with this bull c/m. Both are placed over the dotted border of their host coin on but not over the edge. Both are made less clear by the noise of the dotted border. It isn't easy being a countermark.
great approach nemo...the beauties are stunningly hot. but "fun" and "cool" are great categories....awesome approach.
Nemo it took me a long time to move down you list, i couldn't help looking at #1 coin of Mazaios, the details are off the chart. i love how you placed the rest, awesome set.
Thanks again guys. Doug, those c/ms are awesome! Most would give mine a The C is visible to the left of the Palm, but not very clear. Nevertheless, the type of countermark is unmistakeable. I also ran it by Aaron Kogon and JP Fontanille, the foremost authorities on these countermarks, for confirmation. The biggest problem with these extremely rare countermarked procurator coins (14 examples known for Gratus?) is there are several examples of real coins with tooled countermarks applied. Some are VERY well done. Only buy one if you really trust the seller, even better if you know how to spot tooling. The fun of the misattributed/hard to spot rarities is not only finding them but also wondering, down to the last second, if anyone else did, or if anyone else cared!
