Pupienus and the year of the Six Emperors

Very nice! I am still trying to nail down a Justin II Siliqua one of these days. If anyone of you guys spot one then please let me know.
Congrats on the coin!

 

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I was under the impression that denarii remained in circulation till Aurelian.
Weren't double denarius and antoninianus used together with denarius for a few decades?

 

Although I've been once or twice tempted to pull the trigger, I've never crossed the Rubicon for Gordian I or II, finding them a "bit" expensive.
But all through these years, I've successively possessed several Balbinus (Denarius and antoninianus) and Pupienus (sestertius, denarius and antoninianus). Because of changes in focusses and priorities I've parted with some of them, only the denarii remain in my collection today, I think you'll understand why....

Balbinus :


Balbinus, Denarius Rome mint, AD 238
IMP C D CAEL BALBINVS AVG, laureate, draped and cuirassed bust of Balbinus right
PROVIDENTIA DEORVM, Providentia standing left, holding rod and cornucopiae, globe at feet
2.7 gr
Ref : RIC # 7, RCV # 8490



Balbinus, Antoninianus minted in Rome in 238 AD
IMP CAES D CAEL BALBINVS AVG, Draped and radiate bust of Balbinus right
PIETAS MVTVA AVGG, Clasped hands
4.23 gr
Ref : RCV #8486, Cohen #17


Pupienus :


Pupienus, Sestertius Rome mint, AD 238
IMP CAES M CLOD PVPIENVS AVG, laureate, draped and cuirassed bust right
VICTORIA AVGG, Victory standing, head turned on the left, holding wreath in her right hand, palm and drapery in her left hand
24.9 gr 31 mm
Ref : RIC IV # 23a, Cohen # 38



Pupienus, Denarius Rome mint, AD 238
IMP C M CLOD PVPIENVS AVG, laureate, draped and cuirassed bust right
PM TRP COS II PP, Felicitas standing left, holding caduceus and sceptre
3.08 gr
Ref : RCV # 8527, Cohen # 26



Pupienus, Antoninianus minted in Rome in 238 AD
IMP CAES PVPIEN MAXIMVS AVG, Draped and radiate bust of Pupienus right
PATRES SENATVS, Clasped hands
4.91 gr
Ref : RCV #8522 var., Cohen #21

I would of course love to have a Gordian III Caesar, any denomination would make my day, but still on my list. As anybody else I have loads of Gordian III Augustus...

Q

Edit for typo

 

Gordian I and II were revolutionaries, they had troops and needed money to pay those troops. Sure they must have been coining hundreds of thousands? Naturally, most of these were melted.

 

This was the only way I could afford a Gordian I. Also nice coins everyone.

 

There's no one to blame but Gordian I and Gordian II for the lack of coins from them. They were poor leaders and failed miserably and spectacularly in short order. At least their folly gave us Gordian III, whose coin portraits I rather enjoy and is in my short list for coins I'll be getting next month. And when Gordian III was murdered by his scheming soldiers, it gave rise to Phillip the Arab, who also contributed to Roman coinage with awesome portraits and interesting reverses. He is also on my short list. The first two Gordian are not...I won't pay top dollar for mere failures and footnotes in Roman history, which is what they were. Just my take, I'm sure most here disagree.

 

But the tets of the Gordians I&II are even rarer than the denarii and sestertii aren't they?

 

Gordian I and II never got to Rome where their coins were made. I see no reason to assume they ever saw one. They would have been ordered by supporters in the Senate after Maximinus was gone. A month was not a long time.

 

I'm the opposite. I pay top dollar for the emperors who were footnotes. My rarest coin is of Uranius Antoninus, an obscure emperor who ruled from Emesa in 253/254AD - and all that is known about him can be written in less than 100 words. Of course, there's no right or wrong collecting aesthetic. We collect whatever appeals to us.

 

People collect for different reasons and desire different things, but you not gonna find a lot of people into ancients that didn't care about rarity

 

I'm the same way. I love having coins of obscure rulers most people have never heard of or only heard of once or twice, much less have coins of. That being said I'm fortunate to have acquired a fair amount of them in my relatively short time collecting. Through studying these short-lived and nearly unknown rulers you tend to pick up on some interesting bios and history.

 

I should have probably added a "trigger warning" to my post. I hear that stuff is all the rage these days.

I like rarities too, but all I'm saying is that I'd personally rather pay top dollar to add a Nero, Claudius, or Caligula to my collection over a Gordian I or Gordian II. I'm not saying I might not spring the money for the right Gordian I or Gordian II examples if the opportunity ever presented itself, but I'm simply not going to go out of my way to collect them. If it happens, it happens...we'll see.

 

LOL "trigger warning"... You only need a trigger warning around here if you're posting about how much you love slabbed coins

I think most people here have the collecting aesthetic which favours excellent artistic style over rare emperors. A lot of the rare emperor coins are artistically very poor - no doubt you've seen a Regalianus or a Romulus Augustus. Or the famously ugly coins of Constantine XI (if you collect Byzantines).

See, if i had $100,000 to spend and the choice between a Titus Colosseum sestertius and an ugly twisted and bent Olybrius, i'd buy the Olybrius. I guess i have an obsession with completing a collection that can never really be completed (Saturninus, Silbannacus). Portrait series collectors like me are a frowned-upon minority - I'm good with that

 

Here I thought I was the only "weird" one around here lol (I'd spring for the beat-up Olybrius as well)

 

Well, I checked the sweet ol' ERIC-II Comparative Rarity Table and discovered the following info:

The original list was comprised of a 233,056 coin sampling (coins from ebay and auctions) ... "69" Gordian-I examples and "61" Gordian-II examples were in that sample.

The list has since been revised and now it consists of a "667,076" coin sampling
... "269" Gordian-II examples and "242" Gordian-I examples were in this sample

=> so there were (242/667,067)*100 = 0.04% were Gordian-I examples

=> that is like finding 1 Gordian-I example in every 2500 ancient coins within this sample

Oh, and the Rarity Table lists these two guys at #141 and #142 (the list contains 207 Roman Imperial Rulers)

... ummm, for whatever that is worth, eh Doug?

 

Side-note (since I'm still awake and can't sleep): here are two examples that I just found on vcoins ... this guy is trying to sell them for roughly $10,000 US each (yah sadly, that's approximately $14,000 CAN at the moment ... *sigh*)


Gordian-I
https://www.vcoins.com/en/stores/se...ror_extremely_rare_superb/622542/Default.aspx



Gordian-II
https://www.vcoins.com/en/stores/se...tia_extremely_rare_superb/622547/Default.aspx

*edit*
Ooops => apparently these are the same two vcoin-examples that brassnautilus showed on page-1 (good job => great minds drink alike)

 

Lol no way. Sergey has gone right over the top. I could probably get these for a third of that price at the auctions ... If I hadn't spent all my money on travel

 

I know, eh? (that Sergey => what will he be up to next?)



However, I did manage to score a pretty sweet A-Pius Drachm from this dude ($300 CAN, delivered) ... maybe you remember this baby?

Antoninus Pius & Serapis w. Dioscuri



Hmmm? ... in Sergey's defense, I guess those two Gordian examples that he has are pretty stellar (but either way Gol, I won't be the dude that's shelling-out that type of cash for a coin that doesn't have at least one sweet animal on it!!)

 

Yep I think I remember your awesome drachm. I have a few Hadrian drachma. I'd start an Alexandrian drachma collection as a side-project if my money wasn't diverted elsewhere.

You know I have pretty much half of Sergey's store on my watch list, he's just such a pricey guy.

Oh btw, I must be behind in my drinking - you called me Gol! I'm Smeag, remember Gol?

 

great coins all