Just Roman Imperial Bronzes, show me yours with you thoughts when you hold them

Hi All



I think these are the most magnificent coins ever created as they are art, political, the ego of the Caesar male and female individuals, so many areas such as architecture, deities, war, success and a public relations media to the people throughout the Roman Empire.

This coin is untouched 37mm and weight 28.46g and is well centred with a natural edge die split

Then of course now so difficult to find as the human race helped to destroy them via the use of chemicals in the earth. There were millions issued but so few exist today in nice condition

Regards
Jeff

 

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Is the pictured coin yours? It's magnificent! Do you have the full attribution?

Also - I'm pretty sure there are still millions of ancient coins in nice condition - the bulk of them from the 4th century.

 

i'll echo greg..is that yours????


37 mm and nearly 30 g of nero /temple green sweetness??

 

I would not be surprised if the ancients recycled older worn out coins into new coinage, which would help explain why the farther back in time one goes, the less coins one finds of previous Emperors (generally speaking), while so many of the later Emperors are much more common. The exception being of course Emperors who lived not long before, or during times of crisis (economic or military) in which case their coins ended up buried in hoards and are now more common.

That's why we are swimming in Gordian III and Philip I coins. After all, both ruled for a relatively short time, but thanks to the horrendous economic crisis of the 3rth century and the devaluation that happened within a decade or so of their reigns, tons of their coins ended up buried and preserved. Had the crisis happened a few decades later, their coins would have probably mostly been recycled and today a Gordian III or Philip I might be worth 4 to 6 times what they are worth.

Oh, and I have nothing that comes close to that magnificent coin the OP posted, but I do have few Roman bronzes. What do I think when I hold them? I think of the history behind them.


Rare Provincial bronze of Philip II

antoninianus of Diocletian


AE radiate of Maximian


AE3 of Constantine I with Sol Invictus


Constantius II Phoenix (1,100 Anniversary of Rome)

 

Nice coins Sallent!

Do we know if the practice of "damnatio memoriae" contributed significantly to the rarity of coins of certain emperors? I'm thinking, for example Pescennius Niger. He's a rare emperor, but he minted a huge variety of types - so we should expect many more coins of his were minted than exist today.

 

Hi SwK, long time no see! That's a fantastic Nero, congratulations

Here's my best Nero:


Nero
struck in Rome, CE 63
Orichalcum sestertius, 34 mm, 26.7 gm
Obv: NERO CLAVDIVS CAESAR AVG GERM P M TR P IMP PP; laureate head right, wearing aegis
Rev: ANNONA AVGVSTI CERES; Ceres, veiled and draped, seated left, holding corn ears and torch, her feet on stool, facing Annona standing right, holding cornucopia; between them, modius on garlanded altar; in background, stern of ship
Ref: RIC 98. Cohen 24

This coin was in an NGC slab and was quickly released upon receipt. As for slabs offering protection... hah. By the time it arrived the heavy coin had become skewed in the holder and some parts were rubbing against the hard plastic. That's not good. Fortunately there didn't seem to be any damage from rattling around in its case during shipping.

As for thoughts when holding it... primarily just how lucky I am to have such a wonderful coin . I also wonder what Nero was really like. The written histories are biased. To me, it sounds like he didn't really want to be emperor. He appears to have been an artist/musician at heart and it is fitting that his coins are some of the most artistic of all Roman Imperials.

 

I do not see the coins of Nero as scarce even in high grade but the demand for them is huge so the prices are high. We see them in every big name sale. I would love to have a Janus Temple sestertius - my favorite type of his and common enough that I could were I willing to pay the price. For me, Nero made asses which I have showed here too many times. Compared to Nero, there is no demand for coins of the kid Gordian who did nothing particularly noteworthy other than issue coins and die. Certainly there are more coins of the third century when an antoninianus probably had less purchasing power than Nero's bronzes. Certainly being the last decent silver coins made for a long time would cause many to be buried. Recently we have seen large groups of later sestertii sold as bulk lots but I have not seen many of these showing up from smaller dealers. I wonder who bought all those cleaned and average sestertii?

It would be interesting to know what percentage of any particular issue was made from recycled metal.

 

Gorgeous example @SwK ----I'd LOVE to own it!!!!

My 'bronze' examples of Nero, thus far, are budget/average for the types, but I always get the feeling of traveling through time whenever I hold them or any other ancient coin.

An As and a dupondius:

 

That's a beautiful and desirable coin SwK. Like Doug, I would love to own one of these, but the prices are generally too high for my budget. I'm not sure it's rarity that is driving the prices, but rather notoriety of Nero. If you ask any kid to name a Roman Emperor, I'd bet Nero's name is mentioned most often.

 

Butcher and Ponting indeed find the metallurgy evidence points in that direction, especially during Vespasian's reign. Which perhaps explains the many antiquarian types he struck.

 

Nice coins, everyone!

I don't have a Nero coin, but my brother does. It was one of the first ancients he bought.

Sorry for the horrible pictures. I'll have to get it from him to take better ones.



Erin

 

A truly magnificent coin! The OP coin is RIC I 267 (p. 166), with obverse 46G, reverse "Terra" door right. But none of the coins in this group (Nos. 263-267) have counter-clockwise reverse inscriptions. This is a mistake in RIC as far as I can tell.

My humble as...

 

Nice coin Jeff! Is that the Temple of Janus whose doors were seldom closed?
The doors were open during times of war.
We know some coins were over struck. I posted an example of a Republican Quadrans over Uncia recently - https://www.cointalk.com/threads/two-for-one-quadrans-over-uncia.273274/#post-2321724
We strongly suspect that some coins, like the EID MAR denarius, were pulled from circulation to remove the message they had.

 

Is that the Temple of Janus whose doors were seldom closed?

The temple which was thought to have been built by Romulus after he made peace with the Sabines. It was believed to have been decreed that its doors would remain open when Rome was at war and must be closed in times of peace. But peace was rare in Roman history. Its doors had been closed only a few times prior to the reign of Nero

Regards
Jeff

 

As I recall these coins were issued just before the Jewish revolt which resulted in Nero sending Vespasian to Judaea and ending the peace advertised on the coin. I'm not sure being the cause of an emperor having to retract a coin type proudly announcing his accomplishing peace was the way to win friends in Rome. Perhaps that is why they ended up destroying the temple rather than just occupying the city as they had for a century. If I read the list correctly, Nero's closing of the doors would have been the 4th or fifth time since the temple was built under Numa Pompilius c.700BC. This gets a bit into where history and legend intersect but closing the doors was a big deal. There are many variations in all denominations from as to aureus but no denarii. Why, I never understood.

 

thanks interesting reaing, always listening, looking and learning

r
J

 

I'll play!

Since most coins posted have been Nero, I'll toss in my one and only because the bulk of my coins are Roman Imperials.


Nero AD 54-68
Ae as, 28mm, 8.2g, 6h; Lyons mint
Obv.: IMP NERO CAESAR AVG P MAX TR P P P with small globe at point of bust
Rev.: Victory flying left, holding shield inscribed SPQR

This coins gets posted every time Nero comes up because it's my only one. It's the first coin from the twelve and was challenging to read the legend. When I hold it I wonder about how it survived. Where it was stored, when and where it was found, and how many collections it passed through before it ended up in mine.

 

A couple of factoids about the Temple of Janus types. We are not certain where the temple actually existed in Rome - different contemporary sources put it in a few different locations and scholars continue to debate the likelihood of those locations.

The design on the coins actually depicts the front of the temple and one side, but it's drawn with a straight baseline, so it has no perspective. "Door left" and "door right" describe the position of the doors on the coins, but that's a bit misleading. The door is in the front of the temple, in the center. But perhaps it would be clumsy to say, "Temple seen from left without perspective," etc.

These were struck in various small denominations, of both orichalcum and bronze, and as aureii, but as Doug mentioned, curiously no silver. There is one aureus type which depicts the doors only...

 

Hi John Anthony
You are correct, I have a dupondius, not sure this will help

Nero. AD 54-68. Æ As (26mm, 9.80 g, 6h). Rome mint. Struck circa AD 65. NERO • CAESAR • AVG • GERM IMP, laureate head right PACE • P • R • VBIQ • PARTA • IANVM • CLVSIT •, S C across field, Temple of Janus

R
J

 

While pointing out oddities, the aureus breaks the legend between Parta and Ianvm which would not be the start of the thought in any way you read it. The bronzes have no break.

The smaller asses sometimes used the shorter VBIQ legend like JA's coin but the smaller aureus uses the long MARIQ legend. The two legends appear together in the image below (but I have since upgraded my MARIQ).