Divus Verus. Sestertius - tell your story it is more interesting than the coin

Every Bronze we have is a ‘love at first site & a love of Art and History’

Divus Verus. Sestertius after 169, 30.14 g. DIVVS – VERVS Bare head r. Rev. CONSECRATIO S – C Four tiers funeral pyre surmounted by facing quadriga on top.C 59. A spectacular portrait of fine style struck in high relief on an exceptionally large flan being an untouched coin with olive-green patina.
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[Pecunia non olet]

"Money has no odor" the famous expression of the Roman writer Gaius Suetonius (AD 69 and lived until about AD 140)

It is an accepted premise that high quality Imperial Roman bronzes are rare. For many years there has been fewer quality pieces coming to the market to meet a growing demand each year including 2015.

According toSuetoniusin his De vita Caesarum (The Lives of the Twelve Caesars), written in the first centuryCE, the emperor Augustus*sometimes presented old and exotic coins to friends and courtiers during festivals and other special occasions. This in itself shows that Augustus collected the coins for their aesthetic value. And he did not just stick to coins featuring Caesars – he gave out coins of all kinds, including old pieces featuring ancient kings, and other foreign currencies.

Many of our Roman Bronze Coins were collected over a period of over 30 years, they were studied and even the material the coins were made from. The single collecting discipline over a long period was to build a collection of natural bronze coins of the Roman Empire, a collection of untouched ‘natural coins’ with their original patina. The attraction was the artistic superiority of bronzes and the rarity of finding a specific quality.

This discipline demanded that one had to sit alongside restorers to enable to understand what is being done to coins at the present time to meet the requirement of a growing market. The current dearth of high quality material available in the market has led to an increasing number of doctored coins in an attempt to satisfy the pent up demand. This is not a new problem as from the early 1900’s many bronzes were found in hoards and to make them interesting to the collectors they were cleaned, tooled, smoothed and given a patina. The reward of the work done on the coin was to highlight the portrait so as to be more attractive to the collector. More recently over the past 20 or 30 years, some bronze coins have been built up using epoxy resin, though all this can only be seen under a microscope.

Many works of Art are restored as a matter of course and if done carefully, the art is preserved for posterity. Should the same thing apply to coins? Obviously opinions will differ, but a clear majority of people now like coins to be unmodified by human interference. Today, numismatics is entering a period when the finest bronze coins such as Sestertii & Dupondius and other Bronzes should be untouched and in their original state of creation, these now being the most sought after. Untouched meaning that the coin may be washed in warm water but the patina should not be disturbed.

Some of the existing dealers in 2016 who understand Roman Bronzes are Auction Houses as NOMOS-ZURICH, NAC-ZURICH, Ed Waddell in Frederick-USA. M. Bendenoun –Tradart, CNG, Kunker, Lanz. There are also a number of names from post war II Europe such as Leo Mildenberg, Roberto Russo, John Pett, Ratto, Baronovsky, Sternberg and others, such names were and still are my mentors including by Dr. Alan Walker Nomos and ex Leu today.

* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustus

Regards
Jeff

1000'S OF STORIES TO BE TOLD ABOUT THE COLLECTOR AND OR THE COIN, LET EVERYONE IN OUR GREAT HOBBY UNDERSTAND YOUR STORY​

 

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Hmmm, that's a very sweet OP-coin you've got there (congrats)

Lucius Verus, eh? (Lucky-V to his homies) ... I only have one sestertius example

Lucius Verus AE Sestertius
164 AD
Diameter: 33 mm
Weight: 26.69 grams
Obverse: L AVREL VERVS AVG ARMENIACVS, laureate head right
Reverse: TR P IIII IMP II COS II S-C, Victory standing right, placing a shield inscribed VIC/AVG in two lines on palm



... man, these are nice big babies "in-hand"

 

I am more interested why you collect, how much please you get, the people you meat, the stories you dream of the life of the coin - bring the coin to life

 

SwK: please show the reverse. The obverse looks like it was just struck yesterday.

 

*edit*

Sorry Swk, but I don't have too much of a story regarding this coin (it spoke to me ... but that's another story)

 

I am sure it was not made yesterday, but maybe monday
r
Jeff

 

A buyer in 2009 paid about $23,500 for the coin:
http://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=584217

 

SwK is one of our "high-end" collectors, along with a few others. I'll add my thoughts to this thread later, when I have some more time.

 

I think that is a reasonable price at the time. As a dealer I would imagine it to be $35k now, but in the right venue $50k and up. It is a true work of art.

 

That is why I said it looked like it was made yesterday.

 

Hi Ken

Correct this coin was from the William James Conte collection, Bill was a high quality collector, guess what he is in the USA, great guy with superb taste and loves coins with eye-appeal

R
Jeff

 

Here's my only humble coin of Lucius Verus. It was struck in Hereopolis. Notice the hidden eye-appeal.

 

WOW

WOW






thanks for sharing that with us swk.