[Ancients] Welcome the New Members. Post a Coin and a little about Yourself.

I'm not sure I introduced myself when I joined at the end of 2016.
Anyway, I'm Irish, Aidan, 49, IC ("chips") design engineer - currently working on power management; previously, data converters, HDMI equalisers, mobile 'phone basebands, and I even had a stint designing part of a potato sorter. It's an interesting industry with peaks and troughs but an underlying relentless drive of technology - the minimum feature size (basically, the thinnest wire that can be made or the minimum length of a transistor gate) has gone from 2.4um to 10nm in projects I've worked on over a 25-year period. A 240X reduction - or, ideally, we could fit > 50,000 times as many devices into the same area today as back then.

Apart from coins, I run a bit and ski badly but enjoy being up in the mountains. I have two telescopes - an 8" SCT and an 80mm refractor - neither has been outside in a long time, but I have a plan on the back burner to house them in a remotely-controlled observatory - someday. I have a few tropical fish and a lot of gadgets in various states of operation/construction.

Anyway, I have a few collecting angles - mostly Roman Republican coins in the last few years, but also some Greek coins and the odd Imperial too.

Here's a Crepusia 1 (RRC 361/1c) denarius - a lovely coin with little wear - you can see the face of the horseman - but the die number is off-flan, which is a bit unlucky



ATB,
Aidan.

 

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Again I am no RR expert but the small device under the chin (lizard???) will help ID the dies. If it is 'lucertola' it should be a number CCVIIII and there should be a B on the left under the scepter but that seems off flan, too. I don't own Crawford but I'd guess this as Banti 4/41. You might start there and search for other specimens with those characteristics. The photos in Banti are not all that great but you might get licky in the British museum listings and find a die match.

 

Thanks, Doug.

I have Crawford & Grueber - I will have a look tonight to see if there's a correspondence between the lizard (yes, I think it is one) and the die numbers. There is some letter on the obverse, but mostly off-flan as you say. I'll report back on any findings - it would be nice to pin it down! I have one odd volume of Banti's Republican work, but it doesn't cover Crepusia.
ATB,
Aidan.

 

Hi again, Doug.

According to Crawford, the lizard on the obverse is associated with die numbers 209-284 (provisional range). BMCRR lists three with lizards. Two have number CCXXXII - one of these has the letter E, the other a T on the obverse. The third lizard coin has number CCLXXIII on the reverse and letter X. So, I'm a little the wiser - when I get a chance, I'll search for Crepusia denarii with lizards and see if I can get a reverse die match. There's only one reverse die for each number and the obverse combination of letter + symbol also appears to be unique, but I can't tell which letter I have - it might be an X, but there are probably other letters which would also fit. Maybe this is a useful project!

EDIT - I knew that there was at least one paper on these somewhere and found Ted Buttrey's paper in ANSMN 1976 on JSTOR - http://www.jstor.org/stable/43566280

This is a page from it covering the lizard symbol and reverse die numbers -


So, I'll have a read of that and see if I can find pics of some of these - it narrows the search a bit! Anyway, enough off-topic stuff for this thread!

Thanks,
Aidan.

 

Only now I've seen this thread. An excellent suggestion from @Curtisimo. All have excellent histories, specially yours, @Sallent! I live in São Paulo, the main city of Brazil. I am 43 years old, pediatrician and child neurologist around 20 years. I’m married, with a 3 year old son and a little girl about to be born. Dutch father and Italian mother of Venice. Thus, besides speaking Portuguese and English, I also understand Dutch, Italian and Spanish.


I started "collecting" coins around my 5 years old, after finding a small box with old coins in a cabinet of my grandmother's office. I've never stopped that since. I collect coins from all periods, but in recent years, my interests are more geared towards ancient and medieval numismatics. My first old coin, a Delmatius AE, I bought at age 14. It is difficult to attribute my favorite coin, but since I was a child, routinely flipping through an old Dutch encyclopedia of the 50's (Winkler Prins) at my Oma's house, I would see a LIBERTAS-type Brutus denarius (54 BC) and I wondered if any day would have an equal. I already had an equal since 10 years ago, however @Orfew was faster to post it. So, I will post here my other denarius of Brutus (Ahala), bought from Jean Elsen. I always traveled a lot to Europe, so I always had access to good numismatic houses and made good friends. I learned a lot from that. Here, I feel like it's no different. I felt welcomed by most.


Roman Republic AR denarius - Gens Junia. Marcus Iunius Brutus Q. Caepius.
54 BC - Rome mint. Crawford 433/2.

 

I didnt realize there was a Pacific NW sub base. I was stationed on Whidbey Island WA and we had a sub communications facility. Were you there? I was there between 1990 and 1992.

Or maybe Bremerton?

 

I should add that in addition to being in the finance world I am an avid amateur astronomer with two scopes - an 18" Obsession Dobsonian and a Zhumell Z10 Dob. I collect eyepieces as well as coins. So you can find me out on the deck most clear nights, staring up at the clusters and galaxies.

 

Ken, I worked at Naval Submarine Base Bangor. It has now been merged with all the bases on Kitsap Peninsula including Puget Sound Naval Shipyard as Naval Base Kitsap. It's a Trident base with SSBN's. It's on the Hood Canal and has accommodation for 9+ subs, a refit pier and of course weapons loading and storage. The base was established in the mid 90's.

 

Hi Curtisimo ... we're ready to learn coin things

 

Hi All

I've been reading the Ancients forum for a while now and thought it was about time I joined in the conversation.

To introduce myself briefly: I'm in my mid-30s. I'm based in Melbourne, Australia and work in the financial services industry. Back at uni I majored in classical studies and my interest in ancient history (particularly Roman) has slowly resurfaced over the last couple of years.

I've picked up only a handful of ancients during this time, mostly because of other priorities in my life (starting a family, moving back to Australia after five years overseas).

So far my collecting has focused mostly on third-century Roman Imperial silver, which I find to be both interesting and priced within what my budget allows.

Attached is an image of the first coin I purchased about three years ago:



Philip I, 244-249 AD
Silver Antoninianus, Rome, 3.52g, 22.6cm
O: IMP M IVL PHILLIPPUS AVG, Radiate, draped and cuirassed bust right
R: SECVRIT ORBIS, Securitas seated left, scepter in right, propping head on left hand

Look forward to joining in the discussions here, and hopefully I'll slowly continue to build my collection through 2018.

Edit: formatting

 

Welcome Daniel! Glad you decided to join us. I agree that the early third century imperial silver, particularly silver antoninianii, offer great value and feel nice in hand

I look forward to seeing more of your posts.

 

I've enjoyed this thread. Nice to find out more about you all. I'm an occasional contributor, but I've never introduced myself formally.

I collected in a small way as a child, after my father gave me a few coins he owned. I sold that collection before I went to college, but I've always missed it. I had a nice bright Faustina denarius, and I'd often thought about buying a replacement. I only started collecting again after inheriting my father's collection. I didn't know he'd been collecting, but he had a really nice group of Celtic coins, some English hammered, and some moderns. I sold the moderns, added to the Celtic and hammered, and started collecting ancients in earnest.

I collect widely, but I do try to collect gater groups of related coins. I'm attracted to historically important coins showing key figures from history or interesting scenes. I've put together a decent little group of Republicans, of which this is my favourite. I choose my screen name because I like the ambiguity - there's a Republican monneyer Nerva as well as a 'good' Emperor.

I work in finance and I'm interested in economic and financial history. My other passion is art history, and I'm always attracted to particularly artistic dies. I'm into triathlon, too, so anything related to the ancient Olympics speaks to me.

 

One of these days I'll get one of these. Outstanding example!

 

Wow @Nerva that is a stunning coin!

 

Welcome, although I have enjoyed many of your posts. Yours is a gorgeous Denarius!

 

What a nice suggestion to introduce ourselves! In a lifetime spent studying ancient coins, the greatest benefit it has given me is the lifelong group of dear friends whom I would never have met, had not our paths crossed through our shared coin interest. One I count very dear is my friend Warren, who is a regular contributor to CT. If I never looked at another coin, my friends would remain. And I look forwarding to getting to know many of you better as well.

Like my Coin Talk image, or avatar, as I suppose it is called, my name is Mike. 55 years ago when I was a child, I fell in love with ancient Greece and Rome, and began collecting ancients. For a few years I did what I could to assemble a portrait gallery of Roman emperors, and occasionally add the attractive Greek coin that struck my fancy. 4 years of high school Latin turned into a college major in Classical Studies – Latin, ancient Greek, and ancient history. Then followed graduate studies in Classics at the University of Cincinnati, where I concentrated in late Latin literature, studying authors such as Ammianus Marcellinus, Prudentius, and Ausonius, as well as Christian writers Lactantius and in Greek, Eusebius. My professional concentration on late antique literature and history caused my coin interest to move to the late Empire and to its natural continuation, Byzantine. What led to my love of Byzantine coinage was the fact that Byzantium WAS the Roman Empire, and the contemporary Greek nation evolved from that (along with a healthy influx of Slavic DNA in the late antique period). This was made crystal clear to me by a lecture I once attended. The speaker was a noted Greek scholar of Byzantine history. He described the incident that led to his devoting his life to Byzantine studies. When he was a young child, the island he lived on was liberated by the Greek navy from the Turks. As the Greek marines were dismounting from their boats and coming ashore, he like hundreds of other Greeks were shouting out “Οι Έλληνες, οι Έλληνες”! (the Greeks, the Greeks!). A marine approached him and replied “Δεν είμαστε Έλληνες, είμαστε Ρωμαιοί”. (we are not Greeks, we are Romans”. I guess his story hooked me, too.

Because I had a family, I didn't want to pursue a teaching academic career involving a host of short term positions in the hopes of finding eventual tenure, so as a job opened in our Classics Library, which is one of the world's premier collections of books on all areas of Classical antiquity, as well as in Byzantium, and modern Greece, I took it, and 40 years on, I am still here.

In the early 1980s I was asked to become curator to the private collection of Byzantine coins of a gentleman whose surname is found on products in every grocery store in the country. He had begun his collection buying Byzantine gold in the early 1950s. In the 30 years of our association, we moved into acquiring Byzantine silver and bronze, especially concentrating on ceremonial silver and bronze of the highest grade. It was a thrill for a small town boy like me to be able to participate in international auctions of the most wonderful material. But the even richer reward was the friendship and love I came to feel for a man that I cared as much about as a second father. My friend died several years ago and “our” - as he used to call it, collection went to Dumbarton Oaks, where it will be used as a teaching aid for years to come. That 30 years was the most meaningful time of my life, passed only by the blessings of my wonderful wife, our children, grandchildren, 3 dogs and a horse.

Today, in the twilight of my life, my coin interests center on Byzantine silver, especially the 7th century hexagrams and for truly perverse reasons, I find the Palaeologid stavrata strangely beautiful and haunting, and I acquire them whenever I can find well struck specimens.

My other hobbies include trying real hard to not fall off our horse, reading 15th century English literature (Chaucer, and for prose, the Paston Letters), the Bible in modern Greek – it is amazing how much modern Demotic Greek approximates Koine Greek, target shooting (but not hunting), and last but by no means least, sleeping, a special interest to which I should like to devote more time.

My wife also has a degree in Classical Studies, although she questions my love for Byzantine coins. But she tolerates them. And me. Yes, I am blessed.

I love a lot of my coins, but there are two that have a special place in my heart. Photos are attached: Sear 25A and Sear 28A, a very rare type with enthroned Constantinopolis on the reverse. A companion piece, the follis, came up in Triton XIX, lot 688. But when I saw where the bidding was going, I decided that Meat Loaf's song “Two out of three ain't bad” made a lot of sense.

Some CTalkers have added very nice photos of themselves, so I cautiously venture one of mine. But I hasten to avoid possible offense to any anti gun members, by saying I am only doing my best impersonation of Patrick Swayze in his movie “Red Dawn”, while my horse is tolerating my goofiness!

 

Very interesting introduction Mike! I very much enjoyed reading it so thank you for sharing. I have been becoming more and more interested in Byzantine history and have learned a lot recently while reading Susan Bauer's The History of the Medieval World: From the Conversion of Constantine to the First Crusade. I will definitely be adding some Byzantine gold to my collection in 2018!

Also great coins!

 

Thank you for your nice reply, Curtisimo! As you add Byzantine to your collection, I would love to see them. All kindest regards, Mike

 

Gavin, nice to meet a fellow Classicist!

 

Sallent, a very moving story; thank you for sharing it and God bless you.