Tonight there's gonna be a jailbreak!

C'mon! Who slabs a Gallienus antoninianus? And it's from the Cologne mint, not the Rome one.



Hold on, li'l buddy! Tonight there's gonna be a jailbreak!





Free!!


Gallienus, AD 253-268.
Roman billon antoninianus, 3.61 g, 21.1 mm, 12 h.
Cologne, AD 257-258.
Obv: GALLIENVS P F AVG, radiate and cuirassed bust, right.
Rev: VIRTVS AVGG, Gallienus in military attire standing right, holding spear and standard.
Refs: RIC 58F; Göbl 8821; Cohen 1309; RCV 10413; Hunter 58; ERIC II 1030.

Share your stories of coins you busted out of jail!!

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

This Plastic Prison can't hold me forever Charles...

 

I freed this Claudius denarius from an NGC slab.



I freed this Galba denarius from an NGC slab. I do not have a photo post slab.



I freed this Henry VIII groat from a PCGS slab

 

freedom!

 

whoo hoo! Libertas!
I wonder if slab break outs make the non ancient collectors crazy

 

Hooray!! Always cause for celebration. (And I love the comical style on the reverse of that Gallienus, BTW.)

Here are a couple I freed:


(Don't worry, it wasn't my hammer that took off the horses' heads...)

Bonus points for anyone who can show a freed Libertas type!

 

I know! It looks like something from an anime cartoon! Thanks for the kind words.

 

I recently had the pleasure of cracking my first slab, one entombing an A-Pi Alexandrian drachm with Harpodile reverse.



Not having smashed a slab before, I was pretty nervous at the prospect and put off doing the deed for a few weeks. Even when I finally decided to get down to it, I kept hearing a voice in my head going...



Well, I wasn't going to let anyone keep me from laying my hands on My Precioussss... yeah, not even Sean Bean. So, anyway, after a few good thwacks with the ol' hammer, the beast was unleashed.




ANTONINUS PIUS
AE Drachm. 28.01g, 36.4mm. EGYPT, Alexandria, RY 8 (AD 144/5). Menelaites Nome. Emmett 1819; Dattari 6318; RPC Online Temp #13971. O: AVT K T AIΛ AΔP ANTωNЄINOC CЄB ЄVC, laureate head right. R: MЄNЄΛAЄITHC, Harpokrates of Canopus (part human, part crocodile) left, holding finger on right hand before mouth, cornucopia on left arm; altar before, L H (date) in exergue.
Ex Phil Peck (“Morris”) Collection

 

Thanks to @TIF for pointing out that my coin is a double die match to this one currently offered by Civitas:



Mine:



How bizarre to find a double-die match on a mid-third-century coin, when the mint was cranking out coins by the millions!

 

Cool! That Harpodile needed to be busted out!!!

 

That Gallienus really is a great strike and condition, not only for the type but among many eras! The reverse style is memorable... so memorable that I noticed the die match when browsing Vcoins.

As for crackouts, I have a handful . Here are a few.


ROMAN REPUBLIC, M. Piso M.f. Frugi
58 BCE (redated from Crawford's 61 BCE by Hersh and Walker, 1984)
AR denarius, 20 mm, 3.94 gm
Obv: terminal bust of Mercury right, wearing winged diadem; calix below chin; to left, star above wreath; dotted border
Rev: M·PISO·M·F / FRVGI above secespita (sacrificial knife) and patera; all within laurel wreath
Ref: Crawford 418/2b; Sydenham 825; Calpurnia 23
formerly slabbed, NGC XF, 4/5 strike, 4/5 surface


ROMAN REPUBLIC, M. Aurelius Cotta
139 BCE
AR Denarius, 20 mm, ? gm (can't find my scale right at the moment )
Obv: helmeted head of Roma right; X (mark of value) behind; COTA before; dotted border
Rev: Hercules carrying a club, driving biga of centaurs right; centaurs each carrying a branch; M·AVRELI (AVR is ligate); in exergue, ROMA; line border
Ref: Crawford 229/1b; Sydenham 429; Aurelia 16
formerly slabbed, NGC bulk submission holder, "VF"


Roman Republic, Lucius Aurelius Cotta
105 BCE
Fourree AR serrate denarius, 20 mm, 3.8 gm
Obv: draped bust of Vulcan right, wearing laureate pileus; tongs and star behind; all within wreath and dotted border
Rev: eagle standing on thunderbolt, head left; L·COT below, V to right; all within laurel wreath and dotted border
Ref: c.f. Crawford 314/1c; Sydenham 577a; Aurelia 21b
formerly slabbed, NGC ChVF, 5/5 strike, 3/5 surface

 

I've never bought a slabbed coin I can say happily.

 

Everybody in the whole cell block, Was dancin' to the Jailhouse Rock !

 

Here's just a couple, though there are many more escapies in my collection:



The Sextus Pompey denarius was particularly in need of rescue. Due to its oblong and irregular flan, it was rattling around the slab like a miserable prisoner with a tin cup.

Unlike many Cointalkers, I personally have no issue with slabs per se. If slabs appeal to a certain segment that would not otherwise buy ancient coins, then I say "let there be slabs" to attract those new collectors. They will, perhaps, tire of the training-wheels at some point and enter the mainstream of ancient coin fondlers. Until then, I'm happy to free slabbed coins in my collection; but I don't criticize those that prefer to buy slabbed coins, nor do I mind the slab companies that service this segment of ancient coin collectors.

 

A recent jailbreak that occurred at my house:

Roman Republic AR Victoriatus(3.40g, 18.5mm, 5h). Anonymous(Second ""L"" series). ca. 211-208 B.C., Luceria mint. Laureate head of Jupiter right. Bead-and-reel border / Victory standing right, crowning trophy with wreath; L between. ROMA in exergue. Line border. Crawford 97/1b

 

sez grett job dun!

That's so wonderful looking free from the slab

 

Never had to do that in 50 years of collecting. Congrats to you all my friends for freeing those poor entombed coins !!

Q

Here's my VIRTVS AVGG Gallienus (same as the OP but different dies)


Gallienus, Antoninianus Cologne mint, AD 257-258
GALLIENVS PF AVG, Radiate and cuirassed bust of Gallienus, seen from front
VIRTVS AVGG, Virtus, standing right, holding spear and standard
3,93 gr
Ref : RCV #10413, Cohen #1309, Göbl # 8821

Q

 

Wow CONGRATS @zumbly !!! First jailbreak!

 

Sometimes the information of the slab makes the coin seen worse than it is. I have seen "3" assigned to surfaces I actually like. I have seen "edge cut" mentioned for an almost unnoticeable shallow slice into the edge. As I have noted before, many collectors fail to look at the coin and, instead, look at the info on the slab. If a slab mentions a defect, or has a number less than 5, many won't bid, even if the defect is barely a defect at all. Then you can sometimes get coins you really like at a very good price where the slab actually lowered the price! Then, crack it out and that low number or defect becomes less important than the coin (rather than more important than the coin, which is a good reason to dislike slabs). Then your own judgement is what matters.

 

Actually, we wonder why they would be slabbed in the first place (unless to authenticate!).

We always though "you people" liked to fondle your coins!

Many of "us" however like to keep plastic covers on our sofas & chairs so we don't, you know, get them dirty!