As you guys know I almost never buy slabbed coins but I had to make an exception for my most recent purchase(of course it didn't stay in the slab for long). A large hoard of beautiful uncirculated victoriati has been hitting the market for the past year. The best coins from this hoard were sold at big name auctions but an absolutely astounding number of uncirculated victoriati of similar types and all with gleaming surfaces and cleaning techniques similar to the auction coins have been coming to market via other sources, mostly dealers who are more well known for selling modern coins and bullion. Most of these coins are slabbed and terribly overpriced, especially in light of the sheer number on the market but this one was at a price that was more in line with what I'd expect to pay at auction so I snatched it up. This victoriatus is from the "L" mintmark series attributed to the mint of Luceria in Apulia. Luceria was one of the most prolific Roman mints of the Second Punic War and produced a staggering amount of coinage with multiple styles and weight standards and multiple mintmarks along with occasional odball denominations like the silver half victoriatus and the bronze dextans(10 asses). The coinage suggests Luceria had multiple workshops and produced coinage over a long period of time, perhaps continuing even after the cessation of hostilities though the victoriatus I'm sharing today was likely struck during the war in the years immediately following the introduction of the denarius coinage circa 212 BC. This type doesn't show up in some of the earliest hoards but begins to appear in the slightly later ones and so likely was struck circa 210-208 B.C.. I'm still not terribly happy with my photos of this coin but for now I'm giving up until it tones down just a little bit. It seems like no matter how little light I use it's too much light and too harsh or I'm shooting almost in the dark and the coin looks far darker than it actually is. I'll share a couple of pictures in an attempt to give a better idea of how this coin looks: 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 Previously encapsulated by NGC, 4374418-122 As always, feel free to share anything relevant
Here's another of the pictures. I'm not sure if I like it or the other black background picture above better but I kinda felt the lighting is too harsh on this one and makes the surfaces look a bit grainy which they aren't:
@red_spork I have to say, a great looking coin and your first photo in OP is the one that I like best. I like dark toned coins as illustrated by this one which is I also have trouble photographing well : Anonymous, circa 211-208 BC. AR Victoriatus Mint: uncertain mint in Sicily Obv: Laureate head of Jupiter to right. Rev: ROMA Victory standing front, head to right, placing wreath on trophy. Size: 16 mm, 2.46 g Ref: Crawford 70/1. RBW 297-299. Sydenham 83
That's a very nice victoriatus, better than my example of this type but the attribution is off very slightly. Yours is a scarce Crawford 67/1, also a Sicilian mint type but likely from a different Sicilian mint than the more common 70/1. Here are my examples of 67/1 and 70/1, respectively: A good link for identifying these fully-anonymous victoriati is this guide written by Kenneth Friedman and Richard Schaefer. I found it extremely helpful and I still refer to it from time to time when verifying attributions for scarcer types as some like 89/1b and 92/1b are seemingly impossible to find good pictures of elsewhere.
Way to go! Show stopping coin I really like seeing different pictures and different angles on coins. So I'm totes digging the 3 different pics. Here's my Victoria-not-us (she ain't pretty but she sho can cook): Victoriatus Anonymous. 211-210 BC. AR (17mm, 3.42 g, 8h). Spearhead (first) series. Mint in southeast Italy. Laureate head of Jupiter right / Victory standing right, placing wreath on trophy; spearhead upright between; ROMA in exergue. Crawford 83/1a; Sydenham 223; RSC 24m; RBW 336.
Thank you! for resource link and the correct attribution, always nice to find that I have a scarcer version that I realized. Edit: I think I see a pretty good die match between your reverse and mine...
I like dark coins as well. I have the best luck photographing them with a black background. Here's an example of a coin that is quite dark (not a Victoriatus but more on these later) where the same coin was photographed with the same pinpoint center metering but with different backgrounds to get completely different effects:
I had the pleasure to see this hoard first-hand early on and have collaborated with Pierluigi Debernardi on an article recently submitted that documents the hoard. The hoard contained several varieties. A large number of the coins in this hoard were Apulian types (L, LT, Q, VB...) which were found with no trace of circulation. @red_spork Your Luceria Victoriatus is marvelous and here is why. Although nearly all of these coins were mint state, I only found about 20% were fully centered on both obverse and reverse. Although there were some true FDC examples, the majority were ill struck, on irregular flans with one or both sides at least partially off-center obscuring some part of the type. Yours is centered on both sides and complete, so among the minority of the hoard. Here is one of the anonymous types (Cr. 44/1) that I acquired from the hoard. Unlike the Apulian types, this shows a little wear, suggesting it was probably earlier. Steve Brinkman
