I'm looking for a book quote from a book I read many years ago about collecting Roman coins. This had to be during the early 1970's when I was starting to collect all coins: US, German, Roman, Canadian, etc. The book discussed the values of common ancient Roman coins but then added something like: "But if you want to buy a [small] gold coin of the last emperor, Romulus Augustus, be prepared to pay $1200 for it." If anyone recalls the book and the page #, I'd appreciate it.
Yes last emperor of the west. However the Eastern empire was fine. Odoacer had to pay homage to Zeno.
If only that were still the case! I believe Aureo & Calico sold one a few months ago... for over $100k!
Unfortunately Romulus Augustus is a little out of my budget right now, but at least I can feel good knowing I have a coin of the guy that dethroned him. Odoacer, Kingdom of Italy AE nummus Obv: OD[O-VAC], bare-headed, draped, cuirassed bust right Rev: Odoacer's monogram (letters ODOVA) within wreath Mint: Ravenna Date: 476-493 AD Ref: RIC X 3502
I tried doing a Google book search of gold coin of the last emperor, Romulus Augustus, be prepared to pay $1200" but nothing turned up. Sorry.
Not in sear, vagi, sayles, or klawans as far as I can tell. The only similar source I didn’t check was van meter. The price quoted suggests 70s or earlier?
If that was written in the 70's it must have been a printer's error that dropped a zero. Either that or just a wildly inaccurate guess. Only sale I can find from that era was NFA 5 #579 where a tremissis sold for $8000 (which works out to over $25,000 in 2019 dollars).
I'm going to be teaching some classes to 6th grade high school students on Ancient History as Shown by Coins. I thought I'd do a comparison on some ancients prices then & now, which is why I'm looking for the quote. I'm aware of the Heritage tremissis of Romulus Augustus which sold just this past January realizing $66K: with commission. It had scratches on both sides. The NFA # 5 should be around 1978. Note that rare coins exploded pricewise during the 1970's. My 1st Roman Coins by David Sear, 1974, lists the coin at 1,250 pounds sterling. I don't have a Romulus Augustus but make do with a really nice tremissis Julius Nepos (474 - 475 AD, Ed Wadell) so I have to apologize for the substitution.