I won this in the coin club auction tonight, $6. It says Byzantine Follis Emp Romanus III 1028-34 I realise I may have overpaid, but for 6$ into the club kitty, I didn't care. Well.....what do the ancient guys think. To you, it is a trinket.....to me? It is amazing history I can hold in my hand !!
$6 is a perfectly reasonable price on a follis such as this! A decent buy, even. I'll take a closer look tommorow to get you a more accurate attribution.
cool. i had a question when does a coin become ancient before what date. i have some pretty old coins too but i have never thought of them as ancients. thanks
There is no set definition. It pretty much goes by culture. The later Byzantine coins are included only because of their connection to the earlier ones, for example. Most early Medieval European coins (ie, Merovingian) can be considered ancient. I tend to lean towards the idea that its about the manufacturing process. If it was hand-struck, its ancient enough. Of course, this gets a bit shady in India, as you well know!
It does look like Romanus III the self proclaimed 'philosopher king', though these anonymous follis can be confusing. I would say $6 to your coin club is money well spent.
Boy is that ever true. I'm still amazed that for a relatively trivial amount of money you can own something thousands of years old. Andy
That would be anonymous folles. I got reamed out on another forum for pluralizing it wrong - I don't want the same to happen to others!
This is the closest ID possible Anonymous follis, Class B Romanus III or Michael IV, 1028-1041 AD, Constantinople mint Obv description: Christ, wearing nimbus cruciger, pallium and colobium and holding a book of Gospels with both hands Obv legend: + EMMANOVHL Rev description: cross on three steps with pellet at each extremity Rev legend: IC r., XC l. IS-XS in fields. bAS-ILE/bAS-ILE. ref: SBCV 1823; DO 26
I agree that it's a Class B anonymous follis. I was just cataloging my Class A anonymous follis last night, actually. For $6, I think you did great! I paid $20 for my Class A, which I would grade at F-VF. Yours seems like just a step below mine in grade. Maybe this will slowly wean you off those dang Lincolns and hooked onto something a little different. :smile
