Post the Best 'Cherry-Picks' You've ever Made in Ancient Coins.

I have done a lot of cherry-picking over the years, but most would consider it fly-specking: identifying coins with rare bust varieties, coins where the deity on the reverse was looking left, rather than right, or held a scepter or not, or where a peacock stood on top of Juno's throne rather than in front of it. Many would consider these minor varieties and they don't make much difference when it comes to value. Let's just say that they won't allow me to retire early.

However, I am most proud of this find, because it's not a rare-but-minor variation of an otherwise common coin. This one is just a straight-up rarity. It is no exaggeration to say that this may be the second known example, the first being the specimen in the Bibliothèque nationale de France described by Cohen. It was auctioned as a "sestertius," but at 26 mm and 16 g, I knew it could only be a dupondius. Competition for it was low and the hammer price was 35 £.


Faustina Senior, AD 138-141.
Roman orichalcum dupondius, 16.19 g, 26.1 mm, 10 h.
Rome, AD 140-141.
Obv: DIVA AVGVSTA FAVSTINA, bare-headed and draped bust, right.
Rev: CONSECRATIO S C, Funeral pyre in three stories, set on base, ornamented and garlanded, surmounted by Faustina in biga right.
Refs: RIC 1189; BMCRE p. 236 *; Cohen 187; RCV --.

 

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I seemed to get fairly lucky when I first started out. Lucky because I had absolutely no idea what I was doing or buying. (still don't in many cases - but I least I know where to look for price comparisons .. then I did not).
However I was smart enough to spend very little .. some of these are little gems at very nice prices:

$22.00 Ptolemaic Kingdom. Ptolemy II Philadelphos. 285-246 B.C (countermark)


$21.00 AE16 Augustus 27 BC.-14 AD.,Philippi,Macedonia



$7.50 Maximianus (286-305). Ae Follis - Siscia 28mm, 9.25gr


$5.49 Diocletian AE Silvered Follis


$6.49 Diadumenian




$8.50 Diocletian

 

These following 3 coins are still highlights of my collection.

This first one was bought from a little known auction house that had many unremarkable lower grade Roman coins. I looked anyway and I am very glad I did. In amongst the rather pedestrian offering was this little gem of a coin. When I purchased this coin it was the only one known. About a month after I bought this coin our own @David Atherton found one on the auction site. A few months ago @Suarez posted that there was one that sold in a well known auction house. So as far as I know there are 3 of these known. There are a couple of features that make this coin special. First my coin is the RIC reference coin (there is no plate of the coin in the new RIC). Second, the portrait is not only left facing but is bare headed as well. This combination only exists for 3 coin types in RIC, 2 denarii and one Aureus. The 2 denarii types include my coin (RIC 773), and RIC 853. For RIC 853 there are about 7 known examples. I sent a photo of this coin to Ted Buttrey the co-author of the new RIC shortly before he passed away.

Vespasian (69-79). AR Denarius (18.08mm, 3.50g, 6h). Rome, AD 75.
Obv: Bare head l. R IMP CEASAR VESPASIANUS AUG
Rev: Pax seated l., resting l. elbow on throne and holding branch.
PON MAX TRP COS VI
RIC II 773 (this coin); RSC –. Extremely Rare variety, near VF.
Ex Vecchi sale 13, 1998, 757.
Ex: St Paul Antiques auction 7 Lot 285 June 11, 2017
Coin depicted in the Wildwinds.com database.


This coin of Titus was a lucky find indeed. I was searching the newly posted coins on VCoins and spotted something very unusual. It looked like a PAX seated reverse with a missing arm. I immediately went to my copy of RIC and discovered that this seemingly very common coin was in fact very rare. The figure on the reverse was not PAX at all but was SECVRITAS instead. The arm was not missing it was raised above the head. While I had the coin in my cart to check out I received and email from @David Atherton informing me that this rare Titus has appeared and that it should be bought immediately because the chances of another coming to market soon were few and far between. I was grateful to have the conformation and I completed the purchase.

Titus as Caesar 75 CE
AR Denarius
20 mm 3.30 g
Obv: Head laureate r; T CAESAR IMP VESPASIAN
Rev: Securitas seated l; head resting on raised arm; PONTIF TR P COS IIII
Ric 784 (R2) [Vespasian] BMC--, RSC--
Purchased from Zurqieh on vcoins; April 18, 2019





I was watching the Artemide Aste auction taking place in San Marino. A few days prior I had noticed a coin I wanted to bid on. It did not seem to be attracting very much attention which I thought as very unusual for this popular coin type. The coin I was watching was a lifetime portrait denarius of Julius Caesar. While it is true that the coin has a deep scratch and this may have dissuaded some bidders I felt that the positive features of the coin very much outweighed the scratch. For example the coin is extremely well entered (a rarity for these) and the portrait is great. The opening bid was 400 Euro and I placed a bid of 420 Euro during the live auction. Much to my surprise there were no more bids and I had won the coin. I do not know what everyone else was doing that day, but I was winning a great coin for my collection. With buyers fees and postage the coin cost me about 590.00 USD. I consider this a bargain for a lifetime Julius Caesar portrait denarius.

Julius Caesar. AR Denarius, 44 BC.
(19.00 mm 3.68 g)
Obv:. Laureate head right; before, CAESAR IMP; behind, star of eight rays.
Rev: P. SEPVLLIVS MACER. Venus standing left, holding Victory and sceptre (resting on star?).
Cr. 480/5b RSC 41 BMC 4165 Syd 1071Sear (2000) 1412
A very elegant portrait. Perfectly struck on broad flan. Areas of flatness and scratch on obverse, otherwise about VF.
Ex: Artemide Asti E-Auction 43 E, June 9, 2018.

 

Great coins, and it's remarkable how sometimes auctions go. Good win with the caesar denarius. Its a great catch at that price! I had the same case with a denarius of Otho. The starting bid was not low or high, i think it was fair, and I thought there would be heavy competition. Turned out i was the only bidder! Still, not my # 1 cherry pick though.

 

Yeah, try $2000 or more.

TIF's example is in really good shape for this issue.

John

 

This is a great documentary. Read a bit about them, seen some other documentaries. All cool. I enjoy chasing down origins and foundations... in this case, the origins and inspiration of Rome.

Etrurians / Later Etruscans / present day Tuscany, called themselves Raesna. The letter ‘P’ was actually their letter ‘F’. So the city of Populonia (Roman name) was actually called Fofulans. This was a derivative name of one of their 12 major Gods, Fuflans.

 

I believe this is the name of the game we play. Further, I suspect many of us have looked at one or more of the coins posted here as 'cherries' and seen them as 'pits'. If I posted the five coins I am most glad I bought, most of you would say either that you would no have paid that much or that you would not have the coin at any price.

Of all my coins, I believe one most likely to return a profit if sold is my $6 Anonymous Pagan. The coin is not rare but we rather rarely see examples of the type with detail in the robe of Apollo.


Once upon a time (about 20 years ago) in Baltimore I was privileged to go through a bag with several hundred (maybe a thousand???) silver antoniniani, mostly Gordian and Philip, "your pick, $35". I bought the three Philip I coins below. This was long enough that $35 was not cheap for generic silver ants. I left at least a hundred types I did not have and most of those coins were decent condition. I considered each worth buying but only one was a 'cherry'. One was least and one fell in the middle. Who would agree and bought all three? Who would have walked away from one or all? One collector's cherry is another's pit.


For the record, none of these will be sold in my lifetime. I regret recent Baltimore shows have not had plastic bags full of pickouts for the enjoyment of people like me.

 

I’ve got two, but they are the same type so it counts. These specimens represent one-third of the entire population of this type. First was from CNG but described as a coin from Agyrion. Second was from an Italian seller and described as a Neapolitan half unit. They are actually coins of the Kerisini:

 

I got this Calabria, Tarentum AR Nomos for $33 in a "buy it now" auction on eBay. The seller moves vast quantities of US and world stuff, only occasionally listing ancients. Sometimes he overprices ancients, sometimes not.




Calabria, Tarentum
AR Nomos
Hippodanos Magistrate
(c. 280-272 B.C.)
Naked youth on horseback right, crowning self; ΣΩ to left, ZAΛO & Ionic capital below / Phalanthos riding dolphin left, holding distaff & aphlaston; TAΡAΣ below; ANO to right.
Vlasto 803–7.
(6.41 grams / 20 mm)

 

This is one I was probably most happy about winning, a 32 buck drachm.



Aelius Caesar, 136-138 AD, AE drachm

O: bust r. draped, R: Homonia seated on throne l., holding patera. A cornucopia at her side. Ref. Dattari 2076 BMC 923 Alexandria 33 mm, 22.1g

 

I love threads like this, the coins are wonderful and stories quite thrilling in their own way. It's always refreshing to see that juicy cherries are still waiting to be harvested even if one may have to climb a ways to find them!

I suppose "Cherry picking" moreso involves recognizing that something is misattributed and much more special than advertised, versus merely lucking upon good deals. I lack the handy references to effectively compete with pro-pickers yet but have gotten several sleeper "uncertain/unknown" coins in addition to plenty of the good deals we all love to happen upon. As I believe @Marsyas Mike had aptly stated in the past, I too am primarily a "good-deal collector" though some specializations are starting to coalesce from the nebulous and varied coin acquisitions.

I'm much better at cherry-picking antiquities/artifacts, in no small part because it is necessarily a much more intuitive vs analytical process where convenient encyclopedic references don't really exist, and because there is generally less competition to begin with.

I'd like to submit a piece which is a perfect fusion of both coin and artifact, the item at the left in this lot sold as "LOT OF 4 ANCIENT BRONZE ARROWHEADS" which I obtained for 23.50 shipped:


To the casual observer they are all pretty generic 6th-3rd century BC "Scythian" style bronze arrowheads, but when I scrolled by I about jumped out of my chair! I had read about such items years before but had never actually seen one until then, woohoo!

That goofball on the left is no ordinary arrowhead, but a rare transitional "coin" made to facilitate trade between and among the Greek colonists and local populations in the Black Sea region in the latter half of the 6th century BC.

Many of us have seen the solid cast bronze "arrowhead proto-coins" like the 5 examples surrounding the column of socketed arrowheads below, which have surfaced in enough archaeological excavations in contexts where proper coins would otherwise be found to support the belief that they were a relatively standardized medium of exchange in the western Black Sea and Danube region, with many found at Istros for example.



What is special about the item in question is that it was cast with a proper socket like the actual war-arrowheads above, but its tip/blades remained unfinished (or perhaps it was cast in a mold dedicated for making coin-arrowheads) and its socket was filled with lead to bring it up to a more acceptable weight for rudimentary currency purposes.

Some relevant albeit roughly-translated footnote extracts from "ABOUT SOME DISCOVERIES OF ARROWHEADS - MONETARY SIGNS IN SOUTH - WEST DOBRUJA" by Gabriel TALMAŢCHI:

18 Such discoveries emerge at Histria in the area of the Roman thermae I, in the section S XII, in a bed of pavement made of mixed Greek material, according to SUCEVEANU 1982, p. 16; about mentioning other similar discoveries at Histria see at POENARU BORDEA 1974, p. 319; finally, some data of interest on our subject were provided to us by our colleague and friend Iulian Bîrzescu. Thus, in the sector T, arrowheads-monetary signs have been discovered in specific context for the archaic or classical period (discovered during the last years). More exactely, the most numerous arrowheads-monetary signs emerge in the above mentioned sector in contexts of the last third of the 6th century B.C. Some of these arrowheads have lead inside the fixing aperture. Very few arrowheads-monetary signs have been discovered in earlier contexts, from the first half of the 6th century. But the presence of the latter can help us to argue their issuing beginning with the middle of the 6th century B.C. and not in its second half, maybe even in the last two decades of the first half of that century.

22 Their discovery “mixed“ sometimes with proper fight arrowheads, in the autochtonous environment, can offer the hypothesis of finding some arrowheads already transformed, or arrows which are going to be transformed. In the final stage of producing and circulation of these monetary signs, we cannot exclude some piles of arrowheads in which some are accepted with a monetary value, without being transformed, and from one situation to another, the rod was filled with lead, to obtain a proper weight. At the same time, it is possible that the same master produced in different patterns, but in the same workshop, both monetary signs and arrowheads necessary as offensive fighting material.​

The 4 larger solid "spindle" arrowhead proto coins are between 3.03-4.21g. The rare lead-plugged arrowhead coin is 4.68g and 24mm, with the lead representing at least 2.5g to 3g I'd estimate.


I've never seen another one for sale and in the few archaeological publications I've found referencing them there are only a handful recorded. So yep not the sort of "coin" you were likely looking for but I thought it a good opportunity to share one of my more arcane prizes.

And while it's not ancient, here's a superb "cherry-picking" score my coin-collecting grandfather plucked from his winnings in a penny-poker game in 1961. It was one of his most prized possessions, and now resides in good company both ancient and modern in my collection:

 

Probably this guy. I bought it as an silver coin of an north African ruler. Actually it is Barcids in Spain Ar quarter shekel with a possible portrait of Hannibal complete with reverse of elephant

 

I haven't really scored many deals, and often have reached for coins I really wanted. Here are a couple of buys that felt like a steal

The first isnt a rare coin - but rare in this condition and style. Pretty good for $100 if you ask me =)



EGYPT, Alexandria. Hadrian. AD 117-138. Æ Drachm (35.5mm, 21.44 g, 11h). Dated RY 16 (AD 131/132). Laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right / Nilus seated left on pile of rocks, holding reed and cornucopia; crocodile below; L Iς (date) in left field. Köln 1056 var. (placement of date); Dattari (Savio) 1794; K&G 32.519; Emmett 1016.16. VF, brown surfaces, flan crack

This Bactrian Tetradrachm came in just over $50 and I love it!


Tetradrachm Coin, Baktrian Kingdom, Hermaios, Bronze
Weight: 9.07 g
Diameter: 24.00 mm
Baktrian Kingdom, Hermaios, Tetradrachm
Posthumous issue (40-1 BC), Diademed and draped bust right,Zeus seated slightly left, extending arm and holding sceptre; monogram to left

 

This drachm by Mithradates II (123-88 BC) was part of a collection I bought. I was pleasantly supprised with the quality of the coins included.

Mithradates II (123-88 BC). AR Drachm. Mint probably Ecbatana
Obv: long-bearded bust left wearing tiara (T28ii) with six-point star; torque end single or double pellet; circular border of pellets
Rev: beardless archer wearing bashlyk and cloak seated right on throne, holding bow in right hand; no border; five-line Greek inscription = ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΝ ΜΕΓΑΛΟΥ ΑΡΣΑΚΟΥ ΕΠΙΦΑΝΟΥΣ
Sellwood 28.2

 

Well done! I’m not big into ancients (due to ignorance on the subject) but the only coins I will actively seek out are Byzantine coins, because they have so many depicting or referring to Jesus.

@Eduard I’m still reading through, hoping you have your second cherry pick in here. Most of the ones I’ve seen so far are pretty cool. Someday I’ll slip over to the dark side.

 

I’m not sure why, but I’m very much drawn to the reverse of that third coin. I would have gladly picked that up, not knowing anything about it. Thank you for sharing.

 

I bought this coin, described as a tooled AE As by London Ancient Coins, as a cheap placeholder for a Sestertius of Salonina because I liked the portrait and could not find a better bronze of that empress for my portrait gallery. Only afterwards I discovered that there are no middle bronzes of Salonina with Pudicitia standing published anywhere:

I was positively surprised when my new arrival turned out to be neither tooled (just smoothing in the fields, according to David Sear), nor an As, but was identified (thanks to the help of Curtis Clay) as the second known specimen of a Sestertius type only recently dicovered (Göbl 490y) from last days of the production of regular bronze currency from the Rome mint, from an obverse die also used to strike Medallions (Three Monetae reverse, now in the Medici Collection / Florence National Archeological Museum).

The previously unique other Sestertius was sold at a Gemini Auction for ten times of what I paid for mine:

 

PS.: Here is the Medallion from the same obverse die (Gnecchi II/110/4):

 

So many great and interesting finds. Thank you, all, for posting your great cherry-picks.

Here a couple more of my 'best ever' cherry-picks:

Back in 2010 a part-time dealer I knew was selling some Celtic quinarii that I was really interested in. As part of a package deal he added a few nice but common 1st century denarii. As we talked and argued back and forth about the price and in order to sweeten the deal, almost as an afterthought, he threw another coin into the package.

I was happy with his final offer because I knew the 2 quinarii alone were worth more than what I paid for the full lot of 6 coins. I was in fact really after the celtic coins.

The coin he added into the package turned out to be a Siliqua of Constantine III minted at Lugdunum. It shows a few flan faults and what seems to be a flan chip, but it is a scarce coin with good detail.