Ancients: Roadkill edition

I see a thread here about showing your most expensive coin, and there's another in the coin chat section asking to see your most beautiful coins. So I figured we needed one to give some love to the roadkill coins in your collection.

So proudly show off the coins so beat up or worn that they look like a party bus ran over them, or they survived a nuclear blast. Time to give those beat up but well loved coins the center stage and show how much we love them.

I'll start...


Galba (April 3, 68 CE - January 15, 69 CE)
Silver quinarius, RIC I 132 (R2), King 1, RSC I 317, BMCRE I 244, BnF III 63, SRCV I 2112, F, bumps, marks, scratches, uneven toning, porous, obverse a little off center, 1.587g, 14.8mm, 240o, Gaul, probably Lugdunum mint, Nov 68 - 15 Jan 69; obverse SER GALBA IMP CAESAR AVG P M T P, laureate head right; reverse VICTORIA GALBAE AVG, Victory standing right on globe, raising wreath in extended right hand, palm frond over left shoulder in left hand; ex Beast Coins; very rare.

 

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Very cool idea, and way to balance out the universe!

Trajan Decius on this coin looks like a blob. Maybe Jeff Goldblum in The Fly? Or Odo from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine?

Trajan Decius, Ruled 249-251 AD
AE Sestertius, Provincia Dacia
Struck 250/251 AD (RY 5)
Obverse: IMP C M Q TRAIANVS DECIVS AVG, laureate, draped, cuirassed bust right.
Reverse: PROVIN-CIA DACIA, Dacia standing with head to the left holding a bundle of rice in right hand over eagle with wreath in mouth, and scepter in left hand over lion, AN V below (RY 5 = 250/251 AD).
Reference: Moushmov 11
Size: 28mm, 13.6g
Note: The eagle and the lion were emblems of the two legions V (Legio V Macedonica) and XIII (Legio XIII Gemina) who were stationed in the area.

 

This is the most worn but still identifiable coin in my collection. The ID is made by recognizing the portrait as belonging to Julia Domna and corn ears and long torch as belonging to Ceres.


Julia Domna, AD 193-217.
Roman Æ as, 13.49 g, 27.6 mm, 5 h.
Rome, AD 198.
Obv: IVLIA AVGVSTA, bare-headed and draped bust, right.
Rev: CERES S C, Ceres standing left, holding corn ears and long torch; altar at feet, left.
Refs: RIC 870; BMCRE 781; Cohen 19; RCV 6636; Hill 346.

 

Mark Antony and Octavian (41 B.C.)
AR Denarius
M. Barbatius Pollio, quaestor pro praetore
O: Bare head of Mark Antony right.
R: Bare head of Octavian right, wearing slight beard.
Ephesus mint, Spring-early summer 41 B.C.
3.5g
20mm
Crawford 517/2; CRI 243; Sydenham 118


Vitellius (69 A.D.)
Egypt, Alexandria
Billon Tetradrachm
O: ΩΛΟΥ ΟΥΙΤ ΚΑΙΣ ΣΕΒ ΓΕΡΜ ΑΥΤ, laureate head right.
R: Nike advancing left, holding wreath with her extended right hand and palm frond with her left; LA (date) to left.
26mm
12.1g
RPC 5372; Köln 260-2; Dattari 340; K&G 19.1. Emmett 196.1


P. Licinia Nerva (113-112 B.C.)
AR Denarius
O: Helmeted bust of Roma left, holding shield and spear over shoulder; crescent above, mark of value to left.
R: Three citizens voting on comitium: one voter receives ballot from attendant below, another voter places ballot in cista; [P] on tablet above bar.
Rome Mint
17mm
3.3g
Crawford 292/1, Sydenham 548; Licinia 7


Titus (79 - 81 A.D.)
Egypt, Alexandria
Billon Tetradrachm
O: AVTOK TITOV KAIΣ OYEΣΠAΣIANOY ΣEBA, laureate head right.
R: [NIΛOΣ], bust of Nilus with lotus flower, LΓ=year 3 (80/81 A.D.).
24mm
11.4g
RPC II 2466 (4 spec.)., Dattari 425, Emmett 234.3

 

Here's my space-filler example of Trajan's "Rex Parthia Datis" sestertius, commemorating his appointment of Parthamaspates as puppet-king of Parthia:

I think I paid $30 for this coin. Or, to quote a great TV show: "You paid money for this, sir? On purpose?" (If you recognize the source of that quote without looking it up- hello, fellow Browncoat!)

I did eventually get a better example of the type, in case you're curious as to what it's supposed to look like:

 

Baduila, Ostrogothic Kingdom
AE 2.5 nummi
Obv: Pearl-diademed, draped bust of Anastasius right
Rev: Monogram of Baduila
Mint: Ticinum; struck 541-552 AD
Ref: MIB 87; Kraus 69; Metlich 94

 

You gotta pay for what you want, even if it ends up being a beat up copy of the coin you truly want and dream about. Truth be told, I could have gotten a gF denarius of Galba that didn't look so beat up for what I paid for that quinarius, but I really wanted a 1st Century quinarius badly and that one came up right at the same time I was looking to buy a coin of Galba for my 12 Caesars. Even if I buy a nicer denarius, that quinarius isn't going anywhere.

 

Excellent thread topic! Really enjoying the garbage above.

I'm hoping you can (barely) tell who this is...

 

Cleopatra?

 

Great thread. With a collection like mine, it is pretty much all-inclusive.

From the past month - for some reason, cheap, junky denarii have been abundant. Here are a pair of Penny Dreadfuls I got within the last week - Hadrian with PAX reverse and a posthumous Marcus Aurelius:



And another dead, divine Antonine - Faustina I and her peacock:



Finally, my favorite - Hadrian with Aeternitas holding the decapitated heads of the Sun and the Moon. I'd like to upgrade this one, it is so weird.

 

You got it. (Though it could also be the Wicked Witch of the West. I intend to keep the coin away from water.)

 

I bought this at the Baltimore coin show in October 2018 for $5. I've never been able to ID it. It is the only coin in my collection that has 2 busts. I really like it though! If anyone can help ID it I'd greatly appreciate it!

 

Great thread idea. Here’s a large, beat-up bronze from Carthage from the 2nd Punic War era that’s always been one of my favorites.

 

Great thread idea @Sallent! And really cool Galba rarity (yeah, that's a Cuban cigar he's a smokin).
One that very well may be my "favorite" at this point in collecting and getting to hold onto for awhile is this scrubby old lil beauty.
Minted just a generation or so before Kimon and his boys started signing their coins. It is, in my very humble opinion, one of the high water marks for beauty on ancient coins... Just passed around in the actual commerce and trade of the time!


SICILY. Syracuse. Deinomenid Tyranny

485-466 BC. AR Tetradrachm (24mm - 17.45 g). Struck circa 480-475 BC. Charioteer driving walking quadriga right, holding kentron and reins; Nike flying above crowning horses / Diademed head of Arethusa right, surrounded by four dolphins swimming clockwise. Boehringer 134 (V60/R93); SNG ANS 38 (same dies); Randazzo-. revsl off-ctr, sl surface imperfections,most notably a horizontal scratchlike flaw in obvright field.

 

I believe I've solved your mystery, @furryfrog02:

It's a bronze of Turiaso/Zaragoza in Spain, and that's Livia on the reverse (positioned as the obverse in your photo). Cool coin!! It appears to be pretty rare.

 

I think a bunch of Etrurian moneyers broke into the Rome mint and wrought their revenge on Octavian... minted some blank reverse Quinarii to offend the Romans,,,


RI Augustus Quinarius - possibly Asia Recepta - blank wore-off-rev

A super deal captured from @red_spork

 

If I could give you 1000 likes I would! I’ve revisited this coin who knows how many times! You are the Hero of the Day!

 

Sleep well tonight Sir Frog. Another battle on the morrow

 

I guess that makes me Toad then.

 

On this coin the reverse is nearly gone. That obverse though! Smoothed and etched with mysterious deep lines.


Macedonian Kingdom, Alexander III The Great, 336-323 BC. Bronze AE 18, 4.44g, 17.6mm, Amphipolis mint?
Obv: pattern of lines (was head of Herakles right, in lion skin headdress)
Rev: [A]LEXAND[ROU], club above legend, bow in case below;

The dealer believed this was a an Amphipolis issue, Price 326. I am not certain. What is it? Game counter? Token? Someone's geometry homework?