[POLL] Your Favorite of My Favorites (2014-2018)

I quite enjoyed reading the responses to the recent thread here about CT members' favorite ancient coins. I didn't share my own favorite in that thread, but it got me to got me looking through my year-end Top 10 lists which I've posted on CT in each of the past five years. Going through the lists, I thought it might be fun if I could get everyone here to pick their favorite out of ten of my favorites from the past five years.

While I love all of these coins, I do have a clear favorite amongst them. At the same time, I'm genuinely curious to see which one will poll with the highest numbers, so I hope you'll all humour me and participate in the poll. Here are the ten coins below, respectively my numbers 1 and 2 for the years 2014-2018:

2014: #1

ANTONINUS PIUS
AE As. 11.34g, 27.8mm. Rome mint, AD 140 AD. RIC 694a. O: ANTONINVS AVG PIVS P P, laureate head right. R: TR POT COS III SC, Mars right, holding spear and shield, descending through the air toward sleeping Rhea Silvia.
Ex Fairfield Collection; Ex Kunker 236 Lot 1065 (7 Oct 2013)

2014: #2

FESTIVAL OF ISIS
AE4. 0.79g, 12mm. Rome mint, circa mid-4th Century. Alföldi, Festival pl. VIII, 11; Vagi 3393. O: [ISIS F-A]RIA, draped bust of Isis right, wearing hem-hem crown and necklace. R: [VOTA P-]VBLICA, Hermanubis standing left, holding sistrum and caduceus.
Ex Baldwin's Auction 47 (25 September 2006), lot 226

2015: #1

JULIUS CAESAR
AR Denarius. 3.77g, 19mm. Rome mint, struck by L. Aemilius Buca, February - March 44 BC. Lifetime portrait. Crawford 480/8; Sydenham 1061; RCV 1411. O: CAESAR DICT PERPETVO , wreathed head of Caesar facing right. R: L BVCA , Venus standing left, holding Victory and a sceptre.
Ex David Sellwood Collection; ex Seaby Coin & Medal Bulletin (1 Oct 1977), lot 793

2015: #2

AUGUSTUS
AR Denarius. 3.64g, 19.9mm, Rome mint, 19-18 BC, P. Petronius Turpilianus, moneyer. RIC 297 (R2). O: CAESAR AVGVSTVS, bare head right. R: P PETRON TVRPILIAN III VIR, Pegasus walking right.

2016: #1

CRETE, Gortyna
AR Stater. 11.77g, 29.8mm. CRETE, Gortyna, circa 330-270 BC. SNG Cop -; cf. Svoronos 58 and 62 (obv and rev type). O: Europa seated right in plane (platanus) tree, resting her head pensively on her left hand. R: Bull standing to right, head turned back left to lick its flank.
Notes: Notes: Overstruck on a stater of Knossos, circa 425-360 BC (Svoronos 23), with visible undertypes of the Minotaur on obv and Labyrinth of Knossos on rev.

2016: #2

CALABRIA, Tarentum
AR Nomos. 7.75g, 22.3mm. CALABRIA, Tarentum, circa 332-281 BC. Fischer-Bossert Group 80, 1131 (V417/R873); Vlasto 587; HN Italy 934. O: Warrior, holding shield and two spears, preparing to cast a third, on horseback right; ΣA below. R: TAPAΣ, Phalanthos, holding distaff, riding dolphin left; pellet to left; below, prow left.
Ex Thomas Bentley Cederlind Collection; ex Numismatica Ars Classica 84 (20 May 2015), lot 1358

2017: #1

CARACALLA [with Geta]
AE36. 17.85g, 36.2mm. CARIA, Stratonicaea, circa AD 209-211. Jason, son of Cleobulus, gramatteus. SNG von Aulock 2686; SNG Cop 512. O: Confronted busts of Caracalla right and [Geta – erased as result of damnatio memoriae] left, both laureate, draped, and cuirassed; c/m: ΘEOY within rectangular incuse, head of Minerva right within circular incuse. R: Hekate standing left holding patera and torch; to left, hound standing left, head right.
Ex Dr Walter Neussel Collection

2017: #2

JULIA DOMNA
AR Denarius. 3.0g, 19.5mm. Rome mint, AD 201. RIC 540; Vagi 1723; BMC 4. O: IVLIA AVGVSTA, draped bust right; hair elaborately waved. R: AETERNIT IMPERI, laureate and draped bust of Caracalla right, vis-à-vis bareheaded and draped bust of Geta left.
Ex Dr. Walter Neussel Collection

2018: #1

PTOLEMAIC KINGDOM. Cleopatra VII.
AE Diobol - 80 Drachmai. 18.02g, 27mm. EGYPT, Alexandreia mint, circa 51-30 BC. Svoronos 1871; SNG Copenhagen 419–21. O: Diademed and draped bust right. R: BACIΛICCHC KΛEOΠATPAC, Eagle standing left on thunderbolt; cornucopia to left, Π (mark of value) to right.
Reportedly ex UCLA Classics Library Collection

2018: #2

LOKRIS, Opuntii
AR Stater. 12.09g, 24.9mm. LOKRIS, Lokri Opuntii, Opus mint, circa 350-340 BC. BCD Lokris-Phokis 60; McClean 5433; HGC 4, 992 var (control). O: Head of Demeter left, wreathed with grain. R: OΠONTIΩN, Ajax the Lesser advancing right, brandishing sword and holding shield decorated with griffin and palmette; spear on ground behind, Λ between legs.
Ex CNG 63 (21 May 2003), lot 313

 

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Hard question, huh?
For the exceptional artistic quality, I choose the Lokris Stater

 

Your 2015 #1, Julius Caesar.

Three reasons;

1) It has perpetual dictator on the legend, so it was struck in the last 2 weeks of Caesar's life.

2) the portrait is so nice. Except for a small flat area at the top, it is just about as good as these get.

And (3) it's freaking Julius Caesar!

 

All absolutely amazing coins. I chose the Antonius Pius. I like him as a ruler, and I love the coin design and that it portrays a story.

 

An impossible task!! All are fantastic in some way. One of them combines two very interesting and desirable coins, so I chose that one.

 

I voted for your Crete: the beautiful Gortyna/Europa type over a Knossos stater where you can still see the undertype is fantastic. That said, artistically, your Tarentum and Locris are obviously also wonderful.

 

@zumbly , they are all great.

Historically, it would be Caesar - The Man who crammed so much into his life that you cannot capture it within a single book.

Aesthetically, I like the Lokris Stater. Demeter is well rendered.

And ALL the rest!

 

I was really torn on this one. For me it came down to the JC and the Augustus Pegasus. In the end I chose the JC but it was a close call. Of course I love them all. This list would make an excellent collection for anyone interested in ancient coins.

 

I voted the Gortyna/Knossos overstrike. When I think of the "Zumbly" collection that's always the coin that comes to mind. Such a cool and interesting overstrike.

 

Me too. The others are very nice so it was a difficult decision.

 

I had to pick the Festival of Isis. Hermanibus, are you kidding me! Lots of really nice and interesting coins to pick just one...

 

Thanks for the votes and comments so far, everyone. The Lokris leads the pack so far with 6 votes, with the JC denarius and Festival of Isis tied just behind at 4.

I have to say that I'm happy and pleasantly surprised to see that raggedy scrap of bronze is as popular as the JC portrait!

I think you've got me pegged. That is in fact my favorite coin, and if I had to score all ten coins on a personal scale, and might give the others a 9 or 9.5, the Gortyna stater is the one that would get a 10. At the end of the day, it is (so far) the only coin in my collection that's irreplaceable and un-upgradeable.

 

Good thing you didn't go back further than 5 yrs, it was hard enough as it is.

But for me, it's your 2015 #2, the Mobilgas advertising token. I mean, who knew they did that back then?

Seriously though, here's a guy (Augustus) who was close to Julius, directed & navigated a change in Roman history with more convoluted twists than Dallas, Dynasty & Falcon Crest combined, & still lived into his 70's!!! And he did this during the time of Christ!!!

Had you not posted this coin, I would have voted 2015 #1 (Julius). (Next was the CALABRIA, because, well...the dolphin, & it's a nice strike. I love eating dolphin ...no, the fish, not the mammal!!! )

 

If there's one important thing that I'm glad this thread has brought up, it's the mention of Dallas, Dynasty and Falcon Crest. Let (TV) history never be forgotten!

 

What a great thread idea! My favorite is the Locris and not just because its the one that is “classically” beautiful. I think it’s fantastic to see a figure from the Iliad shown on a coin from his home city-state. I’m surprised we didn’t see more of that done during the classical period.

I hope you give us a breakdown on which order you would rank them and thoughts on how you would measure which was your best collecting year. Have your tastes changed significantly? Have you had any older coins that didn’t make the top of your lists that have grown to become favorites?

Hopefully others will take up this thread idea and show us some of their favorites from previous years as well. It would be a breath of fresh air relative to all the “attribute this” and “is it real” threads lately (not that there is anything wrong with those types of threads, there’s just been a lot of them).

 

Antoninus for me, because I am biased towards my own collecting interest haha.

A very interesting selection though, and some that are completely unfamiliar to me. Looks like I have some reading to do.

 

Yeah, & I left out Knots Landing 'cause I didn't want to acknowledge that I had seen that too!

 

Another vote for the stater of Lokris, as it's the only one here that's already on my list and yours is quite lovely. That's a great selection of coins I'd be proud to own any of them.

 

All great coins in their own right but my favorite for absolute beauty is the Calabria Nomos, so well refined and detailed with exceptional toning.

 

The Lokris stater is spectacular, but my vote is for the Caracalla/Geta damnatio...so cool. People/local officials must have been pretty terrified of Caracalla's hit squad if they were going so far as to scratch Geta's face off of their coins. And at 36mm and with two countermarks, that's a really impressive coin.