Saturday Night Free For All

I haven't posted on this thread before, but have always enjoyed it. It's Sunday afternoon for me here rather than Saturday night, but I hope you don't mind if I join in. Today, I finally got around to photographing these two lovely roaches that I've had for over a year now.

GORDIAN III
AR Antoninianus. 4.56g, 24.5mm. Rome mint, AD 240. RIC 56; Cohen 386. O: IMP CAES GORDIANVS PIVS AVG, radiate, draped and cuirassed bust right. R: VIR-TV-S AVG, Virtus standing facing, head left, holding branch and inverted spear; at his feet, grounded shield.
Ex St. Jean d'Ardieres Hoard (Guillaumont-Richard, 9 April 2016, part of lot 180)

GORDIAN III
AR Antoninianus. 5.64g, 25.5mm x 22.7mm. Rome mint, AD 241-243. RIC IV 86. O: IMP GORDIANVS PIVS FEL AVG, radiate, draped, cuirassed bust right. R: LAETITIA AVG N, Laetitia standing left, holding wreath in extended right hand and anchor set on ground in left hand.
Ex Michael Kelly Collection

 

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Real eye candy there, @Justin Lee ! Glad the sun cooperated for the photo session!

 

Some nice show and tell this Saturday evening/Sunday morning.

I've nothing new to show, but I'm waiting on a nice ex @Justin Lee Marcus Aurelius as Caesar Minerva as or dupondius. I think it's done the rounds of a number of Coin Talkers, and unless my eyes are deceiving me, I think it's an obverse die match the the example in the BMC.

 

Here's a fun little coin that I got recently. This coin was minted in the same issue of very rare coins of Valerius Valens, somewhere between him being made junior emperor in the east to Licinius in December 316 and being executed after the first civil war with Constantine on March 1st 317 (or not long after). Coins of Constantine from Licinius' mints during this time are less common but this one is special for its relationship to Valerius Valens.


Constantine I, Alexandria, 316-317 AD.
IMP C FL VAL CONSTANTINVS PF AVG, laureate head right
IOVI CONSER-VATORI AVGG, Jupiter standing left, chlamys
across left shoulder, holding Victory on globe and sceptre,
eagle with wreath left, K in left field, wreath over X
over B in right field.
ALE in ex.
RIC VII Alexandria 17, rated R2

 

Coining late on a Saturday night! I spent all evening photographing and cataloging coins for a brief article on coins of Pautalia featuring Faustina II. I was inspired to do so because this cool coin finally arrived from Austria today.


Faustina II, AD 147-175.
Roman provincial triassarion, 6.34 g, 23.4 mm, 7 h.
Thrace, Pautalia, AD 161-175.
Obv: ΦΑVCΤΕΙΝ-Α CΕΒΑCΤΗ, draped bust of Faustina II, right; band of pearls around head.
Rev: ΟVΛΠΙΑC-ΠΑVΤΑΛΙ-ΑC, Dionysus seated on panther walking, r., resting r. arm on panther, holding thyrsus.
Refs: RPC IV 8811; Ruzicka 99.
Notes: Double die match to RPC IV 8811(4) = Ruzicka 99(4) = Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum 8775.

 

Riding a panther?! How cool is that?! Nice coin!

 

Agreed! Very cool!!

This is all I can think of though...

 

Nothing new to add to the free for all today, but I do have something nice on the way. Through a little bit of negotiating with someone on eBay, I have 3 fairly common but good examples of London Mint coins, two Constantine and one Constantine II, coming in the post next week for a total of £10 + postage. One of the Constantine's has some intact silvering, and the Constantine II is the same type that I was about to pay £25 for on its own.

 

Nothing too special but I snagged this lot for about $25. They were poorly photographed and are a lot nicer than the seller's photos showed. I'll probably be working through these tonight. Although the Soli coins are similar and 3 of the 4 are from Trier, they're all slightly different... so that's nice.

 

All are excellent coins but the Licinius has a very nice reverse compared to some. I suspect it is worth what you paid for the lot.

 

Nice lot of late Romans! I would have been happy with that prize.
I got two lots on Rauch yesterday. The Rome/Byzantine one looks promising.

 

Thanks Doug! Yeah, although I have plenty of these Constantine Sol coins... I couldn't help myself. The head of Serapis is really nicely detailed on the reverse of that Licinius. I now have this issue for Maximinus, Constantine and Licinius!

 

Those Romans look like a sharp bunch! You have a photo of the flip sides? That buried GENIO CAESARIS coin from Antioch looks nice. I wonder which of the Caesars it is...

 

That was the only photo of the lot. Both Diocletian and Galerius were described to be in the lot. Bet it’s Galerius. Reverse looks sharp!

 

Looks like a great deal! Enjoy working through them!

Looks like it'll be a lot of fun to work through those lots!

 

I have been working through these pseudo-autonomous issues of Alexandria Troas. Its colonial bronze coinage extends from the period of Commodus to Gallienus. Reverse types principally deal with the cult of Apollo Smintheus, but also include the Lupa Romana, the statue of Marsyas in the Roman Forum, an eagle standing on the head and neck of a bull, and a horse feeding. Each issue comes in a whole slew of variations in legends on both the obverse and reverse.


Time of Valerian I to Gallienus, AD 253-268.
Roman provincial Æ 22 mm, 5.93 g, 12 h.
Troas, Alexandria Troas, AD 253-268.
Obv: AL EX TRO, turreted and draped bust of Tyche, right, with vexillium inscribed AV/CO over shoulder.
Rev: COL AVG TRO, Eagle right, holding bull's head in talons.
Refs: cf. BMC 17.15, 53; cf. SNG Cop 114-117; cf. Bellinger pl. 25, A490; cf. RPC IX 497.
Notes: This particular combination of legends is not in the standard references. Double die match to Münzen & Medaillen GmbH (DE) Auction 44, lot 242, Nov 25, 2016.


Time of Valerian I to Gallienus, AD 253-268.
Roman provincial Æ 23 mm, 5.60 g, 6 h.
Troas, Alexandria Troas, AD 253-268.
Obv: CO AL[EX TRO?], turreted and draped bust of Tyche, right, with vexillium inscribed AV/CO over shoulder.
Rev: COL AVG TROAD, Apollo Smintheus, in himation, with quiver at shoulder, standing right, holding in right hand a patera over flaming tripod; in left, bow.
Refs: BMC 17.13, 38; cf. Bellinger A470-71; cf. RPC IX 523.

 

This month I've spent my budget on a couple of small lots, something I've not done before. I plan to make separate threads for each one, but here seemed a good play to post the seller photographs with a few notes.


This first lot came about thanks to a very obliging ebay seller. He had purchased a large lot of coins and was reselling them in random lots. Thankfully he was happy to combine the three London mint coins into one lot for me, and I grabbed them for £13.50 including postage. I've now spent some time cleaning up the top two coins and they are starting to look much better. I won't be touching the last one due to the remaining silvering.

The next lot is a big departure for me, and I imagine plenty of people would think me mad for buying these.



These four Durotriges coins came to a total of £29 including postage, which to me seems like a bargain. I do wish to add a higher silver content stater of the Durotriges to my collection, but what better way to historically track a people than to show the decline of their coinage due to the events that surrounded them? Although they started out producing rather beautiful white gold staters, it is speculated that Caesar's campaign against the Gauls cut off the Durotriges from their sources of silver, and very quickly their stater became heavily debased, as can be seen by the billon stater to the left in this image. You can also see clearly the effects that using curved dies had on the end product. The inside of the cup, the obverse, retains much of the detail, but the reverse is worn almost completely blank due to being on the outside of the 'cup'. Also the large flan crack caused by the curvature of the dies is a common feature of these coins.

On the right is a silver plated stater with an aes core, another common find amongst the coins of the Durotriges. Whether these were an attempt to gain the acceptance of their coinage amongst neighbouring tribes, or are the work of an enterprising individual making some money on the side, I suppose we'll never know.

The final two tiny 'quarter staters' are speculated to be coins produced to pay troops during the final stand of the Durotriges against Vespasian and his troops in the Claudian conquest of Britannia in around 43 AD.

A lot of history for very little money.

 

Saturday night Antonine attribution:


Antoninus Pius, AD 138-161.
Roman AR denarius, 325 g, 18 mm, 6 h.
Rome, lat autumn AD 140 - December AD 144.
Obv: ANTONINVS AVG PIVS P P TR P COS III, Laureate head of Antoninus Pius, right.
Rev: AEQVITAS AVG, Aequitas standing left, holding scales in right hand and vertical sceptre in left hand.
Refs: RIC 61; BMCRE 173-77; RSC 14; Strack 82; RCV 4049; UCR 331; Dinsdale 010460.

 

The current situation has crossed all plans for other Saturday night activities – thus I am coining now.

These four pieces need tags and proper attributions: a nice little London mint Constantine bronze (the price on the tag is not what I paid), a Teutonic Order shilling and bracteate penny, and a late medieval Cologne bracteate heller with an old tag from the famous Ernst Otto Horn collection.

 

Nice coin! AP looks tired and bored... haha. Aequitas has some nice detail!

Oooh those are fun! That Constantine looks nice. I also like that coin in the upper right.