New Diocletian Abdication Follis

@ancient coin hunter Very nice coin and write up. I’ve been looking for one of these unsuccessfully for about a year. Yours and the others above are great examples. The abdication situation reminds me a lot of Pope Benedict XVI when he decided to abdicate. Everyone was like “huh?”

 

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I love the tetrarchy and abdication pieces. This one arrived yesterday:


28-27 mm. 8.45 grams.
DN DIOCLETIANO FELISSIMO SEN AVG (Senior Augustus)
PROVIDENTIA DEORVM QVIES AVGG
nothing in exergue (London mint)
RIC London 77a "c. May 305 - autumn 307"
Cloke and Toone 4.01.002 "c. May 305 - spring 307."

If you want to read more about abdication/retirement issues, see my site:
http://augustuscoins.com/ed/tetrarchy/retirement.html

 

Of course. These abdication coins are not rare overall but there are rare variations and, as always, low end coins are easier to find.

My low end one made it to the $10 section of my favorite webpage about the 2001 'Coin Show' experience. It may be double that today?
http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/acmshow.html

 

I reread the pages about your coin show experiences. They are excellent. Your honesty and point-of-view in evaluating the experience is well worth reading. I would love to hear more-recent coin-show experiences from anyone who can write, like you do, about his own thoughts when walking a show floor. It is one thing to say "I bought this coin from dealer X." That is not very illuminating. It is entirely another to say "I wanted to find coins under $x and I went in hoping to find <this> but didn't so I bought <this> because it was in a junk box at half price and <this> because the dealer was nice and I took a lot of his time."

I suppose we won't have anyone reporting on new coin show experiences for quite some time. The story is not the same when someone writes "I clicked on this on-line and bought it." I want some drama! Someone tell us a coin-purchase story with some drama!

 

@Valentinian: I agree with you in your assessment of @dougsmit’s coin show report. I also went and read it and was very pleased I did. Doug’s report captures well the thought process that goes through the minds of many collectors at a show I believe. I know that I haven’t had that kind of fun like these three did because I usually go alone. There has never been a specific rule either except a short list of stuff I hope to find and a long list of other things I am happy to buy.

I’d say most of my thought process goes into two areas prior to arrival at a show. How much can I reasonably spend without also getting divorced in the process and which dealers I am sure to see either to say hello or to buy. Then I let good fortune guide me. I’ve honestly had my best times at shows that had few (sometimes only one) Ancient dealers. Finding something worthy of purchase when there might be three total row boxes of ill-identified and poorly priced coins makes it a crazy fun challenge. Many times I’m buying stuff on the fringes of my collecting interests but make my choices to maximize fun and research of each.

 

I bought this Diocletian post-abdication follis after I read this interesting thread , so it deserve to be posted here. I found it by chance some weeks ago searching on ebay for other coins , the Diocletian bust type remembered me about this discussion. I'm glad to have a coin with such historical significance.


29 mm / 10 g
Diocletian AE Follis. Trier mint, 305-306 AD. RIC VI 676a
D N DIOCLETIANO FELICISSIMO SEN AVG, laureate and mantled bust right, holding olive branch in right hand, mappa in left /
PROVIDENTIA DEORVM QVIES AVGG, Providentia standing right, extending right hand to Quies standing left, holding branch and leaning on sceptre; S-F across fields. Mintmark PTR.