Saturday Night Free For All

Double post.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

This is an insomnia post for me:

Sestertius commemorating the dedication of the temple of Divus Augustus, Rome, 37 AD.

Not very good surfaces, but well centered on a large flan. Complete legends. Well defined depiction of Caligula (and assistants) on reverse. Details of Temple a little worn but all garlands and decorations visible.


CAIUS (CALIGULA), SESTERTIUS, BMCRE Vol. I, Rome, No. 69 (Pl. 29.12)
CAIUS (CALIGULA), SESTERTIUS, RIC Vol. I, Rome, No. 51
(40-41AD, 35mm, 26.2gm)

Obverse depiction: Personification of Pietas, draped, seated left
Inscription: C CAESAR DIVI AVG PRON AVG PM TRP IIII PP (in exergue): PIETAS

Reverse depiction: Caligula, veiled and togate standing left holding patera over altar - attendants (victimarius) on either side holding bull for sacrifice - hexastyle temple of Divus Augustus, surmounted by quadriga and festooned with garlands, in background.

Reverse Horizontal Inscription: {small lettering} DIVO AVG and below: S C (left and right)

Note: Also BMCRE 41, RIC 36 - with obverse legend: C CAESAR AVG GERMANICVS PM TRPOT (in exergue): PIETAS

 

This arrived this week - Cr. 116/1a denarius with bull butting left:

Obv. X - Helmeted head of Roma right
Rev. ROMA - Dioscuri right; below, bull butting left
Mint: Rome (ca. 206-195 BC)
Wt./Size/Axis: 3.24g / 19mm / 1h
References:

• RSC 20e (Anonymous)
• Sydenham 280
• Crawford 116/1a

I already had the bull butting right (Cr. 116/1b), so obviously this was a glaring gap in the collection.



ATB,
Aidan.

 

I spent a couple hours reading up on Byzantine coinage today. I thought I'd show this interesting Constans II Follis that is supposedly overstruck over an earlier Syracuse issue. I can barely tell what's going on. Interestingly, it almost looks silvered.

 

I think you stole that for $11.50 for that batch. Proabbly the best price I've seen in some time for what you got

 

Hi @hotwheelsearl,

If you turn the image of the reverse upside down you can read the SCL mintmark for Syracuse and the bottom of a word (ANNO ?).

- Broucheion

 

Thanks! I can see it now

 

Not much time for coining here and nothing new... just clawing through a lot of 25 or so Alexandrian coins I bought for around $30. They are all really rough but fun to try to solve. One of the surprises was this Otho obol. It's ugly and worn... but it is Otho. To help see through the ugliness, I've included a gif.

 

Great stuff @Orange Julius. And BTW, thank you for starting this thread - great idea for late night relaxation.

 

Thank you @jamesicus ! I have two young kids and late nights on the weekends are the only time I have anymore for coins. I enjoy your posts and have been following your collection streamlining.

I have wondered (if I may ask a question)... if although you just want to have a set number of great coins, if you've ever thought about picking up some cheap and fun Constantinian-era (post Constantius) London mint coins. There's some fun ones out there and although they don't mention Britain... they were minted there!

I'm sure you know there is a good book on the subject, pictured below.

*Edit... was just reading your other thread and see that obviously you are well aware of this book and owned it previously. Still, there are some good later London mint coins out there to go after!

 

Very cool! It's that a canopic jar on reverse?

 

Sure is.

 

Two deniers tournois of two brothers who ruled two nearby realms with very closely-related names: Alphonse de France and Charles I d'Anjou in the Marquisat de Provence and County of Provence.


ALPHONSE de FRANCE as Count of TOULOUSE (1249-1271)
AR18mm, 1.01g, billon denier tournois, Pont-de-Sorgues mint, between cca. 1251-1263
+ MARCh PVINCIЄ; Cross pattee.
A' COMES' TOLOSЄ; Chateau tournois surmonted by cross.
Poey d'Avant 3735 p. 256, Pl. 81 no. 20, Boudeau 791 p. 98 (Boudeau II féodales, catalogue général illustré de monnaies provinciales), Duplessy 1608A.



CHARLES I d'ANJOU as Count of Provence (1246-1285)
AR18mm 0.66g billon denier tournois provencal, type 2e Tarascon mint, cca. 1249-1266.

+. K. CO: P. FI. RE. F . Cross pattee
+ PVINCIALIS; Chateau tournois with fleur-de-lys surmounted by cross
Boudeau #811 (Boudeau II féodales, catalogue général illustré de monnaies provinciales), Poey d'Avant #3947, Rolland 20b (Monnaies des comtes de Provence, XIIe-XVe siècles)

These deniers tournois of the Marquisat and County of Provence were imitations after the royal tournois of Louis IX, who was also the brother of the two princes. Both Alphonse and Charles took part in the Seventh and Eighth Crusade alongside their brother King Louis. After the Treaty of Viterbo in 1267, much of the provencal coinage that had been minted for Charles and some of that minted in the Marquisat for Alphonse was sent East to Outremer, where it became the blueprint for the coinage of the Greek Frankokratia and later in the 14th and 15th centuries for the petty coinage of the Kingdom of Naples.

 

It's Saturday night and the kids are around ... here's a couple of them :

1. Marcus Aurelius; Magnesia ad Sipylum, Lydia
Obv: KAI - AYPHΛIOC; Aurelius bust right
Rev: MAΓNHTΩN CIΠYΛOY; The child Ploutos standing left in short chiton holding the front above his waist with both hands and carrying fruit in folds


2. Ophrynion Troas Ae
Obv: Bearded, 3/4 facing head of Hektor turned slightly right wearing triple crested helmet
Rev: (OΦPY); The infant Dionysos kneeling right holding grape cluster in right hand

 

Ah Saturday night. I really like this thread. Things have been a bit slow in the eBay scrounging, so I dug up some old stuff I'd never properly attributed.

Back in 2017 I bought this framed set with a Gordian III and a Tetricus I - it went for something like ten bucks. I had it at work for a while, but it was hard to see the coins, so I broke out the Gordie, which is a pretty decent Hercules type. The Tetricus has an unreadable reverse, so I left it in the frame:




Gordian III Antoninianus
(241-243 A.D.)
Rome Mint (9th, 10th and 11th Issues, 4th Officina)
IMP GORDIANVS PIVS FEL AVG, radiate draped bust right / VIRTVTI AVGVSTI, Hercules standing right leaning on club set on rock.
RIC 95; Cohen 404.
(4.92 grams / 22 mm)
Provenance Note: Broken out of a Worldwide Treasure Bureau "Genuine Roman Silver & Bronze Coins" framed set (with a Tetricus Antoninianus). Certificate of Authenticity signed by Samuel E. Cox, President.

Here's a uniface weissfennig from Bohemia I got sometime in the 1990s, I forget where. Looking it over, I was rather impressed by the medieval lettering -

Bohemia n.d. Weisspfennig
Vladislaus II (1471-1516)
WLADISLAUS SECUNDUS around double-tailed Bohemian lion rampant / blank (uniface)
Sauma 185.
(0.48 grams / 15 mm)

From my local dealer's junk drawer a while back, a bent and very worn silver piece from St. Gall in Switzerland - I liked the bear. As it turns out, it is the "key date" to the series - not that the date is very visible, but 1734 is the only one ending in 4.

Switzerland St. Gall
1734
6 Kreuzer
MON:NOVA:S:GALL[ENSI]S around rampant bear left / VI [K]REU-[Z]ER [17]34 within wreath
KM 89; HMZ 2-906 (key date)
(2.77 grams / 24 mm)


Finally, a really cheap Roman Republican denarius I found on eBay. It has that kind of toning you get when silver's been in a paper envelope for a long time. Or it's a fake. I'm not 100% on this one, though weight and diameter seems okay (a rather broad-flan issue).



Roman Republic Denarius
C. Licinius Lf Macer
(84 B.C.) Rome Mint
Diademed bust of Vejovis left (Crawford says Apollo), from behind, hurling thunderbolt / Minerva in quadriga right with javelin & shield; C LICINIVS•L•[F] MACER in two lines in ex.
Crawford 354/1; Licinia 16.
(3.73 grams / 21 mm)

And so that's the stuff I'm fiddling around with this Saturday night.

 

Reading this article, "Numidian Royal Portrait" by Maria Kormikiari, with a nice overview of the relationship between the Berber people/Numidians (nomadic, “nomades”, became “Numidiæ” in Latin), the Carthaginians and the Romans. Perhaps not surprising, there is an ancient coin involved. The horse on this coin is a link between Carthage and Numidians: Carthage's military relied on the strength of the Numidian cavalry. It was a blow to the Carthaginians when Masanissa switched sides in the Second Punic War (more here).

Kings of Numidia, Masinissa, 208-148 BC
Obv: Male head left
Rev: Horse rearing left [palm with wreath ties behind?]

The family relationships here become quickly complicated. Masinissa was that grandfather to Jugurta. In 105 BC, at war with the Romans, Jugurtha was betrayed by his father-in-law, Bocchus I, King of Mauretania, to Sulla, an event that facilitated the rise of Sulla in the Roman republic. Bocchus got part of Numidia in exchange and made a good business of supplying Rome with panthers and lions.

Another descendant of Masanissa is Juba II, a few generations later. Juba II's father was an ally to Pompey, who was defeated in 46 BC by Julius Caesar. Juba II was raised by Julius Caesar in Rome, fought alongside Octavian and was eventually restored as King of Mauretania by Octavian. One additional knot in this thread, Juba II's first wife was Cleopatra VII's daughter, and eventually Ptolemy ruled over Mauretania.
Kings of Mauritania, Juba II, 25 BC-AD 24, AR Denarius, Caesarea mint
Obv: Diademed head right
Rev: Cornucopia; transverse scepter in background, crescent to upper right

 

I was not aware of the Masinissa-Juba connection - good stuff.

Here's my Juba:


Mauretania Denarius
Juba II
(25 B.C.-23 A.D.)
Caesarea (Iol) Mint
REX IVBA, diademed head right / Filleted cornucopia with transverse sceptre behind; crescent in upper right.
SNG Copenhagen 579; MAA 95;
Mazard 241; SGI 5974.1.
(2.80 grams / 16 mm )

 

I like the coins and I like the frame.. the name "Worldwide Treasure Bureau" seems so funny, and well kinda shady.. I am sure the coins are fine but the name seems so made up..


I Googled it just to see what came up.. they have no website that I could find. The first result that came up was a Cease and Desist Order from the North Dakota Securities Commission. I thought maybe it was a different company.. but no.. Samuel E.Cox is named.

https://www.nd.gov/securities/sites/default/files/enforcement/worldwide-treasure-bureau-c&d.pdf

Also found this complaint about a fake coin.. from back in 1994:
https://www.justanswer.com/consumer...ed-ancient-celtic-coin-1994-company-call.html

Perhaps they were a legit business at one point.. I have no idea.
Probably not in business anymore.. but interesting none the less.

 

Since we're having a bit of fun tonight I just took a pic of this one and didn't notice what the reverse looked like until I saw the enlarged photo.

Gallienus, Antioch Pisidia with the reverse of Huckleberry Hound standing left holding a branch and cornucopiae

 

What the heck, here's a fake Licinius I