I bought this coin back in early August from ma-shops, and after nearly 4 months in transit from Norway, it finally arrived! While it's not in its best condition, this coin is supposed to be my first Republican coin, but since then I got 4 more Republicans! Aemilia: Lucius Aemilius Lepidus Paullus; PAVLLVS•LEPIDVS CONCORDIA / TER PAVLLVS. The reverse features a Togate figure of Lucius Aemilius Paullus standing left, touching trophy; to left standing right as captives, the King Perseus of Macedon and his two sons. Post your Paullus if you got one, or any coins that took you so long to receive!
I had a similar problem when the COVID-19 shut-down affected mail delivery from Spain. This one arrived nearly four months after the Jesus Vico auction closed. I was very worried about it because if it had been lost, I knew I would never have the opportunity to acquire another one. This may be only the sixth recorded specimen. Faustina I, AD 138-141. Roman AR denarius. Rome, AD 143-145. Obv: DIVA AVG FAVSTINA, bust of Faustina I, veiled and draped, right. Rev: PIETAS AVG, Pietas, veiled and draped, standing facing, head right, by lighted altar, raising both hands. Refs: RIC 392; BMCRE 308; RSC 251b; Strack 430; RCV --; CRE 109; Dinsdale 019460. Notes: Double die-match to ANS 1941.131.831. Other known specimens appear to be limited to the following collections: The British Museum, the Staatliches Münzkabinett in Munich, the Staatliches Münzkabinett in Vienna, the Nationalmuseum in Rome, and the American Numismatic Society.
I sure am glad I looked and found you were in Australia before I asked why you were buying a common coin from Norway but I do not know the state of the hobby and dealer stocks in your country. Maybe Norway is a reasonable place to look for coins even if you are as far from there as you can get. I got mine in person from a dealer/friend as part of a trade hand to hand. I selected mine in milliseconds because it has one of the best Stannard scoops on the reverse and belonged in the collection of someone that considered that a positive rather than a negative. This, of course, was back in the old days of collecting when you could actually sit face to face with someone and not be risking your life or be violating assembly limits. I may never again see that dealer or any other dealer. Who knows? Maybe I should ask for the names of dealers in Norway and get used to waiting four months for delivery. For now, I'm out of the hobby as it is now practiced. I'm not ready for the four month process.
Nice Denarius, @JayAg47 ... and it was worth the wait. I bought this one at a coin show in NC several years ago. RR Aemilius Lepidus Paullus 62 BCE Concordia Perseus Macedon captive Sear 366 Craw 415-1 Got this one from @John Anthony ... RR Aemilius Lepidus Paullus 62 BCE Concordia Perseus Maced captv Sear 366 Craw 415-1 XF
I usually buy common silver coins and bullion online/LCS in Australia but they’re not known for their ancient inventories, no single ancient coin is priced reasonably here, even eBay sellers sell a common follis/antoniniani double or triple the market value, now imagine the case for denari and other silver coins! Coin shows are no better either as the customer base is small here compared to the states. So, when I first dwelled into ancients, vcoins and ma-shops were/are my main venues, followed by American and European eBay sites! Even with their shipping cost and taxes, some of their coins cost less than the Australian eBay sellers! This particular coin was bought from a vendor on ma-shops called ‘Denarius’, based in Norway.
I do not have a Paullus coin but I will post my only (so far) republican coin -Cornelius Lentulus Clodianus 88 BC. Rome Quinarius AR Republicans are not exactly my area and my knowledge is very limited, but I simply liked the coin and won it in an auction, plus the price was OK. There were no issues with the delivery of this coin. The only time I had issues with delivery (strange enough, never happened since COVID started) was last year. A gentleman, friend of mine who sold me A LOT of modern coins and banknotes, had some banknotes from sale from his personal collection. The price was good, the banknotes were very OK, but he offered them initially to a dealer who usually bought from him. The dealer offered him 50% of the price (the price was already below the market), my friend got annoyed, refused the "offer" and I decided to buy them, at the initial price. Instead of sending me just the banknotes, my friend prepared a big bonus for me: he sent me, without telling, his album for banknotes, a sturdy, good album along the banknotes we discussed about; also he sent them via DHL Paket (faster and more expensive than normal mail). Normally in 4-5 days DHL Paket should have delivered it at my door, but it took them 25 days. The sender kept chasing them, nothing. After 20 days it finally appeared in some town in Germany, not on the standard route, with the status "slightly damaged". I was very disappointed as it was a gift, a nice gesture. Funny enough, when it finally arrived, everything was exactly like it should.
It took a while, but in the end you got a nice addition for your collection I once waited 8 months/ however reason was not the slow mail. The auction house got mixed up, and basically forgot to mail it off to me. Seven and a half months later, they sent it/ and I was super happy with the coin (Byzantine AV Hyperpyron/ Michael VIII
Glad your coin eventually arrived, @JayAg47, there is something about this coin that I clearly like: favorite portrait on the left, favorite reverse in the middle, favorite that isn't the other two on the right. And favorite "Grand Tour" souvenir echoing this coin below: L. Aemilius Lepidus Paullus, 62 BC, AR Denarius, Rome mint Obv: Veiled and diademed head of Concordia right Rev: Trophy; to left, three captives (King Perseus of Macedon and his two sons) standing right; to right, Paullus standing left Ref: Crawford 415/1; Sydenham 926; Aemilia 10 This Italian "medalet", 20mm, 11h, 3.7g, by an unknown artist is from the 18th to early 19th century, apparently issued for the Grand Tour trade. Although it reads "P. LEPIDVS" on the obverse, the portrait looks a lot like Mark Antony. More on this "medalet" from the RBW collection in my earlier CT post.
I honestly don't know if bankers marks can be identified but someone might. I had not seen a "Z" before but have a couple of crescents in my collection that look as they have been made with a punch, others simply look as if they have been gouged to see if they were plated I guess?
Nice coin and worth the wait. Personally, I like banker's marks. They show the coin was used. Back when I was collecting Chinese chopmarked world crowns, there were efforts to translate the Chinese ideograms - there was some success with this, but there are so many ideograms and chopmarks that I never had much luck nailing down examples in my collection. Here's an extreme example - a US trade dollar - where do I begin? But back to ancients: no banker's marks on my Paullus, but like Doug's mine has an "al marco" gouge: Roman Republic Denarius L. Aemilius Lepidus Paullus (62 B.C.) Rome Mint Concordia veiled & diademed r., PAVLLVS LEPIDVS CONCORDIA / TER PAVLVS above and under L Aemilius Paullus standing r., trophy, Perseus and two sons captive on the left. Aemilia 10; Crawford 415/1. (3.83 grams / 19 mm) Note: Al marco marks obverse: "...many Roman Republican denarii issues between 123 & 49/48 BC were adjusted al marco...adjust the flans before striking, by gouging slivers of metal...with a scorper. This produces characteristic undercut lunate ‘judder’ marks, belly forward across the cut. The metal of the judders folds over, and the judder is usually visible..." Clive Stannard
