My first ancient coin in this year.

Hi guys

It’s been a while I wasn’t online , it has been a busy week . But , Today is my happy day , I just received my first ancient coin in this year , the beautiful Marcus Aurelius sestertius in this morning , I can’t wait to share my happiness with all you guys. Please share your own opinion with this coin. and also welcome you to post your coin as well.

Marcus Aurelius , Rome mint , 175 A.D , obverse side : Marcus Aurelius bust left .
reverse side : Annona holding cornucopia.
RIC III 1128; MIR18 299-6/30 ; Banti 159

 

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Portrait details are amazimg. What a lovely coin

 

A real beauty. Congratulations.

 

Congrats on acquiring this gorgeous coin!

 

Nice looking coin!

 

It's a gorgeous coin!!

An error in attribution, though, in two respects:

1) RIC 1128 has a Mars reverse; yours is RIC 1128a, with the Annona reverse.

2) MIR 299 has GERM in the obverse legend and a Mars reverse; yours is MIR 283-6/30, with the obverse legend M ANTONINVS AVG TR P XXIX.

It's quite rare. It's not listed in Cohen, nor does the British Museum have an example in their collection. RIC cites Rodolfo Ratto, Lugano (Cornaggia-Medici-Castiglioni), 20.4.1914, pl. 10,216 which is the same coin as Rodolfo Ratto, Lugano (Riche I), 12.5.1925, pl. 27, 1314; also MIR cites H.D. Rauch, Vienna (Auction 14), 3.5.1974, lot 120. No examples at Wildwinds or at OCRE. A search at acsearchinfo yields only your coin (misattributed by CNG of all firms).

 

Haha , thank you guys . But I have one question about this coin. I think the surface of the edge of this coin is too smooth and some spot even seems like it was been pressed (?)

I’m not sure what is the reason to make it looks like that ? Could anyone tell me is that normal ? Since my sestertius collection is not much enough and doesn’t have this kind of problem. Thanks.

 

@Roman Collector thank you for that detail information

 

Just a flan crack, which happened in the course of striking. See this one of Marcus' wife:

 

I mean the surface of edge ,not the surface flan crack. (Please see the picture under the the last threads ,thanks)

 

Nice score Henry ! I took your coin out of the dungeon for a better look . The coin has an excellent portrait & attractive reverse, great centering & patina too .

 

You see that on sestertii of the Antonine period. I have always attributed that sort of thing to the mint workers filing some rough spot off the flan.

 

That is interesting , the trace of history.

 

It looks like the coin has been protected by a coating, maybe renwax. On thick bronze coins with patina it looks that way

 

Magnificent example, in all respects. Glad @Roman Collector got to the technicalities; only having one Antonine sestertius (another Marcus Aurelius!), that went sailing over my head.

 

Nice one, Henry. And rare to boot.

As low as my standards are, I am almost embarrassed to share this one - it came in a lot of somewhat better stuff. I was going to toss it in the "unattributable" box, but after staring at it a while, I think it is Marcus Aurelius and Annona, like the OP, but a lot uglier:


Marcus Aurelius Æ Sestertius
Marcus Aurelius right and Annona and a lot of pits and some obliterated legends.
(19.84 grams / 28 mm)

 

...No, @Marsyas Mike, Carry On, Fearlessly! You get applause from here.

 

@Marsyas Mike no need to feel embarrassed , I think your coin is beautiful one , every coin has there own special course, it might had been travel through many different part of Roman Empire , also had been handle through many different ancient people , it’s make me feel like they just shining the light of history , that is the spirit of the coin , so I think each of every ancient coin are the best one.

 

Convince me it is not Lucius Verus. Just a guess...

 

He does rather look like Lucius Verus, doesn't it? Heck if I know. Now I'm leaning towards Verus - that mop of hair, the beard.

When I got it I thought I could make out this from the obverse legend:

[M ANTO]NINVS AVG [GERM SARMATIC]VS

That's a Marcus A. legend, I think. But I was really squinting (and guessing) to see this.