Anyone collect the Roman gold Aureus?

Thanks, Phil! I completely agree. Here is one of the silver examples.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

I don't have any aureus to show. Yet, here's an electrum provincial. You stay under 1000 $ for them and you get two portraits for the same price


Bosporan kingdom – El stater, dated 491 (194-195 CE)
BACIΛΕωC CAVPOMATOV (anticlockwise). Draped and diademed bust of Sauromates II right
Laureate head of Septimius Severus right. Star in right field. Retrograd VPA at exergue (year 491)
7,69 gr – 20 mm
Ref : MacDonald # 502/2, Sear # 5476 var

https://www.cointalk.com/threads/bosporan-kingdom-sauromates-ii-el-stater.360957/

Q

 

I have some Bosphorian Staters too...

 

...i've been 'fishing' for you to ring on this, your favorite medium Bro (you came to mind as soon as i saw it )

 

APMEX is selling an aureus of Nero in “Good” condition for under $3K.

That still seems like a lot though considering it’s only in Good condition.

They have one in XF condition and it’s like $10K.

 

They've misattributed it - it's actually RIC 66, not RIC 71 - the obverse legend is "IMP NERO CAESAR AVGVSTVS", not "IMP NERO CAESAR AVG P P".

RIC 71 isn't in RIC as an aureus, just a denarius, but the aureus version exists - it's in Cohen, Calicó and as a note in BMC. Coincidentally, I've got one (ex Kuenker auction in 2009):



ATB,
Aidan.

 

But it’s still real though right?

 

Yes.

 

Thanks, I am finally back at work/ nice to be a productive member of society again

 

What's this one?? The one with the elephant headdress.

 

Cestius and Norbanus, 43 BC
Here’s another one of theirs from the same year

 

It’s a shame that the Spartans didn’t use silver & gold coinage.

I read in a book that they used heavy iron ingots to discourage the accumulation of wealth.

But I think it would be super cool if they did since one of those coins might have been held by Leonidas or one of his 300 Spartans.

Sadly we’ll never get that chance to own one.

 

You seem very intrigued by the idea of owning a coin once held by someone famous. Does a coin you like really mean any less to you if you simply think about its having been handled instead by ordinary people a couple of thousand years ago? To me, that's just as exciting.

 

Well I think the reason for that is because famous people are the only people I can actually name from those historical periods.

Like if we’re talking about 5th century BC Sparta I don’t know the names of Spartan farmers or common people.
But I do know the name Leonidas.

If it was held by Leonidas at some point that would be awesome. If it was held by one of his unnamed 300 Spartans at some point that would be awesome too.


Deep down it’s more about the fact that people so long ago used these coins in their daily lives and they lasted to pass down to us.

I’ll admit I think it would be cooler to have a coin owned by Julius Caesar then Joe the Farmer but it’s still cool that it was held by Joe the Farmer too.

I always thought it would be amazing if coins could talk and tell us about all the people who held them.

 

I agree with the sentiment, but when you really think about it, I feel like a coin handled by Lucius the Farmer is more interesting than one owned by Julius Caesar. Not because Caesar is uninteresting, but because it seems incredibly unlikely that Caesar would have ever touched a coin, even among his personal wealth, or bought anything using them, because he had plenty of other people to do that sort of "menial" task for him instead.

Just like Jeff Bezos almost certainly never counts out cash to pay for groceries, it seems exceedingly unlikely Crassus would have ever come anywhere near his 200 million sesterces. Lucius the Farmer on the other hand was probably constantly buying and selling and otherwise paying for things with his 10, 20 or however many (certainly far fewer) sesterces.

 

Great coin! My Bosporian collection is growing, I have ancestry from Ukraine so I am actively collecting all the Bosporian Kings. I also have a few coins from Cimmerian Bosporos but they tend to demand a higher purchase price than the later kingdom.

My bronze coin of Sauromates I is definitely not anywhere near as beautiful as your coin.


Kings of Bosporus, Sauromates I Æ 48 Units. Struck AD 108-115. [BACI]ΛЄѠC CAYPOMATOY, diademed, draped and cuirassed bust right, trident(?) or E(?) before / MH within laurel wreath. MacDonald 398/5. 14.96g, 27mm, 11h.

The main reason I purchased this coin is because of the trident, which in my opinion only may be one of the earliest representations of the Tryzub which is the Ukrainian coat of arms.




Before I knew anything about he Bosporian Kingdom, I remember seeing a Bosporian gold stater with Caracalla and Rhescuporis II at my local coin shop. I remember looking at it and casually passing it by not interested at all (what an idiot I was).

 

I agree Donna. We all know it is the ordinary people that actually run the place.

 

oddly, to me, its quite something akin to "what if this coin could talk..."
Doesn't really matter to me if it sat in some rich aristocrats' cistern for hidden safekeeping, or was used to buy some bread to keep the children fed. Maybe a legionnaire dropped it from his kit while waiting for an attack which never happened....then the coin had to sit in the earth for 1500 years waiting to be discovered!
I can imagine that I might be an ardent metal detectorist were I to live in Europe or western Asia......imagine finding these on our own?!!

 

I added three aurei to my collection in the last year

which is more than usual

 

Here are my other two Boshoran Staters
Elagalabus
Commodus