Well .. I did it! Julius Caesar

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Awesome coin, congrats on a surprise win! Here is my JC, also a surprise acquisition and cheap(er than it should have been)!

 

Thanks all - it's a great feeling!... this was purchased from N.L.B. (Numismatique Louis Brousseau) out of Quebec, Canada.

There were some wonderful coins up for auction but almost all had very high starting prices. I think a lot were turned off as only 23 coins of the 333 coins on auction sold. This may have worked to my advantage with not many buyers bothering with this auction.
I actually think some of the prices were OK if you do the CDN to US dollar conversion... but a lot were just over the top.

 

Congratulations Claudius!! Your feeling of excitement is one that we can all relate to. You have a fabulous coin with so much history behind it AND it has a simply terrific patina! I'm glad for you that you held out and didn't settle too fast. Look's like it was worth the wait.

 

Julius Caesar Av Aureus 46 B.C. Obv. Veiled head of Pietas? right Rv Priestly implements Cr 446/1 CRI 56 7.94 grms 20 mm

 

I bought mine as a cast-off from Andrew McCabe's collection last year:

 

I have only half of a Julius Caesar example. But, and with no intention of defaming Octavian, I think I got the BEST half of this heavy dupondius! Below is the listing picture from my purchase, which reveals photo credit goes to Steve McBride.

RPC I 517. 27x17 mm. 7.2 gr.

 

Wow, that is a seriously nice bronze. Well done. That's the way to go for a nice budget Caesar. The lifetime denarii are just too expensive.

You've seen mine before.

 

Here's a JC denarius that "disappeared" from a coin display at the funeral of a very good friend who was an avid collector. SO very sad for many reasons! I've watched for it on multiple venues for 6 years, and I've not given up hope that it will appear for sale somewhere. If it does I plan to buy it and return it to the collector's widow.

 

**I have had to return this coin unfortunately due to issues with tooling...
I posted this thread with an explanation:
https://www.cointalk.com/threads/bad-news-on-my-new-jc-coin-update.345461/

 

I could not agree more. Yours is a thousand times better partly due to the great legends.

 

What a shame. I'd recommend adding it to the FORVM fake reports section on stolen coins as well if you haven't. Even as unique as all ancients are I've not heard too many success stories but it's worth a shot.

 

WOW. Sad.

 

this coin is easily identifiable...if i see it i will give you a buzz...

 

@Ryro
My Julius Caesar (portrait) coin bears a striking resemblance (but not the same) to yours, (even down to the countermark).

JULIUS CAESAR countermarked - Augustus Thessalonica Macedonia 28BC
RPC 1555 Dupondius-Sestertius

 

I am ELATED to report that this denarius re-appeared!

An amazing outcome! My friend's widow contacted me. It doesn't seem prudent to give details, but I thought it was important enough to share here that it has been found. Frankly, I had almost given up hope. I love a happy ending!

 

This coin is sadly very heavily tooled to the extent its design has been altered. Apart from the general tooled look around all the devices, the neck truncation of Julius Caesar isn't remotely the right shape. Hopefully it was sold as tooled and that you bought in full knowledge and are still happy with it.

It does look to have genuine old patina on it so may well have been cleaned and altered some hundreds of years ago. But, the coin design as pictured wasn't struck from ancient dies, rather was enhanced and altered using modern or early modern knives

I do see the original post is two years old and is a resurrected thread. Still. Best to know

 

This of course is lovely and natural and a good contrast to the first example posted by OP.

 

There's another thread in which the OP explains that he was informed that the coin was tooled, and was able to return it: https://www.cointalk.com/threads/bad-news-on-my-new-jc-coin-update.345461/

I hope that that dealer doesn't have a bad reputation in general, because I just ordered a coin from him. But it's a silver quinarius, and doesn't really look any different from others of the type I reviewed.

 

Congratulations to you and the widow on the fortunate outcome! I know you can't explain what happened, but I do hope that it turned out that the coin wasn't stolen after all. Because who wants to find out that somebody invited to a funeral stole a coin that was on display?