My second ancient gold coin: a solidus of Honorius, from Ravenna

Congratulations! A very attractive coin; and the bend also doesn't bother me at all.

 

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I always look forward to you write ups, DonnML. Great info.
Now - about that $25K. I can get you in ground floor on ocean front property soon to be available here in Arizona.
Let me know

 

Congrats Donna , awsome gold.

family portrait:

 

Beautiful coin, Donna!

I eventually hope to one day have the restraint to focus a year's budget on late Roman gold - one can get just about a full set of the Theodosian emperors for the price of a nice Nerva-Antonine aureus.

For now, this is my "main" Honorius - about as nice as his bronzes generally come.


For now, my only gold from the family, Valentinian III, the nephew of Honorius and his eventual successor

 

Thanks to both of you (and to everyone else who's commented). I did want to mention that choosing a side-facing Honorius to pair with my front-facing Arcadius was a deliberate decision. I didn't want the two coins to look too much alike, so although front-facing Honorius solidi do exist, I specifically wanted a side-facing one. It's also a lot easier to find a good-looking side portrait than front portrait anyway -- it took a while to find a front-facing Arcadius that looked attractive and didn't have his nose smushed all over his face. (Just as it's not so easy to find a front-facing Helios from Rhodes that isn't ugly as sin! I suspect that the art of creating an attractive front-facing or even three-quarters facing portrait had not yet been perfected. Sometimes I see even modern front-facing coins that look pretty bad.)

 

It is interesting that it's still possible to buy four or five late Roman -- not even "Byzantine" -- gold solidi for the price of one decent aureus. I don't think the difference can be accounted for by the relative value of the gold content; it's a question of demand. Are solidi undervalued? I suspect that their price has risen less than that of aurei over the last couple of decades. Although I distinctly remember seeing gold solidi in antiquities/ancient coin stores back in the 1980s-early 90s for sale for around $200 apiece or less.

@Only a Poor Old Man, in thinking about what emperor I would look for if and when I believe I can afford a third ancient gold coin, my mind went to the same place yours did: why not buy a solidus of Theodosius I? But then I looked at both V-Coins and MA-Shops, and amidst hundreds of late Roman solidi (never mind the later Byzantines), including innumerable examples of Arcadius's son Theodosius II, there was exactly one solidus of Theodosius I for sale on the two sites combined -- for a price approximately three times what I paid for each of the Arcadius and Honorius solidi.

Assuming that this isn't just a coincidental effect of what happens to be available right now, does anyone know why Theodosius I gold solidi are so relatively scarce? I don't get it.

If that's the case, perhaps I could "settle" next for a Theodosius II, if I could find one that isn't too similar to the two solidi I have. (For reasons I've explained before, it's unlikely that I would ever want to go too much later than the mid 5th-century in buying gold solidi. As many people know, I'm Jewish, and at a certain point the coins simply become too heavily imbued with Christian religious imagery for me. I can enjoy and appreciate Christian religious art -- I've seen more of it in museums, and have been in more European churches and cathedrals, than one could shake a stick at! -- but I have no real interest in actively collecting it.)

 

Here are examples of 1287a. c, and d from Wildwinds, along with examples from Wildwinds of captive types b and g from other mints.














@Al Kowsky, I don't think there's too much doubt that yours is a type "d" -- assuming it's a 1287 in the first place (which I believe it is), and not one of the later types. And, by the way, your Theodosius II solidus is truly beautiful!

I also think there's not too much doubt that my little captive, as I described him above, doesn't fit in with any of the listed types. Does anyone disagree? If people agree that mine is different, should I try writing to Wildwinds, since they seem willing to add newly-discovered types, and suggest that mine is different from the others listed and perhaps could be added as another new type? If I do, to whom should I write?

 

There's an interesting Twitter thread here, from Gareth Harney, about the discovery of the sarcophagus of Honorius's wife Maria under the original St. Peters basilica. Honorius himself may still be there!

https://threader.app/thread/1422146352331599874

 

Donna, Thanks for the photo comparison of different types . With these enlarged photos it's easy to see the distinctive types . I'm really surprised collectors would categorize these as different types considering the differences are so slight, but the same thing is being done with one of my specialties, Roman silver provincial coins. With the Roman silver coins of the Eastern Mediterranean region this is an even more daunting task, especially when you consider the enormous output of mints like Antioch & Tyre. Numismatic authors like Richard McAlee & the late Michel Prieur gave an impressive start to this project but much more needs to be done. As more collectors get involved with ancient coins more varieties will be recognized. I often ponder at what's been done with American coins. There are tens of thousands of different varieties for coins minted for the short time span of only 230 years ....

 

That's an excellent article with great illustrations !

 

Fortunately, the various "subtypes" of RIC X 1287 (all depending on the slightly different bends in and positions of the captives' legs!) are still all under the one number, 1287. Inconsistently, though, the author of RIC X gave separate numbers to RIC X 1321, 1323, 1326, and 1328 -- all of them Honorius solidi from Ravenna with the exact same basic design as 1287, albeit minted later in his reign and all supposedly having "round" as opposed to "slender" side portraits -- based on similar minor distinctions in the bends in and position of the captives' legs, along with characterizations of Honorius's stance on the reverse as "relaxed," "active," or "leaning backwards." It seems unnecessary to separate them like that. Perhaps wisely, Sear groups all of them together under RCV V 20920, just as he groups all the subtypes of RIC X 1287 under RCV V 20919.

As Wildwinds notes at http://www.wildwinds.com/coins/ric/honorius/solidi_table.html,
"Several coins appear to be identical but are given different numbers in RIC, e.g. RIC 1287 and RIC X 1321; 1323; 1326 and 1328 with 1287 simply given the additional header of "Milan and Aquileia styles", but in the introductory notes on mints, the RIC author does not describe any particular style characteristics of those mints. Almost all of these coins are also given the additional "Cohen 44" reference, so that is no help at all to distinguish 1287 from 1321, 1323 etc. So it seems that the only way of distinguishing them is using the various different captive and / or emperor descriptions for the reverse image."
- Having said that, not even the RIC author sticks to his own descriptions. The plate coins for 1205/1206 types b and c show the captive's legs identical on both coins, with slightly bent knee(s), so not "more or less straight".

 

As always, great coin and write up Donna. Indeed it complements your Arcadius solidus nicely and it has a good provenance....at the very least a much better provenance than mine. Here's my solidus of Honorius. In fact, it is my only coin of Honorius and my only solidus.

Honorius (AD 393-423)
AV Solidus

Date: AD 394-395.
Obv: D N HONORIVS P F AVG, pearl-diademed, draped and cuirassed bust right.
Rev: VICTORIA AVGGG, Emperor standing right, holding labarum and Victory on globe, treading on captive to right; M-D across, fields, COMOB in exergue.
Diameter: 21mm
Weight: 4.47 g
Mint: Mediolanum (Milan)
RIC X 1206a.

Ex Roma Numismatics Auction XX Day 2 (30 October 2020), lot 708.
Ex Heritage Auctions NYINC World & Ancient Coins Signature Online Auction #3082 (21 January 2020), lot 33264.

 

Interesting article on the grave of Honorius‘ wife Maria. The Renaissance popes destroyed more of ancient Rome than 1000 years of decay. If you want to visit intact imperial graves you should go to Ravenna. The grave of Galla Placidia is breathtaking.

 

Here is a Honorius Solidus from my collection. This coin was minted some 25 years after his death in Bracara (Braga) in modern Portugal during the reign of the Suevic king Rechilar.
I bought the coin 20 years ago for 1200 USD from CNG. Today it would likely sell for between 5 and 10k.

 

Yes, solidi are undervalued. An observation: the ancient coin market is starting to flood with collectors of American coins, who are used to bright shiny NGC-graded things in plastic coffins. I expect they'll start bidding up the solidi soon, since many of these are in excellent condition and attractive to them - and especially if it comes with an arbitrary NGC rating.

 

I think this hits the nail on the head. I sometimes bottom feed at Great Collections auctions for ancients. Coins graded below XF often get a lot less attention and can sometimes be had cheaply. But common ancients marked AU or MS go for strong money.

 

FWIW, another solidus which serves as my type example of the denomination.

 

What is the gold purity of Solidus Coins? It definitely can't be pure gold, I've seen too many good examples, surfaces that show almost no signs of wear at all.

 

That’s a great coin, Donna. Congratulations!
I like that you chose a coin with the bust in profile, rather than the more common enface portrait of Honorius. Great reverse too. Money well spent!

Here’s Honorius and his co-ruler Theodosius II:

 

I know I asked this before, but does anyone have a Theodosius I solidus, or know why they're apparently so scarce compared to those of his sons?