I just picked these two up and I love their portraits. Pretty random, but here they are Claudius II here has less of a nose and more of a proboscis... His friends called him Pinnochio. And Gallienus here has probably the most delicately detailed portrait of the guy I've ever seen. Not terribly naturalistic, but the very fine details in the hair, and especially the delineations in the beard are second-to-none. The guy often has a "grape cluster" beard, but this one actually makes it look like a real neckbeard. Delicate moustache doesn't hurt either. Show off your random portraits that look really nice!
Great coins! The coins of this period many times come on dumpy flans, are struck off center and with worn reverse dies… BUT… I personally think that much of the portrait engraving was still of pretty good artistry. At least in this period you could still usually tell who was being depicted and get a feel for what they may have looked like. Your Claudius reminds me of one of my favorites. The preservation of this coin shows that it wasn’t the 1800 years that made many of them rough, these flans were chewed up even when they were new! As for nice portraits of the time, here are a couple.
