Hi all! I just thought I'd share a few recent wins of mine from the last Roma Numismatics auction. Over the past 3 months or so, Roma has had about 10 or so lots of mostly Cyzicus issues of Aurelian and Claudius II per auction. I've won a couple in the past, but the ones I've bought recently included some interesting types. If Roma keeps listing these lots, it might eventually bankrupt me lol Aurelian: VICTORIAE GOTHIC From my research, this rare type commemorates Aurelian's victory over the Goths at the battle of Naissus early in his reign. Strangely, Aurelian didn't assume the title of "Gothicus" like Claudius II did. I could actually only find one other on acsearch, which I discovered recently was owned by @Tejas. It is in quite a bit better condition than mine. Claudius II: VICTORIA GERMANIC (This coin was quite hard to photograph, and is much better in hand than it appears in the photo) Another scarcer type, this time of Claudius II. This commemorates his victory over the Alamanni in 269AD after they invaded northern Italy. Most types that celebrate this victory use the legend "VICTOR GERMAN", and without the SPQR in exergue I also managed to upgrade some of the more common types of my coins with a decent amount of the ones from these lots. I'll put quite a lot of the ones I don't want on eBay to help pay for this purchase lol. I also managed to win one lot of coins from the Vitangelo collection. Unfortunately, I don't know much about them, so if anyone knows something, please let me know The coin I wanted from this lot was the nice antoninianus of Elagabalus. This is a very good upgrade on my current specimen (at least, the obverse is) The lot also included this really nice denarius of Severus Alexander. I probably won't keep it, but it's a good coin This denarius of Septimus Severus was also included, but I'm a little suspicious of it. It looks strange and feels "wrong", although it may be nothing. I can't find any die matches on Forvm Fake Coin Reports, so would welcome any insight you might have That's all the coins I have photos of. Make sure to share some of your relevant coins
The first two are white whales for anyone collecting antoniniani, well done. Congrats Later edit: they even look like they could come from the same deposit considering the condition and the deposits.
I really like the contrasting green-blue patinas of the first two coins, against their silvered and billon surfaces. You can get some great deals in the group lots, if you know your coins. I did purchase a lot of Byzantine bronzes from Roma a while ago, which had a well known fake. I knew that when bidding on the lot, but there were a few other really nice examples that made the lot worthwhile.
I have fugitively scrolled through some previous auctions of theirs and now am I almost certain it is a hoard, probably from around the western part of Asia Minor, of which the bulk is offered as lots while some coins were cherry-picked to be cleaned and offered individually. Look at this beauty here: https://www.romanumismatics.com/252...ype=&sort_by=lot_number&view=lot_detail&year=
Congratulations, @Harry G ! I bid at the most recent Roma Numismatics auction myself -- the first time I've participated in one of them -- and won four of the six coins on which I bid. One Roman Republican, one Trajan Provincial, one Trajan Imperial, and one Hadrian Imperial. According to what I've been told, they should be shipped to me early next week after the Roma personnel now in NYC for NYINC return to the UK. Here are some photos as previews. No write-ups until I actually receive them! Still, even if I don't buy anything at NYINC or end up not feeling up to going, I can't really be too disappointed in my purchases so far this year. Especially taking my new aureus of Vespasian into account! Plus I'm also expecting these two, the first from @PeteB: I may never own any denarii of Julius Caesar, Caligula, Claudius, Otho, Pertinax, Pescennius Niger, or Didius Julianus, among others, but nobody will ever acccuse me of not having enough Trajans and Hadrians!
Well, unless Z.P. is a vampire living somewhere underground, the very compact material, the very similar condition of discovery and the identical patina and encrustation pattern, visible even on specimens offered individually indicate they likely come from the same find. Possibly Z.P. from Austria bought this hoard and kept it as such before offering it to Roma.
Looks like it, I bought some other coins from Roma, which all came from the "collection of Z.P., Austria".
This is a great catch. I have never seen the version with VICTORIA GERMANIC and SPQR. I have two of the more common VICTOR GERMAN type:
This is also a great find. The type is quite rare and very attractive with its historical reference. I guess the coin celebrates Aurelian's role during the battle of Naissus under Claudius II, unless there was another encounter with the Goths in 270. However, the plural VICTORIAE GOTHIC suggests that there has been more than one battle, in contrast to the VICTORIA GERMANIC, which seems to refer to a single encounter. I have two of this type:
