I'm starting to "get my feet wet" with the emperors after Constantine the Great

I bought several Roman coins at the recent FUN show. One of them was this silver siliqua which bears the portrait of the emperor Valens. For me, this is a harder period of history to study because, in part, the fifth volume of the Sear book on Roman coins becomes much more compressed with fewer pictures. At any rate, I'll how far I will go with this collection.

 

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It's good to see you testing the ancient waters. Looking forward to watching your collection evolve!

 

Nice pick-up and welcome to the wonderful world of ancients.

 

kool!

 

As is so often true, with ancients at least, this is a common coin, but very hard to find this nice, especially with this wonderful style! GREAT COIN!

 

Late Roman siliquas are hard to find. Congrats.. Keep collecting that way.

 

That's a very beautiful looking coin. I sort of share your frustration - I usually get lost after Diocletian. I may follow you and try to nail down at least the Constantine clan. Dealing with these figures, and trying to keep them all straight, reminds me of the old Bob Newhart comedy show when one of the characters said " this is my brother Earl, and this is my other brother Earl".

 

No I've been at this for a while. Aside from some obscure usurpers, I have at least one coin up to Constantine the Great. I need to up date my notebook that I maintain with historical bullet points for these emperors. The emperors in the 200s were bad enough. These guys look worse.

Recalling the 12 Caesars and the Adoptive Caesars was a piece of cake. After that, my mind become boggled.

I bought my first aureus at FUN. I won't be making a habit of that, however.

 

John, That's a lovely example of a Valens siliqua . I have a siliqua of Valens too, but my coin is of crude style from the Lyon Mint.

 

Yes, it's similar to all the guys who wanted to call themselves "Max" when Diocletian decided to retire. The way most of then ended up, they should have called themselves "Min."