Great write up TTE. I have identified my two nice trachys, but have a "hoard" of about 60 smaller ones - I assume possibly Bulgarian imitations...
Possible clogged die on the reverse at top of standards. I wonder if there are other examples from this die out there. I checked mine but...
In terms of the West and Rome, I am going to stir up the pot by saying that 476 AD is largely irrelevant. Numismatically speaking, it resulted...
It also depends on which part of the world you are focussing on. Chinese and other Eastern cash are basically unchanged from 2nd c BC to late...
I realize I promised to show the coins I received and then promptly forgot. better late than never. This small bronze coin is from the...
I can highly recommend Kyle Harper's (the author of the NYT articles) pre-Covid book "The Fate of Rome: Climate, Disease and the End of Empire"....
I agree with Herodotus, though Paduan would be lucky as true Paduan fakes still have a value. I suspect a Paduan-style modern fake but that is...
To me those have been fully cleaned. The Claudius II has some malachite encrustations that won't come off. They all look great as is....
Good job. Fully identifiable. You have got it pretty near to original as it was definitely not a quality piece when it was made - part of the...
To ancient coin hunter's list I would add the following: Basic tools - bamboo skewers (they are usually stronger than toothpicks), an x-acto...
But a different issue, and possibly mint. No HR monogram and mint mark ends of a gamma. SC
Both coins show signs of possibly having had bronze disease in the past - the red blisters and maybe the powdery greenish residue. I don't think...
As DonnaML has noted, there aren't any rules. And this can create a lot of confusion as different authors and cataloguers use different...
Those do not appear to be real uncleaned. What I mean is that it appears that they were cleaned, likely by chemical bath, prior to your before...
The first, the Alexandrian net, might by Diocletian's contemporary Maximianus - I think I see maximianus sev in Greek but might be wrong. The...
Bad At Coins??
Prior to the Imperial period, Roman military standards often had an animal that was the symbol or mascot of that legion, on top of the standard -...
Those aren't severed heads but rather imago - images of Emperors, their family or Gods on the top of military standards. SC
An interesting, and sad, parallel to how some "forgers" take genuine bronze Roman or Byzantine items (fibulae, rings, mirrors, vessels, etc.) and...
Congratulations Nathan on a very well researched and well written essay. Thanks for sharing it with us. Looking forward to more.... SC
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