A coin with a hole!! Why???

So I have bought a coin with a hole.
I am expecting Doug to know immediately but am throwing this at the rest of you first...

What have I bought? Why am I happy with my purchase despite the hole?



Martin

 

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jewelry?

looks modern (the hole)

 

to me it looks like some body punched and hole in it to make a neck lace.

 

Looks like the guy in your profile pic... I'm still trying to make out the inscription

 

there was a character (mafia dude I can't name) in the TV show Rome that used chains of silver coins as a sort of decorative for his toga.

 

Sorry, I do not know why it might be special

 

I'm guessing it's a coin of Commodus (an AS or Sestertius) by what I can 'read' of the legend...other than that I'd have to 'research' it a bit more...and it must be 'rare' or otherwise scarce---so I'm also guessing it is scarcer in that denomination than say a denarius???

As for the 'hole', it's a curious location for mounting a chain, but I have one of Hadrian that was apparently 'holed' centuries ago (how can one actually tell?) and worn so the portrait was straight and visible as in our photos....

That's all I can tell or guess at this point....

 

Commodus is correct. It is a denarius. So the denomination is nothing special.
It's not the guy from my Avatar, who is Septimius Severus.

 

commodus with libra holding pileus looked like
edit:
LIB AVG PM TRP ...
obv: M COMM ANT P FEL AVG restcannotread

 

Hannibalianus, AE4, 336-337 AD, Constantinople, als Rex regum unter Constantine I. 1.6g, 14mm

OBV: FL HANNIBALLIANO REGI, bare-headed, draped, cuirassed bust right.

REV: SE-CVRITAS PVBLICA, Euphrates seated right on ground, holding sceptre, overturned urn at his side, from which waters flow, reed in background. Mintmark CONSS.

REF: RIC VII Constantinople 147.

This is my only holed coin. If no one would have guessed, I would not have known except it's a Commodus.

 

Well, one more guess....by what you said Martin and by the reverse, it seems to be a denarius of Commodus with a TRP suggesting a date of November 27 AD 176---so that is before he was actually Emperor in 180 AD, yet the legend seems to say AVG ??? Or perhaps it is the hole itself and how it got there that is the key???

That's it for me LOL

 

No. The coin is actually a late issue at A.D. 192 but that isn't it.

 

The star is in the wrong place ?

 

Actually that's not exactly it. but this was struck in 190 so...

 

Well, I 'cheated' and looked it up on acsearch.... where Doug is quoted as describing it as rare---Alexandria mint with reverse spelling error???

http://www.acsearch.info/search.html?term=denarius of commodus&category=1-2&en=1&de=1&fr=1&it=1&es=1&ot=1&images=1&currency=usd&order=0&company=

 

Hello,

In Arabia, Turkey it is quite common now and in the past that people where small chains with coins, this is a part of status, you see many Ottoman coins with holes, it is a pitty that they pierce golden Ottoman coins, we know all better be they like to show them off.

Once I was in Perge and a Turkish lady was selling beads and other stuff, I was not interested but she also was wearing gold earhangers, I looked and saw these look Roman, I said how much for those? hahaaahahah she said not for sale...she was smart, they looked fantastic.

 

Beats me Martin...

 

Mikey Zee has it.

The fact that there were coins produced in Alexandria for Commodus is a fairly recent discovery with the majority of the credit belonging to the late Roger Bickford-Smith. They can be attributed purely on style and there are only a few examples known. There are two types, the Libertas type illustrated here and an eagle - CONSECRATIO type, which is also on my search list.

I have been seraching for one for years. Finding one with a hole is a very acceptable hole filler.

Martin

 

That is so cool Martin---and it was a lot of fun for me to find out what was extraordinary about that particular coin!

 

The general reason why coins were made with a central hole was that the users did not have pockets.(or even much in the way of clothes) See Chinese, Japanese and African coins. Coins were carried on a string. This hole is just modern vandalism.