Picked up a few ancients over the past week. Finally added a new greek, thought the price & details were just right. The Valerian is my photo from my iphone, other 2 are seller photos as the phone photos sucked. Thrace, Apollonia Pontica Circa 400 BC, Drachm O: Facing head of a Gorgon R: Anchor "A" and crayfish 14mm, 2.85gm Constans (337-350 AD) O: DN CONSTA-NS PF AVG, Pearl diademed, draped and and cuirassed bust left, holding globe in right hand . R: FEL TEMP RE-PARATIO, Helmetedsoldier,spear in left hand, advancing right, head left; with his righthand heleads a small figure from a hut beneath a tree. 4.5gm (mint of Cyzicus), 4th offincia. SMKΔ Valerian I (253 - 260 A.D.) AR Antoninianus O: VALERIANVS P F AVG - Radiate, draped and cuirassed bust of Valerian I. R:ORIENS AVGG - Sol, holding globe, raising hand. Gallic mint 3.5gm RIC 13
Pretty much whats attractive to me. Alot of directions to go towards like roman imperial women which is close to what I was doing recently but I would rather I build a eclectic ancient collection at this time, focusing on getting more greeks the next few weeks. Would like to get some Roman Republics in the coming months though.
I know many will tell you to specialize, but I think you should buy whatever attracts your attention. You can later decide what you really are interested in. I have many subspecialties, and constantly start new ones. I have been thinking of Roman Republican, I have 8 or 10, but don't have Crawford yet. Maybe after I get that I will be more interested.
Nice group. I am personally uncomfortable with any Apollonia Pontica after what we went through with the Black Sea Hoard fakes and do not pretend to be able to spot them 100% of the time. I have one that I have had for years and will be buying no more simply because I'm too lazy to do the research I'd feel necessary to be comfortable. I am more comfortable with the other Black Sea Hoard type from Messembria but pass on many of them as not certainly good as well as the many seen that I feel are certainly bad. This coin is not the same obverse as the original Black Sea fakes so it certainly does not belong to that bunch but I remain concerned about any anchor and crayfish coins simply because I have not kept up with the project.
Its possible I will never develop a specialty. I dont specialize in any U.S. coins but being a Type collector I guess thats to be expected. I didnt know Overtons, Sheldons or even a rarity scale even existed till I got back into coin collecting in mid-09 and started posting a few pieces. Bingo and sadly you cant collect them all
Great coins, I especially like the bust of the Valerian coin, you write it is from a Gallic mint... how do you know? or is that what it was sold as? I am trying to find out where my Valerian I antoninianus was minted.
"Gallic mint." Bah. So imprecise! Colonia Agrippinensis (Cologne) mint. 2nd emission, AD 258-259. RIC V 13; MIR 36, 886c Ah, that's better.
Unfortunately you'll notice that major references as quoted above show differences in the mint attributions so when we quote mint names we almost need to add a line like 'according to Göbl'. When you look up coins of the period on acsearch it is common to see more than one mint quoted for a coin since the horridly out of date RIC V seems to be wrong and corrected by more recent studies. I do not own Gobl: Die Münzprägung der Kaiser Valerianus I. / Gallienus/Saloninus (253-268), Regalianus (260) und Macrianus/Quietus (260/262) and don't read German well enough to follow any arguments he might present as to why he changed all the mint attributions so spending $150-175 on a copy has not seemed appropriate. Who will summarize the mints of this period and how we are to assign coins to them?
Which firms are not using Göbl? There are no other works like MIR 36 for this period. Zschuke is the closest thing you'll find, but he only covers Trier mint (or what he thinks is Trier mint). I confess that I have not taken the time to attempt to read MIR 36, given my overall lack of understanding of German. I can stumble through French, but not so much with German. If you can't/don't have the time to read a scholarly work, you can usually get a good grasp of the it by reading a book review. There's one by Nicholas Holmes in the June 2001 NumCirc, p. 168. A word of caution, Göbl is notorious for being a bit impulsive in his assigning of mints. This is much less of a problem here than it is in his works on Hunnic or Kushan coinage. Anyway, the mint classifications for this period are based almost entirely on style. When you look at the plates in Göbl (which are very extensive), you'll be able to see a rather clear evolution. There are too many mints and too many emissions within those mints for me to post examples of each. Where did you find the book for 150-175? My shelf could use it!
They quote Gobl MIR and RIC but follow both numbers with the mint name assigned by that work which rarely match. I understand how mints can be separated into coins that belong together but am unclear on how he decided, for example, what had been Lyons needed to be Cologne. There were two copies on VCoins at those prices recently but both sold. I do not know where to get one today.
