I was surprised when I looked this up in RIC to discover it was a common coin because I do not recall seeing it before. As is so often the case, the partly silvered surfaces made it hard to photograph but I hope you can see the details. At the left is Diana drawing an arrow from her quiver while holding a bow in the other hand. At the right, her brother Apollo stands holding his lyre and, according to RIC (219var.) a laurel branch. I can't say that I see a laurel branch but I don't know what it is. Hoping to find more information, I looked the type up on acsearch (one with left portrait), Coin Project (none) and Wildwinds (one with left portrait). I even dug out ERIC II and found a nice photo of the reverse as type 126 but could not find the coin listed. I rarely can find anything in ERIC II because we just don't speak the same language. If any of you are comfortable with this book and can tell me how to find this coin, please do. I did find it on the new RIC update page: http://www.ric.mom.fr/en/coin/1086?q=Apollo+and+Diana+&page=1&mod=result&x=14&y=10&from=quick There the branch is called olive but I have no idea how you are supposed to tell. For a common coin, this sure is hard to find. Claudius II AE antoninianus Antioch mint RIC219p230 Cohen 258 SALVS AVG Diana & Apollo Rare or not, I find this coin very nice compared to most Claudius II Antioch issues I have.
Sometimes you have to wonder about the RIC rarity ratings. I've never seen this reverse before. Nice coin for your collection and I would suspect it is more rare than common.
that's darn nice compared to most Claudius ii coin period I would think, hard to find them pretty and round like that. new reverse to me....but many of them are.
Sweet new pick-up ... I like it Ummm, my example is in very nasty shape (a bit junky lookin' compared to your new ace!!)
Of course, RIC is incomplete, and it can't predict what's on the market at any given time. I think that's a splendid coin, Doug. I have a Claudius II to share, although I don't have the coin in hand yet. Sometimes I take a little gamble on eBay, and so far I'm batting a thousand, but my luck might run out on this coin. This seller's image was so odd that I auto-corrected it to get some idea of what the coin might look like. RIC calls it scarce, but I found 6 examples for sale on vcoins, and in my mind that isn't scarce at all. What I liked about the coin was the sharp devices - it appears to have been struck from fresh dies. But it also appears to have some green deposits and I'll have to wait and see whether they're inert, or whether I'm dealing with BD. If it is BD, I think the coin is eminently worthy of conservation, but if it gets eaten alive, I won't end up at the soup kitchen for the $13 I spent on it.
I came back a second time to sneak another peek ... => Doug, your coin really is pretty well struck and centered on a nice full-flan (it is quite fetching)
They may have been common at the time of the book. Or scarce coins may now be. Common due to coins beign found all the time
The authors of RIC may have lumped it together with all the different types and considered all Claudius II coins as common.
Claudius II Gothicus AE Antoninianus, 268-270 AD, Antioch, 3.8g, 20mm OBV: IMP C CLAVDIVS AVG, Radiate head left. REV: AEQVITAS AVG, Aequitas standing left holding scales and cornucopia. REF: RIC V-1 197
I have some Claudius II coins where the portrait looks almost cartoonish. But here is one I like very much struck at Mediolanum: CLAUDIUS II (GOTHICUS) Antoninianus OBVERSE: IMP CLAVDIVS P F AVG, radiate, draped bust right REVERSE: SPES PVBLICA, Spes walking left, holding flower and raising robe, P in ex. Struck at Mediolanum, 268-69 AD 2.8g, 19.9mm RIC 168
I love that reverse, very cool. BTW, doesn't RIC list the rarity by how many museum/ large collections a coin is featured in? So wouldn't it be possible that the curators of many of the museums surveyed at some point said, "Hey, you don't see that reverse type often, I'll acquire it." So then a bunch of museums have a scarce reverse type, and RIC comes along and calls it common.
JA, I would have paid $13 for sure and see nothing that worries me in the photo. I've been wrong but this looks like a keeper. The other option is that a museum acquires a hoard of twenty coins of the same type and trades them with their friends at other museums. If those twenty coins were to be the only ones in existence, the type would be listed as common since it is found in twenty museums in the 'family'.
