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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 1838605, member: 19463&quot;]Since I count coins purchased as when they arrive not when they are ordered, I know that now my year 2013 is finished.&nbsp; It is time for some statistics.&nbsp; This was a big year.&nbsp; I added 107 coins to the collection which is very high for me with an average of 67 over the last ten years.&nbsp; It is hard to select a favorite from those.&nbsp; I have been working on a webpage showing my favorite 100 coins of the past 50 years in collecting which should make this easier but my favorites include a few listings where two or more coins share the position so I might have bought several examples in my 107 that would only occupy one position in the top 100.&nbsp; This is definitely the case with the Augustus/Agrippa/crocodile coins that consumed me last January.&nbsp;&nbsp; I&#039;ll show five coins which, today anyway, represent the 2013 purchases I am happiest to own.&nbsp; Order within the group is harder to pin down and none of them made my top ten of all time so maybe it was not such a great year after all.&nbsp; Presenting my five favorites of 2013:</p><p><br /></p><p>#5&nbsp; Mithradates II AR drachm</p><p>This is definitely last in my group since I had a hard time separating it from a couple other &#039;also (not) mentioned&#039; entrants.&nbsp; I have several Parthian drachms but this one is just plain pretty.&nbsp; It has wear but wear does not bother me as much as it does most collectors.&nbsp; At present it is still in my top 100 for all time but I suspect it will be bumped from that list soon (maybe before I finish the write-up if I&#039;m lucky).&nbsp; It is also easy to photograph and that is a feature meaning more and more to me every time I get a pretty coin that resists my efforts with a camera.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]305102[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>#4 Sinope AE30 Athena/Perseus killing Medusa</p><p>This coin would probably rank higher were it not for the fact that I had a slightly better coin of the same type from Aspendos well before 2013.&nbsp; Someday I will get one with a more clear bloody scene on the reverse.&nbsp; Here you can see Medusa&#039;s head in Perseus&#039; hand and a little bit of the dripping blood but this one is hardly gruesome enough to be a great coin.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]305100[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>#3&nbsp; Crispus AE3 Rome mint Roma reverse Eros mintmark</p><p>I have a specialty collection of these strange mintmarks from Rome.&nbsp; The central part of the mintmark is a script ligature of EPWC Greek for love.&nbsp; Latin for love is AMOR and spell that backwards you get ROMA the name of the city where the coin was made.&nbsp; This is the best grade of my Eros coins and was purchased for way too much from a good friend doing his very last Baltimore coin show before retiring from the business.&nbsp; Coin shows are a lot of work when you get to a certain age so I understand why he decided to retire. </p><p>[ATTACH=full]305103[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>#2 Augustus and Agrippa AE dupondius, Nemausus, crocodile</p><p>About this time last year I went on a spree of buying variations of this popular (but hard to find in good condition) type.&nbsp; This is my best or at least most interesting example.&nbsp; Those who have not seen the group are invited to my page discussing the fact that these things are impossible to grade:</p><p><a href="http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/impossible.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/impossible.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/impossible.html</a></p><p>[ATTACH=full]305101[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>#1 Sikyon, AR stater Chimera/dove c.400BC</p><p>I feel so shallow picking a large Greek silver as my #1 but, despite its faults, I like this coin.&nbsp; I particularly liked the depiction of the snake head on the Chimera&#039;s tail.&nbsp; I even like the Phi graffiti on both sides which probably made the coin cheap enough I could afford it.&nbsp; Still it was the most expensive coin I bought this year.&nbsp; I already had several smaller coins from this series and I would not mind having a later example of the stater showing how the type developed over time.&nbsp; Considering the prices, this may not happen.&nbsp;&nbsp; I might not have bought this one but felt peer pressure when Steve got his. </p><p>[ATTACH=full]305099[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Some will say I posted this too soon and some will say they planned to do something of the sort in a couple days.&nbsp; All are now invited to jump in and show your favorites of 2013 but you must promise to give at least a hint of why each posted coin is a favorite.&nbsp; You don&#039;t have to show 5; some of you probably have 50 favorites.&nbsp; I hope all of you had a good year and got at least one coin that means enough to you that you don&#039;t plan on selling it before 2014 ends.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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