[Ancients] Top 10 Index

This may not be the place for this post but I have quite a few variations on these dating back to when Pat and I were corresponding on them regularly. Below are two that differ in which leg is in front. Try standing both ways and you will discover which is the error. Actually the big error will be if you try to stand like this while carrying a sharp object.


For those who have not heard the story: I met Patricia Lawrence when she saw my page featuring my Geta Sauroktonos and asked where she could get one. She taught art history at LSU and was a great help to me in selecting topics for my web pages. This geta was my first of the type and is still my best representation of the lizard. It is a grabber rather than a darter since the boy is trying to sneak up and catch the lizard rather than dart it. When I was a boy, I enjoyed grab and release lizarding but would never use a weapon like that delinquent Apollo.

 

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I figure it is worth pointing out that we are almost to 100 top lists for 2020. Well above any previous year.

Ancient China
Xin Dynasty
Emperor Wang Mang (AD 7 - 23)
Huo bu spade.
Dim.: 57 mm x 22.5 mm
Wt.: 16.09 g
Obv.: HUO BU (“Money spade”).
Rev.: Blank, as made.
Ref.: Hartill 9.30
Ex Sallent collection

 

Of the 34 added coins this year, obviously quite a number did not make it on the list. Here are some 'almost made it' coins and also some not-so-made-it coins:

I doubted about adding the following coins to my top 20 list. Due to various factors, they did not make it in the end.

A Tyrannicide that had to be added to my collection. Unlike his two fellow assassins, Cassius did not make it on the list.


A lovely coin of Vitellius, with a typical bloated head. And an interesting reverse.


I really struggled with this coin, whether to add it to my list or not. It's a very attractive reverse.


And here are some coins added in 2020 that I really wanted to add to my collection. Why are these not on the list? Well, in comparison to the coins on my list, I find these coins ... eeeehhhh ... just a bit less interesting either historically, in terms of rarity, or eye-appeal, or something else. It's hard to pick favorites, and it's a matter of taste I guess!

Interesting dynastic (well, unfortunately they died) issue of Augustus. Very common, but a good specimen yields a high premium these days. This also is my only NAC coin (and due to those import taxes, will likely be my only one, ever):


I added several 'travel series' coins in 2020. I'll show two of them below. The 'Alexandria' type is apparently quite rare, although 2020 saw several appear in auctions and sales.




A denarius of Lucius Verus referring to the war in Armenia. It pairs up nicely with a similar coin of his co-emperor, Marcus Aurelius.

Nice one! I added the same type too this year:


I lacked a coin of a more mature Geta in my collection. I was happy to add this one. It has a strong portrait of friendly natura, which is quite the opposite of the portraits of his brother.


And to conclude this list, an attractive coin of Severus Alexander, the unfortunate boy-emperor. I lacked a denarius of this emperor. I really enjoy the portrait on this one.

 

I like all your "almost made it" coins!

 

Wow...

I haven't had time for coins of CT lately but had hoped to at least browse and comment on all of the year-end lists.

I was shocked to see almost a hundred such lists! It's both uplifting and crushing. It will take a long time just to speed-browse them. I'll want to comment but if I were to read and comment on all of the threads, it would bump any new posts to page four or five! I'd hate to bump someone's new post that far off the beaten path .

Maybe I'll just try to read a few a day.

I started trying to put together a 2020 list and found I hadn't even bookmarked all of my acquisitions or even photographed them . A couple of the coins deserve full writeups but months passed and I haven't done so. Guess I'll just take some pictures and post some coins without much commentary.

Anyway, it looks like 2020 was a good year for ancient coin collectors and for the CoinTalk ancients board!

 

Miss ya @TIF.

 

Thank you so much for doing this again. I didn't realize how many I had missed.

 

Glad to see you back @TIF : sort of a "new year's gift" !

You will see some trully amazing things in all those yearly lists. It's been a wonder to browse and comment them all along december

Q

 

Good to see you. I’ve also been trying to comment or at least “like” all the lists. I’ve been trying to bump only 2 or 3 a day to work my way through. There have been lots of great posts this year.

 

Well we officially have a full 100 lists for 2020. Pretty amazing. I am thinking this will probably be my last bump of this thread until late in 2021.

I know that many folks might still be using the 2020 list by posting date to work through and view all lists they might have missed (I hope so anyway!). Therefore, I will wait to the end of the month to index all of the lists alphabetically with the previous years. If anyone needs me to leave it as is for more time than that please let me know. I can always wait till 2021 list start to roll in to index 2020 alphabetically.

Okay, one last bump. Here is a coin that would have been #1 on my 2016 list if I would have posted one that year.


I’ve greatly enjoyed everyone’s lists this year Happy coin hunting in 2021!

 

Still working on mine. Between vacation and work just haven’t been able to fully invest time into shooting photos and the write-up. On top of that the draft I had been working on got deleted by a bug in MS Word (never leave a word doc open and unsaved while your pc is in sleep mode!).

 

Since you’re no longer updating the thread @Curtisimo I thought I’d go ahead and add mine to the thread. Just posted it today:

https://www.cointalk.com/threads/valiantknights-top-10-actually-11-favorites-of-2020.373785/

 

Just updated. The 102nd list of 2020.

 

Thanks for keeping this list/thread updated!

 

It’s Top 10 time again! As in previous years I will be updating the OP to make sure I capture everyone’s lists. I encourage you all to go back and read some of the Top 10 lists from 2013-2020. There are some great coins to see and learn about.

This thread will be no use to people if they can’t see it so please help keep it relevant by posting “almost made it” coins or other interesting things every so often.

I’ll get to posting some of my “almost made it” coins once I finalize my lists for this year. In the meantime here is a coin from a previous year that I rephotographed this year and was pleased with the result.

 

How is it Top Ten time already?? The year has flown by. I am holding off on posting mine for the moment, as there is something at auction I currently have my eye on. I am also torn between presenting a unified top ten, or having two lists - one medieval, and one ancient. Either way, this coin is one of my runners up (that is in need of a better photograph):
Provincial Rome - Thrace
Caracalla, r. 198-217 A.D.
Serdica, AE 31, 30.67 mm x 17.11 grams
Obv.: AYT K M AYP CEY ANTΩNEINOC, laureate and cuirassed bust to right
Rev.: OYΛΠIAC CEPΔIKHC, Athena standing facing, head to left, holding patera in left hand, resting right hand on shield and spear

 

Me too/ I still have 5 weeks more to get more goodies. Once I am done work, in 10 days/ I will have lots of time for coins.

 

I enjoy your Top 10 compilation, @Curtisimo.
It's nice to see what cool coins other CT members picked up in the year.

For me, I already have a draft list in mind. However, I'm considering a coin or two in early December to add into my collection.

These two Seleukid tetradrachm will have to go onto my 2021 "almost made it" list. I have two others that will be on my top 10. Would be boring to have too many Seleukids on one list...

 

Well we have had 8 Top 10 lists posted so far in 2021 and some are already starting to drop to the second and third pages. As such I’ll bump this thread by continuing my theme of posting a new photo from this year. I’ll get to posting my almost-made-it coins soon but I’m an optimist and I’m hoping that the last few weeks of the year will bring me some contenders.

Some might think it ridiculous to spend extra time to rephotograph such a humble coin but I find photography an enjoyable part of the hobby. Plus this coin was a gift many years ago and I like well worn coins just fine.

 

This is my current hobby as well. I am priced out of the market today by those of you willing to pay what I consider 'too high' prices for some of the most ordinary coins. I have begun going through my catalog of coin photos and reshooting some that I hope against hope I can coax a better photo from. The fact is that many of them are simply not going to result in a great photo because the coin is not even a 2 on the scale of 'eye appeal'. Some look better than my best photo; some are just really that ugly but I try again because I have time to kill. One special category that resists my efforts is the universe of small coins with poor surfaces. It is simply impossible to make a tetartemorion look like a tetradrachm but that does not mean I can't try, fail and try again. These were yesterday's victims:

Lampsakos AR trihemiobol 12mm 1.09g This coin has two faces hard to light pleasingly at the same time and a high relief top of the head that shadows the faces from light coming from the top. In hand, it looks better when you wiggle it but my goal is not movies but a single, still image. The glare on the hair still bothers me.


Worst is a real loser with an excuse. This Ephesos tetartemorion is 6mm and 0.20g. It has rough surfaces but readable legends. The photo looks a lot better if you stand 10 feet from the computer. It might look even better at 10 yards or ten miles but my room is not that big. This one will have to be tried again before I move on to some of the really small (0.1g?) coins. The goal is to make the reverse show the eagle head clearly and not lose the legends.