Bag o Romans Update

I've been asked by a few people via PM for an update on the bag o Romans project. So, here is the latest. Four coins have been previously posted in different threads. The Aurelian, a Valentinian that I had wrong, dand two Constantius II posted to the "can't stop, another FH " thread.

Other than those I have another ten coins checked off as identified, and four or five others that are almost finalized. I'm less than halfway home, but farther along at this point than I could have dreamed when that bag arrived.

I will start posting them as I get decent pictures.

My guess is they aren't all correct. But, I'm pretty happy with the progress.

 

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Great job! Keep up the good work. I was also given 6 roman coins to ID not too long ago by @Valentinian and I'm still on the second!

Thanks,
Jacob

 

Here we go:Legend reads IMP CONSTANTINVS PF AVG Constantine I

Reverse: SOLI INV-I-CTO COMITI Sol standing left, left arm raised, globe in right hand
Unknown mint - can't make out the mark

 

Nice one Gerard. The field marks should be able to point you towards which mint this coin is from.

 

According to Helvetica's spreadsheets... these are your options:

RIC VII Rome 27
314-315
R over X in left
F in right

RP
RS
RT
RQ

http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dane/

 

Thank you

@Orange Julius this is a big help. I will try to magnify the mint mark and nail it down.

 

It may be hard to decipher which one... but all are the same RIC number so you may just have to note: R[ ] for... unsure.

 

It looks like RS to me

 

Haha love it!

 

thanks for the advice about the mint mark. I'm going to try and identify it. I will also post another coin that is (hopefully) property identified/attributed once I get a picture.

 

I agree with Ajax. I think it is an RS. The S's in this time period tend to slant right slightly and also are very compact to where when worn they almost look like a rectangle.

 

Over the last few weeks, I've started going to wildwinds.com and reviewing thumbnail pics of coins broken down by Emperor. My hope is through seeing coin after coin that little tidbits like the this will become second nature to me. Clearly, it's already second nature to @nicholasz219 and @Ajax at this point.

It will take years - but it's time well spent.

And the other benefit is an accidental attribution, or two, have fallen into my lap. It's always a great EUREKA! moment when I'm staring at a picture of a coin recognizable as one from the "bag o romans."

Tonight, I will post another coin and see if the attribution is correct. My guess is one of the 10-12 coins I "think" are correctly identified will be wrong.

 

@GerardV I think what you are doing is probably the best thing you could be doing. It took me forever to make out legends because I wasn’t exactly sure of what I was looking at always. The more coins I looked at, the more the legends became familiar and easier to read. For Roman coins that is. With Greek, with many magistrate and city names there is still a lot to learn. But, like anything else, more experience will help you realize what you are looking at and fill in hard to read or missing parts. As you work, you will have more “eureka” moments than not sometimes even years after you buy an unknown coin. As long as you are putting the work in, folks here will help too. I found Rasiel Suarez’ book “Aorta” very helpful because while it has missing things, it is a great tool for learning legends and mintmark combos to get a handle on especially late Roman bronzes.

Keep at it. It’s a really slow start but much like learning another language one day things really click and it all becomes much easier.

 

Another good book is Late Roman Bronze Coinage: An attribution guide for poorly preserved coins by Guido Bruck. You can get it from amazon for like 20 bucks.

 

I second that recommendation. It is worth reading through it to see what the common legends and devices are...

 

I will make sure to find find them both.

 

I love the Bruck book. I almost never buy a coin where the mintmark is unclear (I'm picky that way). Why,then, do I think so highly of Bruck? He shows little details that most people just don't notice and most certainly don't care about. He suggests that these rotten little coins actually have a lot to offer eyes willing to look and brains willing to think. Add to that the undeniable fact that I assign extra credit to any book on coins that does not assign a catalog number, a rarity rating or a market value to the coins in question. If you can talk about a coin for an hour without mentioning those three points and without cut and pasting from Wikipedia, you are my hero.

 

Ok, here we go...coin two. Here's my guess:

Legend: CONSTANTINVS IVN NC Constantine II
Reverse: BEATA TRANQVILLITAS Celestial Globe on altar
MINT: PLG London

(I will work on creating smaller pictures)

 

Nice... not London though