Calling All Denarii Experts: L. Calpurnius Piso Frugi

Btw Calpurnia, here is the story why I bought my avatar coin:

http://www.cointalk.com/t194425/

 

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Hi Medorama:

Very interesting story. I went to the CNG and looked at all the C. Postumius denarii they have in their research section, including yours, and I don't think you paid too much. I wouldn't be concerned about the estimate; I noticed quite a few other coins going at twice estimate. What you paid was about the going rate for a nice VF. An EF would have costs you 2 or 3 times as much and might not be as appealing.
What makes your's appealing is the style of the Obverse. Diana has a serene look on her face and I can see how it might remind you of your recently deceased mother. And the hound on the reverse would remind you of her care for greyhounds, although the hound on the reverse if a bit offcenter and not fully struck. But the obverse is a piece of art in my opinion.

When I went to CNG's research section, I pulled up several dozen of C. Postumius and it is quite interesting how the styles of the obverses differed. I remember an EF costing almost 700 that had fantastic detail on both sides and was well centered but the obverse style was inferior to that of your coin, in my opinion.
The money you spent on your coin will give you years of enjoyment. And you won't have to worry about how much you might be able to sell it for, because I have a feeling you will never sell that coin. It'll probably make a nice present for your son some day.

 

Calpurnia, I really am looking forward to more of your posts. Yes, it was the style of this piece that really set it off. Many of them look more like Roma heads that are so common. This piece, besides looking like my mother, is more artistic and realistic than many I have seen. You are very correct that good style can more than offset a grade difference between two coins. This is an advanced concept many collectors, especially coming from another area of numismatics, miss. Its in this regard ancient collecting is a little more akin to art collecting than most other areas of coin collecting.

I liked your post a lot. We don't have a lot of active ancient collectors here, but a few of us hang around.

Chris

 

L Calpurnius Piso Frugi

If you're still interested in this moneyer, please contact me. I run a project of Roman Republican die studies,
and L Piso Frugi is one of those almost done.

Sincerely,

Richard

 

What kind of project if you dont mind me asking.

 

Hi Richard:
I am interested in L. Piso Frugi. The BMCRR has in interesting breakdown of the types of controlmarks and their online catalog has pix of I believe over 300 varieties. I am actually more interested in C Piso Frugi and know of 485 varieties catalogued by C. Hersh and I wonder if you have added more varieties. Also could you explain a bit about your die study project and give an update and if any of the results are online.

thanks
Ron