Here is my new: Claudius, AE antoninianus IMP C CLAVDIVS AVG, radiate head left AEQVITAS AVG, Aequitas standing left holding scales and cornucopiae. Antioch mint. RIC V-1, 197. How do you like it?
Nice example. He can be fairly tough to get with full legends. Even mine isnt 100%. Claudius II (268 A.D. - 270 A.D.) Silvered Antoninianus O: IMP C CLAVDIVS AVG, radiate, draped, and cuirassed bust right. R: NEPTVN AVG, Neptune standing left, dolphin in right, trident in left hand, A in ex. Antioch 20.7mm 2.67g RIC V 214 Sear 11353
Ditto what everyone else said. Well done, well done. Here is my best Claudius II: 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
Mat, I dig the Neptvn reverse! Thanks for the kind comments! Yeah, I am really liking this coin too The coin looks just like the pics; it was super easy too shoot; not always the case as we all know It will be replacing the coin below in my collection; which is better in hand than the pics. I like the Victory reverse better than the Aequitas but new is so much nicer IMO.
Mat, super pick-up (congrats) ... Ummm, I have a very poor example of Claudius II (Gothicus), with Libertas on the reverse (this was my 2nd ancinet coin purchase ... apparently, I was just getting warmed-up?!!)
I quite like both coins, TJC. The Aequitas abit more for the nicer details. But both are not bad for a fella whose coins are often said to be amongst the crudest and most debased issued by a Roman emperor, eh. Mine's the same type as Mat's, but not quite as sharp.
Claudius is one of those guys that offers enough variations of style that it is hard to pick one to represent all. During his reign, the antoninianus sank to new lows in terms of metal and workmanship that led to Aurelian's reform so it might be good to include a scrappy Claudius for the sake of completeness. I realize that I did not have to go this far overboard but the rest of you posted typical nice coins so.... Claudius II / Pax / Pax / Claudius II Since the dies for both strikes are the same, this is termed a flipover double strike as opposed to an overstrike (where the new coin was struck on a previous coin). I'll take this as evidence of how fast the mint was working to churn out millions of these coins for your collecting pleasure. Someone here once noted how common clash die coins are for this ruler. It is true. Some are more obvious than others but a lot of Claudius coins show clash damage to the reverse.
I forgot to mention: I do like the OP coin. Did you note the strange style of the letter A it uses consistently on the reverse? The obverse replaces more than one letter with vertical bars with A an V both II and M more like III. The ties for the radiate crown are exceptionally long and three dotted. A very senior collector I knew years ago was trying to make sense out of the code of the ties and the number /position of the knots/beads on them (this one has three and curves over the neck). He convinced me that there was a pattern but, as far as I know, no one carried that study through to any conclusion. Some experts now tend to write things off as just random variations or whims at the mint. I'm more a conspiracy theorist and believe there was a reason but we don't understand it.
