Curtisimo's 2017: An Overview and "TOP 10"!

Etruria Populonia AR 5 Asses 3rd C BCE 2.0g Young Hd L V behind HN 173 Vecchi Rasna III 52 Vecchi Etruscan 91.6 ex NAC 29 No 9 RARE


Etruria 3rd C BCE AE 18mm 4.76g Hd African r Elephant r letter below SNG Cop 48 HNI 69 SNG Paris 138-140 SNG Morcom 44 RARE


RI Caracalla 198-217 AR Quinarius CE 213 1.3g 13.6mm Laureate - Victory Wreath Palm RIC IV 101 RSC 450 RARE


ARGOLIS Argos 490-470 BC AR Triobol 14mm 2.9g Forepart of wolf lying - A 2 incuse sqs pellet crossbar within shallow sq incuse BCD Peloponnesos 1009 RARE
EX: That RARE GUY himself, @John Anthony


Etruria Populonia AR 1 As 0.60g 10.0mm after 211 BCE Male Head L - Plain Rev Vecchi 3 68-70 HN Italy 181 EXTREMELY RARE


Carthage - Sicily AR Litra 4th C BCE 9.5mm 0.65g Palm Tree Horse Head SNG Cop 74 EE Clain-Safanelli RARE


Israelite AR 2 Gerah Hacksilber ca 8-6 C BCE 8.8x10mm 1.12g ex David Hendin RARE


RI Civil War VINDEX 68-69 CE AR Denarius 3.22g Gallic mint SALVS GENERIS HVMANI Victory l globe - SPQR in wreath RIC 72 BMCRE 34-36 RSC 420 RARE


RI Alexandria Livia, w Augustus Diobol CE 1-2 Æ 23.5mm 7.46g. Rev. Athena holding Nike Sheild ex Dattari-Savio Pl. 3 60-this coin RPC pag. 692-5-this coin RARE
EX: @John Anthony



Imitating Octavian-M. Porcius Cato AR quinarius 13.89 mm 1.29g imitating Octavian r blundered legend - Victory seated r patera Cr 343-462 RARE

 

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A few more RARE this year:


Carthage AE 15-Shekel 45mm dia 7.5mm thick 102.6g 201-175 BCE Hannibal Tanit 4hoove down Horse SNG Cop 400 RARE R1


Carthage AE 15-Shekel 45mm dia 7.5mm thick 102.6g 201-175 BCE Hannibal Tanit 4hoove down Horse SNG Cop 400 RARE R1


Ionia Klazomenai 480-400 BC AR Drachm Pentobol 3.5g 13mm Forepart winged boar r gorgoneion incuse sq Cf SNG Copenhagen 12 Rare


Carthage Zeugitania First Punic War 264-241 BCE Double Shekel 26 mm 13.9 g Wreathed Tanit Horse stndng r star above SNG Cop 185 Rare


RI Diocletian Ӕ Quinarius 1.46g 16mm Rome AD 284-305 IOVI CONSERVAT AVGG, Jupiter stndng thunderbolt sceptre RARE RIC 193


RImp Julius Caesar Lifetime P Sepullius Macer AR Den 1st 2 weeks-Mar 44 BCE 4.03g. CAESAR – DICT PERPETVO Veiled - Venus Victory sceptre star Syd 1074a Sear Imperators 107e Cr 480-14 Rare


RR Anon Ca 240 BCE AR Drachm 16mm 3.0g Rome Helmet Hd Mars r - Horse’s hd sickle Cr 25-2 Syd 25 RSC 34a Rare


RI Aelia GALLA PLACIDIA Augusta Regent for Valentinian III 423-437 CE mo of Theodosius Æ4 Bust E - cross CID visible ex FSR 102

 

I'm coming late to the bonus coins portion of the show, but wanted to express my appreciation for those additions and for the thread as a whole. Awesome year, Curtisimo!!!

My largest coin will be in my top 15, but here are a couple rare LRBs that didn't make any of my 2017 review lists. As I'm very fond of both, I will consider this an excuse to post them!

Magnus Maximus, AE2, Constantinople, VIRTVS EXERCITI, RIC IX 83d:

Struck during the brief period when Theodosius recognized the usurper, the type, obv. legend, and mint are all extremely rare for Mag Max.

Valentinian III, AE2, Constantinople for Cherson, CONCORDIA AVGV, Val III and Theo II standing with a large cross between:

Any coin of Valentinian III is pretty rare, but these big bronzes struck for use in Cherson are particularly so.

 

Final Bonus​

Curtisimo's Favorite Numismatic Book of 2017​

I was going to post one more coin under the title of "Curtisimo's Most Frustrating (but Still Loved) Coin of 2017" however part of that frustration is that I need to learn more about it so I will postpone posting it as such until I am further along in that regard. I will eventually give it its own thread. Instead I would like to leave this thread with a few thoughts on one of my favorite books from 2017.

Collecting Greek Coins
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I really liked this book. I think one thing this book does really well is that it resists the urge to get hung up on trying to cover every variation of every Greek coin type in the regions it discusses. By somewhat narrowing its focus it is able to discuss the material in a much more approachable manner while not compromising on educational value. I like the big catalog books as much as the next guy but page turners they are not. This book approaches ancient coins in a way that I think is not only appealing to collectors but to people interested in history as well. The book gives a brief sketch of the numismatic history of different regions / cities in Greece (Magna Graecia, Athens etc.) and then delves into more specifics on a few coins and types that are of particular interest for each region. A Greek Collector really can't afford not to have this book in thier library as it is both surprisingly cheap and easily available.

The only small complaint I had is that the coins discussed in the text are all shown at the end of the chapter in a way that is reminiscent of the "plates" in older numismatic publications. I really feel like this is a legacy we should let die already. It's much more convenient to have the illustrations as figures in the text to make them easier to study.

 

My Top 10 According to CoinTalk​

Some of you may have been curious why I included a poll on this thread. Half of the answer is that I really just think the poll feature of this site is cool and I like to use it when reasonable. The other half is that I was genuinely curious how the results would turn out. While I can only pick my favorites from my own perspective, I am always fascinated with the variety of collecting interests on this site. I wanted to see if there were any outliers in my collection this year that were either very broadly appealing or any that called to me much more than others. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that there was a bit of both in the list.

Very interesting and cool results I believe we have enough voters to show the results of my top 10 according to my great friends at CT. Highest voted coins at top.

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I want to give a special thank you to all of you who read and replied to the thread but more importantly a thank you to all the great friends here that make collecting that much more fun. You've all been a big part of my 2017 and I look forward to what's in store for 2018

 

Interesting! You rightly noted that our members here are quite diverse in their collecting interests, but perhaps our takeaway from the poll result should be that at the end of the day Big Greek Silver always rises to the top.

 

Ha I think that there is a lot of truth in that. Looking back, Greek coins made up 17% of my total collection this year but were 50% of my top 10. I do love the big silver tetradrachms and it seems others do too.

 

Another advantage of big Greek silver is that it has been popular long enough that we have books covering it. In some cases we have die studies like Boehringer on Syracuse which places the series in the order the dies were used. Certainly there are occasional additions to what we know and reevaluations of exact dating but it can be nice to have a book to answer your questions. Of course some of the books cost as much as the coins.

 

Nice coin. I love big and heavy coins!