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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;GinoLR, post: 26543107, member: 128351&quot;]When I was a student in Paris, in the typewriter era, I used to look for Roman coins at &quot;bouquinistes&quot; on the banks of the Seine. They usually sell old books and engravings, but three or four of those situated in front of the Hotel des Monnaies (the old Paris mint) also sold ancient coins.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1691634[/ATTACH]</p><p><font size="3">(not my picture) nothing here seems to have changed since the 1970s.</font></p><p><br /></p><p>I remember the first one I bought there, it was an antoninianus of Gordian III, reverse <i>Iovi Statori</i>. It was the first time I ever heard of this emperor. I bought from bouquinistes some other coins I still have : </p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1691635[/ATTACH]</p><p>This sestertius of Commodus, for example, with a spectacular <i>Fid. exerc.</i> reverse. It is typical of the 2nd c. Antonine large bronzes you can find in France, very worn because they were introduced in Gaul in enormous quantities and circulated during a century, sometimes even more, to the 280s.</p><p><br /></p><p>Crossing the Seine, and the inner courtyard of the Louvre (no pyramid back then) we could get to the Rue de Richelieu where there were several specialized numismatic shops. My favourite was Maison Platt, I bought many Roman coins from there. </p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1691639[/ATTACH]</p><p><font size="3">A Caius Cassius denarius, Roman Republic, 130s BC, I acquired at Platt&#039;s. On the reverse, Libertas is in a quadriga, holding rod and pileus. I think it&#039;s the first ever representation of Liberty. In the late 18th c. the pileus became a Phrygian cap and Liberty was depicted not holding but wearing it. I still remember my juvenile enthusiasm when I went out of this shop wirth this coin.</font></p><p><br /></p><p>At the end of the street, past the National Library, there was the Jean Vinchon shop with breathtaking coins displayed in the window, like aurei, tetradrachms and patinated 1st c. AD sestertii in almost mint-state. I dared not entering there, it was not for my budget... Then we arrived in the Bourse area (the Stock Exchange) and the rue Vivienne, with other numismatic shops. I remember the shop of Claude Silberstein in which I bought this rare sestertius of Commodus with a medallion portrait :</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1691638[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>I remember I went to see Mr Giard at the National Library, to show him this coin. He confirmed it was very likely authentic, even though it was unpublished, and borrowed it from me to make a plaster cast. A similar one, from the same pair of dies but with SC added on the reverse, has been auctioned since, in the 2000s, by Gorny &amp; Mosch.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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