Ever buy duplicates on purpose?

You beauty, I was waiting for a million fallen horsemen, well done.

 

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Haha thanks Not a million yet

 

I have bought a few duplicateson purpose. This is one.

First coin.

Septimius Severus denarius
Obv:– IMP CAE L SEP SEV PERT AVG COS II, Laureate head right
Rev:– MONE[T A]VG, Moneta seated left, holding scales and cornucopiae
Minted in Emesa, A.D. 194 - 195
References:– RIC -, RSC -



The problem being that thhere is a big chunk of the reverse off flan so the reverse legend cannot be confirmed.....

without a double die match.....

 

Dups, you betcha! It is sometimes difficult to get the quality you are looking for, so in the meantime, you pick up a lesser one until you find your sleeping beauty:

Byzantine Empire: Leo VI the Wise (886-912) Æ Follis, Constantinople (Sear-1729)

Obv.: +LEON bASILEVS ROM; crowned bust facing with short beard, wearing chlamys, holding akakia.
Rev.: +LEON / EN QEO bA / SILEVS R / OMEON







Byzantine Empire: Leo V the Armenian (813-820) Æ Follis, Syracuse (Sear-1636; DOC 17; Berk-887)

Obv: [Λ] - E/O Facing bust of Leo, with short beard, wearing crown and loros, and holding cross potent; in right field, star
Rev: [K] - ONST Facing bust of Constantine, beardless, wearing crown and chlamys, and holding globus cruciger; C - I on either side of head






Byzantine Empire: Alexius III Angelus-Comnenus (1195-1203) BI Aspron Trachy Nomisma, Constantinople (Sear-2011; DOC 3a)

Obv: Beardless, nimbate bust of Christ, wearing tunic and kolobion; holds scroll in left hand. Pellet, or pellets, normally in each limb of nimbus cross. IC XC in field
Rev: Full-length figure of Alexius on left and of St. Constantine nimbate, holding between them globus cruciger. Emperor and saint wear stemma, divitision, collar-piece, and jeweled loros of simplified type; both hold labarum-headed scepter.

 

@H8_modern Nice coins. I think the two are enough different to justify having both. I try to avoid duplicates, but buy some by accident (mostly at coin shows). At times something about a coin speaks to me.

I have three Volteius denarii. The snake coins are neat. I bought #2 at a coin show when my list was not up to date. I bought #3 for the plumb bob symbol.


I have several Piso coins. I bought this one for the symbol, a Roman level that used a weight like on I have. A similar coin was offered in an auction the next month. I did not bid on that coin.


The coin above sold at auction a few years ago. I will bid on the next one I see offered. I have seen a few sold in the past including one owned by @maridvnvm .

 

LOL, many of my DUPES are "OOOPS!" But I still luv'em to death!



RR Fannius 123 BCE AR Den (2) X Quad Sear 150 Cr 275-1

 

I have 80 fel temp reparatios with the fallen horsemen. Too many to post or photograph, some are big, some are small, some are poorly struck, some are not. It seems to be the number one coin type in the uncleaned hoards.

 

I buy duplicates on purpose, but as others have pointed out, in ancient coins there are no true duplicates (except maybe modern counterfeits). There is always some difference of style, strike, or condition that is worth studying. In the case of the elephant denarius of Caracalla, there are several interesting die variations that warrant comparison. On the examples below, the die was cut at the end of 211 with the tribunicia potestas number XIIII, but had to be changed to XV because the coins weren't struck until early 212 (presumably). Different engravers had different solutions to the problem. For the coin on the left, the X and V were simply spaced out to fill the gap taken up by the longer XIIII. For the coin on the right, the engraver combined extra spacing with a dash (–) to "strike through" the remaining Is. While this has been read as an H, as in XVH, that would not have been the intent. The elephants on these two coins are also different; the one on the left thrusts its trunk into the gap between the two Ps in the legend, whereas the one on the right does not.



Coin on the Left: RIC 199, RSC 208
Caracalla. AR denarius, Rome mint, struck 212 CE; 18mm, 3.40g. BMCRE 47, Hill 1312 (R4), RIC 199, RSC 208. Obv: ANTONINVS PIVS AVG BRIT; head laureate right. Rx: P M TR P XV COS III P – P; Elephant walking right. Somewhat porous; EF.

References:

• K. Elks, “Coins of Caracalla with Altered Dies,” NC 1973, pp. 222–3 and pl. 15.4 (die duplicate).

• Spink & Son, Ltd., The Michael Kelly Collection of Roman Silver Coins (London, 18 November 1997), Auction 123, p. 47, lot 1230 (die duplicate).

Coin on the Right: RIC 199, RSC 208
Caracalla. AR denarius, Rome mint, struck 212 CE; 2.81g. BMCRE 47, Hill 1312 (R4), RIC 199, RSC 208. Obv: ANTONINVS PIVS – AVG BRIT; head laureate right. Rx: P M TR P XV H [sic] COS III P P; Elephant walking right. EF.

ex The Old Sable Collection

References:

• K. Elks, “Coins of Caracalla with Altered Dies,” NC 1973, pp. 222–3 and pl. 15.1 (reverse die link).

• B.A. Seaby, Ltd., The G.R. Arnold Collection of Silver Coins of the Severan Dynasty (London, 21 November 1984), pl. VI, no. 152 (reverse die link).

 

Building on the excellent post by benhur767: You can even buy duplicates closer related than that. The two coins of Septimius Severus below were struck from the same die pair. Studying them will show the differences between things that were part of the die and things that were caused in striking and later (centering, double striking, wear, post mint damage etc.). Die duplicates are not scarce with rare coins. There are even some that were all made from a single die pair. It is very unlikely you will find a die match for a very common type that was made from a thousand different dies.

Look at these two coins and see letter spacing, a die crack and style elements that match. I thought once I didn't want both of these so I tried to sell the lesser one. I failed, thank you. I would miss it.

 

Here are some Vespasians that are the same but different