Extremely rare ancient coins?

I generally do not purchase rare coins. I generally prefer what I would consider interesting coins rather than a coin from an obscure mint or type. However at one time I was very interested in the drachms from the city of Petra minted during the reign of Septimius Severus and his two sons. I have studied these coins for some years and at the present time the group is known by 28 specimens 1 Septimius Severus (mine) 5 of Julia Domna 3 of Geta and 18 of Caracalla. This group of coins is quite remarkable in that
1. Not a single specimen has been found in or around Petra. Nor have I seen any being offered by dealers who normally get their material from the Middle East.
2. The only two specimens, both of Caracalla, that were found in an archeological context were found in Europe one in Britain and the other near Basil Switzerland.
3. In 1989 only 7 of these coins were known (6 of Caracalla 1 of Julia Domna) which means that 21 were discovered since. The majority were found being sold by dealers that get their material from the Balkans. For the last 3 or 4 years I have not seen any new specimens.
In terms of metal content I have tested 4 and and using an XRF system I have found that the silver content of these coins appear to be consistent with contemporary denarii.
So in conclusion this is a very rare coin from a very rare series
Drachm of Septimius Severus from the mint of Petra Obv, Head right laureate Rv. Civic Tyche standing left holding baetyl in right hand and cradling trophy in left. This Civic Tyche is unique to Petra as she is the only one cradling a trophy. Unpublished 2010- 2014? AD 3.11 grms 18 mm Photo by W. Hansen I am still interested in these coins and do still study them. If anyone has one please do let me know. I would be really pleased to add some new specimens to my corpus.

 

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Nearly unique category, which is a R4: it means exceptional rare but certainly not UNIQUE (there is one other exemplar known to be in circulation). Sometimes do I encounter coins with 5/6 cousins all in musea around the world, the one offered is the only one in private possession, in that sense is this a UNIQUE opportunity to buy one exemplar out of X specimen. It's not something to let pass, perhaps the opportunity of a life time!
But it's still not a unique coin, but the only specimen in private possession instead, which can make it extremely valuable and fulfill a life time dream of the collector of a certain category coins.

Did acquire this one (beside Imperatorial do I also collect other coins like Celts, Republic, Imperial, Celts and rare Tetradrachmes of Lysimachos) I am happy with both the rarity and the quality, such a aesthetic example!

Provenance: ex Numismatik Lanz, Munich, Auction Sale 135, 21 May 2007 (lot 154) with his large illustrated ticket for the coin. The only other example of the monogram to appear in Coin Archives occurs in Noble Auction Sale 101 November 2012 (lot 3399).

 

The Brussels tetradrachm of Aitna: possibly the most precious ancient coin in the world
By Francois de Callatay on academia.edu

 

OP, I highly recommend reading Warren Esty's excellent essays concerning ancient coins. Bottom line to me is, it can be unique but if there is only a few collectors for it, who cares? Rarity is overrated versus demand.

 

Or maybe the biggest scam in the history of Greek coin collecting

 

Unique? Maybe? Sorry to keep posting this, buy I am obsessed; spent the last hour or so puzzling over it. I cannot find a match, but I am pretty sure I have the city right.

It would please me immensely if somebody else had something like this and mine wasn't unique - I don't know enough to claim "unique." But I've ransacked RPC, acsearch, Wildwinds, etc.




Synnada, Phyrgia Æ 11
Semi-Autonomous Issue.
(c. 100 - 200 A.D.)
Herakles Thynnaros (?) draped bust right with taiana, sceptre or thyrsus over shoulder (?) / CYNN [AΔEΩN], Artemis standing right drawing arrow from quiver (?) or Athena with spear (?).
(1.94 grams / 11 mm)
eBay April 2021 Lot @ $1.24
Attribution Notes: Unlisted type for Synnada? Reverse inscription and other coins from that place support this attribution. But what do I know?

Here are some new heroes I learned about while researching this - from German Wikipedia (with Google translate):

"Thynnaros ( Greek Θύνναρος ) is in Greek mythology the founding hero of the Phrygian city Synnada, whose name has only been preserved on coins . It is not passed down in literary documents.

Thynnaros can be identified on two coins by the legend ΘΥΝΝΑΡΟΣ, a third coin assigned to him has no inscription and is more likely to be assigned to Heracles. All three coins date from the period between the 1st and 3rd centuries AD and are quasi-autonomous coins , i.e. coins of little value, as they do not refer to the Roman emperor either through the coin image or the legend. He is depicted with long hair and a beard, on one of the coins he wears a taenia . The reverse of one of the coins depicts the goddess Isis , the other an owl sitting on an amphora. Since other poleis in the myth can also be traced back to two founders, there is no contradiction in this. An inscription was found in Synnada, in which Thynaridai is mentioned, whether it is a reference to a cult of Thynnaros is unclear. In the assumption of a cult community of this name, Thynnaros was also interpreted as a deity. Thynnaros can be identified on two coins by the In addition to Thynnaros, there are also images of Akamas on coins from Synnada, the type of both depictions indicates founding heroes."

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thynnaros​

The article is illustrated with two coins, one of which has an obverse a lot like mine:


This Thynnaros hero needs a write-up by @Jochen1

 

I consider "unique" as a temporary feature before the second one pops up. It is, however, a wonderful experience to be the first one to attribute or describe an unknown type.

Lesbos, Mytilene, Hekte. Female head to right, wearing pendant earring and necklace, hair tied up behind / Head of eagle to left; linear square border not visible, either not in the design or the flan is short. Mytilenean hektes of this period usually feature in the obverse the head of a male or of a female, sometimes a deity or a lesser deity (pan or a nymph). The reverse is at times copying a depiction from famous coins of other cities of the Greek world. For example, Bod.88 features a bull butting left, pointing to the coinage of Thurium; Bod.104 depicts an eagle standing to the right with the head turned to the left- a reference to the coinage of Elis, Olympia (cf. BMC 68, 94). In this coin, the obverse has a very similar design to Bod.69; the style of this coin looks cruder, although it is difficult to compare because it is quite worn in the high points. The reverse is a direct reference to the Cypriot staters of Paphos, under the rule of Pnytos (cf. Traité II 1280; Weber 7702; Tziambazis 75); notice the feathers arranged in two columns divided by a vertical line.

 

With ancient coins, each rare coin is still rare...but having a rare coin is quite common

 

I use the phrase "this coin currently the only recorded example" and add "none in ACSearch, not documented in [standard catalogue ABC] so that it's clear what measurement yardstick I'm using and allows for a dozen to appear tomorrow or some other example in a very obscure work to be informed to me.

No coin type is ever unique, unless one has a documented record that just one was struck. Otherwise more examples always turn up in time

 

ACSearch lists this coin as extremely rare. There are only 3 listed. I have one not on ACSearch.

I enjoy it as I am intrigued by its odd denomination: 5/12th of an As.

The Quincunx: Roman Republic, Luceria Mint



AE Quincunx
Luceria mint, 210 BCE,
6.96g
Obv: Laureate head of Apollo right "Pi" behind
Rev: The Dioscuri galloping right, five pellets below.
Ref: CR 99/4; Syd 309; S 912
Luceria mint,
Ex: Aegean, Ex CNG 42, lot 760 (part of) 5/29/97, Ex RBW collection with envelope
Comment: Rare denomination that was only made for a few years.

 

I've got one as well A fairly miserable one!




Bronze Quincunx
Obv.: P - Laureate head of Apollo right; P behind
Rev.: ROMA - The Diosuri riding right
Exergue: .....
Mint: Luceria (209-208 BC)
Wt./Size/Axis: 6.63g / 24mm / 6h
References:

• Sydenham 309
• Crawford 99/4
• BMCRR Italy 262

Provenances:

• Ex. E.E. Clain-Stefanelli Collection

Acquisition: Naville Numismatics Online Auction NN Live 53 #384 3-Nov-2019

ATB,
Aidan.

 

AWESOME, Dude! Congrats... itsa gorgeous one! And, that is great provenance.

 

As is RBW!

ATB,
Aidan.

 

Lol that's one way to ensure it's uniqueness....

 

I would echo the comments of others stating that there are always rare variants of common types, or rare provincial issues of which only one has been found (or identified) to date. In my ancients area of specialization (Messapian mints in Magna Grecia), there are a few obscure mints of which only a few issues are known. One of these is Baletium, which issued staters, tetraobols and diobols. One example of the tetraobol is in the Bibliotheque National de Paris. The Museum of Naples houses two others, purchased from 1907 Martinetti-Nervegna sale. The Paris example:

 

In my other collecting area, the (more recent) coinage of East Frisia, there was a silver 1 1/2 Reichstaler of Georg Christian (1660-1665) which was listed by Kuenker in the 2004 Kennepohl auction as an "unpubliziertes unikum" (ie unique and unpublished). It went for EUR 56,000. Since, then, several others have come out of the woodwork in auctions by Heritage Auctions and a Gorny & Mosch one in 2019 (https://auktionen.gmcoinart.de/Auktion/KatalogArchiv?intAuktionsId=745&los=1564935) where the same coin "only" hammered EUR 14,000. I have also seen an example struck in gold. The Gorny & Mosch example:



Returning to ancients, there are also a couple of nebulous usurpers with only a few coins to their name. There has been a lot of speculation around Bonosus and Proculus in particular. The former appears to have been a barbaric type while there are only two coins of Proculus in existence, one from a hoard and another found by a metal detectorist in the UK. Both share the same obverse and reverse dies:



I guess this highlights one of the dangers of collecting very rare coins which are avidly sought by others. You may wind up paying a fantastic price for the only one in existence, then find that its value drops substantially when more enter the market. Like many of the other CT'ers, I enjoy researching rare variants which are often overlooked by the market, and as a result, are more affordable

 

Why was that coin so cheap ?

 

It's a "Gilt Medal" copy of a very rare and valuable coin... but not ancient, a modern copy.

 

Rarity of the types I described above are rare variations of an otherwise common type.

There are some types where the reverse type is only known for one emperor and thos examples are only known from a single die pair. This is a different type of rarity.

Numerian
Obv:– IMP C NVMERIANVS AVG, Radiate, cuirassed bust right
Rev:– PACATO-R ORBIS, Emperor advancing right, holding shield and sword, captive, cowering beneath
Minted in Lugdunum (C in exe) Emission 9 Officina 3. Summer A.D. 284
Reference:– Cohen 41 (30 F). Bastien 618 (2 examples).

One of a handful of known examples.