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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Roman Collector, post: 8301425, member: 75937&quot;]<i>Share your tales of obsession!</i></p><p><br /></p><p>Good morning and TGIFF, fellow Faustina fanatics! Today you&#039;ll hear a tale of obsession. I&#039;m not talking about the kind of obsession that will make you smile and tap your feet.</p><p><br /></p><p>[MEDIA=youtube]hIs5StN8J-0[/MEDIA]</p><p><br /></p><p>I&#039;m not talking about the kind of obsession that will make you smell good and feel confident.</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="https://fimgs.net/mdimg/perfume/375x500.248.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>I&#039;m talking about a Captain Ahab descending into madness type of obsession …</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="https://media4.giphy.com/media/sn1AdUtgMXfGM/giphy.gif?cid=790b7611b6a2668f6f52123448d180d2f79ae8800f455c3b&amp;rid=giphy.gif&amp;ct=g" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>… scouring the globe looking for &quot;the one that got away.&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p>A few years back, after acquiring a handful of CONCORDIA denarii under Antoninus Pius, I <a href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/faustina-filia-flyspecking-concordia-variant.336093/" class="internalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/faustina-filia-flyspecking-concordia-variant.336093/">started flyspecking</a> them. I noticed several varieties in RIC.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1468629[/ATTACH]</p><blockquote><p><font size="3">The denarii of Faustina II issued under Antoninus Pius with the CONCORDIA reverse legend.[1]</font></p></blockquote><p><br /></p><p>You&#039;ll notice that Concordia is depicted standing or seated and each type may appear with either of two obverse inscriptions: FAVSTINA AVG PII AVG FIL (inscription 3) or FAVSTINA AVG ANTONINI AVG PII FIL (inscription 6). I had both obverse legend varieties for the Concordia standing version. I had both the Concordia standing, both head left and head right versions, and even the rare <a href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/faustina-friday-beckmann-type-3-hairstyle.387681/page-2#post-8121271" class="internalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/faustina-friday-beckmann-type-3-hairstyle.387681/page-2#post-8121271">variety with the type 3 hairstyle</a>! But every Faustina fanatic knows that you can&#039;t stop at this. You <i>have</i> to have EVERY variety. I had Concordia seated with Faustina&#039;s type 2 hairstyle. I had Concordia seated with Faustina&#039;s type 5 hairstyle – with the bust of Faustina facing left and right, to boot!</p><p><br /></p><p>But I didn&#039;t have the Concordia seated type with the FAVSTINA AVG ANTONINI AVG PII FIL inscription. I knew I&#039;d have my work cut out for me; Temeryazev and Makarenko give it a rarity rating of R2,[2] &quot;very rare,&quot; with an estimated 10-24 examples in existence.[3]</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1468630[/ATTACH]</p><blockquote><p><font size="3">Varieties of the CONCORDIA seated denarii in Temeryazev and Makarenko.</font></p></blockquote><p><br /></p><p>The coin was thus on my radar and I was on the lookout for one when browsing auction and fixed price listings. But I was not yet obsessed. Last summer, I saw one come up for auction on biddr – at a Polish auction house new to the bidding platform, Rzeszowski Dom Aukcyjny – <a href="https://www.biddr.com/auctions/rda/browse?a=1956&amp;l=2143234" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.biddr.com/auctions/rda/browse?a=1956&amp;l=2143234" rel="nofollow">lot 2502</a> in the firm&#039;s E-Auction 8. I bid aggressively and won!</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1468631[/ATTACH]</p><blockquote><p><font size="3">The one that got away!</font></p></blockquote><p><br /></p><p>However, I didn&#039;t read the auction terms and conditions very well and didn&#039;t realize until after I had purchased it that the firm did not take credit cards or PayPal. They did take &quot;bank transfers,&quot; however, and I tried Transferwise. It didn&#039;t work. I contacted the firm to get various bank addresses and routing numbers and such, and the firm tried hard to accommodate me, and we tried four different Transferwise transactions, all of which failed. I then went to my local bank to do an international wire transfer, but they were unsuccessful as well; the auction firm&#039;s bank kept rejecting my attempts. I&#039;m not suggesting the auction firm isn&#039;t legit – I&#039;m sure it is – but the US banking system is not equipped to transfer money to Polish banks. I told Rzeszowski Dom Aukcyjny that even my bank was unsuccessful at wiring them the money (sending photos of the bank receipts showing the transactions had been declined) and asked them to make an exception and to take a credit card. They wouldn&#039;t accept a credit card under any circumstances. I told them that I was sorry and that I couldn&#039;t pay.</p><p><br /></p><p>That&#039;s when the obsession started. That&#039;s when I got the Katy Perry earworm.</p><p><br /></p><p>[MEDIA=youtube]Ahha3Cqe_fk[/MEDIA]</p><p><br /></p><p>That&#039;s when I turned into Ahab ...</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="https://i.makeagif.com/media/9-14-2015/CdJYqp.gif" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>… seeking the one that got away.</p><p><br /></p><p>I looked at every coin of Faustina II that came up for sale at every auction and at V coins on at least a weekly basis thereafter, seeking another example. Week after week, month after month, I was disappointed, which only fueled my obsession.</p><p><br /></p><p>When AHOY!!!!</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="https://media2.giphy.com/media/yDza1349g8Khp9kz0j/giphy.gif?cid=790b76118fec5d2f0fa2c73722b477119ed198dde70e3c03&amp;rid=giphy.gif&amp;ct=g" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://www.biddr.com/auctions/savoca/browse?a=2426&amp;l=2681843" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.biddr.com/auctions/savoca/browse?a=2426&amp;l=2681843" rel="nofollow">An example</a> came up for auction at the most recent Savoca Blue! There it was, with no description beyond it being a denarius of Faustina II and its weight and diameter. No catalog number. No mention of its rarity. No hype. No slab. I hoped nobody but me would recognize it for what it was – MOBY DICK, the WHITE WHALE, the elusive RIC 505a(6)!</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1470076[/ATTACH]</p><blockquote><p><font size="3">Faustina II, AD 147-175.</font></p><p><font size="3">&nbsp;Roman AR denarius, 3.02 g, 18.1 mm, 6 h.</font></p><p><font size="3">&nbsp;Rome, late 151-early 152.</font></p><p><font size="3">&nbsp;Obv: FAVSTINA AVG ANTONINI AVG PII FIL, bare-headed and draped bust right.</font></p><p><font size="3">&nbsp;Rev: CONCORDIA, Concordia seated left, holding flower and resting elbow on cornucopiae set on globe under chair.</font></p><p><font size="3">&nbsp;Refs: RIC 502a(6); BMCRE 1080-81; Cohen 53; RCV –; Strack 502; CRE 169.</font></p></blockquote><p><br /></p><p>I put in a very competitive bid and I proved to be the highest bidder! I&#039;m a happy collector. For now. Until I become obsessed with another one that gets away!</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Notes</b></p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b>~~~</b></p><p><br /></p><p>1. Mattingly, Harold and Edward A. Sydenham. <i>The Roman Imperial Coinage</i>. III, Spink, 1930, p. 93.</p><p><br /></p><p>2. Temeryazev, S. A., and T. P. Makarenko. <i>The Coinage of Roman Empresses.</i> San Bernardino, CreateSpace, 2017, no. 169, p. 62.</p><p><br /></p><p>3. <i>Ibid</i>., p. 6. I have been able to find eight museum specimens (including three in the Reka Devnia hoard) and an additional ten (including mine) that have been sold at auction in the past 20 years.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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