I took a little break from coin buying in December. So this weekend I decided to get together with my local ancient dealer and make up for lost time. He's been scooping up inventory and hitting the shows like a madman, and had several hundred new coins that he didn't have in his inventory when we last sat down in November. I fell in love with these two coins despite the obvious surface problems on each. I suspect the Trajan sestertius spent some time in the ground as it has some serious pitting issues and the Agrippa also has some major surface corrosion, but I still really liked these two. I feel the details are still pretty clear on both coins. Agrippa is one I've wanted for a while. Post your Trajan or Agrippa coins. Trajan; 98-117 AD AE Sestertius; 32mm/25.3g OBV: IMP CAES NER TRAIANO OPTIMO AVG GER DAC PMTRP COS VI P Laureate Bust Draped R REV: SENATVS POPVLVS ROMANVS FORTRED SC in exergue; Fortuna Redux seated L holding cornucopia and rudder (RIC 652, Cohen 158) Agrippa; 37-41 AD Struck under Caligula AE As; 30mm/11.2g, Rome mint OBV: M AGRIPPA L F COS III, Head L wearing rostral crown REV: Neptune Standing L holding small dolphin and trident; SC in fields (RIC I 58, Cohen 3)
You are right about the details outweighing the surface issues. Depending on price, I would most definitely add these to my collection. This is one of my favorite Trajan. It too has some surface problems: TRAJAN AR Denarius OBVERSE: IMP TRAIANO AVG GER DAC P M TR P laureate, draped REVERSE: COS V P P SPQR OPTIMO PRINC – DAC CAP in ex. Dacian seated r. on pile of arms, his hands bound behind him. Struck at Rome, 103-111 AD 2.8g, 18mm RIC 96 And then there is Agrippa. It had BD which I cured but not before it damaged the surface: AGRIPPA AE As OBVERSE: M AGRIPPA L F COSIII - Head left, wearing rostral crown REVERSE: No legend - Neptune standing left, holding dolphin and trident; S C across fields Rome 37-41 AD 11.0g, 28mm RIC58, BMC 161, BN77, C3
yessss => wow, those are two sweet coins, Bannon (congrats) The Agrippa is very cool (hopefully the skin-problems won't continue to get worse ... I love the way that the coin looks at the moment, but obviously wouldn't want those surface issues to continue) ...... oh, and the Trajan has super eye-appeal ... => two total winna-winnas!! ... here are a couple of my sweet Trajans ...
Wow Bing. Those are great. I love the reverse on your Trajan and the portrait on the Agrippa is just stunning. He's got the most manly Roman profile. Looks like a warrior.
Cool coins. I'm still learning but on the second coin, is that the effect of BD? or is that something else?
I think those tumor like lesions on Agrippa's face and neck could be the result of bronze disease, although I suspect someone tried to treat it at some point. Here's a great link on the topic from classical coins: http://www.classicalcoins.com/bronze_disease.html Any other forum members care to weigh in with an opinion?
I like the Trajan very much - it's an honest coin, and I would prefer an example like that to one that's been overly tooled and smoothed. I'm on the fence about Agrippa - yes, there's a good coin there, with some very strong details. But it's a bit too crusty for my taste. If you can see past the crustiness to the real virtues of the coin, it just proves that you're a better man than I.
Funny you mention that. Part of the issue for me is that often these coins look completely different in hand than they do once exposed to the light and high detail of modern HD photography. That Agrippa didn't look quite so crusty in hand as it does in the photos. Here's the same Trajan, taken with a flash. The pitting is much more evident in this photo. Moral of the story, I need to take my loupe/light with me when I shop.
I know what you mean. In ordinary room light most coins look much more subtle. But in order to take good pics, you've got to light them well, and then the differences between the various textures look far more contrasted than natural. It must be nice to have a local coin dealer that you can visit and make a few buys. I've got nothing like that here. Well...CNG is just up the road, but I don't think you can just go knock on their door and ask to see some coins.
Sweet coins, and that flan on the Agrippa, nice! It's nice to find coins locally. There's a nice Trajan denarius I'm trying to decide on weather to get or not at my local shop. I got this one form my local shop, hard to snap a good pic of too.
