Seller pictures GALLIENVS AVG Radiate, cuirassed bust right MART_I PACIFERO Mars standing facing, head left, branch upward in right hand, left hand resting on shield set on ground, vertical spear leaning on arm 21mm x 24mm, 2.89g My photos And tilted slightly. Coin is near black.
Thanks guys, it is my best portrait of him and it looks better in hand. There are a couple of patches of what looks like ordinary dirt, but I think I will leave it alone now.
What an INSANE difference in the photos! Night and day! Seller didn't do himself or herself any favors with those pictures, that's for sure! I totally had to compare flan cracks to be sure we were seeing the same coin. Wow. Congrats! Both on the photography, and also for the bargain you probably scored.
PS- that's pretty darned close to MS, isn't it? Hoard coin, huh? (That's kind of a dumb question, I guess. Most ancients were hoard coins at some point in time before they reached us.)
It is hard to find a Gallienus that isn't ragged. My method is not good for real hoard coins, that is best left to YOC. Mine only works on the hard green mineral deposit.
Pish => my, that's a sweet Gallienus you've got there!! (congrats on the great cleaning job ... although I wasn't offended by the cool green crusties either) Hope you're having a great Saturday
I wish I had such good cleaning skills. Yours is a considerable reverse die clash which rather reduced the A in the reverse field. They come both ways. Note the exergue in the first below. and the field in the second. There are many round Gallienus coins but they come from certain mints at certain times so the come with certain reverses and this is not one of them. We each have to ask if we will collect typical coins from periods where that means scrappy or only examples from mints that had their act together to meet or standards. Note that modern politicians still use the line that Martial actions are needed to bring world peace. We won't discuss the truth of that but only note that the idea is not new.
On the reverse you can see a reversed and incuse outline of the obverse bust. [Ignore the "hole" in his chin-- I accidentally erased that area ]
TIF shows it well. Coins of this period with clashes are common. Perhaps the most common are from Claudius II but this certainly is one.
