A few weeks ago, I was spending my evening looking at coins as I am known to do. I came across an interesting provincial coin of Maximianus Thrax. I liked the reverse of Tyche and had never seen it before. Off to acsearch I went to find some other examples. I was surprised that there was only one. What surprised me more was that it seemed to be the exact coin I was looking at that was for sale. It originally went unsold in a Savoca auction in 2018 and then ended up on ebay from a seller in the States. The seller offered me a good price so I went ahead and bought it. It arrived today and I am nearly 100% sure it is the same coin from the 2018 Savoca auction. The weight and diameter are the same as well as the pitting/notches. I would like to know how it made it from Germany to my house. I'm sure it's not as interesting as I am imagining it to be Here are the ebay seller's pictures vs the Savoca pictures And here it is in my hand today: Maximinus I AE18 Deultum, Thrace 235-238 AD Obverse: IMP MAXIMINVS AVG, laureate, draped and cuirassed bust right. Reverse: C F P D, Homonoia standing left, holding patera and cornucopiae. Varbanov 2430; Moushmov 3640 Have you ever been perusing coin auctions and run across a coin like I did? If so, feel free to post them if you bought them. Or post whatever else you see fit; Max Thrax, Homonia, coins of Deultum, etc...
It's always fun when that happens. Good eye to find the match. Several years ago I was looking for a portrait Julius Caesar. A Vcoins dealer had a scarcer reverese with seated Venus rather than standing. No provenance listed. While researching I stumbled on the same coin from a previous CNG auction. Needless to say I bought it. Sellers pic: CNG pic: My pic: CAESAR DICT PERPETVO laureate head of Julius Caesar right L BVCA Venus seated right holding Victory on extended right hand, transverse scepter in left Struck Feb - Mar 14th, 44 BC. 3.58g RCV 1410, RSC 24. Venus seated' only appears on this one type of Caesar's 'lifetime' issues, on the remainder she is standing. Lucius Aemilius Buca was a distant relative of the dictator Sulla. This coin was struck within a month of Caesar's murder. Ex-CNG Electronic Auction 223, lot 393
I don’t have such an interesting story about a coin, but the only thing I can add to this thread is this: a little twin, double die-match with yours, directly from the collection of Ivan Varbanov himself !
Yes I believe it’s the same coin. By the way, I’m not sure about the Moushmov reference. The description doesn’t match the Plate…
It most certainly doesn't match does it? I pulled the references from wildwinds. Unfortunately, I don't have access to most of those references.
My guess would be that your US seller bought it off Savoca's unsold list. Another possibility is that Savoca packaged a bunch of their unsold coins into a group lot and sold that in a subsequent auction to your seller. Some auction houses do seem to do that on occasion. When the Sev Alex tet below first appeared in a CNG auction in 2017, nobody wanted it (for the opening bid of $60!). About half a year later, they listed it again, but this time as part of a group lot with seven other coins that I ended up buying. SEVERUS ALEXANDER Potin Tetradrachm. 14.14g, 23.2mm. EGYPT, Alexandria, RY 2 (AD 222/223). RPC Online Temp #10249 (34 spec); Emmett 3139.2; Dattari (Savio) 4373. O: Laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right. R: Tyche standing facing, head left, holding rudder and cornucopia; L B (date) to upper left. Ex Hermanubis Collection The size listing in WW is probably an error. The Varbanov book lists 2430 as an AE20 - no plate illustration, unfortunately. Here's another example listed in acsearch. I don't have a Max Thrax from Deultum, but here's one from nearby Anchialus. MAXIMINUS I THRAX AE29. 10.47g, 29.1mm. THRACE, Anchialus, AD 235-238. AMNG II -; Varbanov -; Corpus Nummorum Online -. O: AVT MAΞIMEINOC EVCEBHC AVΓ (ligate), laureate, draped and cuirassed bust right, seen from behind. R: OVΛΠIANΩ-N ΑΓΧΙΑ/Λ/E/ΩN (ligate), Athena standing right, holding spear in right hand and patera in left hand, from which she feeds serpent coiled around tree to right. Notes: Unpublished and possibly unique.
See, like I said, it isn't as interesting a story as I made up in my mind @zumbly ...Thanks for popping my dream bubble lol. Also, those are great coins. That Severus Alexander especially! I was excited to get this Max Thrax since I only have one other in the collection. It is probably a contemporary fake though since it has an obverse for him but a reverse that was for Severus Alexander.
I purchased this provincial of Otacilia Severa from Bizya at a Frank Robinson auction back in 2016. Otacilia Severa, AD 244-249. Thrace, Bizya Æ 23.5 mm, 6.89 gm, 7 h. Obv: M WTAKEIΛIA CEBHPA CEB, diademed and draped bust, right. Rev: ΒΙΖVΗΝΩΝ, Artemis Phosphoros standing right, holding arrow and torch; stag at her feet. Refs: Tachev, Bizija 5 (this coin); Moushmov 3514; Sear GIC 3991; Varbanov 1592; Lindgren II 759; Jurukova 147; Mionnet Suppl 2, 193; RPC VIII, (unassigned; ID 48718); CN 3897; Milano IV/3 --; BMC Thrace --; SNG Tubingen --; SNG Copenhagen --;Wiczay --. Notes: Double die-match to RPC specimen and to Lindgren II 759. I was looking at the examples in RPC for a die-match and came across this one, which is noted to be Tachev, Bizija 5. It weighs 6.89 g and is 24 mm. I noticed that it was not only a double-die match, but that it was the exact same coin, albeit a very poor quality photo!
Well, that's just one possibility. Short of your seller spilling the beans, your guess is probably as good as mine (and probably more interesting). In any case, it's always fun to know how our coins got around. The most recent Leu auction had a bunch of lots billed as being from "the collection of the Czech musician Adolf Picek (circa 1885-1978), and formerly in the possession of an Italian banker, whose life was saved by Mr. Picek in the Battles of the Piave River on the Italian Front in 1917-1918 and who presented his savior with 'four socks of old coins' in reward." I'll never know if that story is really true, but I'm eagerly awaiting the arrival of the one coin I won that might have spent time in someone's smelly sock during WWI.
Quite often, especially when dealing with scarcer (but not super valuable) coins from large lots with ex collector provenance. My favorites A unique Kyme trihemiobol(?) That was auctioned twice by Roma, sold the second time for something like £300, then showed up in a Leu large lot that I bought I bought this one off of a random eBay seller whose shtick was to make lots of extremely valuable coins and hope that they sold in the multiple thousands of dollars. He mostly sold lots of things like Chinese Republic/Japanese silver crowns and but randomly listed a few lots of ancients including this one Which I traced to two separate CNG sales after it arrived (I wasn't after this one specifically, and it now lives with @jamesicus)
Interesting to find old references to the coin of interest. However, "How it made it from Germany to my house"...... who knows. Although, I guess something worth keeping in mind is, if any Roman coin is in America, then it had to have made the trip somehow at some time! (Let's hope so anyway! )
