I went to Baltimore and all I got was some cheap ancient coins...

... 23 of them to be exact. I rode the charter bus up with the group from the Richmond Coin Club ($50) and bought coins between $5 and $30 each (most beginners have more interest in more expensive coins but I'm happy with my junk). I have not got all of them cataloged and photographed yet but I'll show here the most expensive (Wima Kadphises Kushan $30) and ugliest (Constantius Gallus at $15 retaining most of its original silver but that is not as pretty as many other surface conditions - just rare).

The Wima has the best looking obverse (standing king) that I have seen in person even though the head is flat struck. It is rare to find these with this much legend. The Siva and bull on the reverse are not as nice (again, Siva's head is faulty) but still better than average for these often worn out coins. The Gallus is really very unusual with this much retained silver wash but is only a half decent strike. The show had many much worse coins at higher prices but just because some dealer is asking too much for a coin does not mean you have to buy it - shop around. I frequently pay too much for coins I really want but if you are just starting and don't already have all the common stuff you can usually find 'deals' worth considering.

My five $5 finds were all from a pick out pot of about 500 medieval Kashmir bronzes. 95% of them were of two common rulers but I found a couple less common ones that upgraded what I previously had and one that I have not yet IDed. Of course, 99.9% of collectors could care less what ruler issued a coin they don't collect and most dealers could not read the legends required to ID the coin. This added to the things being common as dirt makes unidentified junky examples a glut on the market at $5 even though they are from 1200 AD. The third coin attached is the one I have not yet IDed (help appreciated). It is the worst condition of the five I bought but was the only one like it in the box. Edit: Abhimanyugupta 958-972 AD.

My observation is that each Baltimore show I attend shows an ever widening gap between the dealers who sell high end coins for fair prices and those who sell 'fair' (not quite good) coins for high end prices. Perfect coins should sell for higher prices but the number of dealers selling faulty coins for equally high prices is becoming disturbing. Shop around.

 

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Nice, I like all three and for some reason like the last one the most.

Sounds like you did pretty well. Look forward to seeing the other pieces you acquired.

 

well, I was on this show to,a lot of U.S., and U.S., and U.S AGAIN.
but I found something for myself, I wish it was more.
I was surprised about amount of coins with chopmarks ,and nice medals, civil war tokens.

 

Irina great Russ coins as always. The Peter is super and the Kathrine is OK. DS that standing Kushan is a beauty, I got into the Kushans from collecting Bactrians. Those Kushans have some history. Here are 2 of my favorite Kushans. :smile

 

I'm not really a fan of Kushan coinage, but that one looks nice.

 

That Wima is about the best I have ever seen Doug. That is an incredible find, I doubt you will ever find an obverse that nice again.

I hear you about dealers. Its shocking to me some of the prices I see nowadays. Maybe its a function of the Euro but seems more a function of some dealers just trying to "make a better living" than others.

 

this is my best bronze Standing Pinhead Bactrian/Kushan !!!

 

Because we have a few new collectors that may read this thread, I thought I'd show a few more coins I got at the Baltimore show including a bit of discussion on why I bought these coins from among the many offered. I am a major league cheapskate and look for interesting coins among the junk. Certainly there were thousands of much nicer coins at the show but most of them were priced at ten to a hundred times these and most of them did not sell (certainly not to me).

I'll start with a bronze antoninianus of Gallienus which shows no sign of silver so should be from late in the reign. The reverse is Laetitia but the legend is missing on the right so I am not absolutely certain what it read. Part of the appeal of this coin is the 'different' style making me think it might be one of the branch mints I did not have (and do not fully understand). It has a well struck portrait and reverse figure and was $12 (plus, as with all here, its share of the $50 I paid for the bus to the show). I figured there was some education to be had and I wanted to track the mint down. I now suspect the coin is a relatively normal looking example of what is called a Barbarous Radiate. The best of these are good size and not terribly bad style so I will ID this as one until I find a match of the style cataloged to the regular mints. Is it worth $12? Maybe, but I enjoy the hunt for information on the 'slightly odd' coin.



Next is a coin of Gallienus' wife Salonina. At first glance it is not much of a coin with some missing legend and a considerable flan crack but it has a particularly good strike of the reverse figure and is a type that often seems to come with less than great workmanship that is considered 'special' to some people. The reverse legend reads AVG IN PACE or Empress in Peace. It is the only use of this reverse in the entire Roman series and has been linked to rumors that Salonina was a Christian. You can research that question online if you wish. I tend not to accept the Christian story but enough people do that the coin should bring more than the $10 I paid.

 

Next I'll show my 'sleeper' from the show. When Constantine the Great moved the capital of the Empire from Rome to Constantinople he began a series of coins commemorating the two cities. The coin for the new capital showed a head of a personification of the city with a figure of victory standing on a prow of a ship. On the reverse was a mint mark showing which of the several mints and workshops produced the coin. This one is SMTSE. SM abbreviated Sacra Moneta, TS abbreviated Thessalonica. E was the Greek numeral of the 5th workshop.


Whenever you look up one of the commemoratives in the standard reference RIC (Roman Imperial Coinage) it is very important to realize that these coins were made alongside the coins that showed the two soldiers on the reverse. After a few years of making the type of two soldiers with two standards between them, the weight of the coins were reduced and the two soldiers now had only one standard between them. This coin weighs 2.84g so it belongs with the heavier, earlier series. Looking at the listing for RIC #188 on page 524 workshop delta (4) is shown as common while shop E (5) is R2 (sort-of rare). A footnote explains that there was a large hoard found containing several delta coins but no E coins so they assume that this type was not struck by shop E until later than the date the hoard was deposited in the ground. All of the lighter weight, later coins of the type from this mint were shop E. This was the last of the early series made just before the weight change.

You may ask just how many collectors care in the least about minor divisions of the coins and details of weight standards? Only specialist students care and the demand from them is small enough that you won't have to pay big bucks for an example. Rarity means little if no one cares. I doubt the dealer who sold me this coin knew it was a rare variation but if he had known, I doubt he would have asked much more. On the other hand, it is a decent looking coin from a mint which has less pleasing style than some so it changed hands for $10. Most dealers at the show would have asked more even if they did not weigh the coin and thought it was the common light weight series coin. It is getting harder to find decent looking examples of these common commemoratives for as little as $10 but a coin needs to be a lot better looking than this to bring prices approaching some I have seen asked. Knowing what I know now about the coin, I might have paid $20 but a coin is worth exactly what is agreed upon by one seller and one buyer on one day. Tomorrow it may be five or thirty. Who knows? The photo shows scratches from over zealous cleaning which diminishes any cash value it may have had.

 

Jeez, you can find coins like that cheap and everyone I asked in Long Beach said no to low end pieces or they had common constantine era but not worth $30-$50 when they are $10-$20 on ebay or so.

I know Rex posted a Salonina with that same reverse and posted it in a earlier thread.

I like yours as you point out, good reverse details.

Surprised to see a empress post from ya that isnt domna

 

Cut me some slack, mat. I have not bought a Domna since February 2009. This year I only asked one dealer to show them and that produced nothing I wanted. The chances of finding the ones I lack at a price I'd pay are approaching the odds of winning the lottery so I have been concentrating on 'new to me' areas of ancients. I will point out that working from a want list is the most expensive way to buy coins. If you collect 'coins you like at prices you can afford' bargains are easier to find. See:
http://dougsmith.ancients.info/acmshow.html

Part of me wants to write a sequel to that page but enough people think I'm crazy as it is so why advertise it?

 

Here is an almost identical coin to the one DS posted. This one was minted in a different mint SMKO I think is the mint in Cyzicus Turkey. The obverse once again is Constaninopolis with the reverse of Victory on the ships prow, hand on rudder. Note the wings are not as tight as on DS coin. I am not sure on the mint ID, any input would be nice. :smile

 

SMKB is from the Sacred Mint (SM) in Cyzicus (K) from the second (B) shop. RIC even notes that my coin somes with wings spread and with wings 'down' and every mint had their own minor style differences not to mention the fact that every die was an original carving (not hubbed) so differences abound.

'Identical' is a word with different meanings to different people. To non-collectors, any late Roman coin is identical in the sense that it is a small scrap of copper from a long time ago. To many collectors, all Constantinopolis commemoratives are identical and certainly owning one would be enough. The spreadsheet list of these coins offered online by a European student/collector shows over 190 minor variations including mints, workshops, placement of dots, changes of details (like wing position or helmet decorations) so a real specialist collection could have at least that many coins without two being 'identical'.
http://www.catbikes.ch/coinstuff/coins-ric.htm

Dane also published some pages beyond the lists on her favorite types including this one. She shows examples from all 13 mints that made the coins and offers the following information on the differences that can be found:

Quote:
Compare details such as

• Sceptre: Position, length, angle, is the top end visible and if so does it extend beyond the wing, where is the lower end positioned ?
• Wings: Size, angle and shape
• Shield: Shape, height, upright or leaning left or right, distance from body
• Prow: Height (if any), angle and pattern below it; the angle, shape and form of the prow's "nose"
• Victory's stance: how is she standing? facing with head left ? really left (almost "advancing left")? or just standing ? Angle of her knee ? Postition of her right leg ?
• Victory's arms: Position and angle of arm and hand holding sceptre; Position and angle of arm whose hand is resting on the shield
• Victory's clothing: Type, length and visibility of tunic (if any), length and "sweep" of skirt

End Quote

http://www.catbikes.ch/helvetica/viconprow2.htm

If you find that page interesting, you will be amazed by her collection of Falling Horsemen coins where a complete set would be over 2000 coins. I'm not particularly into the Commemoratives and only have six of the mints but some of you may know that I am looking for a Trier mint Falling Horseman since that is the only mint I lack. Unlike Dane, I am not trying to get all 2000+ Horsemen. Why would anyone want all these 'identical' coins? We collectors are a strange lot.

 

Thanks once again on the mint ID help DS. The last letter was tough for me and threw me off. I love the "Fallen Horseman" reverse and have 5 or 6 of them from diferent emperors. Here are 2 on mine, along with me preparing to ID ancients with the required shot & a beer primer.

 

Nice!

Great stuff doug!! I am suprised you bought a Salonina, I actually have the same one as you, same reverse and such, mine has 'MP' in exergue. Yours is a very nice example, alot of the coins of her from the time aren't struck too well, mine too is missing part of the legend.... I have a question on yours, I don't see any of the mintmark or anything like that in exergue, and it doesn't look like it was cut off the flan, it looks as if it was just struck without it, which could be normal with these types, not my specialty as you know. Here are photos of my example.... I like yours alot, great pickups doug!
Thanks for sharing mate!

irina: Very nice coins!


here are my Salonina coins, the first two pics are the AUG IN PACE one.
I also included pics of my JUNO REGINA example, which I find to be in great shape!

 

Ripley: The brown one is clearly Constantinople but the workshop letter could be gamma or a couple other letters I suppose. The green one is less clear. Many mintmarks begin SM but the last two letters here look to be BI and the style makes me wonder if this is ANBI for Antioch shop 12. My tendancy is to avoid coins that are hard to read in the mintmark area even when the rest of the coin is good looking.

Rexesq: Your coin certainly has a nice obverse but shows the normal off center reverse. These are common coins but finding one will all the legends, a well struck reverse and no cracks is harder. I bought mine for the better than usual strike on the reverse.

 

I know. Many of the coins I aquired early are barely more than rocks.

 

Hey Ripley, I like your coins, but I'm not so sure about your "shot and a beer" method of ID'ing them. You do know that the four coins you posted are Lincoln Cents right?....Ripley?

Bruce

 

Yep Bruce I found them while roll searching Lincolns..... NOT !!!! :devil:

 

I wish you would. That's my favourite one of your articles and I've reread it a couple of times now. As helpful as historically informative coin articles are, anecdotal collector stories are more fun to read -- especially when they're about someone buying the same stuff I hunt for.