I have had it...enough with the large bronze coins. Prow this, Janiform that, blah blah blah Janus. @Alegandron ,@ancientcoinguru ,@Bing Well here is a special thanks to all those Roman Republic collectors and coin owners that broke me down, twisted my arm forced me to acquire one. While in the market there is something unsatisfying about these Roman Republic Asses, it is only 1/6 the size of the real phat As of an earlier period. I believe this comes from the period of bronze only coinage. Roman Republic Italy, Rome P.CORNELIUS P.F. BLASIO (BC 169-158) AE Sexstans Standard As 35 mm x 42.5 grams. Obverse: Laureate head of Janus, mark of value above. Reverse: Prow right, P.BLAS above mark of value before ROMA below Ref:Sear 703,Babelon Cornelia 6. Sydenham 370. Crawford 189/1. Prov: ex ebay (2/2016), ex. Naville Numismatics Auc. 8 Lot 90 (7/2014), ex. Ex I. Vecchi sale 3, 344.(1996)
Nice coin! Wonderful details, with a great provenance! Can't do much better than a Vecchi sale coin. There were only 2 silver denarius minted 169-157 BC. Enjoy your sextans, and welcome to the community of RR bronze collectors!
I'm not a bronze collector personally and only admire them from afar. IMHO, that is a wonderful example. Well done!
The usual term for the Standard where the as weighed the same as the original sextans is "sextantal". My sextantal as is anonymous.
Awesome Noobster! Welcome to The Republic: the GOOD SIDE of the Dark Side!!! (And, Thanks for the preview and the paint class...)
Excellent purchase, AN. I've got a coin or two from Vecchi 3 myself and have the catalog. In case you like to keep provenance notes and such I've attached the scans from Vecchi 3 of lot 344(broken up slightly because it was spread across 2 pages)
I've only got one as in my collection myself. I really need to add a few more: Roman Republic Æ as(30 mm, 27g). SAFRA(Spurius Afranius?), moneyer, 150 B.C. Rome mint. Laureate head of bearded Janus, I above / Prow right; above, SAFRA; before, dolphin; below, ROMA. Crawford 206/2; Sydenham 389; Babelon Afrania 2 Ex. RBW Collection(CNG e-auction 364, lot 127, December 2016 and Numismatica Ars Classica 61, lot 882, October 2011, unsold), privately purchased from CNG in 1992
Oops! Autocorrect once again made an edit and I did not catch it....enjoy your sextantal....glad Doug got it right!
Nah Republican bronzes are boring with all those prows and such. You should probably just stick to the later Roman/Byzantine/Germanic stuff But seriously, if you want to get into Republican bronzes, now is the time. Prices are lower than they've been in a long time and there are a bunch of very rare coins floating around at insanely low prices from the RBW collection and a few other major bronze collections that seem to be making their way onto the market. I've been able to pick up a lot of great bronzes lately for less than they sold for in the 80s or 90s or only a small markup above it.
Thanks for the tip red spork. If I weren't saving up for other coins right now I would probably go for one or two nice Republican bronzes, preferably the hefty ones. At the moment I simply browse and admire. Hopefully they will still be relatively cheap by the time my wallet is not so tied up.