Featured My 30th Roman Republican Coin

A nice selection of the more dynamic revereses. The Plautius Plancus has great centering, often way off; the reverse should be decent if the obv struck that cleanly. Enjoy!

 

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#700

I updated my list of Roman Republican coins last night and realised that I'm up to 704 of them on Tantalus - this was number 700 - not much of a looker - corroded and cleaned - but it fills a gap

I bought this and a couple more in May, but asked the seller to hang onto it for a while due to the uncertain postal situation. When he did post it, it made it from Canada to Ireland in 8 days, which wasn't bad at all

Denarius of C. Cassius (Imperator) / Lentulus Spint
Obv. LEIBERTAS / C. CASSI IMP - Head of Libertas right, wearing diadem
Rev. LENTVLVS / SPINT - Jug and lituus
Mint: Smyrna (Spring 42 BC)
Wt./Size/Axis: 3.22g / 18mm / 7h
References:

• RSC 4 (Cassius)
• Sydenham 1307
• Crawford 500/3
• HCRI 221
• BMCRR East 77

Provenances:

• Ex. CNG eSale 296, lot 225, 13-Feb-2013

ATB,
Aidan.

 

Wow, 704! I think I've read that there are about 1,300 different Republican coins, not counting different control numbers and symbols. If true, that would mean you have more than half!

I know it's not a competition, but I don't think I'll live that long, to end up in the same place!

 

I don't think I've ever put all my Republicans into one image before. My 36 do not make as beautiful an array as your 30!

 

Congrats on a awesome addition to your collection, I especially like the small bit of toning that is happening with it.

 

They look pretty good to me! Especially because one can see both sides.

 

Donna you have great Roman Republican coins. Time to sell the rest and focus on RR

 

Thanks. But I like my 140 Roman Imperial and Provincial coins too! (Especially pre-260 AD or so.) They're just not quite as special and interesting as the RR's, that's all.

 

I forgot to count a currency bar fragment, so I guess it's 705 and I have a few not on Tantalus, so maybe 710, it's hard to be exact.

No, it's not a competition - some would favour quality over quantity and many of mine are in the latter category!

I'm not sure exactly how many coins there are in the RR series - there are 2281 entries on http://numismatics.org/crro/results - some of them are similar enough - before you get to control marks, etc. One could go further than Crawford and split up many of his numbers to get further entries, as Andrew has done with the anonymous bronzes, where many issues are lumped under Cr. 56. Then, there are many issues not in Crawford at all, but which arguably should be included - Social Wars issues (I have none), Provincial coins (again, none) or the imitative issues of the Eravisci and others (I have ten or eleven of these). There are plenty of side projects possible.

I've counted duplicates and near-duplicates to get to 705 - e.g. eleven examples of Cr. 340/1, the 90BC Piso Frugi denarius, with different control marks.

At some stage, I'll only be able to afford one or two rarities a year and it'll be time to stop and upgrade some of the sorrier specimens.

I'm making very little progress with a bigger plan to make a decent website for all my coins - this is the start of the Greek part of it - every mint from which I'e got coins on a Google Map. Eventually, each link will open a webpage with info. on the city and the coins and links to the coins themselves. So far, only the Syracuse and Himera links do much; while Rome links to the Republican coins, for which I have a reasonably up-to-date page:

https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1_mZKXNWZ73LJ8h61rQfBxcMlLQk&usp=sharing

ATB,
Aidan.

 

My favorite college professor always advised the goal was to know something about everything and everything about something. Obviously this is impossible but it is a goal. In collecting, I use as a goal to collect some of everything and, where possible, every one of somethings (my specialties, I failed miserably at limiting to just one specialty). I will never know what many people here know about RR. RR is not my specialty. I only have 140 (but that included duplicates of types I like with different minor devices). Honestly put, there are people whose specialty is having coins only in MS condition. That is not my specialty either. Is it not wonderful that the mints and millennia conspired to provide enough coins that we each can have the ones we like?

 

Collecting Roman Republican coins is not only interesting but also is a good investment. I would suggest you buy coins with good eye appeal. They will increase in value over the years. The republican coins are much more scarce than the later Imperial coins. The market for them remains strong.