My favorite ancient coin from 2019, and my favorite non-Republican coins from 2020

Awesome coins, I also love coins that feature animals. You certainly have great taste in coins/ glad you joined CT. Thanks for sharing you new treasures with us. I think I must have four times to win a Severa AR Hippo Denarius/ failed everytime.
John

 

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Those are all lovely and significant acquisitions, Donna, congratulations.

Being partial to Greek coinage, I especially like your Corinth stater, and the Ptolemy VI tetradrachm (?).

On the Roman side, the Galba denarius and the Julian II double majorina stand out, but, in the end all of your coins are really nice.

 

Great coins Donna, looking forward to seeing the next 10. My favorites from this group are the Balbinus and Galba, love those portraits.

 

Thanks to all of you for all the kind words about these coins. I didn't want to put up a poll, but I think every single one got at least one mention from someone.

And it's not that I really see these coins as in any way "lesser" than my favorite Republican coins purchased this year; I just gravitate a bit more towards those. It's entirely possible that others will prefer these. But I'm extremely fond of both groups, and think I'll keep them!

No way I can buy as many next year; I don't think my landlord takes ancient coins as rent payments.

Yes, @robinjojo, the Ptolemy VI is an AR tetradrachm. I don't know how that got dropped from the description.

I think Frank Robinson said something in his description about the Julian II obverse being one of the best he's seen. That didn't necessarily come through in his photo, but I was very pleasantly surprised. Of course with a bronze coin there's always the concern about tooling, but I didn't see any obvious signs of it.

I should have mentioned that I chose the Julia Domna not only because of Isis and Horus on the reverse, but because it's one of the most pleasant, youngest, and most vulnerable-looking portraits of Julia that I've ever come across. Especially considering that on average her portraits easily take the prize for the most sour-looking of any empress!

@Sulla80, I look forward to reading your articles on cistophoric tetradrachms. Yes, "PTOL" is supposedly short for the name of the magistrate, presumably Ptolemy. I should mention that traditionally (as in BMC 22 Lydia, from 1901) the dating on coins of Tralles -- like my Year 8 (H) -- was interpreted, just as on the coins of Ephesos, as the 8th year since 33 BCE, when the Pergamene kingdom passed by bequest to the Roman Republic upon the death of Attalus III, and became part of the Province of Asia. But it's my understanding that more recent authorities have posited a shift of the era forward by approximately five years. These authorities reject the idea that these cities had the time (or the inclination) to start issuing coins dated by a new Roman era as soon as Attalus's will became public, particularly given the immediate rebellion of Aristonicus.

Meanwhile, it'll probably be a while before I can draw up my list of favorite Republican coins: there are two I'm still expecting, and I ordered one from Spain more than three weeks ago, to be delivered by DHL Express. The dealer assured me that no export permit was required because the coin originated outside of Spain. But for some reason DHL put the package on a plane to Cincinnati instead of directly to New York, and it then disappeared into a Customs void for more than two weeks. And now it turns out that the package went all the way back to Spain. This is what the dealer said:

"The spanish Custom service required the package back from the USA for a stupid mistake thinking that NOT all the export documents were in order! But they were! So, we have sent again all the papers scans to the Custom Service in Vitoria (Spain), hoping that they will be satisfied. Our apologizes for this horrible situation but sometimes happen when any stupid Customs agent exceeded his professional area of attention for nothing! I will keep you updated specially now that I finally was informed about the real situation of the package."

Who knows how much longer it will take now! So much for DHL "Express."

 

Thanks. A lot of people seemed to like those two. They're really fantastic examples of Imperial portraits, aren't they, even though they're close to two hundred years apart. I really like the Trajan portrait, too. I do think Republican coins have more interesting reverses as a rule, but superb portraits are more frequently found on Imperial coins.

 

I hope to receive your rr coins rapidly, my preferred here are Galba, Trajan and Balbinus, but the Ptolemaic eagle is also superb.

 

Your Corinth and Galba jump out as favorites to me. I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of your lists, and maybe a group shot if you could get your entire year's haul together!

 

All beautiful!!

 

They are all superb and historically significant and interesting coins, @DonnaML. My favorites are #12 and #13. The toning of #13 is otherworldly. Thank you so much for sharing

 

All fantastic coins! The Hadrian AEGYPTOS is my personal favorite, though it is hard to choose!

 

There are some really great coins here Donna. Between this and the fantastic coins you showed in the Index thread it is safe to say you had a fantastic collecting year.

My favorites of these are the Hook-nose (Grypos) Tet (wonderful portrait!) and the Julian Bull which is a type I am very fond of. Looking forward to the RR list!

 

I didn't read the title other than your name and 2020... I was agape at the lack of Roman Republican! Then I re-read the thread title .

The Corinth is wonderful and the group as a whole is a delightful assortment.

 

Thanks! Having an all-Roman Republican Top 10 and a separate post for my favorite non-Republican coins was effectively my way of avoiding having to decide between them, and being able to post both.