I've always wanted one of those late Roman silver Siliqua, and I got this pretty beat up coin of Valens for only around 20 bucks (plus postage & GST ) which fits with my student budget! I know many of you would just wait it out to get a better one, but I couldn't resist it, and also it has identifiable legends on both sides despite nearly 25% of the coin is missing! Obv- D N VALENS P F AVG Rev- VRBS ROMA / TRPS
My first and only: JULIAN II Siliqua OBVERSE: FL CL IVLIA-NVS PP AVG, rosette-diademed, draped and cuirassed bust right REVERSE: VOTIS V MVLTIS X in four lines within wreath. Mintmark SLVG Struck at Lyons 360-363 A.D 1.7g, 16mm RIC VIII Lyons 227 var (bust type); RSC 163b var (ditto); Sear 4071 var (ditto).
This siliqua comes with a story. Many years ago I bought a small burlap bag of coins from a guy who told me his father was a missionary in the mid-east in the '50s and on Saturdays he would go to a flea market on the banks of a river that flowed through the city and would buy coins that the kids pulled out of the riverbank. Some were marginally cleaned and identifiable but this one had a thick black crust on it and you could tell it was probably silver. After about three weeks of soaking the crust came off and this is what I found: No more cleaning. It looks perfect the way it is.
@JayAg47 ugly coins can be very interesting, nobody can argue with that, it's a fact. This one is ugly as sin, but an unlisted officina for Valens from ca. 366-367, from an issue not recorded for either Valentinian I nor (from 367) Gratian. Not in Nummus Bible either:
ARCADIUS RI Arcadius AR Siliqua 383-408 CE Roma Seated l holding globe with Victory; VIRTVS ROMANORVM RIC 106b 88 cat no
Very cool, JayAg47. Where the logistics of collecting are concerned, Thank you, I am On Your Page. Here's the one of two siliquas that I didn't have to sell in a rent emergency. ...As such, it's a keeper. I need how it's Honorius, from the western empire (Milan, even), and how the clipping still gives you that much of the legends, including the mint.
This is a very ugly but rather scarce argenteus from Rome in the second half of 294. Again ugly as sin and properly cheap as such:
...Or not so much. The architectural motif is good enough. ...Bust me if I'm making this up, but that became a kind of visual meme, picked up in Carolingian manuscripts, and reemerging in altered form in c. Salian-Staufen issues.
My only two siliquae, one of Julian II and the other of Valens. (I was very tempted to bid on the Gratian siliqua in the Frank Robinson auction that just ended [Lot 317], but decided that I had already committed to spending enough money if I won my other bids, and didn't feel comfortable bidding any more than that. It ended up going for $168, so now I'm kind of wishing I'd put in a bid!)
This one is @Valentinian ’s younger brother... VALENTINIAN II RI Valentinian II AD 375-392 AR Siliqua 18mm 1.8g Trier Victory wreath palm RIC IX 43
Very interesting connection, but I am afraid I can't visualize which folio you have in mind, perhaps you could post it here for further discussion?
@+VGO.DVCKS : Here's the little brother to your Honorius siliqua. This is the half siliqua version issued by the Visigoths in the name of Honorius. It's 12mm and 0.7gms (half weight) and has the reverse of VICTORIA AVGG / PSRV in exergue
Seth, Busted as usual! Thinking along the lines of the Utrecht Psalter, maybe by way of the c. early-11th-c. Anglo-Saxon adaptation, but nothing is turning up in what's to hand in print. I'll be on the lookout. Sorry....