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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;lrbguy, post: 3976409, member: 88829&quot;]I still have a few December additions that have not yet arrived, so my 2019 top ten will be a true year in review.&nbsp; I can now post the items I most enjoyed getting this past year, but I will do it in two thematic groups.&nbsp; The group of coins in this post are my top favorite acquisitions for my Women of Rome collection in silver.&nbsp; Saying that is a bit ironic inasmuch as one here is a Greek coin and one is a Roman Provincial bronze.&nbsp; What can I say, they had to fit in somewhere.&nbsp; Since each coin has its own intrigue I can’t say I favor one much over another, so the coins for the Roman Imperial women will be arranged chronologically by when they were on the throne.&nbsp; First, however let me dispense with the Greek addition.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1046633[/ATTACH]</p><p><b>ATTICA, Athens</b></p><p>c. 454-404 BCE</p><p><br /></p><p>Back in May when TIF posted <a href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/whats-the-secret-handshake-another-new-owl-tet-club-member.339458/" class="internalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/whats-the-secret-handshake-another-new-owl-tet-club-member.339458/">her recently acquired Attic Tetradrachm, </a>she made the point that a large number of these are presently on the market so that prices for nice examples would be down for a while.&nbsp; I had been procrastinating about upgrading my example for years, but decided that now would be a good time to do something about it.&nbsp; Since I had no intention of shooting for top of the line, her example looked about right.&nbsp; Since many have been encased by NGC, I decided to shoot for something akin to the 5/5 strike, and 3/5 surfaces benchmarks she had found.&nbsp; This one came along and I decided to go for it.&nbsp; It’s still entombed in plastic (see the white marks?) because I don’t trust myself to break the case without scratching the coin.&nbsp; I have looked at some of the radical solutions proposed here, and so far it’s “no thanks.”&nbsp; I wanted an example that showed the full crest, but was a bit stumped by the blank spot on the flan above the helmet.&nbsp;&nbsp; That got settled when a splendid full crest example popped up here and I was able to see clearly that my blank spot is a slight mistrike in which the feathering is not fully struck.&nbsp; Too bad.&nbsp; But it is still a nice strike, and I’m satisfied.&nbsp; All said, it was not my most expensive coin for this year.</p><p><br /></p><blockquote><blockquote><blockquote><blockquote><blockquote><p>Top Ten Women of Rome Acquisitions for 2019</p></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Manlia Scantilla</p><p><br /></p><p>First up is a denarius for the wife of Didius Julianus.&nbsp; I had acquired a coin for her daughter Didia Clara last year, and found a budget example for mama this year in a sale by CNG. It looked pretty grungy and still cost over a grand, but usually the coins at CNG have good integrity, so I decided to take the plunge.&nbsp; I thought that if it was sound I might be able to clean it up a bit.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1046635[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>After a couple of hours with the microscope and needle it seems well on the road to recovery (see below). </p><p>[ATTACH=full]1046636[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>If you are going to take a steel needle to a costly coin, you have to make sure you are not going to alter the surfaces.&nbsp; Unfortunately for me some previous owner did some very spotty smoothing (and roughing) in places, probably to fix up some cleaning problems.&nbsp; I did not attempt to alter those spots, but made sure I did not add to them. My work was confined to the black accretions of hardened soil deposits, and they have been responding quite well.&nbsp; Despite the earlier mangle I am very pleased that the coin has retained so much of its original integrity. The portrait is liberating very nicely, I think.&nbsp; It has a ways to go, but I don’t foresee any real problems.</p><p><br /></p><p>Julia Maesa</p><p><br /></p><p>The next coin is an early example of the use of the ascending peacock apotheosis on a CONSECRATIO denarius of Julia Maesa.&nbsp; Her denarii are generally quite common, but this consecration issue is a bit on the rare side.&nbsp; It seems to be the earliest use of this ascending bird reverse type I have seen.&nbsp; Prior to this the peacock (or also an eagle) is standing in various poses, including the one on the very rare antoninianus of Maesa’s sister, Julia Domna.&nbsp; I was happy to add it, although it came in a tomb (how appropriate), and is still in it until I can be sure I can release it without damage (hence the white spots in the photos).</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1046637[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Egnatia Mariniana</p><p><br /></p><p>(For the sake of the reverse type I will present this next coin out of chronological sequence)</p><p><br /></p><p>The wife of Valerian I, and presumably mother of Gallienus (contra Temeryazev and Makarenko), died in 253 just as her husband was coming to the throne.&nbsp; All of her coinage is posthumous in two principal CONSECRATIO types, with peacock standing or ascending.&nbsp; Among the latter she is most commonly seen mounted facing to the left and the bird ascends facing to the right (see the Maesa example above).&nbsp; However, a listed variant of this type has the two figures reversed from those positions.&nbsp; It was very satisfying to be able to add an example of this variant to the collection in 2019.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1046638[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Herrenia Etruscilla</p><p><br /></p><p>The antoniniani from the mint at Rome for the wife of Trajan Decius are quite plentiful, particularly those with the Pudicitia reverse type.&nbsp; Her coins from the eastern mint (most probably Antioch) are another matter entirely.&nbsp; These feature reverse types not regularly used at Rome at this time.&nbsp; Today the eastern coinage is seldom seen, so I was delighted to find this example from a reputable seller on eBay.&nbsp; One of the key “tells” for the eastern mint issues is the presence of dots below the obverse bust, as you see here.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1046639[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Cornelia Supera</p><p><br /></p><p>This empress is only known to history through her coinage which seems to connect her to the emperor Aemilian.&nbsp; All of her imperial coinage is in silver (except for a highly dubious sestertius with an Otacilia Severa reverse) and is of such rarity as to be hopelessly out of reach for me.&nbsp; Thanks to the kindness of list member [USER=98035]@Finn235[/USER] he alerted me to a reasonable Roman Provincial which I was only too happy to add to the pile.&nbsp; It’s not much of a looker, and even this was not cheap, but it is certainly better than what I had for her before (which was nothing).</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1046640[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Pause to reload:[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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