Never even heard of her when I stumbled on her listing, so me, having a thing for little-known and rare rulers, figured I'd get this coin of Antonia for cheap if I could, given its condition. Paid around a third of what the cheapest (and in not much better shape) ones are listed at on VCoins at the moment. On Eric's rarity scale she is a 5 for bronze(out of 9, 9 being crazy rare) and the 99th rarest ruler (out of 202 Roman rulers, with the 202nd, Saturninus, as top rarest), so I'd say Antonia is rather scarce overall. I also think it might have been a Spanish find; the color and sand patina remind me of Spanish-found Roman coins. She is best known as the mother of emperor Claudius and the daughter of Mark Antony. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonia_Minor Antonia, Roman Empire AE Dupondius Obv: ANTONIA AVGVSTA, draped bust right Rev: TI CLAVDIVS CAESAR AVG P M TR P IMP, Claudius, togate, standing left, holding simpulum, S-C across fields Mint: Rome (struck posthumously 41-50 AD) Ref: RIC 92
Nice pick-up, Jango => Antonia is 120th on the ol' ERIC II Rarity Scale (sweet) ... that's a pretty hard name to tick-off the ol' list (well played, coin-brother)
That coin is worn and crusty, but only another collector of ancients would appreciate the desire to own it. Sometimes it feels damn good to own a particularly scarce piece in any condition at all. I recently bought just such a coin, which I'll post when I have it in hand - only a modicum of detail and broken, but it satisfies the need to own that particular issue at a reasonable price.
