Since my side set of lucilla/crispina is at a standstill I have had to make do with filling holes with cheap LRBs. Latest is of Theodora. Got it pretty cheap from a fellow facebook collector. I liked the partially uncleaned looked. Its one of those "better in hand" looks due to angling and such. Theodora (337-340 A .D.) AE4 Obv: FL MAX THEODORAE AVG. diademed and draped bust right. Rev: PIETAS ROMANA. Pietas standing right holding child in her arms. (Exergue obscured.) 14mm 1.6g Sear 3911
Unless Mat is well-qualified and experienced with cleaning ancient coins, I would leave it alone. I've had at least two ancient coins that I can recall that looked nice but still had a little dirt on them. I ended up damaging them because I thought I was cleaning off the dirt when in reality I was scratching into the metal. The coins weren't ruined but you could tell they would have been better off if they were simply left alone.
Constantius I (second wife - a political marriage, she was a (step?) daughter of Maximianus) The coins were issued after the death of Helena. She was the mother of Delmatius and Hannibalianus and the grandmother of Julian II. Exactly why she was honored on coins is not clear to me. I posted one on the husband/wife thread recently.
I'm not sure if I would clean it. The coin looks worn and sometimes if the dirt is removed, it takes away what highlights the legend. I usually only clean a coin if some of the details are higher relief. And yes, I think it looks good this way as well. Nice find though. Theodora coins are rare.
Mat => man, there is no better feelin' than snagging a new coin (well, maybe there are a couple of better feelings out there, but no better coin-feeling, eh?) ... I don't have Theodora atta boy!! :high5:
I've been browsing thru Forvm searching for "theodora" and apparently there's only a small bunch of them, maybe twelve or so... Q
Don't expect much. There is the one type from several mints and that's all. Her coins are posthumous honoring a link of the current rulers to the past rulers rather like we saw when the Julio Claudians issued coins for dead ancestors. Her one coin is pretty common and about the same price as Helena or Fausta. They are sufficiently boring that most collectors want exactly one unless they like one of each mint which allows comparing portrait styles.
Here is the problem with Theodora. Here coins came during a time of junky little flans. Most are like my two where you choose between having a mintmark or the head on the reverse figure. Examples with a large flan and full legends as well as good surfaces and details are harder to find so that means they cost more.
