I just picked this up and am using the auctions pic. I am not a real Republican collector, but I have been looking for this one for a while to augment my Nabatean collection. This one depict King Aretas showing homage to the Romans. There are better ones out there, but I wanted one with the name Aretas showing, a clear figure of the king, and the top of the camel showing. Getting these three features in an under $500 coin is not as easy as it seems. Edit: Auction attribution is: M. Aemilius Scaurus and Pub. Plautius Hypsaeus. 58 BC. AR Denarius (18mm, 4.09 g, 6h). Rome mint. Nabatean king Aretas kneeling to right before camel standing right / Jupiter driving quadriga left; scorpion below horses. Crawford 422/1b; Sydenham 913; Aemilia 8. Near EF, toned, areas of flat strike. I do not agree with near EF, but I got a coin I liked, at a price that I liked.
Yeah grading for ancients varies so much. Nice addition! at first glance the camel looked kinda like a dinosaur XD.
Thanks, I especially liked the style on Aretas, many of these dies have goofy heads and necks on camels, stick figure for Aretas, or other die issues. I would love someday to find a perfectly centered example of this die, but for what I wanted this is perfect for now. I like the horses trampling the scorpion too, kind of telling other Arab people that unless you make nice with the Romans what will happen to you. It just amazes me every day how much history you can pick up for a hundred dollar bill in this hobby.
The other day I saw a nice sestertius of Faustina jr. that was nicely centered on a larged round flan. I think its spoken for though, but its nice to see well centered coins. It would be sweet to find one, GL
History? I consider this a majorly important coin due to history: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Aemilius_Scaurus_%28praetor_56_BC%29 Not mentioned here, but I believe I am correct, is that this is the first Roman Republican coin celebrating a specific achievement of the person who did the deed rather than celebrating an ancestor. Scaurus did not put his image on the coin (that did not go well for Caesar when he did it a decade later) but the king kneeling by the camel is surrendering to Scaurus himself. I suppose after reading about Scaurus, you will want a coin of Hyrcanus, Aretas and Pompey but your coin dealer friends will be happy to help out.
Thanks Doug for a great writeup. I have coins of Aretas and Pompey, maybe Hyrcanus. I was just going to use this coin as an augment of my Nabatean coins, but after this story maybe will put together a mini collection just for the story. Maybe now I need another one to go with my Nabatean set.... Is it just me or is there a small batch of these on the market now? I had been looking for a while for one, and have now seen about 8 sold in the last couple months. I finally cherrypicked this one for reasons stated before, but I have seen quite a few hitting the market lately in case anyone else wanted one.
Beautiful coin medoraman. Very nice aquisition. It truly is amazing what pieces you can get for $100 these days...
Here is another being sold. It is a much better coin, but shows some of the problem with the style I have avoided. I mean, who wants a stick figure Aretas and a string neck camel? I think this is a nice example of style on ancient coins, and why one person who wishes complete die details on a coin would prefer this one, while someone else, (me), prefers die style more than completeness. That, and the fact this one is going for about triple what I paid, and can still go higher.
Just a followup, I guess I should trust the written grade more than photos. I got the coin today, and it is much better than the photo, the weakness of the strike in the photo is not there, the flan is just imperfect. The back of the camel is present, and all of the reverse top that appears weak is actually well struck. I would say mine is as fully struck as the second one I posted, but much better style. Maybe it is the really pretty toning on the coin that made the photo harder. I was happy before, but now am near ecstatic! Cool coin!
Very cool. It's always nice to get a coin and see that it looks alot better in hand than in the photos. I'd love to see some photos of the coin taken by you, if you get a chance.
Agree. Dealers can't afford to shoot and reshoot to get everything just right but we collectors can and should work to get an image that identifies beyond all doubt what the coin has going for it.
