This is admittedly not a valuable coin, but interesting to me nonetheless. I won it in a giveaway and it is my first ancient coin. Would any type of cleaning make it more legible or not? It would seem the mint lettering from the reverse is mostly gone anyhow, but who knows? It would be nice to get the falling horseman more apparent. D N CONSTAN-TIVS P F AVG FEL TEMP - REPARATIO 17-18mm
The coin looks like it's been partially cleaned. I'd be inclined to leave it as is and let the brighter areas tone darker. The fields seem to have a nice green patina that I assume is hard, not powdery. It provides good contrast to the lettering and design elements.
Thank you all for the advice. I have been watching a lot of history documentaries during quarantine and now getting this coin seems to have unlocked a new area of interest for me. @Victor_Clark Thank you for the very generous offer, a PM is inbound.
Don't let Victor Clark send you any coins! If you do, you will be as hopelessly addicted to ancient coins as the rest of us here. You have been warned. If you ignore my advice and allow yourself to be sucked into the dark side, then welcome. You are among friends.
Too late, not only is the man generous but expeditious. I'll admit I already had many risk factors for addiction, chiefly in this case an interest in history and tendency for collecting. It was just a matter of time until I found a focus that links the two.
Welcome to the world of ancients. @Victor_Clark kindly sent me some coins when I was starting out on CoinTalk. Very much appreciated!
It looks like Siscia mint. If you like this type, it's pretty easy to find a nice example for $20-$30.
Can you let me in on what clues indicate the mint other than the missing text? I have wondered if the smudge in front of the face is an intentional mark of some sort. Thanks.
It's mostly just the style. Each mint tended to have a slightly different style, though some were similar to others. I may be wrong, this might be Sirmium but out of all the mints it's probably one of those 2.
Right at the moment you may not understand how Randy can tell such things but you will find after handling a few hundred/thousand coins that it becomes like recognizing the handwriting of yourself and your family. Each of us has some degree of specialization or things we collect more than we collect others. Randy is a specialist in the Falling Horsemen. You should not rush into specializing too soon but some day you will most likely discover that certain things appeal to you more than others. As you hang around here, you will discover who knows and collects which things. Some of us have too many specialties to do justice to any of them while others are so specialized that they know little about anything else. Given a hundred collectors of ancients, you will not find two that are exactly alike. Good luck finding out where you fall in the pattern. Last warning: Some of us are addicts. Some of us hope you will be, too. A few of us are able to restrain themselves and own only a few (hundred) coins. Others are at a point that we have no idea how many or what we have and occasionally discover we bought an unintentional duplicate. I suggest you start a computer file and/or file cards record now. It is harder to do when you have a few hundred coins. Randy said either Siscia or Sirmium mint and I know better than to question him on this type. Below are two examples from these mints but every die was an individual work of art so neither of these will be exactly like yours. I avoid buying coins that are missing important parts of the legend mostly because I want to know and not have to guess. After you get the coins from Victor and share them here, someone will ask you where you will go from there. Be prepared. Welcome.
This is all so wonderful, thank you to everyone. I like collecting, I like history, I like doing research, I like making lists, I like solving puzzles... Seems I'm in the right place.
So I'm hooked and Victor_Clark's gift of 'much nicer' coins hasn't even arrived yet. I was confident after learning about the first but this second specimen has me stumped again. The diameter is similar at 17-18mm but it's a fair bit thicker and what gets me is that the bust is so big in comparison to the other I have and those pictured in the tray photo above. One of the fascinating aspects to all this is the human touch of the artisans involved being so variable.
this one is from Constantinople, the smaller flan (little room for legend) makes it crowded and it looks like the bust is bigger. Hopefully your new coins will arrive Monday...I forgot the mail was not running today for the 4th. I think you will be pleased.
I have ZERO complaints about waiting one day extra for a gift. But, boredom at work and the eBay app is always a dangerous combination.
