Please help me choose the last three for my top 10

@dougsmit.......Which ones do you feel could have been 'harshly cleaned' albeit possibly the photo?

 

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I don't know if I've ever seen an example of the type on which Jupiter has a face that looks like a face. Even on mine, on which his body otherwise preserves a lot of detail, down to his stomach muscles and his feet and decorative sandals. You can even see the toes on his left foot.

 

1, 5, 8
Thanks for sharing. Of the group, #1 is #1 to me. I like the reverse design and the faces on the Dioscuri and horses.

 

I have been trying to win a Limetanus for a while now in the auctions.....was a final bidder in (I think) the last CNG Feature auction 115 ...as I recall in AU or so, when the price went north of $2k, that was it for me....was a very nice example, lot 554

 

That's a high price! Mine was about $300 US, and I think it's pretty nice even though the strike could be stronger on the reverse. I agree that examples with all the design on the flan on both sides aren't easy to find -- I don't know why anyone would buy one on which the dog is missing! -- but you shouldn't have to pay $2,000, whether AU, CA, or US!

 

All are beauties ... I chose #3, #4, and #5 for aesthetic reasons mainly. Hard to pick though just three though!

 

Elephant, lovely goat, and Dioscuri

Love that goat.

Little bit history, little bit unique looking like the odd looking elephant and aesthetics like the goat. I don't care about value and I can take a bit of condition problems. The history artistry and craftsmanship makes them all gems.

 

Agreed, but for some reason, prices really seem to be on the uptick. Even the legionaries of Marc Ant, of which there are millions, are up. Check out the Julius Caesar denarius while he was in Gaul...the elephant one...way up

 

It's hard to choose from such a group, but in the end I'm especially partial to the four animals: Ulysses' dog, the Metellus elephant, the Cretan goat, and the clumsy she-wolf.

 

Thanks to all for the most recent comments. It appears that the top three are pretty clear at this point -- the Cretan goat, the elephant (& stork), and Ulysses & his dog, with a close race for fourth place between the she-wolf and the C. Servilius M.f with the Dioscuri galloping in different directions. I see that Roman Republican animals are as popular with others as they are with me! (@Orielensis, you are definitely in tune with popular opinion!)

I think I'm not going to give away here the fourth coin I'm going to pick. I do believe, though, that the P. Satrienus reverse with the she-wolf matches anything else on the list; I think it's superb, if I do say so myself! But the obverse is a bit subpar compared to many of the others. So I don't know. I'm definitely not the only person who loves that reverse, though. It's going to be on the cover of Liv Mariah Yarrow's forthcoming new book, The Roman Republic to 49 BCE: Using Coins as Sources (Guides to the Coinage of the Ancient World), scheduled for publication in late February:



Many of you may remember Prof. Yarrow for her involvement in bringing the Schaefer Roman Republican Die Project to publication on the Internet. Here's the description of the book from Amazon:

"The narrative of Roman history has been largely shaped by the surviving literary sources, augmented in places by material culture. The numerous surviving coins can, however, provide new information on the distant past. This accessible but authoritative guide introduces the student of ancient history to the various ways in which they can help us understand the history of the Roman republic, with fresh insights on early Roman-Italian relations, Roman imperialism, urban politics, constitutional history, the rise of powerful generals and much more. The text is accompanied by over 200 illustrations of coins, with detailed captions, as well as maps and diagrams so that it also functions as a sourcebook of the key coins every student of the period should know. Throughout, it demystifies the more technical aspects of the field of numismatics and ends with a how-to guide for further research for non-specialists."

I'm very much looking forward to it.