Post Your Favorite Damaged Ancient

My only Athenian tet has a bit of character:


Decided to buy it since it was probably (it is ex-agora and ex-naville, each house estimating different dates/groups) struck when Cleisthenes made his democratic reforms. She's not pretty, but she's mine (and this is a good example of a biased coin - flipping to heads about 80% of the time).

 

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This one has some damage. The rim beading is broken off from 2:00 to about 6:30 on the obverse. It was in the very first NFA sale, NFA I, "Collection of Coins from the Santa Barbara Museum of Art" March 20-21, 1975, lot 410. At that time the beading from 2:00 to 3:00 was still there (3:00 to 4:00 on the reverse) but the image showed short thin flan cracks at the boundaries of that region. Apparently Bunker Hunt bought it because it became lot 975 in the Sotheby's Bunker Hunt IV sale, June 19-20, 1991. By then that edge piece had broken off (Sotheby's noted the damage, "edge chipped"). Beware flan cracks on thin coins!

It was apparently bought by a dealer who sold it to the man who sold it to me in 2006 (for half what it sold for in NFA I and the same as is sold for in Hunt IV).



Procopius siliqua. 18-17 mm. 6:00 die axis. 1.69 grams.
RIC IX Constantinople 13e2 "R".
The coin is rare and valuable even with the damage, but it would be better if the rim were still intact.

 

... *FAKE*

 

That's horrible! How can you stand it? As a friend, I offer to help you dispose of it into a lesser collection. PM me for my address.

 

... well, at least it's kind of symmetric, right?

right?




... I still love this coin (it's not handi-capped, it's handi-capable)

 

I am certainly not terribly bothered by it, I just think it's an interesting phenomenon because of how many coins exhibit these test punches on the shield and how they are rarely noticed.

 

Dameged Vitellius

 

Nero sestertius

 

Here are my only damaged ones. The Byzantine AV Hyperpyron/ John V/VI is extremely rare. The guy that they paid to strike these should have been fired/ horrible job. The Carthaginian coin also was damaged from poor strike.

 

This would probably be my favorite damaged coin

 

I really do like my scarred survivors. I have quite a pile... these are just a few favorites.

I posted this rare Pherai hemiobol very recently but am more than happy to do so again . Cracked and repaired...


Ex-jewelry Otho denarius with its cut edges...



Thrace, Abdera. Everyone collector needs a classic Holed Coin...


I don't even know what happened to this poor Nero provincial from Ascalon, but it came to me this way in an uncleaned lot and I'm pleased to give it a permanent home in my collection.

 

Caligula sestertius

 

Marcus Aurelius

 

You dont wana see the back

 

My favorite damaged coin - This coin had the word forato in the description.


when I googled the word I found

Monte Forato is a mountain (1,230 m) in the Alpi Apuane, in Tuscany, central Italy. It is formed by two peaks of similar altitude, connected by a natural arch which has given the group its name (meaning "Holed Mountain" in Italian). The hole, nearly circular in shape, has a height of c. 12 m, while the arch itself is some 8 m thick. The arch can be seen from both Versilia and Garfagnana valleys at the two sides of the Monte Forato.

I'd like to see this one day. Just think, two sun rises or sun sets.

 

This Caracalla with a big gash on the cheek, like the classic GI Joe!

 

You bought that one from me, @Valentinian. Glad to see you're still enjoying it.

 

My two favourites:

AE4 of Flavius Victor. Too bad about the damaged reverse, but love it for that tiny portrait.


And an AH 79 dirham (first year of the reform, al-Basra). Chipped but very affordable.

 

Guys, given the number of damaged ancients coins already posted in this thread, it seems to me the real challenge is posting one that isn't damaged!!