Post your latest ancient!

Here are three more recent purchases.

This is a coin that I have been seeking for a while. A lot of the examples on the market have fair to poor strikes. Clearly the focus was not on quality during their production. Also, prices vary considerably, with attractive examples fetching healthy prices auction and dealers' websites.

So, when this coin showed up as an unsold lot, I decided that was the one. The strike is off-center, as so many of these have, but the details was quite clear, with a really nice aegis on the obverse.

Pontos, Amisos, circa 111-105 BC or 95-90 BC
AE 21
Mithridates
Ex Roma E-Sale 93, lot 425
SNG Stancomb 690

7.98 grams




The second coin is a mid-mass production owl, also an unsold lot from E-Sale 94, lot 128.

Who wouda thunk it?

Attica, Athens 454-404 BC
Tetradrachm
Kroll 8; Dewing 1591-8; SNG Copenhagen 31; HGC 4, 1597.

17.21 grams




The third coin is a sestertius of Faustina II, a somewhat earthy example of her MATRI MAGNAE sestertii. This coin is from the Antonio Carmona Collection.

I purchased this coin primarily for the obverse.

Faustina II (wife of M. Aurelius) Æ Sestertius. Rome, AD 170-175/6. FAVSTINA AVGVSTA, draped bust to right / MATR[I MAG]NAE, Cybele seated to right, holding drum on knee, between two lions seated to right; SC in exergue. RIC III 1663 (Aurelius); C. 169; Banti 92; BMCRE 993. 25.72g, 32mm, 6h.

Near Very Fine.

 

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Great coins! The aegis is nicely done, the Owl is really nice and the Faustina has a great patina.

Nothing wrong with earthy. I don't care for the faux (or the biggest coincidence in teh world and they all come from orange deserts) desert patinas of a couple of vcoins dealers though.

 

This one arrived yesterday. My first Miliarense by Diocletian.

Very happy with it!

 

This is my newest ancient. A denarius of Augustus when he was still merely Octavian.




Octavian, as Sole Imperator (30-27 BC). AR denarius (20mm, 3.93 gm, 9h). NGC XF 5/5 - 4/5.Italian mint (Brundisium or Rome?), ca. 30-29 BC. Bare head of Octavian right; linear border / IMP-CAESAR, naval and military trophy on prow right, crossed rudder and anchor at base. RIC I 265a.

Ex Heritage Auctions, Auction 3089 NYINC (22 January 2021), lot 32165

 

Very nice!

 

Hmm, strike the green Augustus I posted. It was one of the rare times that the coin was sold before and it was a ghost listing.

It was bought to reward myself after a super-annoying day, and how appropriate that would happen. However, stay tuned; I think something really good will happen out of this..I might get a much better coin.

The Augustus was very nice, but I didn't really love it. I bought it for the patina. So, no biggie.

 

CNG sure takes its time shipping. Here are a couple recent auction wins that have yet to arrive. Both have pretty good portrait details (especially Vespasian) and interesting reverses as well.

 

Nice coins. How long did it take?

 

I picked up several Georgian coins since they are quite difficult to obtain, at least, in the US. While I properly attribute them, here is one that is completed:

Georgia: Demetre II (1271-1289) Æ Unit (Bennett 342)

Obv: 'Demetre' inscribed using Asomtavruli letters Ⴄ and Ⴃ in ornamented frame; Georgian legend ႫႴ (King) on either side
Rev: Symbol of the Bagratid dynasty in center; Asomtavruli legend around - ႢႥႼႫႱ ႫႠႫႨ ႻႨ ႣႠ ႱႪႨ ႼႨ (We believe in the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit)
Dim: 24 mm, 2.22 g, 1 h

 

Bought today!

Promagesterial Cistophori. Titus Ampius Balbus as Proconsul of Asia. Dated year 77. AR Cistophoric Tetradrachm. Ephesos, 58-57 BC. Serpent emerging from cista mystica; all within wreath / T · AMPI · T · F · PROCOS. Two serpents entwined by a tripod. Apollo leaning on a column above. In the left field, EΦΕ, OZ (date) above. In the exergue, EPMIA[C - KAIYCTPIOC]. 27 mm, 11.94 g. Stumpf 11; Metcalf V (O4/R-)
​

Not the prettiest by any metric but it will certainly do the job! Very happy to have added it to my collection.

 

Indeed. It's certainly not that bad, and a nice buy. I have no Cistophori in my collection.

I know nothing about Georgian coins, but interesting coin, Quant. Geek.

 

Georgian coins are some of the most enigmatic Christian/Islamic fusion coins out there. Unfortunately, a bit difficult to obtain and the good ones are out-of-bounds...

 

I bought 8 coins at the Leu web auction, and received them earlier this week. One of them was a slightly flawed cista mystica from Laodicea, my first of the type:



PHRYGIA. Laodikeia. Circa 133/88-67 BC. Cistophorus (Silver, 25 mm, 12.40 g, 12 h), Diodoros, magistrate. Cista mystica from which snake coils; around, ivy wreath with fruits. Rev. Two snakes coiled around a bow case; to left, ΛAO; above, ΔΙΟ/ΔΩΡΟΥ; to right, B above winged kerykeion. BMC 9. SNG Copenhagen 487. SNG von Aulock 3800. Harshly cleaned and with some corrosion on the reverse, otherwise, good very fine.

 

Mysterious . Goofy import prohibition? Or the current thing..?

I can be non-partisan in stating that I was miffed when a totally harmless Azerbaijani cover of Hit the Road Jack disappeared.

 

Georgia treats their medieval coins as heritage and thus, you can't buy from any sellers in Georgia. As you can imagine, the ones that are circulating have been around for a while and thus are coveted by collectors. There are two coins I have been looking for, and they are next to impossible to find, at least, for a reasonable price:

The drama of Rusudan




AE Unit of Georgi III

 

Ah. Very interesting. The second one is very neat!

 

I was tempted to buy the Georgi III coin in the past Leu Numismatik auction, but I decided to pass, due to the condition. We'll see when another piece will show up (might regret not buying it...)

 

Ok, I lied, the Giorgi III type isn't cool, it's awesome!

Can you supply some history of said ruler?

 

Thanks!
The Vespasian came from the Keystone Auction 6 - the Ken Bresset Collection part II - which ended March 11, and the Claudius was from eAuction 511 which ended on March 9.
It was only yesterday that I got a shipping notification, and I think that was only for one of the auctions.
Can't wait till they all show up!

 

@Roman Collector, I hesitate to disagree with you, because I still consider myself a relative novice as a Roman coin collector compared to you. After all, it's your name, not mine! Nonetheless, I'm sufficiently convinced that I'm correct to want to try to persuade you that the figure held by Roma is supposed to be the Palladium, not Victory. (As to the spear vs. scepter issue, if there's anything clear it's that the nature of the object is ambiguous, although I still lean towards the scepter interpretation given the absence of a spear point on any example I've seen.)

First, you're certainly right that the Palladium is a typical attribute of Vesta and is usually shown as held by her, not by Roma. However, there are definitely exceptions, and there's no doubt that Roma is occasionally depicted as holding the Palladium -- a depiction that makes some sense given the analogy between Roma's place in Rome and Pallas Athena's place in both Athens and Troy, as well as the role of the Palladium in Rome's founding myth, as having been brought to Rome by Aeneas himself. Thus, here is a denarius of Septimius Severus (RIC 288) clearly showing Roma holding the Palladium, posted the other day by our own @Mr.MonkeySwag96:



Where there is one exception, it should be no surprise that there are others. (And note that Roma appears to hold a scepter in this depiction, not a spear -- there's what looks to me like a round ball at the tip, not a point.)

Now, let's take another look at the figure held by Roma on my Marcus Aurelius denarius. Here's a close-up:



Admittedly, there's no lance. However, I would argue that the representation is intended to be schematic (as depictions of the Palladium often are, increasingly so as time went by) rather than finely detailed, and that despite the absence of the lance the figure has at least two attributes always found in depictions of the Palladium and never, to the best of my knowledge, found in depictions of Victory: a shield held closely against the left side of the body, seen edge-on, and the right arm bent at the elbow with the hand pointing up -- intended to evoke the lance. On the other hand, despite your suggestion to the contrary, I see no trace of wings and no trace of a wreath, both of which are attributes of Victory that are never found with the Palladium. Furthermore, in just about every depiction I have, and have seen, of Victory standing on someone's palm, the arm holding the wreath is held out straight rather than being bent at the elbow.

Here's a typical portrayal of the Palladium on a Greek vase (from Wikipedia). Note the strong resemblance to the figure on my coin, in terms of the shield held against the body and the bent right arm. (The lance is barely visible, and much less prominent than those attributes.)



As stated in my original post, I found only a handful of other specimens of my denarius on acsearch. (Some are TR P XX like mine, and some are TR P XIX.) Here are a few. I see the shield held against the body and the bent left arm on all of them, and the wreath and wings on none of them. (I haven't compared them side by side, but the first one looks like it might be a reverse die match to mine):











(I see no spear point on any of them, either. So I do still lean towards the scepter interpretation.)

By the way, Palladium vs. Victory aside, there are no "variants" among these specimens, Nomos AG's and others' descriptions notwithstanding. Whatever is portrayed -- and I strongly believe that it's the Palladium -- I think it's the same on all the examples I've seen.

By contrast, here are a couple of my coins depicting Victory standing on someone's palm, from Carus and Diocletian. Wings aside (and they're not very clear on either), note the wreath and the fact that the arm holding the wreath is held straight out rather than bent at the elbow:




I rest my case, and I hope I've persuaded you to at least reconsider your identification.