Saturday Night Free For All

The mullet bands is a give-away. I cheated and paid extra for the AMB


Now go find a sleeper Gallus from this mint. This is my favorite FH coin.

 

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Two new arrivals, expanding a family unit in Alexandrian Tetradrachms:
Egypt, Alexandria, Valerian II, Caesar, AD 256-258, Tetradrachm , dated RY 4 of Valerian I and Gallienus (AD 256/7)
Obv: Π ΛIK KOP OVAΛEPIANOC KAIC CEB, bareheaded, draped, and cuirassed bust right
Rev: Homonoia standing left, raising right hand, holding double cornucopia with left; L Δ (date) across field
Egypt, Alexandria, Saloninus, As Caesar, AD 258-260, Tetradrachm, dated RY 7 of Valerian I and Gallienus (AD 259/60)
Obv: ΠO ΛI KOP CA VAΛEPIANOC K CEB, Bareheaded, draped, and cuirassed bust right
Rev: Eagle standing left, head right, holding wreath in beak; L-Z (date) across field

 

Great coins Doug, I've been looking for a Gallus from this mint! The other FH I need are Trier mint coins of both CII and CG. I recently saw an ebay Constantius II Trier mint coin but the bidding went a bit too high for the quality of the coin for me. But with rarity... I guess you can't be too choosey.

As for this coin... I didn't really need it but with the recent prices, I've been on a dry spell and I needed to scratch an itch. The previously posted one was an ebay coin that mostly evaded the radar of others and although there's no mint mark, it's a bit nicer than my other Amiens/Ambianum mint Constantius II. If only I had a composite of the best of the two.

Here's my other... thanks to @randygeki for calling this one out for me 6 months ago or so:

and the previously posted one:

 

I have only seen one Gallus being offered in the last years.

 

My first Trier was barbarous.


The updrade was from the Bridgnorth hoard and cost waaaay too much.


My Gallus could have better surfaces but Trier Gallus is not one to be turned down randomly.

 

Oh! And thanks @seth77 for calling it first!

I have so many FH coins, I should probably thin the heard but I’m always on the hunt for the rarer mints or odd versions.

 

The Reka Devnia hoard contained 4158 coins of Faustina I. A fellow can dream, can't he? I guess I'll have to get them one at a time. Today I acquired my 87th unique coin of Faustina I:


Faustina I, AD 138-140.
Roman orichalcum sestertius, 25.50 g, 32 mm.
Rome, AD 150 - 161.
Obv: DIVA FAVSTINA, bare-headed and draped bust, right.
Rev: IVNO S C, Juno standing left, holding patera and scepter.
Refs: RIC 1143; BMCRE 1531-35; Cohen 210; Strack 1276; RCV 4629.

 

An actually scarce AE of Valens from Sirmium, caught up between the early types and the closing of the mint around late 364 or really early 365. Valens was recognized at Sirmium rather late in 364, towards the mid-year and the new centenionalis coinage in his name is way scarcer than the issues naming his brother.

And of wonderful quality to boot, although circulated, AE3 19x18mm 2.40g, 9$ shipped:

 

Trying, and failing, to identify a Roman Republican Janus/prow as this Saturday night.

30 mm in diameter, only 16.27 grams. Rather light, so maybe a fake? Looks like an "A" and other letters above the deck structure. I don't know.

 

I'm kinda bored and doing some Saturday night photos and came across this interesting (and I believe scarcer) provincial of Tranquillina:

Tranquillina Ae Triassarion : Seleuceia Pisidia (27mm, 7.3gms)

Obv: CABINIA TPANKYΛΛINA CЄ; Draped bust of Tranquillina right
Rev: KΛAΥΔIOCEΛEΥKEΩN Apollo Propylaeus standing right, shooting arrow

 

Re-photographing some favorite denarii and experimenting with some different lighting, backgrounds and camera settings.

Q. Caecilius Metellus Pius, 81 BC, AR denarius
Obv: Diademed head of Pietas right, stork before
Rev: Lituus and jug, all within laurel wreath
Ref: Crawford 374/2; Caecilia 44

L. Procilius, 80 BC, AR serrate denarius
Obv: Head of Juno Sospita right; S C behind
Rev: Juno Sospita, holding spear and shield, in biga right, serpent below; L PROCILI F in exergue
Ref: Crawford 379/2; Sydenham 772; Procilia 2

C. Naevius Balbus; 79 BC, AR denarius
Obv: Diademed head of Venus r., S C behind
Rev: Victory in triga right, with the third horse looking back; CXXIII above, C NAE BALB (AE and AL ligate) in exergue
Ref: Crawford 382/1b, Sydenham 769b, Naevia 6

 

I’ve also been rephotographing and trying new lighting angles.

The first one was taken on a day using just natural light and I’ve tried to recreate it as best I could with LED lights.

SELEUCIS and PIERIA, Antioch. Augustus. 27 BC - AD 14. AR Tetradrachm (25.5mm, 14.90 g, 12h). Dated year 30 of the Actian Era and Cos. CIII (2/1 BC).
From the Benito Collection

Natural:


LED:


Any feedback is appreciated.

 

I have an unique Ancient coin to contemplate.

It is an As-Hole


RImp
Spain
Lepida-Clesa
Lepidus
AE As, hole
44-36 BCE
C Balbus L Porcius
Colonia Victrix Ivlia Lepida
Victory -
Bull, C BALBO
RPI 262 plate 19

 

I spent the day working on my recataloging of my Eastern denarii (boring paperwork) but took a break to test my new adapter that allows mounting a microscope lens on my camera. My first try is a failure because I did not space my focus stacked images closely enough so there are stripes of fuzzy between stripes of sharpness. This was 6 images focus stacked from a 90 year old Leitz 10x microscope objective. I'll try more later (maybe 25 images?) but this shows several technical points so it was not a total loss. It also shows the need to dust coins before photographing. The image was too large to upload to CT so this is a 50% reduction of the file. Click to enlarge to see better the sharp/fuzzy/sharp and dirt problems.

 

Hehe - this reminds me on this song, whose opening line describes this coin (the group has been described as "post-grunge", whatever that means - I saw them once, 25+ years ago - I liked them, but not to everyone's taste):

 

Here's an interesting article, from an archaeology perspective, from Saturday's Guardian:

Hadrian’s Wall dig reveals oldest Christian graffiti on chalice

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news...-reveals-oldest-christian-graffiti-on-chalice

 

Couple of simple, inexpensive Bees.... they aren't turtles or owls.. but I think they are amazing depictions from the ancient world... stags are pretty cool too..

 

I've had this one lying around for some time. Just finished working on the pics today. Hard to beat the feel of a nice hefty sestertius.

ANTONINUS PIUS
AE Sestertius. 26.86g, 33.2mm. Rome mint, AD 140. RIC 644 (scarce); Cohen 881; BMCRE 1317. O: ANTONINVS AVG PIVS P P, laureate head right. R: TR POT COS III, Janus standing facing, heads facing left and right (...duh), holding sceptre in right hand; S-C across fields.

 

It's not quite Saturday anymore where I am, but I just returned from some travelling and found the coins below in my mailbox.

The first one (Kushan AE tetradrachm) no doubt qualifies as ancient, the other two (civic issues from Cologne and Kamenz) are small additions to my medieval and early modern bracteate collection:

 

I don't know anything about coins like those. Can you tell us more about them? Size, date, attribution?