Saturday Night Free For All

GretZky.... as a Canadian I could not let that little slip go (kidding!! )
Here is a pic of McNall, Gretzky and the late, great John Candy when the purchased the Toronto Argonauts football team in the '90s.
Pretty cool name for a football team...
They've had some great logos over the years:



These sweaters.. not so much...



I grew up in Toronto and those were heady days.. drafting "The Rocket Ismail".. who was supposed to go 1st overall in the NFL draft that year - but these guys brought him to Toronto.
We won The Grey Cup that year (Canadian Superbowl .. first awarded in 1909)... The Rocket scored the killer touchdown in the final on a kickoff return - super exciting.. he also had to dodge a flying beer can from the opposing fans during his run.. it was awesome.
The final was in Winnipeg.. it was -16 degrees Celsius (+3 Fahrenheit) lol.




Ever want to see how crazy Canadian Football is.. watch this. Its 3 down football - so lots of passing and kicking .. lots of action. But the most hilarious rule is that a missed field goal is worth 1 point... unless the ball is kept from going out of bounds... it can then be run out of the endzone.. saving the point. but in desperate situations (tie game, last kick of the game for the win) ..it can be kicked OUT of the endzone. Then hilarity ensues... worth a watch.. its quick...

 

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As I continue to reorganize my collection I found another old favorite of mine Sestertius of Trajan 109-110 AD Obv Bust right laureate drapery on far shoulder. Rv. Salus seated left feeding snake rising from altar RIC 515 Woytek 335b 27.46 grms 32mm Photo by W. Hansen

 

Terence - that is a spectacular coin in all respects!
I will show my first Trajan I ever purchased.. an inexpensive coin but one that I really like due to the very young looking portrait:

 

@Terence Cheesman A fantastic coin! The problem I find with Sestertsei (?) is that either one side is great and the other bad or vise versa. Or... that someone has tried to improve a coin. That coin is a great example of a natural coin that nobody has tried to mess with!

 

Thats a lovely sestertius Terence Cheesman. Great patina, sharp portrait.

Next to researching two new arrivals, trying to score some coins in auctions and thinking about my top 10 of 2020, I've been busy with taking new pictures of my photography-nemesis: my denarius of Tiberius, the 'tribute-penny' type. Somehow I just cannot get a proper photo of this coin, without it looking like it got run over by a big truck. So, recently I had the time for another attempt, and this is the result. I've only added some slight detail enhancement, somehow when editing my photo's via Pixlr, the photo's seem to get a bit more vague. Let me know what you think.

 

The last weeks have been quite busy, and I had only little time for coins. Today, though, I managed to take pictures and do a full attribution of this recent purchase. It came rather cheap, the type had still been missing from my collection, and I like both the portrait and the green patina:


Magnentius, Roman Empire, AE2, 352 AD, Trier mint. Obv: DN MAGNENTIVS PF AVG, draped and cuirassed bust of Magnentius r., A behind. Rev: VICTORIAE DD NN AVG ET CAES; two Victories, winged, draped, facing each other, holding between them a wreath inscribed VOT/V/MVLT/X; in exergue, TRS. 22mm, 5.82g. Ref: RIC VIII Treveri 312.

 

Coin of the day:

Cilicia, Seleukeia ad Kalykadnon, AE, circa 150-50 BC
Obv: Helmeted head of Athena right, torch below chin, monograms behind head
Rev: ΣΕΛΕΥΚΕΩΝ ΤΩΝ ΠΡΟΣ ΤΩΙ ΚΑΛΥΚΑΔΝΩΙ, Nike advancing left, holding branch; ΔH under monogram to left
Size: 10.22g, 22mm

 

Not new, but acquired during the hiatus of the pandemic this summer:



Common enough ruler, common enough type, common enough mint, but stupendous strike and vivid dark green patina which simply make this common reduced follis a beauty.

 

Choice specimen Seth. The reverse detail of the wreath contrasting with the smooth surfaces is pleasing.

 

Working on some coins I came upon this one Constantine I As Caesar Mint of Serdika Obv Head right laureate Rv Genio standing left RIC 28 9.28 grms 27 mm As far as I know this is the only coin to be minted for Constantine I from this mint

 

I do believe you worship at the altar of Faustina when nobody is looking... and I totally love it
I was just catching up on the Saturday night thread (one I love to scroll through but don't utilize enough to share coins I haven't posted) and came across this excellent post of yours and thought I better share
I recently won a scrubby, 8 euro, but very holdable green patinated cutie. I don't know how identifiable it is (the reverse changes depending on the angle I swear), but I know how holy she is to you. As you can see, she's holey to me as well:

 

Was going through some of my pics and figured I would post up some of my stuff I found metal detecting when I lived in Spain not all of it was found with a detecor some was by eyeball only.

 

In case you don't already know, hanging around on fields and spotting traces of previous settlements or natural history, without actually resorting to digging, just limiting the survey to surface traces and finds, is called doing an archaeological periegesis.

 

A superb coin! Both sides are stunting, especially the obverse.

Maybe I should start digging around in my old boxes.....

 

Just working on some snacks tonight here...

A question for anyone still up... I have this coin of Constantine II from London and I'm trying to decide what bust style this is...


It looks draped...but is it seen by front or from the rear? Usually you can tell by where the drapery is connected or adorned with the... whatever it is. If the tie or ornamentation is behind the ear, it's usually from the front and if in front of the ear, it's described as "seen from behind." Here it's hard to tell. The choices for this coin are:
RC left
RDC left
RDCB left
I think it's RDCB (Radiate, draped, cuirassed, seen from behind)... but not sure. Any opinions?

 

In other news... working on this one:

Elaiussa-Sebaste, Cilicia. AE unit. 100-1 BC. Bearded head of Zeus right, hair bound in a taenia. KI behind head / EΛAIOYΣIΩN, Nike walking left, holding wreath, NA (resembles NK) and NE monograms in left field. Ziegler Kilikien 559-560; Imhoof Elaius 3 in RSN 7-8; SNG Levante 828; SNG Pfalz 443; SNG von Aulock 6090.

 

I'd go with RDC left (not sure what RDCB left would look like). Have a look at the examples in the Nummus Bible entry for RIC VII London 255. The first three I would actually call RC left. The rest look more like yours.

 

I don't think from behind. The example shown from behind for these in LMCC looks quite different, and on your example the shoulder piece sits comfortably behind the neck of the bust.

I think it actually most resembles the C5 Left busts, and wonder if it is supposed to be a mantle over a cuirass. Either way, it's an interesting design and I haven't found any exactly like it in the short time I've looked this morning.

 

It's seen from the back. The object you see on the coin below Constantine II's chin holding his clothes together is NOT a button on a collar in the midline of the neck. It is a fibula ON THE TIP OF THE SHOULDER.

The trick is to ignore what you are familiar with -- modern men's clothing with collars and buttons -- and to see this as ancient Roman clothing.

It helps to see how the paludamentum was worn and how the fibula was used to fasten it over the shoulder. See, for example, this bust of Septimius Severus:



Here's what you are looking at. You are seeing the bust from BEHIND.

 

It's Saturday and the sun is going down now. The low-angled light was hitting coins on my desk and they were so pretty I thought you might like to see them:





Upper left: Agrippina Sr. sestertius, struck 5-54 under Claudius. RIC Claudius 102. Sear I 1906.
Upper right: Maximinus Thrax (235-238) sestertius, year 4 (238). RIC 40. Sear III 8336.
Lower left: Byzantine "Empire of Thessalonica" Theodore Comnenus-Ducas, 1224-1230, with St. Demetrius/emperor and Virgin, Sear 2167. The dark spot at 6-7:30 on the reverse is a shadow. The coin was cup-shaped and has been squashed since then. It does have a small hole at 1:00 on the obverse which is 5:30 on the reverse.
Lower right: Byzantine emperor Tiberius II, 578-583, 30-nummia piece from Constantinople, Sear 432.

I hope you keep some coins close at hand. They can be super special when the light is right.