Saturday Night Free For All

I am surprised no one called you on this error. See the A!

 

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Thanks, Doug! (added to the post above in red)

 

Hah - snap


ATB,
Aidan.

 

This weekend after Triton XXIV I "celebrate" if I can call it that the first time in years that I have been skunked bidding on a Triton. Well I guess there is a first for everything. As I don't drink Alcoholic beverages I drown my sorrows with Coca-Cola and chocolate I suddenly remembered the very first coin I won bidding on a Triton This one being Lot 339 in Triton XIV. January 2011This
Aspendos Tetradrachm 193-192 BC In the name and types of Alexander the Great. Obv Beardless head of Herakles wear lion skin headdress right. Rv Zeus Aetrophoros seated left. Price 2899 16.36 grms 28 mm This coin was part of the series of coins minted in this region after the Seleukids ended the Ptolemaic dominion over this region. I have always wonder why these coins exhibited such wide flans My coin being something of an exception. I think that it is to make abundantly clear that these coins were of the Attic standard

 

No new coins on my side, but I finally took pictures of this 2020 acquisition. It's a nice common LRB, which I bought it because of the mintmark. My coin is from the ninth officina at the Constantinople mint. The letter Θ, which indicates the number nine, was considered unlucky because of its association with the word Θάνατος (death). Oftentimes, it is thus replaced on coins by a combination of E (5) and ∆ (4), but my coin has it:


Constantine II Iunior, Roman Empire, AE3, 333–335 AD, Constantinople mint. Obv: CONSTANTINVS IVN NOB C; bust of Constantine II, laureate, cuirassed, r. Rev: GLORIA EXERCITVS; two soldiers, helmeted, draped, cuirassed, standing facing each other, each holding reversed spear in outer hand and resting inner hand on shield; between them, two standards; in exergue, •CONSΘ•. 20mm, 2.62g. Ref: RIC VII Constantinople 81.

 

The first coin to arrive in the mail in 2021. I bought it because of the veiled bust and old cabinet toning.


Faustina I, AD 138-141.
Roman AR denarius, 2.81 g, 19 mm, 6 h.
Rome, AD 150 and later.
Obv: DIVA FAVSTINA, bare-headed and draped bust, right.
Rev: AETERNITAS, Aeternitas standing left, holding globe and raising above head a starry mantle.
Refs: RIC 351b; BMCRE 379-81; Cohen/RSC 33; Strack 447; RCV --; CRE 122.

 

I hope we revisit this thread in a year and in five years to see if those bemoaning failures in January 2021 auctions are still sorry they did not bid higher. Obviously there are those of us who are celebrating not bidding and those who are drowning sorrows. Either way I use Ginger Ale and Spekulatius.

Every year about this time I feel the urge to look at coins and see if I want to be rid of any. Since my castoffs are not what is selling today, I think I will mark a 'strike' on envelopes and wait until a coin gets two or three before it is sent off as gift or for sale. This might keep me from regretting the disposal of a few coins.

 

I’ve actually listed a couple of coins on ebay for the first time in my life. And also sending some coins in for consignment. I hope to get 10 new coins for the funds I receive for around 100 that are going out. Someone wrote some time ago that selling coins from time to time is healthy. I haven’t missed those I sold last year, just been really happy with the new ones.

I agree that patience is a virtue in this market, though. Unfortunately, it has not been one of my virtues, historically:/

 

Experimenting with RR timelines on my blog site as a route into posts. Researching this Volusian antoninianus (son of Trebonianus Gallus) with interesting provenance. Salus has always been a favorite sub-theme, and a few new adds this past year:

Volusian, AD 251-253, AR Antoninianus (21mm, 3.76 g, 8h), Rome mint, 4th officina, 5th emission, January AD 253
Obv: IMP CAE C VIB VOLVSIANO AVG, radiate, draped, and cuirassed bust right
Rev: SALVS AVGG, Salus standing right, feeding serpent held in arms
Ref: RIC IV 184; RSC 118
Note: ex CNG, from the "Benito Collection", formed by the Spanish ambassador Ramón Sáenz de Heredia y Alonso, who passed away in 2016.

you might also try catawiki as an infrequent seller. As someone who doesn't sell enough coins to attract regular buyers, I find the sales prices end up being a bit better.

“It's tough to make predictions, especially about the future”, Yogi Berra. That said, I can think of a number of coins that I wish I'd offered more for.

 

Nice portrait on the Volusian. Although his reverses are usually the problem...

Spes has been my 2020 deity.

 

In response to the post by Doug Smith. I would be game if this thread survives and I hope it does. Next year I hope to attend the NYINC. Also I hope to be active during the year bidding on auctions. It would be very interesting to see if Triton XXIV is an anomaly or a harbinger of things to come. Just as I was working on this I got a new set of photos from my friend Wayne Hansen
Hadrian Ar Drachm Amisos 131-132 AD Obv Head right laureate. Rv Athena Nicephoros standing left RPC 1250 2.09 grms 17 mm Photo by W. Hansen I wonder if this is one of the many issues from this era that were struck in Rome for circulation in the east. The dies are remarkably well executed and the coins are well struck.

 

Early this morning while I was trying to put a picture of a denarius of Plautilla on another thread I found this coin. Of course at the time CT was very sloooooowwww. So did not try to restart this thread at that time. Makes one really appreciate the work done keeping this site running.
Lysimachos Ar Drachm 290-275 BC Chios Mint In the name and types of Alexander III of Macedon. Obv Head of beardless Herakles in lion skin headdress right. Rv. Zeus Aetophoros seated left Price 2318 4.18 grms 19 mm Photo by W. Hansen
Planchet archives at: https://edmontoncoinclub.com/the-planchet/the-planchet-archived/

 

I was quite happy today to hammer in another Tetrapolis issue from Seleukia:

Syria, Seleukis and Pieria. Ca. 150 BC AE 23, ca. 150 BC

Obverse: Jugate, laureate and bearded head right (Demoi of Antiocheia and Seleukeia?)

Reverse: AΔEΛΦΩN ΔHMΩN right, ΔHMΩN left, Tyche standing left, raising right hand and holding double cornucopiae in left; date in ex.

Forni LVIII, Plate XVIII 8. Mionnet Supp. 8, 2.



I’ve now got two of the issues, it started with this one:


Both are cleaning projects. Long term and careful cleaning , only using distilled water and a soft brush.

 

Saturday Night Antonine (again).


Antoninus Pius, AD 138-161.
Roman orichalcum sestertius, 24.27 g, 32 mm, 6 h.
Rome, AD 158/9.
Obv: ANTONINVS AVG PIVS P P TR P XXII, laureate head, right.
Rev: VOTA SVSCEPTA DEC III S C, Antoninus, veiled, standing l., sacrificing from patera over tripod-altar and holding roll by side; COS IIII in ex.
Refs: RIC 1010; BMCRE 2068-2069; Cohen 1124; Strack 1171; RCV 4262.
Notes: VOTA SVSCEPTA for vows taken; a companion piece, BMCRE 2067, for VOTA SOLVTA, has a similar reverse, but with a sacrificial bull indicating vows fulfilled. See @Valentinian's educational page about coins depicting vows.

 

Been a while since I participated in this thread. I’ve been going back and rephotographing some of my coins so I’ll post one I thought turned out nice.


Roman Empire
Diocletian, AD 284-305
AE Follis, Ticinum mint, struck AD 296-297
Dia.: 31 mm
Wt.: 8.63 g
Obv.: IMP C DIOCLETIANVS P F AVG. Laureate head of Diocletian right
Rev.: GENIO POPVLI ROMANI. Genius wearing mural crown holding patera and cornucopia
Ref.: RIC VI 33

 

Abbasid Caliphate. Time of Harun al-Rashid. Dated 179 AH (795-796 CE). Silver dirham. Medinat Zaranj mint. Cites Harun al-Rashid, as "al-khalifa al-Rashid", and the vizier Ja'far (al-Barmaki). Album 219.5.

In the reverse area legend, Ja'far is named at the top and the Caliph is named on the fourth line. It has a bakh at the bottom (meaning that it is "good money" I guess).

 

What is the usual diameter of these coins when they are not clipped? 24-25mm?
I have two that are clipped, one of them down to 21-22mm. They should have placed the bakh closer to the rim....

 

Great coins as always all!

Not much new here. I recently did get this Valerian. It's one of those coins that seems easy to attribute but then you find identical coins were made by another mint with similar style.

So... I'm not sure if this is RIC V-1 125 (Rome) or RIC V-1 224 (Viminacium). Any thought out there? My guess was Rome but the coin examples attributed to Viminacium look pretty much the same. What's the difference?

 

Nice photo, @Curtisimo. I find coins like yours with bright, partial silvering a challenge to photograph, and I have been trying with only reflected light and long (1.5-2.5s) shutter speeds. In general, I am trying to improve my setup & photos incrementally over time. Even photos from a year ago look bad to me now. Hopefully obvious which is the new photo and which the old with this prutah of Herod Agrippa I.

and here's a favorite torture test coin - with bright, partial silvering, slightly porous surface. Constantius was only about 7 years old when this coin was issued and he was elevated to caesar, 8 November AD 324. This coin also interesting as it seems to be rated r3 in RIC - although the number of examples in RIC online has me questioning that.

Constantius II, as Caesar, AD 324-337 Cyzicus, Struck under Constantine I, AD 324-325, he was later Augustus AD 337-361
Obv: FL IVL CONSTANTIVS NOB C, bust of Constantius II, laureate, draped, cuirassed, left
Rev: PROVIDEN-TIAE CAESS, camp gate with two turrets, without doors, with varying number of stone, SMKΔ in exergue (SMK mint mark, Δ officina)
Ref: RIC 27

 

RIC is very outdated and vague for the reigns of Valerian and Gallienus. Göbl is a better reference, but quite expensive to obtain even a used copy. The best online source is this one. I believe yours is Göbl 30d, from Rome.