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How could they have known about ankylosaurus? But then, they found a stegosaurus in Ankor Wat Temple!

 

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Great coin and an interesting writeup. Thanks.

 

Great coins all and interesting thread. Actually I think my rarest coin is shown in my avatar. I guess only late Roman guys may recognize this.

 

You'd be hard pressed to find a "late Roman guy", seeing as they haven't been around for 1500 years


I'll just see myself out then...

 

Hey VK, I'm old and I feel like one sometimes. BTW, you should recognize this monogram.

 

That one belongs to Leo I believe. S at the top, O on a vertical line, E on the side (normally makes up the right half of the monogram, but the whole monogram being flipped like that is what makes it very rare, right?). Is that a mintmark I see under it as well? (TES?)

 

English Anglo-Saxon penny of Wiglaf, king of Mercia (non-portrait). 11 known of this monarch, two distinct types, with portrait and without, maybe 4-5 in private hands:


English Anglo-Saxon sceat of Aethelwald Moll, king of Northumbria. 5 known of this monarch, which includes two distinct types.


English Anglo-Saxon sceat of Aethelred I, king of Northumbria, by the moneyer Hnifula. There are probably a few hundred sceats of Aethelred known, but this moneyer is his rarest with less than 10 specimens that can be traced.


English Anglo-Saxon styca of Eanred, king of Northumbria, by the moneyer Aethelheah (Edilech). There are probably several thousand stycas of Eanred known (most in large institutional collections), but this is his rarest moneyer. I am not aware of more than 5 specimens known.

 

Foreign to most US/Modern collectors; ancient collectors could all unknowingly (and probably) have several very rare-unique coins in their collections. When you start compounding the several variables i.e. Mint, Dye, Year, Obv, Rev, Control marks, errors, etc; it can become very difficult to keep track of rarity. Adding a surface and strike condition to the mix only compounds the complexity of scale.

Below is a coin I presented 8/8/14 with regard to specific rarity:
Wildwinds shows one example, in which I thought the description may had been exaggerated a wee bit. "This is one of the top 2 rarest denarii of Faustina Jr., and seldom offered. Ref. RSC 161 very rare" and "Faustina Jr. denarius -exceedingly rare $510.00." I found 1 other price reference in which a lower quality coin went at auction for $343.00 in 2013 at a fairly prominent auction house. The only other site I found that referenced the rarity was a french ancient coin forum (thank you, Google Chrome Translate.) An individual on that site referred to this coin as the rarest issue of Faustina II.

Since then, I have noticed 2 others go up for Auction via Pecunem and Roma; The former, in better condition than my own, selling for 672 USD and the latter in much worse condition selling for 126 USD. Both listings did not refer to rarity.

Faustina Jr Denarius. DIVAE FAVSTINAE PIAE, draped bust right / MATRI CASTRORVM, Faustina seated left on low seat, holding scepter & globe surmounted by phoenix with radiate nimbus, 2 legionary eagles set on low base before - RIC 753 Sear #5220




-Michael

 

A new coin added to one of sepcialities.

Septimius Severus denarius

Obv:- L SEPT SEV PE-RET AVG IMP I - I, laureate head right
Rev:- FORTVN R-EDVCV (sic), Fortuna (Hilaritas), standing front, head left, holding long palm and cornucopiae.
Minted in Laodicea-ad-Mare. A.D. 194
Reference:– BMC -. RIC -. RSC -. 0 examples in RD.



I had believed it to be the only known example and then in discussion with Curtis Clay on the coin he identified that he had an example from the same die pair. So now it is only one of two known.

All these ancients were made in volumes. There may be large numbers of them out there somewhere waiting to be found.

This has happened many times to rare variations. A new hoard turns up and a rare coin becomes common.

 

Carthago => thanks man, that was awesome (hmmm, a plate and drinking-ware, eh?)

... very cool

thanks again

 

Here is a rare one. Apparently only 1 in 5,000..........

They deserve a coin.

 

At present I would support a new rarity scale for Eastern Severus denarii based on the number of coins found in the collections of Curtis Clay, Martin, Barry Murphy and perhaps a couple of older catalogs like Michael Kelly and Roger Bickford-Smith (but many of these went to one of the above listed collections). If a coin is in all of those collections, it could be said to be only scarce but anything only in one or missing from all would probably be rare. When RIC did their rarity listings they looked in certain public collections but today I am uncertain how many of these old standard depositories have kept up with new discoveries since the 'opening' of the East in the 1990's.

 

This is such a delightful thread with many neat coins!

I can contribute a denarius of Vespasian struck at Ephesus. Is it my rarest? I'm not quite sure, I have several that fall into this category, but it's probably my favourite rarity.




Vespasian
AR Denarius
Ephesus mint, 71 AD
RIC 1424 (R3), BMC - , RSC - , RPC 827 (1 spec.)
Obv: IMP CAESAR VESPAS AVG COS III TR P P P; Head of Vespasian, laureate, r.
Rev: LIBERI IMP AVG VESPAS; Titus and Domitian veiled, togate, stg. front (heads l.), each with patera; below, BY mint mark
Ex Harry N. Sneh Collection.

This dynastic reverse type dated COS III normally has the EPHE mint mark on the reverse, here we have BY - extremely rare. The Group 5 series this coin is from is also exceeding rare, full of R3 coins and unpublished types. This particular type is listed in RIC as R3, citing an American Numismatic Society specimen (RIC plate coin), so second known example - both from the same dies.

 

Oh, and lest I forget this extremely rare Domitian denarius.


Domitian
AR Denarius
Rome mint, 88-89 AD
RIC 651A, BMC -, RSC -
Obv: IMP CAES DOMIT AVG GERM P M TR P VIII; Head of Domitian, laureate, bearded, r.
Rev: IMP XV COS XIIII CENS P P P; Minerva stg. l., with thunderbolt and spear; shield at her l. side (M3)

It was previously thought when Domitian became TR P VIII in mid September he was at IMP XVI, however, with this new denarius we now know he was still IMP XV. This realisation bumps the number of issues for 88-89 from 6 to 7, this coin being part of the new first issue now dated TR P VIII IMP XV. The issue had to be quite minuscule (T.V. Buttrey joked perhaps struck for only 30 minutes until news of IMP XVI arrived), only this one Minerva type has surfaced, doubtless the other three standard Minerva types were struck alongside but have yet to be recorded. Forvm member tacrolimus reported an example of the type in 2009, a die pair match with my coin. T.V. Buttrey has assigned this coin 651A in the upcoming RIC II.1 addenda.

 

Those are a couple wonderful Flavians David. I guess I'll throw a one of a kind Titus into the mix.
Domitian Caesar / Titus Judaea Capta Sestertius Mule
Domitian Caesar / Titus Judaea Capta Æ Sestertius Mule, 25.38 g. Rome mint, struck 80/81

O: [CAES DIVI] AVG VESP F DOMITIAN[VS COS VII] - RIC II 288-306 (Titus)
R: IVD CAP across fields; SC in field below; mourning Jewess to left of palm on pile of arms; Jew on right with hands bound, arms on ground. - Titus RIC 153 (Perhaps a die match); Hendin 1593b; Upcoming addenda Titus 287A.

The only known sestertius mule under Titus.

From the patina it was likely found in eastern Europe, perhaps Bulgaria, a rich find spot for a lot of the judaea sestertii.

What evidence points to RIC II 288-306?

As noted by Curtis Clay, "Obverse legends beginning CAESAR are rare, and so far only known with portrait laur. left, according to RIC 275-7. Legends beginning CAES are very much more common.

With the N of DOMITIAN placed before Domitian's mouth, too much space seems to remain for just COS VII. We almost need that added VS to fill out the space.

Flavian mules in gold or silver occur with some regularity, though they are all rare individually.

It's not surprising, however, that very few sestertius mules occurred.

1. Vespasian struck c. 90% of the sestertii of his reign in the single year 71. Mules were impossible, because he hadn't yet begun striking sestertii for Titus and Domitian!

2. Later, when sestertii were being struck for Titus and Domitian too, the rev. types were not usually personalized, for example by carrying on the imperial titulature of each emperor, but were general and could be shared among the emperors, for example S C Spes advancing, or PAX AVGVSTI S C. Virtually all of the rev. types were appropriate for all three emperors, so there could be no mules!

Under Titus the possibilities for mules increased, since more types were introduced that were apparently meant for just one of the two imperial brothers, for example:

Titus: the Judaea Capta types, ANNONA AVG without S C, FELICIT PVBLIC, PIETAS AVGVST (Titus and Dom. shaking hands), PROVIDENT AVGVST (Vesp. hands globe to Titus), S C (Roma hands Palladium to Titus on horseback)

Domitian: S C (Minerva fighting right)."

 

It's coins like yours Nemo that makes me want to rethink my strictly silver Flavian niche.

Awesome rarity!

 

Here is my rare Domitian. Not as nice as yours David and struck a little later. It is TR P VIII but is IMP XVII

Domitian AR denarius, , F, well centered, toned, 3.297g, 18.9mm, 180o, Rome mint, 14 Sep 88 - 13 Sep 89 A.D.; Obv: IMP CAES DOMIT AVG GERM P M TR P VIII, laureate head right;
Rev: IMP XVII COS XIIII CENS P P P, Minerva standing left, helmeted and draped, thunderbolt in right, spear vertical behind in left, grounded shield on left side behind;
RIC II, part 1, 659 (R); BMCRE II 149; BnF III 140; RSC II 245; cf. SRCV 2732 (IMP XIX) Ex: the Jyrki Muona Collection, Ex: Forvm Ancient coins

 

I suppose this one might at least be scarce, its an unlisted officina of this type from Rome mint (it is on Wildwinds).

Mintmark is RBS.

 

That coin makes me smile! It's kind of cartoonish looking.

 

One of two known to date:

Caracalla, 198 – 217 AD
Æ29, Tarsus, Cilicia, 18.2 grams
Obverse:
Reverse: Artemis standing right with left knee on back of doe flailing on ground, left hand pulls head of doe back exposing neck, grasps dagger in right hand about to dispatch the animal. L in left field,D and K in right.