Some tragic news; and some solace in coins

This is just FANTASTIC! I saw the news early this morning and went out to work not even noticing the ice and snow. I am so happy for you and your family. SALVE!

 

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I wish you continued good news!

 

I am so happy for you, @Severus Alexander!

Again, mad props to our CoinTalk family for their incredible generosity!

Erin

 

This is too great to process all at once, @Severus Alexander. Thank you, Massively, for posting the good news as soon as it was there to report. To wallow in the obvious (never stopped me before), you have a Lot of good people on your side, including the ones well above and beyond the forum.

 

SENSATIONAL Severus Alexander @octavius to celebrate our sensational @Severus Alexander
I really like the slight stutter stamp at the bottom, especially on the reverse. Like an ancient stamp of authenticity
Coincidently I won this same type from a lot and it turned out muuuch better then the sellers Pic. Sevs looks optimistic while Mars appears resolute on his mission:

 

I echo all the congratulations. Your family must be as thrilled as you are. I have included you and your family in my daily prayers, as have many others, I'm sure. The "blessed conspiracy" of the CTers who sent the coin with such meaning is thrilling to read about and see.

Steve

 

Severus Alexander, your post made my morning! Hang in there, my coin friend, and know that the prayers and love of your many friends are with you.

 

Thank you for posting this, and thank you for helping to push medical research forward for the rest of us!

It sometimes seems like we're making no progress in the fight against cancer, but that simply isn't true. It's just a really hard problem, bound up tightly with the cellular processes that are necessary to keep us alive.

Japan Today: Doctors: Cancer patients cured a decade after gene therapy

Keep up the good fight!

 

Congratulations on your good news! May it get better and better!

 

Very interesting train that I have no business responding to b/c I have exactly one ancient coin that my father gave me probably 65 years ago. I think he paid a couple of bucks for it. Anyway, I know what people mean about dealing with a life-threatening illness. At 40, I was told that I had the coronary arteries of a 65-year-old. When I told the cardiologist that I wanted bypass surgery right away, he said, and I quote: "Go home and get your affairs in order!"

As I was leaving the hospital after the operation, he said, "Be a vegetarian!" Well, that was 39 years ago, and I think, if he's still alive, that the cardiologist would be amazed that the next birthday I celebrate will be #80. Speaking of cancer, my surgeon all those years ago, who was my age, died at 42 of pancreatic cancer.

Hang in there, and keep doing the things you like to do. I loved the part when you said your wife wanted you to keep buying coins. She's definitely a keeper.

 

What good news! What you need now is faith in the future, some security. That's why I send you my latest and most beautiful depiction of this devine personification. Antoninus Pius RIC 967

 

Glad to hear of the improvement and wishing you strength.

Sharing a series of Denarii from my collection thought to depict duels of Marcus Servilius Pulex Geminus, who is believed to have defeated twenty-three enemies in single combat.

 

Fantastic news! Im really happy for you and your family, @Severus Alexander. I truly hope the doctors can help you with the painful side effects too.

And indeed, such a nice gesture of the 7 generous members of CT. I applaud them

 

Well, believe it or not, I have a new #1 coin for 2022. Feast your eyes on THIS:



This type is a grail coin for me. It depicts the transport of the (in)famous Stone of Emesa from Syria to Rome, accompanied by the emperor, high priest of the Emesan sun god Elagabal. You can clearly see the stone (meteorite) in the quadriga, emblazoned with an eagle. It was the emperor's intention to make Elagabal the chief god in the Roman pantheon, replacing Jupiter. Needless to say this didn't go down well, with the eventual result that he was assassinated in 222 and his cousin, Severus Alexander, was raised to the purple. (Read more in the classic @TIF post, A Boy and His Stone.)

I've been trying to get one of these for years, and never imagined I'd ever get one of this quality. Look at the detail on the reverse! The obverse is none to shabby either, and the slight corrosion on the coin really doesn't detract, even less so in hand. What a coin!! Unquestionably one of the crown jewels of my collection.

So imagine my astonishment when it arrived in the mail this morning, completely out of the blue, courtesy of my Coinguardian Angels: @Cucumbor, @zumbly, @TIF, @dougsmit, @Alegandron, @Curtisimo, and last but far from least, @Ryro. Yes, those same generous friends who had already given me the magnificent Syracuse tetras with its cancer-crushing Herakles!

I am not remotely worthy of such a stupendous gift. Truly, I am in shock. Thank you so very much, there aren't words to express my gratitude. You are capital-A Amazing. Thank you!!!

The gift was accompanied by another touching note, expressing the hope that this new coin ("Crush the Crab Phase II") would bring me luck just like the first one did, with my exciting January PET scan results. I hope it does! The lift comes at a good time, as the side effect of my cancer that I mentioned in my last comment in the thread, osteomalacia, has become quite difficult to deal with. In fact, despite my shrinking tumours, my symptoms are worse, if anything. Pain, fatigue, always stomach problems. I'm hoping to get access to a new drug called burosumab specifically for tumour-induced osteomalacia, but it's horrendously expensive: like 200K USD per year. Hopefully the coin will bring me some luck there! (Though I fear the chances are slim.) In any case, it will certainly help me face my continuing difficulties with stoicism, while I wait for my next PET scan.

Meanwhile I'll take the lesson from Elagabalus's mistakes and avoid prancing around a meteorite in gauzy robes wearing a bull's penis on my head.

This is surely the most amazing gift CoinTalkers have ever bestowed on another member. And it is a gift of hope.

 

Good things DO happen to good people
It was a rush waiting for it to get to you
But, like Mick and the boys said, it's always worth:


Speaking of the type, I must admit that I don't recall seeing any Severus Alexander coins of him repping the Elagabale stone and am perplexed by this as they were cousins... in theory
Was this by design, to shake off the strange eastern religious beliefs that had alarmed Rome under Elagabalus?

(Actual footage of @Severus Alexander returning from his mailbox)

Though not in silver, mine shows another view of the cart and stone:

Elagabalus
AE29, 218-222 CE Phoenicia, Tyre mint. Obv: IMP CAES M AV ANTONINVS legend with laureate, draped and cuirassed bust right. Rev: AVR PIA [SID COL MET] legend with two-wheeled cult cart of Astarte right, with roof on four columns, two palms emerging from it; holy stone (baetyl) from Sidon within. 18.51 grams. Good.
Provenance
Ex Marlow's Auction; from an old UK collection prior to 2000; with old collector's ticket.
SNG Cop. 255. purchased from Timeline Auctions December 2021

History: Elagabal, proclaimed Emperor May 16, 218, only august before the end of June or early July, leaves Syria to reach Rome. Elagabal stops at Nicomedia, he stays there all winter and gets sick. It is in this city that he dons his second consulate. Elagabal will not arrive in Rome until July or September 219, bringing the black stone of his cult to install it in his capital. He will never return to Syria, quickly murdered after a reign unequaled in turpitudes and disturbances

 

That's great to hear the good news! Let's hope for more good tidings!

 

Of course the gift will bring you all the luck you need and much more, it is a wonderful gift of love.

Regarding the stone of Emesa, Herodian in his "History of the Empire" writes it was a six-horse chariot, but for whatever reason, the chariot on the coin was struck with a four-horse chariot:

"[5.6.7] A six-horse chariot bore the sun god, the horses huge and flawlessly white, with expensive gold fittings and rich ornaments. No one held the reins, and no one rode in the chariot; the vehicle was escorted as if the sun god himself were the charioteer. Heliogabalus ran backward in front of the chariot, facing the god and holding the horses' reins. He made the whole journey in this reverse fashion, looking up into the face of his god."
Quoted from
https://www.livius.org/sources/content/herodian-s-roman-history/herodian-5.6/

 

@Severus Alexander : so glad the coin made it to you. Travelling so far in a quadriga transporting a big stone takes a looooog time !

Q

 

LOL great pic!

 

,,O my Goodness!!....great coin for a great Guy from a Great group o Peeps!..