Last week we were treated to what turned out to be an 11 page discussion on the first coin purchase by new member LaCointessa. Quite honestly, by the end I was let down by the results which are still available for those who have not followed this thread: https://www.cointalk.com/threads/i-just-purchased-my-first-ancient-coin.296524/ It turned out the purchase was made from a seller whose name comes up here with some regularity due to his business plan of offering coins at absurdly high prices and then at considerable discounts followed by a 'Best Offer' option. I have, in the past, bought a very, very few coins because I simply do not like the game. Because of LaCointessa's purchase, I scanned some of his offerings and found a couple I thought were worthy of an offer. On one, my offer was accepted. Were it not for the mention by LaCointessa, I would NEVER have seen that listing. Thank you, LaC! I am posting the photo of the coin below and posting this thread without further explanation. How many can see why I wanted the coin? Let me be perfectly clear that the seller was absolutely correct and complete in his ID information. I did NOT steal the coin from a Numismatic Expert. Neither did I pay his $1450 first price or even his $391.50 73% off price. I paid what I believe the coin is worth to me. We were unable to come to an agreement on the other coin I found of interest. As soon as I post this I will start typing the explanation of why I wanted the coin. If you want to try to ID it and comment on what you think, feel free. I will point out that the ID is obvious but will be missed by many people because the centering of the reverse destroyed the most important evidence. There is no doubt. It is what it is. Diocletian by dougsmit posted May 26, 2017 at 4:47 PM
Nice coin. Did you want it because it was minted in London when Carausius was ruling the area? That's all I got
Doug and I have discussed this coin so I will refrain from answering . I too have occasionally purchased a coin from Mr. HighRatingLowPrice, and I too paid far less than the "73% off" price that was still 300-400% too high*. I've made offers on more but they were rejected even though by any reasonable comparison, my offers were fair. Here's one purchased four years ago. Yeah, it's not in good shape. It's rare though and pretty pricey in better condition, when you can find one. At the time I was determined to get one for my Pink Floyd Animals collection (track 2, "Dogs) THRACE, Madytos c.350 BC AE13, 1.86 gm. Obv: bull butting right. Rev: dog seated right, ear of grain behind. M-A Ref: Sear 1624 cf.; Copenhagen 923-6 *If you investigate the sales price of these "make offer" coins, eBay will show them selling for his 73% off price rather than whatever lower offer was accepted, if a lower offer was accepted. Factor that in to your judgements.
I would say @Ajax has got it right. I might add that the reverse legend of "PAX AVGGG" portrays Carausius as a third Augustus, in addition to Diocletian and Maximianus, as though the three reigned together in peace and harmony.
Ajax beat me! Good job. Diocletian. AD 284-305. Antoninianus (25mm, 3.35 g, 6h). Londinium (London) mint. Struck under Carausius, AD 287-293. Radiate and cuirassed bust right / Pax standing left, holding branch and sceptre; S-P/[MLXXI]. RIC V 5. VF, brown patina, a bit off-center. This antoninianus of Diocletian was struck at the mint of London (MLXXI mintmark off flan) by the British usurper Carausius who was making an attempt to get the mainstream Roman emperors Diocletian and Maximianus to accept him as their brother Augustus in the North. It did not work. Coins of this issue range from scarce to rare. I did not previously have one of Diocletian. The reverse read PAX AVGGG MLXXI. The crucial third G is very weak on this coin and the London mint mark is totally missing. Other than those very important faults, the coin is quite nice with excellent facial details. Most would grade it VF but there is no wear to speak of. The flan was so thin that it did not fill the die on either side. For wear, I'd call it EF but the strike is really bad. I will not be sending it off to be slabbed so we will never know how it would grade. The thin flan may possibly have been the result of the coin being struck on a previously used flan flattened by a hammer. I can, with great imagination, see faint remnants of letters in the flat area on the obverse border. I sure wish I could say what the undertype was but the fact is that I can not even prove that it is an overstrike. I can dream! There are at least two styles of portrait used at London for this issue. I have seen more of what I term the thinner faced one but I prefer the slightly fuller face seen here. I'm also fond of the detail on Pax's face and body detail. We all are allowed to believe our children are cute. This is my second London mint Pax issue of this series. Belowis my Maximianus which has the MLXXI mintmark but is missing the entire GGG (the important part!!!). I feel lucky to have the coins. Those of you with higher standards can leave these for me. I do not (yet) have a Carausius from this issue from London but I do have the same coin as issued by the 'C' mint. 'C' has been placed in more than one place by different students. If I had to name a town I suppose I might go with Colchester (Colonia Camulodunum) but do believe I'll wait for the UK experts to fight this out and convince everyone. Meanwhile I call it 'C'. My best coin of the series was my cheapest from a dealer in 2002. In addition to being pretty and full legend the obverse legend is the scarce variant ending PFIAVG. The reverse is PROVIDAVGGG and is all on the flan. It has been on my Favorites list for years. Post what you feel appropriate but PLEASE post any of this AVGGG series you might have.
Love the coin Diocletian and Pax is in my wheelhouse. I've made the guy offers in the past even exchanged a couple of emails on his pricing methods. Never come to an agreement on anything, oh well.
Nice find Doug. I'm guilty of buying a coin from him. Even with effort, he's not willing to budge on some coins.
What's the meaning of the I in PFIAVG? I need to be on the lookout for these, some very nice coins Doug! As for Mr highrating.. he's never accepted an offer from me. I thought a few were quite fair but who knows. Probably recognized my name from the thread where everyone had a go at him.
My best guess is Invictus. Probus made his intentions more clear with VIRTVS PROBI INVICTI AVG Carausius did not turn out to be all that undefeatable after all.
