The Corona Giveaway

On this forum we are all carrying a virus, much more dangerous for our pockets than COVID-19, it is the ANCIENT COIN VIRUS, and when successful, you carry it for a lifetime.
Jokes aside, to take our thoughts from the unfortunate Corona virus I wanted to do a little coin give away.



It is nothing significant (condition is not the greatest), but I hope to make somebody happy with it.
I do not want to reveal the coin since I want that person to ID it him/herself, but: It is a Greek bronze coin, quite considerable in size, and originates from a city in Asia Minor. So ofcourse only participate if you are interested in the coin for your collection.

To participate (or if you just want to play along): Write what you like about your favorite coin that is: 1. Bronze 2. Big in size (>20mm) 3. Ancient/Medieval.
To avoid people to register to cointalk just to win this coin, you should have atleast 10 written messages.
After the thread starts to slow down, I will pick a winner, which is the person who wrote in my opinion the most passionate about his/her coin.

To atleast have a coin in the thread, here is my favorite Big Bronze coin:

Antiochos III 'the Great' (223-187 BC) AE Denomination AA, Ekbatana mint.
Obverse: Diademed head of Antiochos III to right.
Reverse: ΒAΣΙΛΕΩΣ - ANTIOXOY Mare standing left, suckling foal; to left, monogram.
Reference: SC 1268
30 mm; 23.44 g

I will leave the writing to the participants

I pay for shipping anywhere in the world, no problem.

 

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This is one of my favourite coins, it depicts a temple since long gone , I think its great to see it on the reverse of this Sestertius.
I made an artist impression of the temple based on that coin.

 

beautiful impression. What is the source for those Caryatids?

 

What a nice gesture. Hear! Hear! I am sure it will be a great addition to someones' collection.

 

@hotwheelsearl , these Caryatides are from the Acropolis Erechteion temple.

possible some other ones:

 

Not interested, but I just wanted to say that this is a very nice gesture of you!

 

Don't count me in, Ancients aren't my specialty, but this is a
very generous offer. Thank you!!!

 

It is very hard to pick one favorite but I am quite fond of the large bronzes from Stratoniceia in Caria. Most famous are the ones with Caracalla facing a blank spot where his brother Geta was scraped from the coin in compliance with the order of Caracalla after he murdered Geta. The one I am showing here has Caracalla with his wife Plautilla who suffered the same fate (execution) but her picture did not get scraped from the coins. It is AE38 which qualifies as big in my book but only 19.85g due to being rather thin. The coin must have been issued rather soon after the wedding in 202 but certainly by 205 when she was banished immediately after the downfall of her father Plautianus whose high office under Septimius Severus had made her most qualified to be First Daughter-in-Law. Caracalla never had any love for the girl and quite possibly played a major role in arranging the removal of Plautianus for treason. I am sure that Caracalla would have preferred she were killed in 205 but was prevented by his father who none-the-less allowed the banishment. She was executed shortly after the death of Septimius and the murder of Geta in late 211. At this time, Caracalla was doing quite a bit of house cleaning by killing all the supporters of Geta so throwing in one ex-wife was not a big thing.

Many coins of Stratoniceia bear at least one countermark usually on the obverse below the busts. There are many theories as to who is shown in the countermarks and I have seen more than one face suggesting to me that they are not all the same. This one has a particularly good strike of the countermark but I hesitate to guess who it is. If I had to assign a name judging by the face, I would guess it was Macrinus but that is nothing but a guess. The fine strike of the countermark (Howgego 84?) did an equally fine job making a flat spot on the reverse effectively decapitating the head of Zeus Panamaros who is shown riding a (similarly headless) horse before a flaming altar. These big coins are rare in great condition allowing the grade here to be "not bad for these". The reverse actually has quite a bit of the legend which starts at the flattened top continuing clockwise naming the magistrate (Tiberius Claudius Dionysius?) and finishing with the city name that begins just under the horse's tail and goes up the left edge. Even a coin tis large had to use small letters! The obverse legend is very 'partial' if we are trying to be nice and pretty much gone if honesty prevails.

I think my favorite part of this coin is the way the great god Zeus has a strong torso but dangles skinny legs below a horse two sizes too small for the task of carrying a god. Ancient horses were not huge but the gods were. Of course I wish the countermark had been placed differently so the reverse had not been so flattened but this is pretty standard for these and I did get a very nice strike of the countermark in trade. The reverse ID is based on the fact that there was a local cult of Zeus very active in that region which involved a procession from Stratoniceia to Panamaros (slightly to the southeast). The book on this subject sells used for about what these coins cost and are in a language I do not read so I can not help explain anything else about the type. These coins rarely come in high enough grade that they get listed singly by major sellers but I was fortunate to have found this one in the stock of the late Don Zauche four years ago at a show in Baltimore. It is my fourth big bronze from Stratoniceia and my favorite today for the purposes of this thread. All four would make my top 10% favorite coins if I were forced to rank them so they tend to jockey for position in my favor on any given day. It is not right to be asked to favor one of your children over another but, today, this one leads by a skinny Zeus leg.

 

What an awesome gesture. I don't care if I win or not. I just love to tell this story..... I been a life long US coin collector. I was at a coin show sometime last year and happened upon a table of ancients and was completely drawn in by this bust of Christ. I posted it here from the hotel I stayed in that night. You good folks here in the ancients forum educated me on my new Byzantine Anonymous Follis. And I was complimented a number of times on the full features of his face which I have come to understand is somewhat rare on these pieces. Then it was @dougsmit as I recall translated the reverse of the coin for me. I was then completely hooked. I now own a dozen of these Byzantine pieces. I love them all but this first one is my prize and still takes my breath away when I study it.

 

I will throw my beefiest hat into the ring

This coin isn't anything "special" to most. Rather on the homely side as well. BUT it holds a ~30mm 11.00g place in my heart

This coin was purchased at the last Baltimore Whitman show that my son and I attended. What makes it super special is that we were able to identify it in the bin before bringing it home to study.

Spending countless hour pouring over coins with my son finally paid off with this coin. It was time well spent.

The other cool thing about this coin is that the reverse is rotated about 50 degrees (2:00 if I didn't do the degrees right) clockwise. I know Byzantine coins weren't held to a very high standard for quality control, but it is cool to see it on such a big coin. It really stands out.

Without further ado, here he is:

Maurice Tiberius
582-602 AD
AE Follis
Constantinople
Obverse: DN MAVRIC TIBER PP AVG, Helmeted and curiassed bust facing, holding cross on globe and shield
Reverse: Large M, ANNO to left, cross above, regnal year 9 right, officina Γ below.
Mintmark CON

 

I've got bids in on a number of Byantine folles right now from the 6th and 7th centuries in an online auction. I've kind of decided to extend my search of a coin of each ruler into the Byzantine arena from Imperial Roman.

 

That is a great way to go!
I hope you win them and show them off here

 

I Like Them Big And Stupid

https://www.youtube.com/embed/vEU_5lVjRFQ


- Broucheion

 

Great idea and nice gesture @Pavlos !

My first ancient being also a big bronze (sestertius) and also the best ever in my heart, it's an easy choice for me

Once again, for the people who have already seen it 20+ times forgive me but I've been asked , I can't help but play again what I posted for the CIT 2017 last round :


Commodus, Sestertius- Rome mint, 192 CE
Wt.: 21.01 g
Obv.: L AEL AVREL CO---MM AVG P FEL,Laureate head of Commodus right
Rev.: HERCVLI ROMANO AVG,Hercules facing, head left, holding club and lion's skin, resting on trophy.SCin field
Ref : RCV #5752, Cohen #203


My grandfather, born 1894, has been "lucky" enough to get involved in the whole WWI where he's been wounded five times (two actual wounds and three gas attacks). While digging a trench at Verdun battle (1916), he eventually found three coins that he carefully kept with him during three years (he's not been sent back home earlier than 1919). After the end of the war, being on a train, back home with two other "poilus" he decided he whould give one coin to each of them and keep the last one for himself (probably one of the first "ancient coin giveaway" in the 20th century). As written above, when I was 18, being the only one in the family showing an interest for coins he told me the story and gifted me with the coin.

It is the very first roman coin I have ever possessed. It's of course the real start of my addiction for ancient coins.

My grand dad finding it during his service and keeping it until the end of the war and for almost his entire life makes it the coin I will keep whatever occurs in my own life and/or to my coin collections.

As for the coin itself, its coolness comes from it being minted the last year in Commodus' rule, in 192 CE, as he'd turn completely crazy finding himself being a reincarnation of Hercules. Even though the obverse doesn't show him with the lionskin, the reverse has an explicit legend and clearly shows the emperor/hercules with Hercules' attributes.

And to finish with, the following comment is taken from the description of a similar example (in far much better condition) in NAC auction 4, # 477 :Few Roman coins excite as much commentary as those of Commodus, which show him possessed of Hercules. Not only do they present an extraordinary image, but they offer incontrovertible support to the literary record. The reports of Commodus’ megalomania and infatuation with Hercules are so alarming and fanciful that if the numismatic record was not there to confirm, modern historians would almost certainly regard the literary record as an absurd version of affairs, much in the way reports of Tiberius’ depraved behaviour on Capri are considered to be callous exaggerations. Faced with such rich and diverse evidence, there can be no question that late in his life Commodus believed that Hercules was his divine patron. Indeed, he worshipped the demigod so intensely that he renamed the month of September after him, and he eventually came to believe himself to be an incarnation of the mythological hero. By tradition, Hercules had fashioned his knotted club from a wild olive tree that he tore from the soil of Mount Helicon and subsequently used to kill the lion of Cithaeron when he was only 18 years old. Probably the most familiar account of his bow and arrows was his shooting of the Stymphalian birds while fulfilling his sixth labour. The reverse inscription HERCVLI ROMANO AVG (‘to the August Roman Hercules’) makes the coin all the more interesting, especially when put into context with those of contemporary coins inscribed HERCVLI COMMODO AVG, which amounts to a dedication ‘to Hercules Commodus Augustus’.

Q

 

That is an amazing story @Cucumbor ! I've never heard it and it is the first time seeing the coin as well. What a great piece of history. Roman, world, family. It covers it all. All I can say is wow.

 

Glad I've posted it again then.
I always have the feeling everyone here knows the story and is fed up with it

Q

 

I am with @furryfrog02 ..... I absolutely adored the story. I hope one of my coins is prized by one of my grandkids one day.

 

Incredible story @Cucumbor

 

False advertisement! I thought this post was about free beer! Just kidding
But seriously cool idea. Anything to lift the hearts of men is for the greater good
Ok, to win this giveaway I need to talk passionately about my coin. I got this!

This dark and husky little hussy puts on airs about the wealth of Rome at the time.
She’s a naughty coin that says, “I’m voluptuous, big and bad despite the bad tall dark and handsome men from down south that are about to dominate me.”
She’s a trolup that packs on that green make up that we call patination so the years of her seductive allure remain a foxy mystery to us all.
She sports an obverse of Athena. She’s tougher than you and sexier than your lady. Men want her, woman want to be her.
Though she might be open to some motor boating, that’s no motor boat on her reverse. That’s a ships prow. That’s right, she’ll get slippery and wet even when her men have proved time again they can’t handle the waives that her thickness nor the Greeks for several centuries would create.
Passionate enough? Well, either way, my selection at this sexy time is:


ROMAN REPUBLIC. Anonymous. AE Aes Grave Triens (92.37 gms), Rome Mint, ca. 225-217 B.C. VERY FINE.
Cr-35/3a; TV-53. Obverse: Helmeted head of Minerva left; four pellets (mark of value) below; all set upon raised disk; Reverse: Prow right; four pellets (mark of value) below; all set upon raised disk. A pleasing specimen despite its crudeness, with charming green surfaces. A test cut across Minerva's face is noted for completeness.
Ex Stacks & Bowers