The Corona Giveaway

@Ryro, your wordsmithing never ceases to amuse me.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

Wonderful gesture @Pavlos .. you are a true gentleman!

***I would like to exclude myself from the competition ..not as some grand gesture.. but for a few good reasons: firstly I have been lucky enough to win a couple of these giveaways when I first started - and I am eternally grateful to this group of people for helping me... you have all been so supportive - not even making fun of my frequent mistakes publicly.....so I am in a very good place thanks to you all. Secondly, my favorite coin changes on a regular basis .. what I write tonight may not be technically true tomorrow (the postman may come!). Also, and I think most importantly; what I have read so far is very inspiring as well as extremely educational! I hope the entries are many and the very experienced members with very interesting coins continue to show us why they are so special.. including those who regularly post such beautiful examples here.. I would love to hear the stories behind the coins.***

Here is one of my favorites: After starting with a lot of "30 uncleaned coins" on eBay.. I was hooked.. I then found this group and "lurked" for a bit .. I read about the FSR auction and this was my very first individual coin purchase. To this day it is probably one of my best buys for the money (beginner's luck). A coin I will never part with... a very young looking Trajan and a coin that ticks all of the boxes for me:

 

@Ancient Aussie ..you're up late (or early).. please add yours - would love to see it!

 

..those critters are realistic..><

 

Okay Clavdivs.....making me work , To me you can't go past one of Rome's most iconic and well known structure's towering over it is a stone column 126 feet high, crowned with a bronze statue of the conqueror. Spiraling around the column like a modern-day comic strip is a narrative of the Dacian campaigns: Thousands of intricately carved Romans and Dacians march, build, fight, sail, sneak, negotiate, plead, and perish in 155 scenes. Completed in 113, the column has stood for more than 1,900 years.
Trajan Sestertius of his column. 112-115 AD. 25gm, RIC 601.

 

For everyone saying thanks to me, no thanks for being an awesome coin community

So many nice write ups and coins already! This will be very very tough to choose from.

@Ryro Haha, you always spice up any thread. You toke passionate a bit too literally, almost with an erotic shade.

 

Oh wow so many great coins and stories so far!

My coin is an abdication follis of Diocletian from Alexandria:

What I like about this moderately sized (24mm-ish) coin is that weary look on Diocletian's face. Clearly this is a man who just wants to retire and tend to his cabbage farm haha. It is also the first (and only) coin I have bought in person as a reward for finishing my Master's thesis that just happened to be about the Tetrarchy.

One day I will get a matching one for Maximian who did not enjoy staying retired as much as his partner.

 

Excellent coin @Luke B

Although many coins from the tetrachy show a generic portrait to them (the "personna" rather than the actual "man"), I find Diocletian's portraits struck at Alexandria kind of lively :


Diocletian, Follis - Alexandria mint, 2nd officina, c. AD 304-305
IMP C DIOCLETIANVS P F AVG, Laureate bust of Diocletianus right
IOVI CONS CAES, Jupiter standing left, holding victory and spear. B in right field S | P in lower field, ALE at exergue
11.21 gr
Ref : Cohen # 173, RCV # 12805 (180), RIC VI # 41

Q

 

Thank you @Pavlos for being so generous. This is a fantastic community and I am so glad to have found it, especially as I have so much to learn (Which is a good thing right!).
I have chosen the following coin because it was one of the first in my collection that really brought home the honour of being able to handle and admire what for me are little works of art with such history surrounding them.
This coin also had added meaning for me as I purchased it not long after reading the book "I Claudius" by Robert Graves, in which the emperors depicted feature heavily at the start.
Finally, the red patination, for me, gives an almost surreal feel to the coin, a bloodiness if you will, which, though a bit dramatic, summons up scenes of battle and conquest. Anyway - I have a vivid imagination at times.



AUGUSTUS (20-10BC) AS 26mm 13.9g Nemausus mint
Obv; IMP DIVI F. Heads of Agrippa (left) and Augustus (Rt) back to back. Agrippa wearing rostral crown and wreath, Augustus bare-headed
Rev; COL NEM. Crocodile chained to palm shoot tip right (?). Above on left long ties. RIC I Augustus 157

 

@Cucumbor Yes! so many of the portraits of the Tetrarchs look so identical, it is always fun to see examples where they are distinguished.

@JulesUK I can definitely see what you mean about the red. Works particularly well on a coin celebrating the capturing of Egypt.

 

This is my most favorite coin ever. My avatar also.


AE semis Asido (Medina Sidonia) Spain 1st century BC
Obverse, facing head of Hercules
Reverse, Two Tuna fish with punic legend

This particular coin is very special to me in many ways ,with a little more history than some of my others.

I was stationed at the Naval Base Rota Spain about 30 years ago. I would go metal detecting with a Friend of mine almost every Sunday.

One day we decided to look for some new places and drove around for hours looking.
We tried a lot of spots but found nothing. At our last spot for the day I found this coin in a farm field close to modern day Medina Sidonia.

One of my Spanish Friends Juan Antonio (a Roman coin collector also) had always expressed an interest in this coin, so before I left Spain in 1991 I traded it to Him.
I thought about my Friend Juan Antonio for many years afterwards wondering what had happened to my Friend. Then in 2013 I happened upon an E-bay seller in Spain selling roman coins. He was in a town close by to my Friend so I sent Him a message through E-bay asking Him (in my bad Spanish writing ability) if He might possibly know my Friend.
I waited anxiously and within a day or so the seller responded and said He knew Juan Antonio.
I made contact with Juan Antonio and friended Him on facebook and even called Him on the phone. In one of our conversations I asked about the coin I traded to Him that He and I loved so much, He said He still had it and that many people had tried to buy it from Him or trade for it but always kept it because of the friendship we had.
Not long after that, I sent Juan Antonio some more modern Spanish coins I had lost interest in figuring He would enjoy them more than me, with in a few weeks I received a package back from Him In it was the Asido semis. He told me He knew what it meant to me and wanted me to have it back. So about 23 years later I had my favorite coin back in my collection.

 

That's a nice story of friendship, and a beautiful coin. That Juan Antonio is really someone very special

Q

 

This is very generous of you, especially as the coin you are offering is very cool. Unfortunately I am not in a position to take a photo of my favorite large bronze, but it is one of those enormous (48mm) anonymous bronze triens from the earlier days of the Roman Republic, circa 280 BC. The obverse has a thunderbolt between four pellets, but it is the reverse that I display, with a dolphin swimming right above four pellets. I love it for many reasons. The first has nothing to do with coins, but the fact that I helped found and spent six years serving on the board of a research project studying wild dolphins in the open ocean. As I participated in the research, swimming with free, wild dolphins in open waters, I developed a tremendous amazement and appreciation about dolphins. They are not some mystic creatures, as the new age types want to believe; but they are truly beings, with a presence like that of a human. The cooperative nature of their society, the harmony with which they live in their environment, are lessons I wish our species would learn. They are beautiful, graceful animals, and on those occasions when I had extended one-on-one, lengthy eye contact interactions with a specific dolphin, it was a powerful experience. So the fact that dolphins are so frequently found on Greek (especially) and Roman coins is one of things I like most about collection ancients. Obviously these societies too, at least some of them, had particular connections with dolphins; and sometimes just seeing the coin leads to wonder about these connections, how they were formed, what they meant to the individual people in these communities. As to this particular coin, the dolphin is quite well portrayed, very natural and realistic, unlike many of the highly stylized versions we see (especially on later Roman coins). Because the coin is so large (and who doesn't love large bronzes regardless of their origin?), the dolphin is truly a bold depiction. The coin has a lovely green patina, which reminds me of the water itself and my times swimming with the dolphins. So it is one of the most prominently displayed coins in my house, where it is a constant, delightful reminder of my love of nature and dolphins, and my love of ancient civilizations and these tangible representations we are so privileged to possess, their remarkable coins. Thanks for letting me wax away on this!

 

Favorite is a strong word, and often in flux. But when it comes to big bronzes, Alexandrian drachms can't be beat! Despite being intrinsically less valuable than an 'actual' drachm, something about their heftiness just inspires confidence, and their local iconography is also one of a kind. There's just something mesmerizing about them. Here's a beautiful reverse type depicting Harpocrates of Herakleopolis that I'm currently very fond of, combining the mystery of Egypt with the might of Rome. His headdress and hem-hem crown remind me of a Pharaonic figure, which is what I love most about Alexandrian coins. At 34mm and 24.27g, it certainly fits the 'large bronze' criteria.

 

..ya know, that coin of @Pavlos would go well with my Antiochus l & ll..(i ain't sure what's up with my camera, but i like to new style & they upload almost instantously ) bronze coins of Antiochus l & ll Soter and Theos, Athena & Apollo obverse with Dioscuri twins hats over club and lyre respectively, 21 mm, 8.08gms, & 11mm, 2.12gms

 

Many great write ups and coins, any more participants? (which will make it only more difficult for me to choose ).

@bcuda That is a amazing story by the way!

 

Soon I will announce the winner if nobody is participating anymore, if you still want to participate then please do it before Friday.

 

I know I’d like to see some more coins and read some more stories.

 

What coin do we have to identify?

 

That's a great looking crab and octopus @Andres2 !
I have a crab and shrimp with 3 pellets