TIF 2016 Year in Review

I am overwhelmed, these coins are awesome!

 

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I'm not going to try to pick any favorites. They all are. Great job @TIF

 

A wonderful year indeed!! I will need to go through them in more detail to pick out a top ten but am partial to your Pigasus and Soter tetradrachm. Looking forward to 2017!

 

Awesome collection of coins! I think your Jannaeus Prutah (anchor side especially) is the best I've ever seen! I like your TIF logo/glyph also!

 

=> You're definitely the Coin-Princess!!

I love you and your cool coins ... congrats on another fantastic year!!

Sounds like you've had a bit of a tough-sled during 2016, so I'm really hoping that you get a life-break and have a great 2017 coins and all!!

I'll also follow Z-bro's and Doug's format ...

I'll try to pick my favorite(s) in each category...

Greek: Crab-hat, Hippocamp, Mussel .... trifecta!!

Roman-Egypt: Sweet Burgundy Hippo, fer sure!!

Other provincials: Ostrich, and that sweet PAN coin (winna)

Roman: Hippo-biga & Centaur-biga

 

A great year for you, TIF! Lovely coins and thank you for sharing them!

 

My favorite in each category...

Greek: pigasus/lion

Roman-Egypt: Hadrian/canopic jar

Other provincials: Gordian III / Athena slaying the giant monster

Roman: Republican toned triskeles of Sicily/ Jupiter

 

Speechless about the coins
Sorry your 2016 hasn't been as good for other than numismatics

Q

 

I've been trying to 'eliminate' a few from each category and I'm still left with far too many to choose from. So I'll give up and go with @Valentinian selections...since I absolutely LOVE them. All are total eye-candy'!!!

 

wow.

I was about to call foul for not picking 10, then I scrolled down and beheld all that sweet eye candy.

in no particular order....


crab hat
hipppocamp
triskelion
pan
croc

 

@TIF - You have done well for yourself, and us. Yes, us because some of us (who would like to have any of those coins in our collection but do not), can use your coins/collection for inspiration.
Thank-you for sharing them with us.

 

Stunning collection of treasures. You have a nice mix of coins. My favorites are the RR coins with odd bigas -
Q. Crepereius M.f. Rocus with Neptune in biga of hippocamps
the centaur biga from moneyer M. Aurelius Cotta

 

Amazing. What is the coin in the upper right of the Greek section with the bull on it? And what's the story behind the Alexander coin in the bezel?

 

Sorry for the delayed reply, Paul. The silver coin with facing bull head obverse is a triobol from Phokis. I like the design and picked this one up a couple of months ago.

The bezel-set Macedonian drachm was one of my best bargains of the year: $90!! It's a great coin, probably worth double that, and it's set in 14k gold. I wear it almost every day. It came from a dealer at the CICF show.
...

Here are brief attributions and links for all the coins shown in the first post. By row; left to right, top to bottom.

Greek
BRUTTIUM, the Brettii. AE quartuncia; Amphitritie/crab. Perhaps my favorite of the year.
SICILY, Syracuse. Dionysios I. AE 20; Athena/hippocamp. For the great hippocamp.
MACEDONIA, Philip III Arrhidaios. AR drachm set in 14k bezel. $90; best deal of 2016
ILLYRIA, Apollonia. AR 15; Fires of the Nymphaeum/bunny bashing stick. Despite its shortcomings, it is probably among my top ten favorites this year, or very close.
Phokis, Federal coinage. AR triobol; facing head of bull/head of Apollo
CORINTHIA, Corinth. AR stater; Pegasus/Athena, pudenda virilia (copying Zumbly again )
PONTOS, Amisos. AE 28; Athena/Perseus decapitating Medusa (oops, this is my 3rd one. I should sell it)
PONTOS, Amisos. AE 22; Aegis/Nike advancing
PAPHLAGONIA, Amastris. AE 23; Aegis/Nike advancing
MYSIA, Kisthene. Orontes, satrap. AE 10; bearded head right/winged boar protome right. For my extensive Pigasus collection. This one was misattributed and I didn't figure that out until after the purchase. I already had one. Oh well.
MYSIA, Kisthene. Pharnabazos, satrap. AE 9; bearded head right/winged boar protome right
AEOLIS, Grynion. AE 17; Apollo facing/mussel shell. Copying Steve
LESBOS, Mytilene. EL hekte; winged boar right/incuse head of roaring lion left. The new leader of my Pigasus Squadron.
IONIA, Klazomenai. AR hemiobol; forepart of winged boar right. Uncommon denomination for type. Tiny!
IONIA, Phokaia. EL hekte; young male head left, with Silenos mask pushed back on head.
IONIA, Teos. AR diobol. Griffin seated right/lyre. Purchased for the very nice griffin.
EGYPT, Ptolemy I Soter, satrap. AR tetradrachm; Alexander III wearing elephant headdress/Athena Alkidemos. I love these earlier Ptolemy I elephant headdresses and was thrilled to find one in a lower price range. From 2016 CICF.
EGYPT, Ptolemy I Soter. Portrait tetradrachm. I opted for a flawed (graffito) coin to conserve money for other targets.
EGYPT, Ptolemy V-VI. AE 27; head of Isis right/eagle

Roman Egypt
Tiberius obol, year 5; /hippo; ex-Dattari; plate coin
Vespasian obol or diobol, year 4, /Isis
Titus tetradrachm, year 3, /Homonoia
Domitian obol, year 10; /Isis Thermouthis, rare and very interesting . Hmm, I thought I did a writeup on this one but I can't find it.
Domitian diobol, year 9; /Isis; ex-Dattari; plate coin
Trajan obol, year 11; /hawk (Horus falcon?). Not very good although Trajan's Alexandrians rarely are.
Hadrian tetradrachm, year 11, /Canopus of Osiris. A fantastic example!
Hadrian drachm, year 18; /Canopic jars. Worn but very cool. Unfortunately I bought this at a coin show from a seller whose coins are always astronomically priced and I knew that when I went by their booth but I looked and bought anyway. Next time I'll not buy from them unless they come down to a price in line with market.
Antoninus Pius drachm, year 14; /Triptolemos. Chariot drawn by winged serpents
Antoninus Pius "Zodiac" drachm, Venus in Taurus. I'm trying hard not to be compelled to complete a Zodiac drachm set. It would be prohibitively expensive and the coins are always in rather awful condition.
Antoninus Pius obol, year 20, "Great Sphinx of Giza" pose. For 2-3 years I hunted for a "Great Sphinx" Alexandrian and finally got a Marcus Aurelius. This A-Pi obol is an unlisted year for the reverse type. Happy!!
Antoninus Pius obol, year 19; /Hawk (Horus falcon?). Another plate coin, ex-Dattari
Antoninus Pius obol, year 11, griffin. Crappy but a plate coin, ex-Dattari, and the price was okay.
Marcus Aurelius obol, year 15, /sphinx in the Great Sphinx of Giza pose. My first of this type and I love it
Marcus Aurelius diobol, year 12, /uraeus serpent. A plate coin in two books ; ex-Dattari
Aquilia Severa tetradrachm, year 5, /Zeus Ammon. Because I didn't have a Roman Egypt issue of this empress and because of the spectacular rendering of Zeus Ammon.
Philip II tetradrachm, year 4 of Philip I, /Hermanubis and jackal.
Carus tetradrachm, undated, /altar. Ex Keith Emmett, Ex JBG
Carinus tetradrachm, year 2, /Elpis
Diocletian tetradrachm, year 11, /Selene. For the era, an unusually artistic and well-struck coin

Other Roman Provincial
THRACE, Hadrianopolis. Gordian III; /ostrich. Because ostrich! . I love love love this coin.
THRACE, Hadrianopolis. Gordian III; /Pan. Outstanding depiction of Pan!
MOESIA INFERIOR, Nikopolis ad Istrum. Caracalla, /Apollo Sauroktonos. A type I'd been after for a while. This one has a visible lizard, although you have to know it's a lizard because it just looks like a blob
MYSIA, Hadrianothera. Hadrian, /head of bear. Celebrating a successful hunt.
CILICIA, Seleucia ad Calycadnum. Gordian III, /the Gigantomachy. An interesting scene from mythology.
IONIA, Ephesus. Anonymous AE tessera with stag and bee. Babelon and Head had amusing theories of its use.
CILICIA, Tarsus. Elagabalus, /ciliarch crown.
MOESIA INFERIOR. Marcianopolis. Elagabalus, /Telesphorus.
JUDAEA, Alexander Jannaeus prutah. From Hendin's old stock
SYRIA, Laodicea ad Mare. Septimius Severus & Julia Domna, /Marsyas. I just thought it was a comfy-looking coin, one suitable for being a pocket piece (well... purse piece, and in a flip rather than rattling around bumping up against modern change )
GAUL, Nemausus. Augustus & Agrippa dupondius. Can't have too many COL NEMs, right? This was a much-needed upgrade. The old one is a keeper but mostly for its pedigree.

Roman Republican, Imperatorial, and Imperial
ROMAN REPUBLIC, M. Aurelius Cotta. AR denarius, /Hercules driving a centaur biga. I actively collect coins with unusual modes of transportation.
ROMAN REPUBLIC, C. Plutius. AR denarius, /Dioscuri. This was just a whim. I hadn't bought any coins on eBay in a couple of years and was in the mood, plus the portrait of Roma was nice.
ROMAN REPUBLIC, Lucius Aurelius Cotta, fourree serrate denarius with Vulcan /eagle.
ROMAN REPUBLIC, Q. Crepereius M.f. Rocus. AR serrate denarius; Amphitrite/Poseidon in hippocamp biga. This was a major score and is definitely in the year's top ten
ROMAN REPUBLIC, M. Piso M.f. Frugi. AR denarius; terminal bust of Mercury. An unexpected find at a incredibly low price, which helps offset the numerous times I overpaid this year .
THE POMPEIANS, L. Cornelius Lentulus and C. Claudius Marcellus. AR denarius; Triskeles with Medusa/Jupiter standing. A wonderful type. Scroll up a post in the provided link to read Zumbly's writeup of the type.
JULIA DOMNA, AR denarius. /Fecunditas (or Tellus) and the Four Seasons. This was a great score. I'd tried in vain for this coin a year before, bidding much higher than planned and still losing. Happily, I was able to acquire it this year for much less than I bid last year! It's my favorite type of Domna denarius.
LUCILLA, AR denarius, /Pudicitia. Because the portrait is exceptional and the coin is just lovely.
DIOCLETIAN follis. From my 2016 Secret Saturn; a fantastic and generous gift!
COMMEMORATIVE SERIES UNDER CONSTANTINE I, Milvian Bridge (maybe ). A great "story coin".

...

Thanks for the coinpliments, everyone! I think my favorites are mostly in line with everyone else's. The crab hat is probably my overall favorite. Things have finally settled down and today I might put some thought into a top ten list, although the moment has sort of passed .

 

It is still 2016 for a couple more days!

Great job selecting all these and successfully running the Clio gauntlet.

 

Judging from your comments, I suspect I would agree with most of your ten favorites. Yours are a rare combination of interesting types and high grade. So many of us go for anything high grade or can ignore ugliness completely if the interest is there. Your selections are well balanced.

 

Admit it: Wouldn't we all like to see Clio's post of his top ten? I hope he will have a book someday. I have only lost a couple coins to him so his name is not so much a four letter word to me.

 

Superb collection of 2016! My greatest congratulations!!!
My favorite is EL Pigasus from Mytilene. The same type with your Phocaea hekte with Silenos mask I have tryed to purchase at Roma XII, but was 1 step overbidded at room... Best wishes for 2017!