Saturday, January 28, 2006
Silvered Æ antoninianus, Gallienus, Antioch, Göbl 1653f
GALLIENVS AVG, Radiate cuirassed bust right | VENRI VICTRICI, Venus standing left, leaning on sheld right, holding helmet left and transverse spear.
I lost an auction on a coin of Antioch issued very late in the reign of Gallienus that I really would have liked to win. Not enough that I regret my bid, but I do wish the winner hadn't outbid me.
Oh well.
Friday, January 27, 2006
Æ25, Nicaea in Bithynia, Valerian, SNG von Aulock 7065var...
(military bust left)
[ΠOY ΛI]K OYAΛEPIANOC, Radiate bust right | NIK_[AIEΩN], Dionysos standing left, holds kantharos in right hand and thyrsus with left, panther at feet left.
I find it's sort of snuck up on me, but I've got a decent number of coins from Nicaea.
[ΠOY ΛI]K OYAΛEPIANOC, Radiate bust right | NIK_[AIEΩN], Dionysos standing left, holds kantharos in right hand and thyrsus with left, panther at feet left.
I find it's sort of snuck up on me, but I've got a decent number of coins from Nicaea.
Thursday, January 26, 2006
Æ antoninianus, Gallienus, Rome, Göbl 713f
GALLIENVS AVG, Radiate head right, both ribbons behind | LIBERO·P·CONS AVG, Panther walking left. B in exergue.
As yesterday's coin portrayed Liber, today's, part of the “Zoo Series” names him. He was not, this evicence notwithstanding, a major god: these two coins are seperated by about 350 years, so they hardly represent frequent appearances.
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
Fourré denarius, imitating an issue of Q Titius, 90 BCE, Crawford 341/2
Head of Liber right, wearing ivy wreath. Line border | Pegasus right; below, in linear frame, Q·TITI.
Liber is an earlier diety who became associated with Dionysus/Bacchus.
This ancient counterfeit, which I received in a lot of uncleaned 3rd and 4th century bronze, began my interest in coins of the Roman Republic (now held back by a lack of unlimited funds.) It would have been more convincing when new, without the large bare patch of copper on the obverse or the area on the reverse where corrosion of the underlying copper has lifted the thin silver layer atop it.
Here, an equally-worn authentic coin of this type.
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
Æ27, Tyre in Phoenicia, Gallienus, unknown
IMP C P LIC GAL[LIENVS AVG], Laureate cuirassed bust right | COL TVR[O METRO], Aedicula, inside a smaller aedicula containing a statue, caryatids. Murex shell below.
Worn and with some unsettling corrosion, still I'm a sucker for apparently unpublished coins. Since there is no comprehensive catalog of provincial coins, it's impossible to be sure that it's not been published somewhere, but it's not listed in Sear, SNG Copenhagen, BMC, Cohen, Lindgen & Kovacs or Lindgren III. I don't know where else to look.
Monday, January 23, 2006
Silvered Æ antoninianus, Gallienus, Antioch, Göbl 1600b
IMP GALLIENVS AVG, Radiate cuirassed bust right | LAETITIA AVGG, Laetitia standing left, holding wreath left, leaning on anchor right.
Carelessness on my part. Having inadvertantly purchased these modern fakes and looking to get a real version, I wasn't as careful as I should have been when I saw this, failing to notice that the obverse legend is IMP GALLIENVS AVG, not IMP GALLIENVS P F AVG, and so wound up buying a duplicate of a coin I already have. No tragedy, it's a nice coin at a reasonable price, but I still haven't found a replacement for my fakes.
Sunday, January 22, 2006
Æ tetradrachm, Alexandria, Salonina, Emmett 3855(12)
KOPNHΛIA CAΛωNEINA CEB, Diademed draped bust right | IB / L, Eirene standing left, holding branch in right hand and transverse scepter with left. Palm in left field. Regnal year in right field.
Eirene is the personification of Peace, equivalent to the Roman Pax.
