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 Replies: 23 / Views: 3,140 |
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Pillar of the Community
Spain
629 Posts |
Well, imagine...
You are the mint master of one city of the roman empire.
You must produce several MILLIONS of coins per year...
but...
1.- You must have an effective control over the workers.
2.- You must control the quality of the coinage too.
so...
you need to have a great number of workers, working under supervision with masters on command.
The building in that epoch simply were not bigger enought to afford that, so you must use several buildings, each of them under the authority of one chief to be capable of minting such amounts of coins...
One example:
Under Aurelianus there was a rebellion of the workers of the mint of Roma. In the fighting died about 7.000 soldiers...
How many workers do you need to kill 7.000 soldiers?
From these numbers the workers of that mint has been calculated at about 40.000...
Not everyone coined, some of them carried the metal, the timber, other prepared the dies...
But probably there was a great number of workers acting as "malleatores" and "suppositores"...
It was more sure to control them to divide that number of workers among several buildings.
That is the reason because in some epochs, a large mint as Roma had till eleven "officinae" working together
Edited by Athalbert
03/31/2015 08:56 am
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Valued Member
 United States
129 Posts |
That's a great explanation. I appreciate it.
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Pillar of the Community
Spain
629 Posts |
I think that a coin has always a little history...
was coined with a politic message; was used to pay soldiers, farmers, slaves...
Was stolen, hidden, found...
it slept under the ground for several centuries, and finally...
itīs on your hand!
I enjoy the design of the coin, but I really love learning about the coin.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
711 Posts |
I think they are nice coins.
Just wanted to add that is a great story Athalbert.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
797 Posts |
If you are happy with the purchase, then you did great! I probably would have been very tempted after checking if I had similar ones or not. I live in an area where the very few ancients around, are severely overpriced due to the dealers around not knowing much outside of US coins. I'm in Oregon, on the west coast of the US. I've added exactly 1 ancient in the last 6 months from local purchases, kind of sad. |
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Pillar of the Community
Spain
629 Posts |
Do you know something called "INTERNET"?
itīs a kind of magic worked by fayries but it allows to you to buy coins from coin shops in every country...
Try it! (...donīt hurts).
jejeje
GLOBALIZATION
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Pillar of the Community
Spain
629 Posts |
But...
...wait for a minute!
Iīve the same problem if I want to buy old USA notes...
jejeje
I use local dealers to buy local coinage, for foreigner coins I look for foreigner dealers...
Itīs cheaper!
Edited by Athalbert
03/31/2015 2:59 pm
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Pillar of the Community
United States
513 Posts |
You can buy ancient Roman coins made all over the world on the Internet. Even the places the Romans didn't think to make them. ;)
Really though I can't imagine this hobby without being able to research online. I'd have to have one hefty library to even duplicate just what Wildwinds gives me, and it would be quite a bit slower.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1045 Posts |
I think the Valentinian example makes the lot well worth what you paid. 'Reputable dealers are offering Valentinian coins of this type from Siscia with full legends, perfectly centered strike, full mint mark and above average details for 40-80US. Just have a look at Vcoins and search "Valentinian Siscia"
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Pillar of the Community
Spain
629 Posts |
As example, for me, following Damian R. Salgado:
1) Constantius II AE3 1/4 Maiorina
Siscia, 348-350 AD
19 mm/ 2.6g
Mintmark epsilon SIS
close to RIC 243, Salgado 8665
2) City Commemorative "Constantinopolis" reverse anepigraph AE3 Centenionalis
Thessalonica, 330-337 AD
19 mm / 2.5g
Mintmark SMTS delta (T is a little corroded)
Salgado 8310-g
3) Valentinian I AE3 Centenionalis
Siscia, 364-375 AD
19mm / 2.1g
Mintmark D SISC
Obv Fieldmark * over A
Possibly RIC 7a vi or vii unpublished as referenced on wildwinds Salgado 9034-f.1.
a) your mint mark of coin nš 3 was wrong, really is DSISC so you must see again with this mint mark.
b) so, when I say "this is a centenionalis", really Iīm not exctly sure that roman called centenionalis to this coin, but Iīm sure that the others coins that I call "centenionalis" were the same denomination...
As I said before: Is not necessary to be mad to collect ancient coins, but it helps...
;D
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4971 Posts |
welcome to ancient c555. you did fine, you may have paid a bit more than many would...but they are nice coins. well centered, good details, good flans...nice coins for LRB really. very nice coins to start with. my first ancient is my avatar coin, I paid about the same price for it.
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Valued Member
United States
129 Posts |
Very interesting to see the values on VCoins for the Constantius II and the Valentinian. Good reference Biancasdad. A resource I shall bookmark for the future. chrsmat, thanks. the centering and detail caught my eye. happy to have them regardless of their dollar value. Athalbert, again I appreciate your thorough reply. I was unclear on your meaning regarding the coin three mintmark. Here is the corresponding image I found on Wildwinds, whose identification is labeled 'RIC 7a type vii unpublished.' I would amend my attributed mintmark to 'DASISc' http://wildwinds.com/coins/ric/vale...007a_vii.jpgthanks again! |
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Pillar of the Community
Spain
629 Posts |
I must say another thing about your coins...
In several years, the price that you have paid now will have no importance at all.
But these coins with their complete legends probably will remain in your collection.
Sometimes I have bought coins only for "having the type"...
Its a mistake, a roman coin must be readable
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Pillar of the Community
United States
949 Posts |
Quote:
a roman coin must be readable Except minimus coinage (reduced module) which has had its inscription sheared off, I would agree wholeheartedly with what Athalbert said here. Which is why it grieves me that most of the bronze coins, especially LRB, are in such poor grade on ebay. I just spent a couple of hours going over 1000 lots of ebay offerings, and found only 1 coin I was willing to put a bid on. The number of coins that were fully readable were few and far between. Most of the bronze I was seeing are not worth buying. Do very many on this list collect Late Roman bronze? I suspect not, precisely because of the lack of quality among the ebay offerings. So far most of what I have read about lrb purchases here relate to finds in uncleaned lots - at the bottom of the grade scale. Where are people going to get collectable late Roman bronze coins? Vcoins? Edited by lrbguy
04/07/2015 9:08 pm
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Valued Member
United States
129 Posts |
Forum Ancient Coins has some available. I believe dirty old coins sells cleaned ones as well as uncleaned, though I can't vouch for the cleaned coins. I'm happy with the uncleaned ones I've purchased from them (identifiable, some in better shape than others, but none in the condition of the three in this thread).
The three in this thread I purchased at the convention in Baltimore at the end of March. Lots of dealers who are quite patient with a newbie sifting through their boxes. Sadly, those I asked did not have online sales available.
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Replies: 23 / Views: 3,140 |
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First Page
Posted 03/31/2015 09:52 am
