Got Another Valentinian II

Your picture is better than the seller's. Nice.

Thanks guys!
And bobby, about the youthful-looking bust, well that brings me to a question: how are they able to tell if a Val coin is Val I or Val II? Would it be that if the bust looks young, it would be Val II?

A trick: At that time it was considered a sign of higher station if the obverse legend on your coins was broken with a gap over the head. Valentinian I was never less the #1 full honors Augustus so his legends are always broken. Valentinian II was a kid when he was made Augustus and most of his coins show a continuous arc of legend with no break at the top. He had some broken ones near the end but by then they were all reverses never used by Valentinian I. Starting with Valentinian's dynasty they stopped making kids Caesar and gave them the full title of Augustus but the legend splits show whether a coin comes from the time that the ruler was actually ruling or just a 'name' on a coin. This trick also works for Gratian whose first coins are continuous and last ones are split legend.

The best way to identify any coin of this period is to look up the reverse type and see who used that reverse. You need not consider a ruler who did not use a type so you can often narro it down to a couple or three with little effort. The easy place to do this research is Warren Esty's site:
http://esty.ancients.info/ricix/

Constantius II types were used by his Caesars Constantius Gallus and Julian II who were always shown with a bare head and a legend ending in some abbreviation of Noble Caesar. Julian's name is different enough that you can usually get a letter or two and know the coin is his. Gallus is only confused with Constantius II by those who forget that any form of diadem or other headgear means the coin belongs to Constantius II. I am shocked at how many dealers have trouble with that one.

Thanks!

A good bit of advice - if only most sellers used these types of things when IDing later coins. If they were all accurate though I bet fewer bargains could be found, I guess its a double edged sword!

Price-wise I have no idea Jango, as said before these coins are all new to me, interested to see what others say though!

Since I started the guess game, I should also play along with yours, right? I dunno, I haven't looked at Val II coins in a long time. I have three Val II coins, each of which I paid under $5, but they are not in the same great shape as yours. So let me guess. $15 plus shipping?

That's a fair price, especially when you consider the amount of time it takes to attribute, restore, list, and ship out a coin. It can be disheartening to put so much effort into it and end up not making anything. But, sometimes you win, sometimes you don't.

Thanks guys.