My First Ancient, Impulse Buy, Julian II 360-363 Ae3 Nummus

Sounds like you are looking for some Severan Denarii and some Antonininanii.
PM sent.

Well compared to the other guys, I would be inclined to grab up the coin for $72. The coin granted is common, but these 4th century bronze are scarce and sought after in high grades. The fact that its slabbed MS makes it worth more than it ever will be out of the slab. Honest I'm not a huge fan of slabs, I have freed coins and I have encapsulated coins (all ancient). I would certainly buy this coin and if I were you I would try my darndest to equal that coin on your next purchase and people will tip their hats to your ancient collection.

yeah, I would say for the condition, that price isn't really unreasoanble.

You can get these much cheaper but this requires vigilance, patience (by the bucketload) and confidence in authenticity - and you'll have no slab with it. An excellent way to get one of these really cheap is to buy it uncleaned - the major investment there is time.

All ancients are for handling, with few exceptions (crystallised siliquae, mint state gold, museum grade rarities etc), so I recommend you pick up a few 'loose' coins. A good chunky 3rd century ant can be had for £20 on a bad day (my record is under £5 for a lot which included a Gordian III ant) and they can be handled to your hearts content. If you see something you like, post a picture here and we'll be able to tell you its authenticity.

You can learn a lot about the coming and going of facial hair fashion in the Roman period via the coinage.

Early Roman emperors are beardless; the early Romans copied the ancient Greeks after they conquered Greek territory. The first bearded emperor was Hadrian, who apparently had a skin condition that meant he preferred not to shave. Of course, once the emperor went around bearded, everyone else did too, and the beard soon became a badge of office of the emperor. There are even examples of people who became emperor while still very young, whose coins show a beard even though they were physically too young to grow one. Beards did not disappear from the coinage until the time of Constantine.

An exception to the "nobody wore beards" in Greek culture were the philosophers; a beard was in effect part of their uniform. Emperor Marcus Aurelius fancied himself a philosopher in the Stoic tradition, so you find him with a long, philosopher's beard on his coins.

Julian II also fancied himself as a philosopher so, as part of his "pagan revival", wore a very prominent bead on his coinage.


You might find this graph I drew up some time ago to be of interest. It show the typical fineness of the Roman denarius/antoninianus over time:





We don't really know what kind of coins Judas was likely to have received, or even if they were thirty actual coins or an amount of money that weighed thirty shekels. The coins usually sold as "Judas coins" are the Shekels of Tyre, as it is known that the Jewish Temple authorities preferred payment in these, rather than the more debased Roman coinage.

Needless to say, any coin that can be marketed as a "Biblical coin" can command a hefty premium over a coin that is equally old and scarce that didn't get a mention in the Bible. If you want 30 of them, be prepared to pay thousands of dollars.


The Vikings mainly stole and used other people's silver - Viking silver hoards contain anything and everything, including Islamic silver dirhams all the way from North Africa. But they did make a few very scarce coin types in Denmark and Norway itself, many of which depict their famous longships. Ironically, we had someone post one just recently.

Of course, "Viking" is a broad term. You can include coins the Viking colonists in Ireland and England issued, which are cheaper and more readily available then the Scandinavian types.

Just because something is slabbed doesn't mean that it is authentic. On ebay they have slabbed very poor quality coins that are worth about 50p each. Checkout the labels on the slabs to make sure they come from a quality company. Good luck, looking forward to your next coin.

Thanks for the tip on the Hungarian Pengo. 21 digits being dropped in a revaluation is crazy.


As for the ancient I bought in this thread, I finally received it in hand. Great looking coin in hand. Probably going to buy a silver denarius next, no hurries though.

If your one of those guys who only collects "Romans" then one of these will seal the deal for you as well.

Roman Republic
First Meris, Amphipolis Macedon 1st district of Macedonia.