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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
725 Posts |
The Four Emperors would be quite a good set to collect. Vespasian should be pretty easy - he's one of the more available emperors before AD250. Vitellius and Otho are similar to Galba - not easy, but they do come up, so it's more a case of how imperfect you could accept their coins to be.
Edited by JohnConduitt
02/09/2022 2:37 pm
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Moderator
 Australia
16871 Posts |
The late first and early second century was the height of the Roman "hyper-realistic" art style, where emperors were portrayed on coins with near photo-realism as the goal, to the point of being rather unflattering in the case of some of the more elderly emperors. You could easily have used a coin to recognize the emperor if he chose to try to wander the streets incognito.
The "Year of the Four Emperors" coins are pricey because they combine low supply (few were made, even fewer survived the anarchy) and high demand (everybody trying to complete the popular "Twelve Caesars" collection needs one of each of the Four Emperors).
Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis
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Valued Member
 United States
319 Posts |
Sap's comment perfectly sums up my dilemma, John. It's that "hyper-realistic" style that attracts me to a specific coin. The Galba above is the best I could afford. My artist's eye would have loved to see more of the laurel crown and fleshy structure to the face...but alas, those details make the specimen more desirable and thus, more costly. I plan on creating more posts featuring coins from my modest collection. Pointing out the wonderful craftsmanship of the ancient artisans.
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
725 Posts |
Yes there's a fight between quality and price. I try to hold out for quality, although there's always a better coin out there for a bit more money than I currently have.
But what fun would it be if they were cheap and you could get all 4 in an afternoon?
Edited by JohnConduitt
02/10/2022 5:22 pm
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Pillar of the Community
Russian Federation
5181 Posts |
Quote:
But what fun would it be if they were cheap and you could get all 4 in an afternoon? "Cheap" and "could get in an afternoon" are not necessarily synonymous. You could get all the key date Lincoln cents (not counting the errors) in an afternoon easily, but you'd have to pay $$$ for them almost regardless of how much you hurry. And a lot of ancient and medieval types are the other way around - good luck finding a nice one, but even if you do it's probably not going to set you back very much. (AFAIK this is how it works for a lot of 4th/5th century types in particular.) It would have been nice if Galba, Otho, and Vitellius were in the latter category (like, say, Jovian or Severina). But at least they aren't in the former (as had essentially happened to some of the other 1st century emperors). |
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Valued Member
United States
319 Posts |
THAT would be quite the afternoon, John. Quite the afternoon indeed. An even larger struggle would be collecting the "Year of the Six Emperors"of 238 AD. *shaking head* Big money, if you want decent portraiture (as I do). Thrax is reasonable. I have a nice sestertius of him. The Gordians (l, ll, lll), Pupienus, and Balbinus...very tough! Still...the hunt is all part of the jazz!
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
725 Posts |
Gordian III is mercifully common. He's the only one I have.
Don't forget you have the Year of the Five Emperors too. Septimius Severus is the only easy one in that. Now, if you managed to complete a set of Years of the 4/5/6 Emperors...I think that's tougher than the 12 Caesars.
Edited by JohnConduitt
02/11/2022 3:09 pm
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Valued Member
United States
319 Posts |
You are right about Gordian III, John. At least in so far as price is concerned. In terms of portrait, however, this Gordian begins to slip into exaggeration and caricature. The other Gordians are better pieces of portraiture, but at a greater expense. Pupienus has some truly nice portraits, and wow, the price reflects that fact.
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
725 Posts |
Hmmm yes, Gordian III is the end of realistic portraits. Although to be fair to him, he was only 13 when he became emperor, so his face probably wasn't all that characterful.
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Valued Member
United States
319 Posts |
True, John. The portraits of Gordian III are all very youthful. The normal features of most teenagers are exaggerated in reality. Caricatures, if you will, of their adult selves. I'm sure I will eventually find an example of Gordian III that I can't resist, but my next target is a Domitian.
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Pillar of the Community
Russian Federation
5181 Posts |
You probably couldn't guess what I managed to acquire today... just joking, by it being in this thread you can probably guess automatically. Hoping I didn't get swindled by a fake.   18x17 mm, 2.82 grams. Can't give you the RIC number because there's a lot of very similar (to me) looking bust types, but it's probably the DIVA AVGVSTA reverse. I paid 4500 rubles (~$54 on that day), which makes it my second most expensive purchase (in rubles; in dollars it's the third most expensive). Certainly a lot better than my first most expensive (which was basically a dud - not even a fake, just a probably-misattributed coin). I apologize for the photo quality (and the multicolored glare) - not my pics and not on my camera. Would try to take pics with my usual method later. |
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
725 Posts |
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It's probably the DIVA AVGVSTA reverse. Yes I would say it is definitely DIVA AVGVSTA. The obverse legend is IMP SER GALBA CAESAR AVG, so with a right-facing bust it's either RIC 186 or 189. The only difference between those is that Galba is draped in 189, which is a bit difficult to tell. I would guess RIC 189 as there seems to be some drapery to the right. |
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Valued Member
United States
319 Posts |
Nice coin. Even worn as it is, $54 is somewhat of a bargain for a Galba. Some obverse legend...a discernable portrait of this gritty, military man. Not bad, January1. Not bad at all!
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Pillar of the Community
Russian Federation
5181 Posts |
Quote:
The obverse legend is IMP SER GALBA CAESAR AVG, so with a right-facing bust it's either RIC 186 or 189. The only difference between those is that Galba is draped in 189, which is a bit difficult to tell. I would guess RIC 189 as there seems to be some drapery to the right. That does sound correct. There's apparently a lot of portrait variants and I hadn't realized (at least until your comment) how exactly they are distributed into RIC 186 or 189. (I assumed it had to do with some kind of face style.) It does look like there's probably some drapery, but I'm not very confident either. Do you think it's worth at least as much as I paid? And if yes, how much is it worth? My initial impression from looking prices up was that finding any Galba coin for anywhere near that cheap is extremely unlikely, and then it would probably be copper. But I wasn't able to find a lot of (any, really) online examples with a known price in anywhere near such a low grade. |
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Valued Member
United States
319 Posts |
January1, my Galba is an AE As and is 28mm. Quite a bit larger than your silver. The portrait is good, but as you can see...isn't great on detail. If I remember correctly, I paid nearly $200 for it. That was the top of my spending limit. I looked at a lot of Galba's before settling on the coin I acquired. All are expensive. Some are astronomical! Here are a few examples of coins like the one you purchased. This one is similar in wear...and is running in the $140 range.  Here is a silver with better detail...running about $350.  And this denarius is clocked at going over 800?!  So...$54...ain't bad! |
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Posted 02/09/2022 7:30 pm
