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 Replies: 7 / Views: 1,186 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4253 Posts |
OK, let me show my ignorance yet once again. I have my eye on a coin for sale that is listed as "silver". In fact, the image of the coin looks very much like a silver denarius and weighs 3.0g. However, when I check my references for this coin, I can find one that is listed as "Silvered AE Antoninianus" and another listed as "Billon Antoninianus"
Before anyone can say it, I know that billon is a metal alloy containing mostly copper or bronze with a small quantity of silver. And I know when a coin is described as "silvered" it generally means a silver wash. But in this case the coin looks like solid silver and I've found reference to this coin described only as above.
Can anyone clear up my confusion?
JW
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2596 Posts |
some of the billon coins had a higher silver content and looked more silver from what I can guess. I've seen some billon coins look like they where silver.
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
2838 Posts |
Difficult without specific examples but best to keep your eyed coins a secret  Some billon coins have a much, much higher silver content than others meaning some look very much like silver and others nothing like silver. Some / most billon coins are also silvered, again depending on how well this is done the outcomes can look very different, some look like a solid silver but most, I think dont, they look coated. Depending on the coin it could also be a variant where the silver content fell very quickly over time but the coin itself (design )changed very little, this often results in some very different material looks for what is often classified as the same coin. Hopefully that makes sense - I have no data to back this up but I've noticed the Ants of Postumus can often look very different material wise. The 3rd century saw some rapid periods of debasement and upheaval so big differences in coins is not uncommon. It could also be differences in the same / similar coin in different mints, were the coins you were looking at all from the same mint and are we talking 3rd century? |
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
4253 Posts |
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Difficult without specific examples but best to keep your eyed coins a secret That is the reason I haven't mentioned or shown the coin itself. Quote:
I have no data to back this up but I've noticed the Ants of Postumus can often look very different material wise. Funny how some people can read minds even across the Atlantic. It is a Postumus coin I am watching and is due to end within the hour. There is another, a Gallienus, in the same situation which ends in a couple of days. I'm not sure I will bid, as the coins are already near my maximum. I've bought too many coins here of late so have to watch the budget you know. JW |
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
2838 Posts |
I had a sneaky feeling Postumus would be behind this  I too have spent too much lately, even if they are bargains, bought two more tonight! Think I'll see my current watch list out then give it a break for a bit. Having not bought anything for 6 months before my recent spell I must have added 25 coins in less than a month to my collection. Time to stop buying and start reading again for a bit. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4253 Posts |
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Time to stop buying and start reading again for a bit I agree with that sentiment. I have a hard time not looking, and when I look, I buy. I feel like a woman in a shoe store sometimes (figuratively speaking). I've bought probably two dozen or more coins in the past month. Time to cool my jets for a while. I hope you plan on reading about Roman coins and such. I am. I have three books my son gave me. All about the legions. They are entitled Caesar's Legion, Mark Anthony's Heroes, and Nero's Killing Machine by Stephen Collins. Historical books but written like a saga about particular legions, i.e. Caesar's Legio X, Anthony's Third Gallica, and Nero's 14th Gemina Martia Victrix. Should prove interesting and I hope factual. I will let you know. JW |
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
2838 Posts |
Yeah they'll be Roman related - I'll keep an eye out for those books, do let me know if they are worth a read. My father is a big reader so I usually just raid his library every now and then and 'withdraw' anything Roman related  Get yourself a project JW - I'm still studying Constantines Sols and I'm so glad Jamesicus got me interested in the London mint, the Tetrarchy and the Invasion Follis coins, a fascinating area. I need to spend some time understanding fully the coins I've bought recently in these areas. A lot of the time your just going over ground others have trod but it helps to numb the urge to buy and the options so vast its possible to become a big fish in a small pond quite easily. |
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Moderator
 Australia
16871 Posts |
The silver fineness of Roman coins was a continuum of gradual decrease from 95% to virtually zero, so defining the boundary between "silver" and "billon" can be fuzzy. By some definitions, any silver alloy with less than 50% silver can be defined as "billon".
Personally, there has always seemed to me to be a clear distinction at the time of the capture of Valerian - coins after his reign rarely look "silvery" and are almost always described as "billon".
"Silvered" is usually only applied to the reformed 20:1 fineness coinage of Aurelian and successors and the subsequent early follis. Silvered coins are always made of billon; the use of the word "silvered" in sales catalogues seems to be more of a description of a coin's current state of preservation, rather than a description of its original as-minted appearance. In other words, if the silver layer is still mostly or largely intact, it's described as "silvered"; if it's missing or been stripped away, it's described as "billon".
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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Replies: 7 / Views: 1,186 |
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Posted 10/18/2011 9:14 pm
