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 Replies: 16 / Views: 4,246 |
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Valued Member
United States
422 Posts |
Well my first ancient arrived today. It was in   a lot of 13 coins my brother sent me for Christmas. He used a gun brass cleaning machine to 'help' me along. It did clean them up some but they still need some help. The first is not the best of the lot, but it is the cleanest. I am currently waiting on the Rochelle Salt solution to clean the rest. So here we go. I believe it is a Constantine. It is 18.5mm. I do not have a scale yet so I don't know its weight. The obverse says DNCONSTAN and then its cut off and then picks up again where I can actually read it, I think, PAVTE. On the reverse it has a guy with a spear, sticking a guy on a horse I think. Upper left I think it reads FEUT (or a Y)ENP and a the bottom it looks like ASTRM. Also the coin was damaged prior to cleaning with two slashes across the coin. I looked at a lot of Constantine coins and couldn't come up with a match. Any help would be appreciated. Edited by oxos
12/28/2011 9:59 pm
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4778 Posts |
Its actually a Constantius II, one of Constantine I's sons. "CONSTAN" on the left continues to the right of the bust with "TIVS" and the legend finishes with PF AVG which means "pius felix Augustus" (I believe that in English it is "dutiful and happy Augustus"). Also Constantine I coin reverses do not include the fallen horseman reverse. On the reverse ASIRM is the mint, which is Sirmium. And the main legend on the reverse is FEL TEMP REPARATIO, which means "restoration of happy times".
Edited by VisigothKing
12/28/2011 10:12 pm
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Valued Member
 United States
422 Posts |
Thank you JangoFett! That was quick. I would suspect this a pretty common coin then?
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4253 Posts |
Well you have a Fel Temp for your first coin. A good coin to cut your teeth. The obverse reads Constan-tivus P F AVG. This means it is not a Constantine I but rather a Constantius II. I believe the RIC identification is Sirmium RIC VIII 52: Constantius II AE3. 351-355 AD. D N CONSTANTIVS P F AVG, diademed, draped, cuirassed bust right / FEL TEMP REPARATIO, soldier advancing left, spearing fallen horseman (reaching type), ASIRM dot in ex. I believe I see a dot at the end of the mintmark. Check out wildwinds link: http://wildwinds.com/coins/ric/cons...viii_052.jpg |
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Valued Member
United States
422 Posts |
Also, what year would that have been minted? Thanks again.
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Moderator
 United States
23731 Posts |
Congrats on getting your first coins/
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4778 Posts |
Yes they are very plentiful. But yours is in better than average shape, so good on ya. Also, I don't have a a coin from Sirmium yet, so again, good on ya. Overall a coin I wouldn't mind having, so nice find!
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4778 Posts |
As sole Augusus, anytime between 350 and 361.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4778 Posts |
Nvm jw got the years of mintage already
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4253 Posts |
So now that you are officially an Ancient's collector, you will need to learn how to attribute your coins as you get them. I know that http://www.wildwinds.com is not complete, but it is a good starting point. The reverse will more than the obverse narrow your search down. Like in this coin, once you know it is Constantius II, go to wildwinds and look for all coins with a Fel Temp reverse. Next, if you can read the minmark, in this case SIRM, you know its Sirmium. Just scroll down to the Sirmium minted coins looking at the Fel Temp until you find one like your coin. Again, I will say wildwinds is not complete and is not the end all if you can't find your coin, but it's a good place to start. |
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Valued Member
United States
422 Posts |
Yep, that's the guy JW! I think most of these coins are late as I have a Chrispus as well, but we'll have to wait to see that one until I clean it better. Thanks guys! I knew it would be exciting hold part of the ancient world and it is. Looking forward to many more attributions. I would assume JW you have the complete set of RIC? You always are ready to offer the RIC numbers very quickly. Thanks again guys!
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4778 Posts |
I just use mainly Wildwinds and Helveticas (very useful, sometimes more so than Wildwinds, at least for me).
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Valued Member
United States
422 Posts |
JW, I have been using the Ancient Coin Sales to look them up by Emperor. I haven't used wildwinds because I really didn't know how to use it. Thanks for the advice. I certainly want to do the attributions myself eventually, but you guys are like computers. Quick!
And yes for an uncleaned Roman this one turned out with a lot of detail. The others I got also have good detail, but I still have to clean them some more to remove spots of crud that that are blocking some of the lettering or busts. But I can see a lot of detail around the crud, so this was a good experience with uncleans.
Thanks again.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4253 Posts |
wildwinds is very easy. When you go on the title page select "Emperial Coin age by Ruler". Then just pick out which ruler you are looking for. If you don't know the ruler, as is sometimes the case, you may have to take a stab at several different rulers. Another site would be http://www.dirtyoldcoins.com. You can do basically the same, but they also have a feature where if you only know a part legend, you can enter that and it will narrow down the search. Try both of these sites. I'm going to start a new thread in a few minutes where I do not know the ruler for sure and I need some help. Watch for it. |
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Valued Member
United States
422 Posts |
Once again JW, a wealth of information! Thanks again.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1549 Posts |
The harsh cleaning and cut make the value of a common coin minimal but it is what it is and that is a fully identifiable coin of the middle of the 4th century. You might find some interest here: http://www.forumancientcoins.com/do...ith/ftr.htmlI encourage you not to clean coins with gun techniques. If the coin had been of value, you could easily have cut it to a small fraction with such harsh techniques. |
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Replies: 16 / Views: 4,246 |
Posted 12/28/2011 10:12 pm
