Acg's Top 25 Roman Coins

ACG I like both #8 and #9!

#8 has some cool details! Congrats on the cleaning job! I know from experience how great it is to have a coin that you have personally conserved!

I have a couple of coins that I may someday "conserve/clean" some more. I decided to wait for my cleaning skills to develop more before I push the coins further. A couple I just stuck back in olive oil. Figure if I check on the coin every so often that it can't hurt. Nice cleaning job! Its up to you if you want to push the coin more.

#9 is a cool campgate; really like the reverse!

Nice campgate. And from London to boot. I love the campgate reverse and I have several. I would like to try to accumulate enough for a semblance of a sub-category collection (I know there are a ton when workshops are included). Anyway, nice coin.

yacg,

I wish I new more about these coin's, I'm just a noob, that's what my son call's me, but i"m a fast learner.
Once again you bring an eye popper, Looks like a very thick coin, great color, smooth surface, I like very much....

That was a good post doug. I learned some new things from it. I had no idea that SNG was a collection and not meant to be a reference like RIC or Moushmov. I also had no idea that the die cutters in the provincial regions had such freedom over their works! There are many more gods, goddesses, buildings, items, and scenes on provincials than on the imperial issues. Does this freedom play a part in the seemingly endless reverse types we see? I mean, were the die engravers responsible for the coin designs or was the local magistrate the one who decided what was to be put on them?

In my archaeology class we did an exercise where we were supposed to try and categorize about 50 different projectile points. Some groups had trouble separating them because they did not think the differences between the tips was enough to warrant a new category. I, on the other hand, could not stop separating them!. If one was not a similar size to another I separated them. Same goes for the overall shape and the type of rock that was used to fabricate the point. Other groups were somewhere in between mine and the other I mentioned above. Anyways, the professor told us that there exists a spectrum of people: lumpers and splitters. I am a splitter, and it is a flaw that I am working on correcting. I guess it flows over into my coin collecting. I see a difference and I automatically assume that it is a separate type altogether. It's just who I am, but like I said I am trying very hard to come to the middle ground where I should be.

Ok so now that my wild tangent is over, I guess I will go ahead and enter this coin into my database as Moushmov 5407. If someone finds out later that I am wrong, feel free to yell at me.

Actually Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum is a collection of collections. Following the SNG you will see a word, here Copenhagen, that specifies this is from the set on the Danish National Collection. I only have two volumes of that set (#7 Cyprus to India and #2 Thrace and Macedonia) which are huge 11x15" but thin volumes. I also have SNG Turkey 1 which is a smaller format and covers a nice collection of mostly small silvers which are harder to find in catalogs that the popular larger coins. There are many other sets. What is included is generally what the person forming the collection thought was worthwhile or had the chance to buy. Sometimes there are several identical coins (my collection has duplicates and so did the king of Denmark's) but usually there are just representative samples of what is known to exist so it would be a matter of luck to find an exact match of a coin you own unless it is a common type with little variation. Most Provincials are neither common or consistent when it comes to things like legend placement details.

Mouchmov, Moushmov, Mushmoff and a few other transliterations of the Bulgarian scholar's name wrote many works on coins so you need to be a little aware of which work is being quoted. I assume that the work quoted is Ancient Coins of the Balkan Peninsula but the man was a prolific writer so you may find references to other works. He listed thousands of coins known to him but more have been discovered since so finding a coin not listed does not mean that you can send the kids to college from the profit. I don't own that book but probably should since I do collect a lot of what it covers.

A good but not anyways near complete ancient numismatic library would be several thousand books in a dozen languages including some languages that have changed enough since the book was written than modern readers might have some troubles and a few I suspect no one here reads. The problem we all face is figuring out which books are worth owning and which are more collectible curiosities. My oldest coin book is 1752, cost me $10 at a used book store which is considerably more than its value as numismatic education but considerably less than its value as a curiosity. It would be quite possible to give up collecting coins altogether and just buy books.

#11:


Helena, Antioch 328 - 329 A.D.

Obv: FL HELENA AVGVSTA, diademed and mantled bust with necklace right
Rev: SECVRITAS REIPVBLICE, Securitas standing left lowering branch in left hand, raising globe in right. Δε in right field
•SMANT in exergue.

I apologize for the poor lighting and bad background in this picture. This is the sellers image, not mine. I have not had a chance to take my own. Anyways, this is my only coin of Helena.

#12:


Julia Domna, Rome 196 - 211 A.D.

Obv: IVLIA AVGVSTA, bare headed and draped bust right
Rev: VESTAE SANCTAE, Vesta standing right, holding patera and a scepter

This coin was the first ever silver Denarius I bought. The pictures do not do it justice.

Very nice! I like the profile a lot; artistic hair details!