Leaning Towards The Posthumous

Coin Project does not have a good Heraclea but they have a perfect Nicomedia which has 5 fingers with one obviously a thumb.

http://www.coinproject.com/coin_det...?coin=288659

I will alter my search. I've been looking for 5 fingered hands but hadn't thought to match the mint. I did find one from antioch at http://www.cerberuscoins.com/Posthu...ch-Mint.html for way less, but it isn't quite as nice. The hunt is on!

Looking at my old stock, I see this one bought in 2003 which I had catalogued as Cyzicus SMKE but looking again I suspect it may be SMHE as well and does appear to be a five finger model.

Fingers or not, I see detail and centering making it a better coin than the $187 model.

Time for an ugly fact: Much of what you find online come through the graces of some of our larger coin dealers. To be worth their time, common coins have to be exceptionally well preserved like the Nicomedia I linked. Even the big non-profit sites like Wildwinds, acsearch and Coin Project rely on the input of coins offered for sale by the CNG class dealers whose cheap coins are in three digits. As a result, it is easier to find information on rare and expensive coins than it is on the sort of things that most of us collect. There are exceptions. Warren Esty has a great site on the late Roman coins that fall into RIC volume IX. There are specialty sites about Gallienus, Probus and a few other common rulers. Back in the day of printed price lists received in the mail, I used to complain that every coin offered of Pescennius Niger was illustrated but none of the Septimius Severus were so I had trouble learning about the coins I was interested in. It is a matter of where the money is. Nothing has changed but the format.

If you want to help change this, do the research and post a site on the death commemoratives of Constantine. Show examples from each mint and discuss little things like the finger counts or way the head was draped that might help ID coins without mintmarks. Tel us which mints are easy to find and which ones are rare. Tell us which mints did good work and which were hack jobs. You have already noted that it is a lot harder to find a nice Heraclea than it is an Antioch. There are places offering free hosting for such educational numismatic sites (my pages are on space provided by Forvm Ancient Coins). I do warn that this will cost you money since you will find yourself buying coins not that you want but that you 'need' for the sake of your website. Since 1997 when my first page went up, I suspect at least a quarter of my purchases were made with that in mind at least partially. Last night I bought another coin because I thought it woud be really good for the website and I haven't been updating my site much for several years. I warn you that it is an addiction just like the coins themselves.

It is so strange to me that the reason there is little information about the more common coins is simply because nobody has ever bothered before, especially when it seems that the few people that do collect these old coins seem to be so passionate about them. I am interested in the subject, and I plan on doing some research. Since whatever I find would be an improvement over what is out there, I would be happy to share my results. It's new ground to me, but I guess the thing to do is start reading everything I can find and start compiling coins and quality images of coins. Yes, Antioch sure pumped out a lot of those, as did Cyzicus apparently. Or maybe there is some other reason there are more of those ones around today. Will be interesting to see what I can turn up.
As far as spousal apologies, I think my grandfather had it right. He didn't apologize, everything got blamed on his imaginary friend, Patrick. He was an interesting man.

Hmmm? ... my wife has a few alter-egos for stevex6, depending upon what I'm up to at the time:

*Hey you* => in a nice, soft voice, if I'm being especially sweet and/or just being me,

Sheldon => if I am deep in thought and pouring-over my coins (please don't interupt, I'm busy),

... ummm, and then of course, there is

Lenny => yah, unfortunately Lenny is the dude that comes-out when the wine is flowing and the inhibitions have been completely turned-off (Lenny can often be found striking a pose and yelling "it's show-time!!")



Saturday Morning Lenny => Saturday Morning Lenny can "always" be seen in tow, meekly following a few steps behind his spouse ... Lenny is also often seen pointing, with a fake smile on his face and a pitiful, apologetic look on his pasty-white hung-over face ...