Galba As: The Myth, The Man, The Model?

Nice coin. It actually has pretty good detail. I think coins from this period are often very worn because they weren't perpetually devaluing the currency, so coins stayed in circulation a long time rather than being melted down or hoarded.

This coin was in the Westbury Sub Mendip (Somerset) Hoard. It contained 188 silver denari from Mark Antony (32-31BC) to Septimius Severus (AD193). The Mark Anthonys (which were the lowest grade silver) were in circulation for 225 years, this Galba 125 years.

Over the next 100 years, the denarius was heavily debased - lots of large hoards appeared, full of uncirculated antoniniani, with most of the coins coming from the previous 20-30 years rather than 225.

Galba Denarius, 68-69

Rome. Silver, 17mm, 3g. Bare head of Galba right, IMP SER GALBA AVG. Oak wreath; S P Q R, OB C S (RCV I, 2109).

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.

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.

"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).

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.

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.

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.

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!