Roman Coins - Coin Community Forum

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Author	Replies: 9 / Views: 3,996
billytk New Member United States 17 Posts	Posted 07/19/2009 8:33 pm I have 2 Roman coins that have been in my family for a long time. I need help identifying them & would like to know if they are worth anything. Edited by billytk 07/19/2009 8:47 pm Report this Post to the Staff

pls Rest in Peace United States 1729 Posts	Posted 07/19/2009 11:26 pm Sap will probably chime in here pretty quickly, so as soon as he does you can ignore my speculations ... but I can't make any sense of the letters. Might they both be "barbarians", or coins minted in the areas at the edge of the Roman empire to look like Roman coins, and passed as such? The coin in the middle looks cast to me, not struck. You also need to post coin diameters, in millimeters, to help in identification. Report this Post to the Staff
Sap Moderator Australia 16832 Posts	Posted 07/20/2009 03:44 am #1/4: without a diameter, it's difficult to be certain, but it looks like a bronze sestertius of Domitian, Sear #2780, reverse type the goddess Minerva standing holding spear, other hand on side. Cos 8 Des 9 of Domitian equates to the year 82 AD. I don't know what the huge flan crack will do to the value, but it's probably still worth $100 or so if genuine. #2/3: This one's quite a famous design, a sestertius struck in 33 AD in the name of Drusus Caesar, son of the emperor Tiberius. Sear #1793. Unfortunately, this one's very badly pitted, and I can;t tell whether the pitting is from corrosion or from being cast. Again, it's probably worth $100 or so if real. 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 Report this Post to the Staff
echizento Moderator United States 23731 Posts	Posted 07/20/2009 10:31 am They both appear to be genuine to me, but not in great condition. I'm surprised the Domitian coin is still in one piece with that large of a crack. Report this Post to the Staff
billytk New Member United States 17 Posts	Posted 07/20/2009 6:01 pm The second coin is badly pitted unfortunately. I LOVE this coin! My grandfather picked these up during the 1st world war. I will never sell them but it surprises me that coins that are almost 2000 years old such little value. Does anyone know what they were(nickel,dime,quarter,dollar)? Edited by billytk 07/20/2009 6:10 pm Report this Post to the Staff
Sap Moderator Australia 16832 Posts	Posted 07/20/2009 10:07 pm Quote: My grandfather picked these up during the 1st world war. An interesting family heirloom then. Do you know how/where he found them? I've heard lots of stories of soldiers in Europe and especially in Egypt and the Middle East, finding ancient coins in the bottom of shell craters they were sheltering in. A friend of mine wears an Alexander the Great silver tetradrachm his grandfather found in this manner, which was made into an amulet. Quote: ...it surprises me that coins that are almost 2000 years old such little value. These are actually quite expensive for ancient coins in this condition; sestertii are quite popular because of their size, and because they often have designs of historical interest on them. Other ancient coins are far cheaper; coins from the Late Roman period (the time of Constantine the Great and his successors, c. 300-350 AD) can be bought for just a few dollars each. Quote: Does anyone know what they were (nickel, dime, quarter, dollar)? If they're fairly large, as I suspect, then the denomination is called a sestertius, as I mentioned before. The sestertius was the primary monetary unit of account in ancient Rome. There were 4 sestertii to the denarius (a silver coin about the size of a dime, only thicker), and a denarius was a day's wages for an unskilled labourer. The Roman gold coin was the aureus, and there were 25 denarii to the aureus, so your sestertii were worth 1/100th of an aureus - the world's first decimal currency, though the Romans hadn't planned it that way. For subdivisions, half a sestertius was a dupondius, a quarter-sestertius was an as; further fractions were also made, though by the time this coin was issued they were rarely encountered. If you're curious about what your coins would have been worth "back then" in terms of buying power, I recommend reading this article on the Doug Smith website. 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 Report this Post to the Staff
billytk New Member United States 17 Posts	Posted 07/21/2009 4:45 pm Sorry, I never thought to ask him. All I know was that he got them when he was in the German army in WW1. He passed quite a few years ago so I guess I'll never know. Report this Post to the Staff
pls Rest in Peace United States 1729 Posts	Posted 07/21/2009 6:31 pm And I will chime in with specific thanks to Sap for the enlightening coin lesson. Obviously I have some studying to do ... Report this Post to the Staff
Sap Moderator Australia 16832 Posts	Posted 07/21/2009 9:27 pm Oh, and here's an example of what the second coin would've looked something like when it was new. As you can see, condition makes all the difference in value - that one sold for US$40,000. 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 Report this Post to the Staff
billytk New Member United States 17 Posts	Posted 07/22/2009 5:20 pm Wow! That coin is beautiful. Still, even if my coin was in that condition, I'm not sure I would sell it. I have grown quite fond of it. Report this Post to the Staff
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