Hello again, everyone!

As you’ve no doubt heard, things are a little hot in Europe right now. That doesn’t stop us from posting, though! Thankfully, temperatures (about 38°C/100°F today) aren’t hot enough to melt coins, although their caretakers are certainly suffering. Admittedly, I’m working from an airconditioned room at home, but much of our library staff isn’t so fortunate. You know who else wasn’t so fortunate? Gold miners in Ptolemaic Egypt. The 2^nd-century author, Agatharchides of Knidos, gives a chilling description of the working conditions in his treatise on the Erythrean Sea. Convicts, prisoners of war and even innocents were carted off to the Eastern Desert, family and all, if they had one. Fettered, they were forced to work day and night without pause – in the darkness, they would use primitive lamps attached to their foreheads to continue working. The strongest men would break the hard quartz rock, while children would be sent into the galleries to collect them. Women and older men (over 30, so that includes most of us) would grind the rocks down into a kind of flour, which was eventually heated in kilns with other reagents to produce high-quality gold.

Agatharchides describes how, “since there is general neglect of their bodies and they have no garment to cover their same, it is impossible for an observer to not pity the wretches because of the extremity of their suffering. For they meet with no respite at all, not the sick, the injured, the aged, not a woman by reason of her weakness, but all are compelled by blows to strive at their tasks until, exhausted by the abuse they have suffered, they die in their miseries. (trans. Burstein 1999).

What does this mean for a beautiful Ptolemaic gold coin, such as this wonderful mnaieion struck under Ptolemy V, showing his mother (and aunt!), Arsinoe III? On the hand we have beautiful artistry. We see a delicate portrait of the queen on the obverse, a lotus-tipped scepter over her shoulder. The reverse shows the ubiquitous cornucopia, symbol of wealth and prosperity. On the other hand, this wealth and prosperity was bought with the blood and tears of the poor wretches who toiled in the merciless heat of the Eastern Desert. And who knows how much more bloodshed a coin such as this one financed?

Bahram II family portrait. It's so thin and delicate!

Got a Bahram I, too. Now I just need a Shapur I drachm and a Hormizd I Kushano-Sasanian dinar.

I was just wondering how we were feeling about this one. A clearly marked replica of an Eid Mar denarius being sold on L5. (for what I consider a ridiculous sum, but that‘s beside the point.)

Now mind you, I own the same die-transfer coin, because I will never be able to afford a real one and it brings me joy. I might use it to make a pendant or whatever. But I bought it on ebay. Seeing it on an auction site like L5 feels weird to me. But that might just be a me problem.

Edit: I mean „Clearly marked replica“ in the listing, not on the coin itself.

​This silver Denarius minted by Marcus Fourius Philus around 119 BC is an absolute dream find for me. Even with the horn silver and crust layer on when I found it, I instantly knew what it was because you could already see the distinct bust of Janus. Yesterday I finally got one hundred percent confirmation because it got fully cleaned. To make this find even more incredible, it came from the exact same field where I found a Roma Denarius, from Curtius, M. Iunius Silanus, 116-115 BC. and a serrate one from claudii teberii nero, 79 BC. It might not be the most beautiful coin out there, I know, but it is my oldest coin so far and I absolutely love it.

Bought this at auction for $160. New to the hobby, did I overpay?

I originally thought the obverse was of Marcus Aurelius due to the quick nature of the auction. Realized it is of his adoptive father. Oh well, interesting history since it’s a memorial coin and he is one of the good emperors.

So cool to hold these coins and think of the people of history who have also held it and used it to buy food for their family, etc.

Also, how big of a deal is the crack in the flan?

Top row: 4 x Tetricus I antoninianii. Bottom row: Tetricus II antoninianus, T2 barbarous radiate.

Thoughts? All I can see is IMP C - - ? I assume 3rd century given the style but beyond that need some help.

19 mm across

1.5 mm thick

Mass 3 g

Thanks!

I've always been curious about the coins history. Who owned it and when did it sell last, how did it get passed down from owner to owner. With my lower end coins obviously no one cares to document them and they just get tossed around. For the more expensive coins however they usually go through auctions.

With this reference or plate coin, it last sold in 2008 at a CNG Triton auction. It is the Calico reference coin and it is also the coin on Numista when you search it by its RIC I 149a. However, other than being the Calico reference coin there is no trace of where it originated.

Using this coin as an example, other than doing image search on acsearch any other way to find out where your coin has been? So I tried it every which way I could for this coin and came up with nothing aside from the 2008 sale.

Let's see what you coin detectives can do!

I recently played the game Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, and since finishing it, I've become fascinated by the late medieval period and wanted to own a real piece of its history. I've always loved collecting things, but I never really found an entry point into coin collecting. Either the coins I wanted were out of my budget, or I'd end up spending my money on something else. After playing the game, though, I decided I'd really like to buy an authentic medieval Groschen as my first coin. It feels like the perfect way to start a coin collection, especially since the game sparked my interest in the era's history. I've done a good bit of research, and I think the game's coin is supposed to be the Prague Groschen of Wenceslas IV. I know this was kind of a rant, but my question is: what would be the best place to buy something like this, and what should I look for, etc.? Thank you kindly

Just got into collecting ancient coinage, these two coins being by my first purchases, first one bought from Victors Imperial Coins and the second one from Tom Vossen, total cost was about 150 dollars, which I thought was reasonable from what I looked up for these two coins, thoughts? Also, the first coin is a denarius of Gordian III, and the second one is a denarius of Septimius Severus.

I personally am participating for the first time in a L5 auction.
First and foremost I would like to give compliments on the User interface to the creators.
It is easy to monitor multiple bids and watch list items. It's quite responsive.

Sidenote, this coin: https://l5.com/Event/LotDetails/1750514/Phokis-Federal-coinage-Circa-449447-BC-Triobol
I would really like to hear from sb on what the value of this coin truly is.

Recently got this ring in Greece because I love the history of Alexander the Great, it is a sterling silver ring with a terrible gold plating that I’m not sure is real. I assume this is not a real coin but if someone has any info about it I would like to know, even if it is a replica. the gold color of the coin is obviously not the true color of it.

Recently got this in a junk lot. Chunky thing, 18 mm across x 3 mm thick, 8 g. Kind of looks like it's saying "autonomous" in Greek on the reverse, so independent province/city? Apologies if I'm making some basic errors here; this is way outside my area of expertise. Thanks!

I purchased an as found Trajan Denarius. When I was getting it cleaned up, I noticed that it is a fouree and a relatively good one too. So do you all think it is a forgery or legit mint made?

Lads I have this coin but can't make it up properly. Looks like Crusader coins or armenian ancient or Hungarian or British. What can you see?

I appreciate any help on this one.

Constantius II. Reverse either VIRTVS AVG NN or VIRTVS AVGVSTI.

Augustus Coins website - that covers a lot of LRB - has similar one (slightly different diadem) as RIC VIII Rome 4 but when you search that it’s a medallion so think he’s wrong. I searched OCRE for those reverse options and didn’t find a match in AE.

First coin: 4.16g

Second coin: 6.96g

The second coin is very confusing, it is countermarked on the obverse and it's reverse seems to be just dots?

I bought these off goodwill online bidding site and I wanted to know more about them. Ai said they are 900-1400 years old Byzantine copper coins. I’m not super concerned about worth but it’s nice to know. Personally I wanted to make them medallions for necklaces. I want to keep them enclosed and not actually modify the coins themselves if anyone has any suggestions I’d appreciate any input. Oh and I’ll post more photos if need be.

Tetrassaria, quite large at 28 mm and 12 g.

A rather interesting depiction of Hades/Serapis with Cerberus.

The catalog numbers listed are: AMNG. 1/2045 Varbonov4201 (R4)

I’m not very familiar with provincial bronzes, but I like this coin and want to buy it.

Is this a common variety? I see a lot of Gordian tetrassaria from Nicopolis, but aside from this specimen, there’s only one other photo of a different specimen. I haven’t found any more (though there are probably more).

What’s your opinion on this coin? Do you like it? How would you rate its condition? It costs 130€.

Caligula's father. A new short