Thanks Michael, and to all above in this
thread!
My "study
collection" of course also represents the very best
quality of my own
collection after twenty to twenty-five years of collecting. But I've now been collecting thirty years and it's only sheer press of numbers that causes me to designate certain coins for study rather than for display as a "main
collection". As I've alluded to before, I'm constantly seeking to improve the balance between various parts of my
collection in terms of eras, metals and
denominations. So some areas are, frankly, over-represented with high
quality coins. That includes struck bronzes of some eras (but not others), and some limited periods in the silver coinage (second Punic war
denarii with
symbols, Antony legionaries for example). Improving the balance will mean trading these excellent "study
collection" coins with other collectors and using the resources generated to boost some weaker areas (for example,
rare silver in the 42-34 BC
Imperatorial period, and high
quality common silver in the 150-100BC era). If I planned on living to 125 years old and anticipated finding the vast resources to "fill-in" all the weaker areas of my
collection, then I'd probably be keeping everything but that would imply a
collection of 5000 coins in say a half century from now, when I'd be over 100. By that stage, my
collection might be approaching RBW's in depth and
quality. I doubt have the lifespan and I am certain I won't have the resources to get there (bearing in mind that very many RBW coins were $50k pieces), since I don't buy lottery tickets. So I'm intent on forming the best possible
collection I can, with the resources I have, and that means many excellent coins will have to get traded with other collectors to strengthen the less-excellent areas in my
collection. I've been following this planned approach for very many years by now. I wonder am I the only collector who does so, both acquiring and divesting on the basis of some grand scheme...
The prow struck bronze at lower left is an
L.P.D.A.P. /
E.L.P. Lex Papiria series coin. I show below the full series, which consists of two
sestertii and four bronzes (pictures not remotely to
scale, the
sestertii are tiny, and very
rare, these examples being from the STR
collection)
The bronze coins commemorate the reduction stage of bronze
money introduced in 91 BC based on the
lex Papiria (Plin. HN 33,46;
RRC, p. 77; 596), according to which the as was
reduced to 1/24 of the Roman pound (Libra), or about 13.5 grams. Some of these so-called semuncial
asses with the
head of
Janus on the
obverse show the letters L·P·D·A·P on the
reverse above the prow (ship's bow), possibly for the words lege
Papiria de assis pondere (
RRC 338/1; p. 611). The silver coins with the letters
E.L.P (ex lege
Papiria) commemorate the reintroduction of the silver
sestertius after a gap of over a century, and may signal the point when the Roman state finished the transition from accounting in
asses to accounting in
sestertii.
The
quadrans is pretty much a perfect coin. Centred, struck up on both sides, the LPDAP fully clear, and with the unusual dots above the letters representing the
denomination mark ooo. That's a keep-forever coin (implying that the others may not be). It shows how tough collecting bronzes can be, when it takes 30 years to get one perfect coin and three flawed coins; the As has a perfect
legend and upper prow but is otherwise terrible; the
triens and
semis are both lovely coins overall but in both cases we can only read the last three letters [L.P.]D.A.P. Only the
quadrans is perfect.
Addendum: after
writing all this, I realise you must not have been referring to these coins, as you wrote prow left! So, I'm guessing that the "prow left" coin is the following, absolutely unique
overstrike, indeed the only time I've ever seen overstrikes in the semuncial period. None are listed in
Crawford RRC Table XVIII, and none were ever found by Charles
Hersh. It's actually not prow left:
As
Republican bronzes go, this is completely valueless commercially, but of inestimable value numismatically.
