Claudius II Ants

[lawrence c]

Because I'm somewhat of a neophyte collector, I'd like to ask for the experience of folks who have handled a lot of coins.  After cleaning a batch of Roman coins recently, there were a number (about a dozen) of what to all lights were Claudius II Ants, mixed between regular reverses and posthumous issues.  I say "appear" because most of the legends either were partial or off-flan.  All the coins are in the 16mm range, with a bit of plus or minus.  They seem symmetrical enough to rule out clipping, and appear to be extra-tight flans.  My question if I might is whether I just got 'lucky' with this group, or was this emperor's coinage particularly prone to smaller flans?  Thanks much for sharing your experience.

[quadrans]

Because I'm somewhat of a neophyte collector, I'd like to ask for the experience of folks who have handled a lot of coins.  After cleaning a batch of Roman coins recently, there were a number (about a dozen) of what to all lights were Claudius II Ants, mixed between regular reverses and posthumous issues.  I say "appear" because most of the legends either were partial or off-flan.  All the coins are in the 16mm range, with a bit of plus or minus.  They seem symmetrical enough to rule out clipping, and appear to be extra-tight flans.  My question if I might is whether I just got 'lucky' with this group, or was this emperor's coinage particularly prone to smaller flans?  Thanks much for sharing your experience.

 Hi welcome the forum ,

 Yes Claudius II Ant's are frequently have smaller flans  mostly the posthumous issues...

 regards
 Q.

[lawrence c]

Thanks much.  Curse those pesky flans!
Best,
Larry

[Lee S]

Hi Larry! welcome to Forvm!

  Please post photos!!for the education and enjoyment of your fellow members here!!

 best wishes,

Lee.
 

[Jschulze]

Ha, I was thinking how usually bad Claudius II's coins are today too and smiled when I saw this post.

When I think of emperors that have poorly produced and poorly preserved coinage (of the common pre-5th century late Romans), I think of Gallienus Claudius II and Tetricus.

Of those, I've been able to pick up some cheap but actually (relatively) nice coins of Tetricus and Gallienus but all of my coins of Claudius II are pretty awful inspite of the bucketloads of his coins that are available.

That crisis of the third century must have been a real bummer around the empire, leading to bad coins!

Josh

Edit: Upon review my nicest Tetricus is fairly ugly too, hahaha.

[lawrence c]

I've tried posting some photos of the coins I was talking about.  Unfortunately, I don't know which are uglier:  the coins or the photos.  All of these except the last coin (which seems to have been clipped a bit) are around 16mm.  In this particular batch, there were several posthumous eagles and a few variants of the altar.  You're definitely correct; these are not exactly paragons of numismatic art.  Thanks again for the replies.

Best,
Larry

[SC]

These coins are from a phase where unofficial imitations (the so-called "barbaric radiates"), semi-official issues, and official coins just plain poorly made all exist and blur into one another.  Good images of each might get you some answers as to which category the specialists on this site think yours fall into.  Ultimately though they are all the same period and all interesting.

Shawn

[lawrence c]

Poor guy; I get the feeling that numismatists view him as the Rodney Dangerfield of the emperors.
Best,
Larry

[Robert_Brenchley]

I don't know who Rodney Dangerfield is, but he has a varied and interesting coinage which is as collectible as any other. The sheer range of gods he and Gallienus represented, as compared to the much smaller number used a generation later, is fascinating. Something changed there, but I'm not sure what.

[Joe Sermarini]

Poor guy; I get the feeling that numismatists view him as the Rodney Dangerfield of the emperors.
Best,
Larry

Not so.  He was an impressive emperor and his coinage has great variation and many interesting types.

[SC]

Robert, you have to find some youtube of old Rodney Dangerfield material.  A comedian of the 60s-70s.  He is seen by the latest generations as a joke but was once great.

His most famous line these days is "I don't get no respect."

I think that was Larry's point.  Not that Gallienus was bad - quite the opposite - but that because of his coinage he just don't get the respect he deserves.  To me he deserves to be rated with Aurelian and Diocletian as one of the greatest Emperors of the 3rd century but I bet that a poll of a wider population would not yield the same results.

Shawn

[Robert_Brenchley]

That's pretty much the way I see him, plus he was the first emperor to legalise Christianity. Constantine gets all the kudos, but Gallienus made an enormous difference, and didn't interfere with the church the way Constantine did.