As a young man I embarked on
collecting Roman coins, with the idea of acquiring all
denominations of every emperor/empress. That
still is the core of my
collection.
However, some coins never made their appearance in the trays, simply because they were never available in reasonable
quality or
price. One of those was an 'as' of
Julia Maesa. I recently found one at a
good price and fully identifiable. It is
RIC 411, of which I have been able to find two specimen on line - one sold as a
dupondius here at
Forum and one sold at NAC at a whopping $ 1700.
Mattingly,
Sydenham and
Sutherland however, probably based their
rarity rate at 'common', on the basis of Cohen's prices.
I think since then a lot has changed:
Maesa bronzes are extremely
rare as compared to the huge quantity of silver available.
IVLIA
MAESA AVG around her draped
bust with her hair in a bun at the back of her head/
FECVNDITAS AVGVS[TAE] around a seated
Fecunditas extending her hand to a child standing before her and holding
cornucopiae; SC in the
exergue. 10,0 gram 24 mms.
Frans