recently added

[casata137ec]

Morning all. I finally have five more classified, identified, and photgraphed (albeit, badly!). These tiny coins are tearing me up trying to photo them and get good/valid ID's! I just do not see how the ancients werent always losing them! Ah well...

Today's entry consists of four tiny AE's from Asia Minor (various cities) and one hard to ID civic (Roman Imperial) from Nicopolis. Included are:

Three from Troas:
1 Ilion featuring a left facing, helemeted Athena w/ Athena Ilias rev
1 Birytis featuring Kabeiros wearing pilos w/ triskelis reverse
1 Assos featuring (another) left facing, helmeted Athena w/bucranium rev

1 Mysia, Adramytteion featuring the facing bust of Zeus w/ eagle rev
and
1 civic coin from Nicopolis ad Istrum featuring a right facing, winged, and turreted, "Nike-Tyche" w/ nothing on the rev but the legend - anyone with better references for this one, please drop me a line!



I know that most of my coins are bronze and not perfectly preserved, but I do what I can on my budget and I think my entries are at least interesting. I also know that I could save my money up and buy one pretty silver coin every 6 months or so and get more props, but I really love my little obscure bronze collection and I hope that some of you like it too!

Enjoy,
Chris

PS Bear in mind that even the thumbnail pics are at least twice the size of the real coins! These were super hard to photograph (for me anyway).
C.
 

[Bruno V]

Thank you very much, Chris!
Great coins in your gallery (i love bronze coins)!
b

[casata137ec]

Thank you very much, Chris!
Great coins in your gallery (i love bronze coins)!
b

Woo hoo! That makes two of us Bruno! lol I really appreciate the post.

Chris

[casata137ec]

I got motivated to take a few pics so here is my next installment!

1 small thracian (Mesembria) bronze featuring Athena w/shield reverse
1 small bronze of Mysia (Pergamon) featuring Athena w/strung bow reverse
1 small silver obol from Cilicia featuring a seated Baal w/forepart of wolf reverse
1 pretty nice bronze of Lysimachia, Thrace featruing a lion's head obverse w/grain reverse
and 1 interesting but not pretty provincial featruing Augustus and Livia (jugate heads) w/Aphrodite, Nike, Dove reverse

Enjoy!

Chris

[Dk0311USMC]

Thank you very much, Chris!
Great coins in your gallery (i love bronze coins)!
b

Woo hoo! That makes two of us Bruno! lol I really appreciate the post.

Chris

I love bronze coins too!  Mainly because they are so affordable...   I think if everyone in the world knew how reasonable ancient coins were, there would be a massive demand for them.  I never expected myself to be a numismatist until I discovered ancient coins.

[Steve E]

I love bronze coins too!  Mainly because they are so affordable...   I think if everyone in the world knew how reasonable ancient coins were, there would be a massive demand for them.

I love bronze coins because of each coin's unique character that is multiplied by all the varing shades and types of patina! Yes, silver coins can be nicely toned, but usually not as diverse as bronze patination IMO. Under the right circumstances, even a common bronze coin can be transformed into a beautiful gem!

I also enjoy the typically lower prices of bronze coins, however, the extreme bargins I found, even last year, are becoming alot harder to find.    Maybe we've done too good a job of promoting 

In my limited experience, the demand is already expanding quite rapidly!

~Steve

[casata137ec]

Thanks for the posts all. I do appreciate!

Steve, I do agree whole heartedly on everything. Bronze coins were passed from hand to hand probably a whole lot more than silver or gold which to me, adds character, add that to the nifty patina's and lower prices and myriad of obverse/reverse combos...you can't go wrong! As for price...yeah...with a weak dollar and "inverstor" demand, even cheapy coins are getting sort of pricy! But there are still bargains to be had...which brings me to tonights gallery entry!

I went totally greek this go 'round, and there are even a couple "pretty" ones to boot! lol

Included are:
1 decent, small Aphrodite (left facing) w/ prow, club reverse from Cnidus, Caria
1 wacked out facing Herakles w'forepart of stag reverse for Pisidia, Selge
1 tiny silver flat faced bull w/incuse square reverse from Akanthos, Macedon
1 beautiful (seriously) facing Larissa w/ rider reverse from Larissa, Thessaly
and my latest aquisition
1 really nice Seleucid of Tryphon w/helmet reverse...but get this the helmet has Ibex horns mounted on it! I would really love to see what one of these would have looked like in person!

Enjoy!
Chris

[Dino]

Some very nice additions, Chris.

[rover1.3]

That Larissa is simply wonderful, and i particularly like Tryphon's types.

His handsome - in the heroic style of Alexander the Great- portraits, along with the very interesting legends "BAΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΤΡΥΦΩΝΟΣ ΑΥΤΟΚΡΑΤΟΡΟΣ"  (of King Tryphon, the Self Empowered)
are clear indicators of his very interesting, repressive personality.
During his short reign, the Seleukid Era dating system for dated coinage was abandoned in favor of the New Era (Tryphon's regnal years). A true usurper.

Newell's thoughts on SMA :

The Macedonian helmet chosen for the reverse type of all these issues, has direct reference to the claim of Tryphon that, - according to the time honored Macedonian custom,-
he was supposed to have been unanimously elected by free Macedonian soldiers in open assembly. There may also been intended a punning reference to his name, for in both
Homer and Hesiod a helmet is sometimes called Τρυφάλεια.

Best regards

rover

[casata137ec]

Afternoon all! It has been a while since I have added anything to my gallery, so I figured I had better get a move on!

Today's entries span nearly 700 years starting with a tiny 1/4 obol  from Ionia and going all the way to the Severan era with a provincial Sept. Sev. I hope you enjoy!

Included are:

1 teeny tiny tetartemorion from Teos featuring a screaming griffin w/incuse square reverse ( https://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-73108 )
1 really pretty obol from Selge featuring a facing gorgon w/helmeted athena reverse ( https://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-73110 )
1 rescued from advanced BD AE from Myrina featuring Apollo w/amorpha and kithara reverse ( https://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-73112 )
1 badly conserved repubican den featuring a female bust w/victory advancing reverse ( https://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-73111 )
and 1 Septimius Severus Thracian provincial featuring Cybele ( https://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-73109 )

Enjoy!
Chris

PS I have decided to include links for easier viewing, hope you like!
C.

[casata137ec]

Evening all. This will be my largest infusion of the year...and may be the last (I am on a pretty strict holiday budget, and my two layaway coins will not be paid off this year! lol).

As usual, this group runs the gambit from a "common" later roman coin of a rare-ish emperor to an unreferenced Severan back to a tore up Sicilian tetras and a few rare and beautiful coins in-between. For a change, 5 of the 7 coins presented are actually nice coins in good shape! lol I hope you can appreciate the trouble I had attributing a couple of these. Challenges are always good! Anyway...


Included are:

1 torn up 3/4 facing Arethusa w/octopus reverse (it's not THAT bad...but I have seen many better!) https://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-73382

1 pretty good ant of Florian w/Sol, Providentia reverse (mostly still silvered...not horrible) https://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-73380

1 nice bronze from Smyrna featuring Tyche w/Aphrodite Stratonikis and Nike reverse (really nice obverse) https://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-73379

1 nice (but holed) provincial from Amphipolis featuring Marcus Aurelius w/a seated Tyche rev (might be my new pocket piece) https://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-73377

1 nice provincial of Geta from Nicaea with caduseus reverse (apparantly unreferenced, nifty snakes topping the caduseus!) https://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-73376

1 really nice hemi from Caria featuring the facing forepart of a lion w/ scorpion reverse (My son pointed out that it seems to have waaaay to many legs!) https://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-73378

and 1 nifty greek bronze of the Thessalian Confederacy featuring Zeus w/ a centaur like critter (bulls lower half) grabbing the reigns of a rearing horse (this one was really hard to track down reference wise, and may be one of the most interesting reverses I own!) https://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-73381


Enjoy!
Chris

[Steve E]

Nice additions this month!

Yes I like the links, I do the same. For a while I was also including a photo with the post, but I find I get less comments that way
I guess, because its easier to leave comments when you are already in the proper screen

I just finished a few more photos, and will be loading them in the next few days

Take care!
Steve

[Enodia]

cool coins Chris.
i really like the scorpion from Caria, and was looking at a similar one at auction a few weeks back.
and that portrait of Marcus Aurelius is great!

~ Peter

[casata137ec]

It has been a while, but I have uploaded my first coin in a decade...lol...life sometimes happens. I really need to get my camera setup going again as this is an OK pic, but it is much prettier in hand!

This evenings entry is a pretty little Sicilian coin from Syracuse...not particularly rare, but pretty! I have always been intrigued by the weird football shaped flans some of the Sicilian coins had. I have another in that gallery from Gela with the same shaped flan. I also love the red-ish patina some of the coins dug in that region have taken on. Anyway, hope you enjoy it and feel free to take a gander at the rest, not a super high end collection, but more than a few rarities.

SICILY, Syracuse, Calciati 157 variant
https://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-169589


Chris

[wileyc]

funny how time passes.........   

[casata137ec]

No doubt my friend! Fits and starts...I looked up and my son is 25 and I am over 50! lol  Good to see you!

Chris

[quadrans]

Good to see you again, Chris 👍

Joe/Q.

[PMah]

Keep posting,  we need more Sicilians.