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Author Topic: What is your dream coin?  (Read 59215 times)

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Offline ROMA

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Re: What is your dream coin?
« Reply #50 on: December 04, 2007, 02:52:51 pm »
Take a pick...
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Offline Jochen

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Re: What is your dream coin?
« Reply #51 on: December 04, 2007, 06:49:20 pm »
One of my dream coins was a beautiful Lysimachos tetradrachm with the head of Alexander. And the best of it: this dream became true! Here is the coin!

Sometimes I wonder that such cruel and brute ruler like Lysimachos issued such wonderful coins!

Best regards

Offline Ardatirion

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Re: What is your dream coin?
« Reply #52 on: December 04, 2007, 07:49:08 pm »
One of my dream coins was a beautiful Lysimachos tetradrachm with the head of Alexander. And the best of it: this dream became true! Here is the coin!

Sometimes I wonder that such cruel and brute ruler like Lysimachos issued such wonderful coins!

When that coin was still in the catalog, I saved an image of it and made it my desktop background for a little while.  ;D Congratulations!

Offline helvetica

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Re: What is your dream coin?
« Reply #53 on: December 09, 2007, 08:05:03 pm »
My dream coin is either a superb New Style Tetradrachm with the exquisit, beautiful Athena and her owl or the Magnentius Fel Temp (fallen horseman type) which RIC claims to exist but which nobody has ever seen...
Failing those, a coin on which my hero Augustus is as clear and good-looking as he should be  :tongue:

Offline ROMA

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Re: What is your dream coin?
« Reply #54 on: December 15, 2007, 05:33:54 am »
I posted a couple of my  favorite ancient coins(though there are others id probably take first if i really thought about it) but there are many beautiful coins from later periods that Id want just as much or more...
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Offline David Atherton

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Re: What is your dream coin?
« Reply #55 on: March 20, 2008, 04:47:54 am »
Reviving an old thread...

This apparently unique denarius is another dream coin of mine.

Previously this coin was assigned to the beginning of the reign in the BMCRE. The new RIC places it in 74 because it fits in more comfortably with the precious metal issues of that year.

RIC 689, Rome Mint, 74 AD
Obv - Head of Sol, facing.
Rev - Vespasian, std. l., with spear.

**Thanks to Mauseus for providing the image.**


Offline gallienus1

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Re: What is your dream coin?
« Reply #56 on: March 22, 2008, 07:46:47 am »
I love this thread. All those lovely little bits of history are a joy to look at. I’ve recently been reading about “Dark Ages” Britain and think I would rather like a gold penny of Offa, king of Mercia (757–796).

Steve

Offline Robert_Brenchley

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Re: What is your dream coin?
« Reply #57 on: March 22, 2008, 03:38:11 pm »
I can just fancy having a few like this to drool over. The image is the result of a daring raid on the premises of a dealer who is very active here.
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gavignano

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Re: What is your dream coin?
« Reply #58 on: April 02, 2008, 09:35:55 pm »
Neat thread. I am going to propose a coin you could find while metal detecting. there are 4 known I believe. . It is small. it is not particularly artful - its even bland. It is of a woman. Licinius's wife - the lovely Constantia.
I think I would pass out if I got one in an uncleaned lot, lets say at 2 bucks a coin  ;)

Offline Jerome Holderman

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Re: What is your dream coin?
« Reply #59 on: April 02, 2008, 09:57:03 pm »
I think I would pass out if I got one in an uncleaned lot, lets say at 2 bucks a coin  ;)

Her coin looks enough like that of Helena, I could see one easily passing through the hands of a wholesaler and in to an unclean lot. So while your odds are probably better at winning the lotto, it is at least feasible.....  ::)

vic9128

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Re: What is your dream coin?
« Reply #60 on: April 02, 2008, 10:02:35 pm »
Here is the Constantia with the reverse




Offline commodus

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Re: What is your dream coin?
« Reply #61 on: April 02, 2008, 10:12:35 pm »
It is not outside the realm of possibility. These late bronzes are so similar in design and are frequently so difficult to read that non specialists frequently just don't bother with them. A lot of good stuff lurks in among those zillions of Constantius II and Arcadius AE 4s and such. I once found a follis of Martinian in an uncleaned lot of late AEs. That one coin made all those others worth buying.
Eric Brock (1966 - 2011)

Offline David Atherton

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Re: What is your dream coin?
« Reply #62 on: April 03, 2008, 07:38:48 am »
If your looking for S C on a coin, you won't find it on many denarii. The S C is mainly found on the AE coinage of the era.

A few denarii do have the legend EX S C (Divvs Vespasian, rare issues of Nero and Agrippina...).

S C stands for Senatus Consulto, 'decreed by the Senate'. EX S C means the same thing, just written out more fully.

Offline John K

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Re: What is your dream coin?
« Reply #63 on: April 06, 2008, 10:25:53 pm »
RPC 4161    SNG Cop 144 (Syria)

A silver tetradrachm minted by Tiberius in Antioch.  Extremely rare because it is my understanding that when Caligula became emperior he melted down Tiberius' silver coins to mint his own (and lower the silver content at the same time)

Offline Philoromaos

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Re: What is your dream coin?
« Reply #64 on: January 14, 2010, 02:02:41 pm »
A Nero Sestertius with Roma seated reverse in Xf with a lovely olive green patina! I had the oportunity to pick one up from my local dealer for a mere £1000 (around $2000 at the time) but I ummed and ahhhd and passed it up as I was at the stage of thinking of quantity over quality and went and spent the money on about twenty average grade denarii. I wish I hadn't now  :'(

Offline Aarmale

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Re: What is your dream coin?
« Reply #65 on: January 17, 2010, 04:55:07 pm »
I've got a few:
  • Yehud drachm with helmeted bust and seated divinity (TJC 1)
  • And much, much, more
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Offline vk

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Re: What is your dream coin?
« Reply #66 on: January 17, 2010, 10:18:49 pm »
Either a tetradrachm of Tiberius from Tarsus (I believe 3 known) or a Hadrian from Tarsus with the god Sandan (probably not many more known).

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Re: What is your dream coin?
« Reply #67 on: February 08, 2010, 05:01:48 am »
Quote from: gallienus1 on May 03, 2007, 08:59:33 am
Come on guys and girls, when free to DREAM think BIG! What about the gold 20 stater of Eucratides I, the largest gold coin known to be minted in antiquity...

I agree that if you're going to dream then this is the one to dream about.....it cost five lives in modern times and here is the story behind the coin extracted from Frank Holt's A History in Silver and Gold:

In fact, no single Bactrian coin has ever caused such a stir as his great gold masterpiece. This massive 20-stater coin is of the standard Eucratides type, with portrait of the king on the obverse wearing a commander's cloak, a royal diadem and a great plumed helmet decorated with the ears and horns of a bull. The reverse offers the king's usual type, two mounted horsemen—the heavenly twins, the Dioscuri of Greek legend—charging to the right. Eucratides's usual titles appear on the coin as well. It is not the style, exceptionally fine though it is, which makes this, in the words of one expert, "the rarest coin in the world"; it is the extraordinary size. At 63 millimeters in diameter (2½ inches) and more than 169 grams (six ounces) of Bactrian gold, it is the largest such coin ever minted in the ancient world, apparently to celebrate the king's conquest of Demetrius of India. There is only one specimen known in the world today—but that such a huge coin could escape the melting pot at all is amazing luck for us.

The unusual story of this coin's discovery can be tracked down through various newspaper accounts from over a century ago. In June of 1867, a French numismatist associated with the British Museum was dining with a group of collectors in London. One of the guests told about a strange encounter he had had that day with a shabby beggar trying to sell an ancient coin. He described a gold piece so large that all at the table agreed it must be a forgery. Yet, as the conversation drifted to other numismatic topics, the French expert could not get the gold coin out of his mind. Finally, in what he called "a fit of numismatic fever," he excused himself and set out to follow the trail of the beggar. When the two finally met late one night in a ramshackle London flat, the expert demanded to see the coin at once. The beggar explained that he had come all the way from Bukhara, where he and six others had found the coin. In a matter of minutes, he said, daggers were drawn and five of the men were dead. The two survivors agreed to smuggle the prize to Europe and share whatever price it brought. Then, his story told, the mysterious fellow took off his old coat, his shirt and his undershirt; he lifted his arm and pulled from his armpit a filthy, sweaty leather case with the gold coin sewn inside.

With an "electric shock," the numismatist held the coin and convinced himself that it was no forgery—but he knew that he must conceal his enthusiasm as he bargained down the price. The traveler from Bukhara insisted upon £5000 for the giant coin; the expert handed it back and wrote a check ... for £1000, adding coolly that this was his offer for the next 20 minutes. After that, he said, "I'll give you only £800, and so on until I get to £500. If you don't close the deal tonight, tomorrow I will not take the coin at any price."

They stared at each other for more than 19 minutes. Then the beggar snatched the check for £1000, and handed over the coin.' "This," reported the numismatist to the new papers, "is the rarest coin in the world, and the one for which the highest price has been paid. Since it cost the lives of five men, I do not think anything more was paid for it than it was really worth. It ought to have been saved for the delectation of numismatic amateurs in all times to come, even had fifty or one hundred lives been sacrificed."

If you have in mind some numismatic delectation of your own, however, do not ask to see the coin at the British Museum. Though associated with that great institution, the buyer was a Frenchman first of all. Through the special attentions of Emperor Louis-Napoléon, the 20-stater gold piece of Eucratides was immediately purchased by the Bibliothèque Impériale, now the Bibliothèque Nationale, in Paris.

Offline Britannicus

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Re: What is your dream coin?
« Reply #68 on: February 09, 2010, 04:45:45 pm »
A nice big silver portrait coin of Julius Caesar, with a clear date on it - B.C. of course!   ;)

Francis

Offline Enodia

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Re: What is your dream coin?
« Reply #69 on: December 16, 2011, 03:31:11 pm »
i just came across this coin at auction. i never even realised it existed before, but it is now my dream coin. so, anyone got an extra $70,000 i can 'borrow'?

from Taras, circa 344-338 BC, Vlasto #1, AV Stater (the decription says more than i ever could)...

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Offline rover1.3

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Re: What is your dream coin?
« Reply #70 on: December 16, 2011, 05:06:19 pm »
Nice one Peter, here is my gold dream coin.

Best,

rover

Offline Mat

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Re: What is your dream coin?
« Reply #71 on: December 16, 2011, 05:08:28 pm »
A few, Orbiana Denarius, Alexander the Great Tet., &  L. Titurius L.f. Sabinus - Rape of Sabines reverse
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Offline SkySoldier

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Re: What is your dream coin?
« Reply #72 on: December 19, 2011, 09:31:38 am »

Offline Minos

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Re: What is your dream coin?
« Reply #73 on: December 19, 2011, 10:50:34 am »
There's many but the Akragas dekadrachm currently for sale (the one with the 2.5 millions starting bid :o ) could help me wait for the others.

Offline cicerokid

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Re: What is your dream coin?
« Reply #74 on: December 24, 2011, 03:03:17 pm »

Athens New Style tetradrachm Thompson issue 1.

Not totally impossible-that's the beauty, but don't tell the wife!

Merry Xmas and prosperous New Year and GOOD HUNTING!

Cicerokid
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