Sextus Pompeius Pius Magnus: Imperator, Prefect of the Fleet, and Youngest Son of Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (Pompey the Great). Brigand and pirate or the last bastion of the Republican struggle and (to turn a sentence of Sear’s on its head) “... the [ ]worthy sole inheritor of a once great cause)...”? (Sear CRI, p. 200). Although I am interested in the issues surrounding the career of Sextus and its revision, you will not find those discussed here. What you will find are a beautiful Q. Nasidius (alas, not the great rarity depicting a sea battle) and three wonderful examples of Crawford 511s, namely a 2 and a 3 and a 4, with some very nice pedigrees. Perhaps someday I’ll add a Crawford 511/1 to this gallery? In the interest of your health and welfare please do not hold your breath. I will not be holding mine.

7 files, last one added on Jun 14, 2020

The city of Larissa was named after the local water nymph, said to be the daughter of Pelasgos. He was said to be the ancestor of the pre-Greek Pelasgians. According to myth Larissa drowned while playing ball on the banks of the Peneios river. In the sixth century BC Larissa became the preeminent city of Thessaly. Minting (silver coinage) began in the first half of the 5th century BC and apparently continued down to the early 2nd century BC, both in terms of fractional silver based upon a reduced Aiginetic standard and bronze. (HGC 4 p. 130 and 131). Currently this album consists mostly of facing head drachms, with a bull wrestling drachm and rider/seated Larissa trihemiobol thrown in for good measure. I like to include auction catalogs when I am able.

13 files, last one added on Jul 18, 2020

The joint billon antoninianus coinage of Vabalathus and Aurelian at Antioch, c. November 270 AD to c. March 272 AD. Or should that be the joint coinage of Aurelian and Vabalathus? Which side is the obverse and which side is the reverse is one of the things, besides the general history of the Palmyrene empire and its relations with Rome, that interests me in this coinage. All eight officina are represented here. Apparently the claim in some of the literature of a ninth officina is mistaken. Currently the inverted Z mint mark is not represented in this gallery. In the future I hope to acquire an example of such.

8 files, last one added on Mar 07, 2019

Ulpia Severina, wife of the emperor Aurelian, Augusta 274 AD. That there was an interregnum between the murder of Aurelian and the Senatorial appointment of Tacitus as emperor is undisputed. What is disputed, however, is the length of the interregnum as well as its meaningfulness. For whatever period of interregnum that did exist, did Severina actually rule the empire? The single coin in this gallery representing the type Concordia Militum has at various times been taken as an example of the coinage minted during the interregnal period between Aurelian and Tacitus. But was it? Perhaps in the future other of Severina’s coin types will join the single coin in this gallery.

1 files, last one added on Apr 20, 2019

The theme of this gallery is a simple one, in theory. It is intended to be filled with the coinage of Aurelian that, in the opinion of Sylviane Estiot in her monumental work Monnaies de L’Empire romain XII.1/XII.2: D’Aurelian à Florien, directly references the Palmyrene Empire in terms of the threats that it posed to Rome, the movement of Aurelian’s troops towards Palmyra, the victories over it that Aurelian accomplished, etc. In praxis, however, I find the theme not so easy to collect. Learning to read French is more time consuming then the time that I currently have, and at first blush it appears to me that many of the coins that fit the theme are quite rare and so I assume that I won’t be obtaining them. Spending more time learning French, scouring Estiot’s work, making a list of the theme fitting coins that I can obtain, finding those coins on the market...all of this will ensure that this gallery grows. For now, please enjoy the single coin that you will find inside.

1 files, last one added on Dec 14, 2019

This gallery is as the title implies: a random collection of the coinage of Aurelian.

7 files, last one added on Dec 24, 2019

For now a random collection of Sasanian coinage, primarily the coinage of Khusro II.

3 files, last one added on Mar 03, 2020

The gallery contains coins that have caught my eye and which I was lucky enough to obtain.

6 files, last one added on Nov 14, 2020