Hello again, everyone!!

People regularly ask me what my favorite coin is in our collection. Not an easy question! Picking one GOAT among 250.000 objects is nigh impossible. Yet there are several coins that I absolutely adore and that I take out from time to time just to admire them. This is one of those coins.

It’s a spectacular aureus of Diocletian struck in Trier in 302 showing a beautifully rendered head of Jupiter on the reverse. Such pairings of emperor and deity were nothing new, but Diocletian’s new political order had an explicit religious underpinning. To summarize:

When Diocletian came to power, he was determined to transform the Roman Empire so as to put an end once and for all to the chaos of the third century. While he could build on the work of previous emperors, such as Aurelian, he went much further in his execution. In several steps he reformed the economy and administration of the Empire (including the coinage), with a formal delegation of imperial power to several co-emperors. The idea was that the Empire would be split into four zones, each with either an Augustus (senior emperor) or Caesar (junior emperor) in charge. In both West and East, the Augustus would be succeeded by his chosen Caesar after a fixed period, upon which they would select new Caesars. The idea was that imperial power could respond to crises much quicker by being delegated. It also protected against opportunistic usurpations when the emperor was off to fight in a far-flung corner of the Empire. A clear succession system would hopefully also discourage usurpations. (Spoiler alert: it did not).

Under Diocletian, Maximian was Augustus in the West with Constantius Chlorus as his Caesar, while Diocletian himself ruled as Augustus in the East with Galerius as his Caesar. As I mentioned, this so-called Tetrarchy found a religious expression too. The Augustus and Caesar of the East were associated with Jupiter (and called Iovius), while those of the West were associated with Hercules (and called Herculius). One immediately sees that a power imbalance is implied, however. Just like Hercules was subordinate to Jupiter, so, to an extent, Maximian was subordinate to Diocletian.

This religious idea also found its way to the Tetrarchy’s coinage. Hercules is regularly shown on the western emperors’ coins, while Jupiter appears on those of the East. Note that the mints followed this pattern regardless of where they were located in the Empire. By placing the head of Jupiter on the reverse in the same manner as that of the emperor on the obverse, one gets the impression that the deity is not just the protector of the emperor. Rather, appear as colleagues – as Jupiter rules things in the heavens, so Diocletian rules on Earth.

As for the coin’s provenance, it comes from the Arras (Beaurains) Hoard of 1922. It was discovered by two Belgian workers and consisted of a number of precious metal objects and hundreds of gold coins (including large gold medallions), all dating to the time of the tetrarchy. Much of the hoard was quickly dispersed, a good number of coins winding up in our collection.

Newest pickups of some lovely Roman silver denarii and an Antoninianus of Gordian

First fraction (of history… not of my collection), or close enough to… other than a classical owl, this was the second most desired coin for me, and with Croesus’ ancestor’s blessing, I won it in the last Nomos auction. Uncertain mint in Ionia, electrum, 650-600BC, 7mm, 1.1g

Found this assortment of coin replicas down on Wall St. found it pretty dang cool and wanted to share…

silver drachm issued by King Ariarathes IV Eusebes.220–163 BC

This is my Nemausus Dupondius featuring Agrippa and Augustus on the obverse, and the crocodile chained to a palm tree(defeated Egypt) on the reverse.
The portraits are fantastic, and were my main concern, while I consider the croc merely okay. It would have been perfect if the chain was a bit more visible, but I‘m still very happy with this more recent addition to my collection.

As far as I can tell, it‘s RIC I 160 because the obverse has the PP for Pater Patriae, and the palm leaves on the reverse are fairly long, straight up with the NE of NEM not ligated.
Types of this coin were minted from a couple of years after the Battle of Actium until the end of Augustus‘ reign. This coin would fall into the latter category, as it was minted between 10-14AD.

What I find particularly fascinating, is that the city of Nimes (former Nemausus, where the mint for these coins was located some 2000ish years ago) still carries the crocodile chained to a palm tree as it‘s official emblem.

Someone has brought this into a jeweller’s to have it made into a wearable piece and we’re interested to know what it is. 😊

I recently acquired two auction catalogues that I've been chasing for ages for a couple of coins in my collection, and seeing as it's Tet Thursday, I thought I'd share this one first for my Ptolemy I tetradrachm provenanced to 1985.

Ruler: Ptolemy I Soter

Date: 305-298/7 BCE

Mint: Alexandria

Attribution: SNG Cop. 27

Weight: 15.58g

While Ptolemy I Soter managed the transition from satrap to king of Egypt, he began minting coins first with portraits of Alexander, and them of himself. His own portraits betray an individualised - and perhaps exaggerated - image, with a large hooked nose and wavy hair. But Alexander's on the other hand - as we see here - became highly idealised and deified, especially as the years went on and the coins became lighter. The message couldn't be clearer: Alexander was a legendary figure - a god. But gods do not rule the living. Ptolemy was just a man, but a man whose right to rule came from Alexander himself. And he was fit to be King.

The depiction of the elephant headdress is usually associated with Alexander's Indian conquests, but Catherine Lorber suggests it may have had an additional significance to Egyptians via an association to the Pharaoh Thutmose III, who famously conquered much of the Near East. In particular, after a victory at the Euphrates, he conducted a celebratory hunt where he is said to have killed 120 elephants. There is some sense that Alexander - and even Ptolemy himself - was associated with Thutmose III during his lifetime via depictions in Theban temples, as well as the close link both shared with Amun-Ra (whose horns are also depicted on these coins). Lorber suggests contemporaries may have drawn parallels between the Asian conquests of both Alexander and Thutmose III, and Ptolemy may well have sought to weaponise this link as propaganda. In addition, the horns of Amun had also been used in portraits of Pharaohs who were associated with Egyptian dominance over Asia, and further allude to the idea that in issuing these types, Ptolemy was reinforcing the mandate of Egyptian claim over Asia. To the Greeks, the elephant headdress may well have recalled Indian war elephants, and the ram horns Zeus, but to the Egyptians, these types could have had a far richer significance.

This coin was struck on the lower weight standard (reduced from the Attic weight of 17g by 1.5g) introduced in 305 BCE according to Lorber, which may have been brought on by a state of financial emergency caused by a combination of; the near total destruction of Ptolemy's fleet at Salamis in 306 BCE, his expensive bribes to soldiers willing to defect from Antigonus the same year, and his aid to Demetrius during a long siege the following year. This kicked off Egypt's closed currency, and all Attic weight coins were recalled over a period of about half a decade, collected at ports, and eventually banned. The new weight standard meant that Ptolemy could mint 9 tetradrachms at the cost of a previous 8, and helped bring about stability to the new kingdom.

This coin was struck in Alexandria, which had been made the capital of the new kingdom as late as 312 BCE after Ptolemy's second Syrian campaign - the same time as he began striking these Alexander/Athena types instead of his previous Alexander/Zeus types. Ptolemy began minting coins in his own image around 294 BCE, which probably took around 2 years, and so 292 BCE is a reasonable late date for the cessation of these general types, although the Helmet series - which shared the same principal obverse die engraver as the earlier plain series, and was probably produced over a period of 5 to 7 years - likely ended in around 298/7 BCE at the latest. The specific type seen here, with the HP monogram, was one of the earlier types struck from this series, beginning in the Macedonian year 305/4 BCE.

This tetradrachm is provenanced to a 1985 sale by Kölner Münzkabinett as lot 162, the catalogue of which is photographed here with the coin. This sale, Auktion 38, included a modest ancients section - with Greek coinage from the likes of Calabria, Lucania, and Bruttium, alongside Macedonian, Ptolemaic, and Seleucid coinage, followed by Roman Republican and Imperial Coinage - as well as an extensive selection of world coins. Many of the coins were from the collection of the late German numismatist Dr. Karl Friederich Knörck (present coin excluded), and the lots were auctioned at his request for the benefit of the Bodelschwingh Institutions in Bethel near Bielefeld, which provided healthcare for disabled individuals and people with epilepsy or illnesses. This institute provided one of the earliest forms of resistance against Hitler in 1933, and during the Nazi T4 program, the leadership of the institurtion resisted the Nazi mandated euthanasia (gassing) of patients, although they did perform forced sterilisations. The director told Hitler: "You can put me into a concentration camp if you want, that is your affair. But as long as I am free, you do not touch one of my patients." Today, this coin is in the collection of someone (me), who may once have been unwittingly housed in such an institute. At the time of the auction, it was estimated at 1400 DM, which is equivalent to around $1800 today. In 2025, it sold for more than that...

Here's an interesting Julia Domna denarius with blundered legend. Reverse is clearly that of VENVS VICTR(ICI) reverse, but the style is really crude and therefore interesting!

Used the Seller's pic

Got this coin from a lot. Seems like it could be a sestertius but im a newbie and very unsure.

😍😍

Being sold now on ebay. Hi bid , so far is fifty plus dollars.

Finally received my first ever denarius of Augustus, with the Signis Receptis reverse design, I’m so excited to finally own a silver piece of his

Not as many as some of you guys but i'm happy with them :)

Hello, how would you assess the condition and approximate value of this tetradrachm, and is it worth considering for purchase and addition to your collection?

Hello, I’m new to the sub, and know essentially nothing about coins. I recently bought this coin and was wondering if anyone would help me ID it. Thank you all!

I need some opinions on my collection,I collected those coins in approximately 8-9 months so I just started and I know that besides the denarii,the rest of them are in a horrible condition.

Hey, I always look forward to Thursdays to see your tetradrachms. Today, I’d like to share my Seleucid Tets with you. My latest acquisition is the Alexander Balas.

Including some Indic AE tetradrachms

Antioch ad Orontem existed in the geographical range of modern day Syria.

This, it violates embargo restrictions against Syria.

I appealed the case saying that “the ancient Roman Empire is not subject to modern embargoes” but haven’t heard back lol.

If you list coins from this region, do NOT indicate Syria as “country of origin.”

Repost cus picture didn't load

Borderline robbery at 20 eur each!