Went shopping to get a book (never got the book), went to coin shop, not intended but happened to be passing by;

Saw these, bought them;


I'm not a fan of coins in such a low grade usually but this was a case of; vidi, amavi, emi (and at $26 why not?);




(Hard to scan copper i'm afraid, but it's an 1804 half cent, plain tail 4, no stems variant). Gradewise i'd call it fair.


Then i saw this, and thought, why not?




Antoninus Pius, Annona (grain supply) on the reverse? Generally i go in for deities rather than personifications but i just liked it.

The half cent is nice other than the weakness in the center of the reverse, which may be strike related. Looks like a C-11 variety to my untrained eye, but Conder101 will know for sure if he looks at this thread.

My appalling scan doesn't help much. But i'm not well versed in copper scanning.

If you go to this site, maybe you can match it up to the ones shown...Link.

I like that half cent. It's got character.

Maybe RIC 216a: Antoninus Pius Denarius. IMP CAES T AEL HADR ANTONINVS AVG PIVS PP, laureate head right / TR POT XV COS IIII, PAX in ex, Pax standing left with branch & scepter. [from wildwinds.com]

That looks to be the one!

I searched some sites that showed lots of pictures of Antoninus Pius coins but i'd forgotten about Wildwinds. That really should have been my first port of call.


Pax was another one i'd thought of, giving the branches like that. As was Ceres holding sceptre (but it's a staff) and some kind of plant.

Love them.

Dollars are currency in York ????
Where is the coinshop ? My sister lives in Harrogate so I get up to
the chilly North quite a bit.

I was only converting it for the US members Peter (£15 to you). I like how you knew it was York too! (I was supposed to be going to Lincoln, but they were doing track rapair work between Gainsborough Lea Road and Lincoln Central) and they put a bus on. I though i'm niot going to be messing about with that.

So i went to York.

Actually i went to two coin shops (i condensed my narrative a bit), Roman one is from a stall in the York antiques centre. The American came from J. Smith's in the shambles (which is where i bought Chris Perkin's Silver Roman Coin's book!)

I love large & halfcents!!

I really like the Roman coin, I'm not familar with them at all.
Do you have any other pic's or a good link to view some? Thanks for sharing

I like that Pius coin a lot.

The half cent is really nice. Not too bad of a price either. Similar ones are going for $70+ in AG at coin shops. Nice buy.

See here;

http://www.wildwinds.com/coins/



I like this one of Tiberius;

http://www.wildwinds.com/coins/sear5/s1763.html


Antoninus Pius; (and a gorgeous aureus too!)

http://www.wildwinds.com/coins/ric/antoninus_pius/i.html


For the ultimate in portrait realism then they don't get much more realistic (and less than flattering) than these;

http://www.wildwinds.com/coins/ric/nero/i.html

I myself only have two Roman coins (at present) the Antoninus Pius denarius up there in post 1. And a later Septimus Severus denarius.

As you can tell i've found my favourite denomination already, denarii. Although i wouldn't turn down any aurei either.

Thank You for the link, I've bookmarked it , I can see that I'm going to spend alot of time looking

I can see i'm going to spend alot of money looking too!

These Romans are fascinating (i like Greeks too of course), I've had an Athenian Owl on my 'to get' list for a fair while.

Should complement my medieval coins wonderfully.

Both are great buys but the 1/2 cent is a pretty good bargain. I'd say in most shops around FL it would set you back at least $40 in that condition if undamaged.

I will add my recommendation to check out wildwinds.com as well. I have touted that place quite a bit because it is a real online source for pseudoattributions and a great place to look at a lot of ancients and the prices that they have sold for.

Denarii are a great area where you can find a wealth of variety for $20-$40 a piece. I only have three, but I like them all....

Here is an Antoninus Pius, AD 144, Obv: ANTONINVS AVG PIVS PP, laureate head right. Rev: COS III DES IIII, Virtus holding spear and parazonium


and a Gallienus Billon Antoninianus, AD 260, Obv: IMP C P LIC GALLIENVS AVG, radiate head right Rev: PROVIDENTIAE AVGG, Providence standing left with wand and cornucopiae, globe at foot.


My third one is a previously posted Elagabalus that recently lost to a beautiful Athenian Owl

By the way, there was a decreasing amount of silver in these, to the point, as I understand it, that some had little more than a silver "wash".