Finn235

Sorry to say it, but I'm pretty sure it's an old button.

Nice coin!

What you have is  provincial of emperor Gordian III (238-244) from Emesa featuring his client king there, Abgar X. He is one of the more common kings to be found on provincial Roman coins, but your coin is still worth a good $20-30.

What's the average value of these coins? A dealer runs their business on paying you a % less than they know they can sell your coins for - except for extremely liquid coins like Morgans and bullion silver (most Canadian coins aren't easy to sell quickly in the US), their percentage will be close to half. You get your money faster, but ebay is usually much better at giving you at least close to fair market value for your coins - provided you can take good pictures and describe your coins in a way that they show up in search results. Certified coins sell for much, much more than raw on ebay if we are talking uncirculated grades.

If you have scores of coins worth $20+ each, just do a few a week. If they are worth less than that, do small or medium sized lots. The interested collectors will bid more than your offer from a dealer who *has* to profit on your coins to keep the lights on.

In the late 280s or early 290s, emperor Diocletian attempted to fix the financial situation by demonetizing all old coinage and starting over from scratch. He was somewhat successful, but was never able to successfully reintroduce silver as it had been used a century prior. His denominations:

Aureus - Carried over, as it had never been fully debased. Worth 24 Argentii.

Argenteus - Spiritual successor of the denarius, but not commonly issued and probably worth much more. Worth 5 folles.

"Follis" - Large heavy silver plated bronze coin; not quite as large or heavy as the old sestertius

"Radiate" - bronze, unplated coin featuring a radiate portrait; roughly the size of an old antoninianus. Value not fully understood.

"Laureate" - Bronze coin featuring a laureate portrait for the emperor, perhaps exchangeable 1:1 for the antoninianus as it seems to be the smallest denomination.

Diocletian's Tetrarchy system erupted into civil war not long after he abdicated in 305. When the dust settled, only Constantine and Licinius were left, and the currency had inflated tremendously; the follis shrinking down to about the size of a nickel. From this point, we simply don't understand how the bronze coinage worked, so the following groupings are used:

AE1 - Rare, large bronze coin about the size of Diocletian's follis. 25mm or larger

AE2 - Between 25-21mm, or roughly quarter/nickel sized.

AE3 - 21-17mm or peny/dime sized

AE4 - below 17mm - these can be as small as 9mm!

AE2 and AE3 coins were commonly plated in silver until about 260.

As with the Tetrarchy, precious metal coins are not common.

Solidus - a "light" successor to the aureus, weighing about 4.5 grams

Semissis - 1/2 solidus (introduced near the end of the empire)

Tremissis - 1/3 solidus (a relatively common tiny gold coin of the terminal empire)

Siliqua - A thin, lightweight silver coin about the size of a denarius. These were either seldom used in their day, or most were melted in the middle ages. Fractional denominations also issued.

By the 400s, most coins were tiny little AE4s, or siliquae or solidii. Roman coinage is said to end when Byzantine emperor Anastasius issued a reform to re-introduce large denominations in 491.

Roman coin denominations are actually simple enough to understand, at least until the last 200 years of the empire.

To start, there were four principal metals:

Gold, or AVRVM (AV)

Silver, or ARGENTVM (AR)

Orichalcum, a high-zinc brass said to look just like gold, and worth twice as much as bronze (Usually grouped with bronze as AE)

Bronze, or AES (AE)

On to the denominations:

Aureus - A very valuable coin worth 20 silver denarii, weighing about 8 grams and the size of a US dime (17-19mm usually).

Denarius - A roughly dime-sized silver coin with 4 sesterces or 16 asses. Forv the common man, this was "big money" worth several days' salary as a soldier.

Sestertius - A huge orichalchum coin worth four asses; usually a bit smaller than a silver dollar, but very thick and hefty. This was everyday money with good spending power. The emperor's portrait is usually bare or laureate.

Dupondius - A roughly half-dollar size orichalchum coin worth two asses. Starting with Nero, the emperor's portrait wears a radiate crown, indicating a double denomonation.

As - A roughly half-dollar sized bronze coin worth enough for about a large loaf of bread. The emperor's portrait is laureate or bare.

Semis - A roughly nickel or penny sized orichalchum coin worth 1/2 of an as, not commonly issued. They don't always feature the emperor's portrait, and are really only common from Trajan.

Quadrans - A roughly dime sized orichalchum or bronze coin worth 1/4 of an as. This was "beggar's money" with negligible buying power and only Intermittently issued.

***

In 215 AD the emperor Caracalla began issuing an "Antoninianus" or double-denarius; a roughly quarter-sized silver coin featuring a radiate crown for the emperor. These were intermittent issues (being briefly outlawed due to their detrimental effect on the economy; they did not contain enough silver) but inflation made them replace the denarius around 240, and by the 250s they had inflated to the point of driving out all other denominations. By the 260s they were less than 5% silver; essentially bronze with a thin silver plating. It's not fully understood how much buying power they had, but it wasn't much.

In the late middle ages up until the 19th century, a Mark was a 1/2 pound weight of silver. No idea about purity; it was probably .900-.950 though. X eine feine marck would mean "10 (makes) one fine mark".

Philadelphia didn't make any nickels in 1970, so the spot was filled with the S nickel.

Note that you have two pennies, 70 and 70-S.

Would need to see obverse and reverse of each individual coin. Most seem to be provincial or smaller bronzes in fairly rough condition; possibly uncleaned. If it does indeed contain a Julius Caesar, the value would be at least a couple hundred dollars. It might be worth a bit more as an antique educational object than for the coins by themselves - I certainly wouldn't break it up to sell them!

Priciest emperors typically would be:

- Julius Caesar

- Tiberius

- Caligula

- Galba, Otho, Vitellius 

- Nerva

- Pertinax, Julianus, Albinus

- Macrinus

- Gordian I, Gordian II, Pupienus, Balbinus

- Aemilian

As posted in CCF, these are gold Fanams from ca. 1750-1850, most likely from the Dutch-controlled state of Cochin. Value is $15-25.

Here is a page on the type:

http://www.tesorillo.com/aes/152/152i.htm

Ruler is Constantine I "The Great", minted 324-329 AD.

The reverse is commonly called a "Camp-Gate". They are generally assumed to be the familiar sight of the forward gate of a fortified city in the provinces; the legend PROVIDENTIAE AVGG means "Foresight of the Augustus." E.g. Look, this dude put this gate on your city to keep you safe from Barbarians.

Mintmark is SMN-Epsilon, for Nikopolis, now in Bulgaria. Epsilon means the 5th officina (workshop) in that mint.

It's in very nice condition but also very common. I would expect to see it sell for around $15-20.

If you upload to Photobucket, they provide the image tags to easily share.

China, Qing dynasty

Qianlong emperor (1735-1796)

Board of Revenue (?) Mint

Worth about 25 cents; these coins are insanely common.

Copy of a Spanish colonial cob.

They sell them at beach gift shops as "pirate money" for about $1 each.

First:

http://www.tesorillo.com/aes/117/117i.htm

Too little of the legend remaining for me to tell whether Julian II or Constantius II

Second:

http://www.tesorillo.com/aes/029/029i.htm

Fancy jeweled diadem means Constantine the Great. Looks like mintmark SMNB, Sacra Moneta Nicomedia (officina) Beta.

Try the Delhi Sultanate. I can't read Arabic, but I have a similar coin in my collection from there.

From what I can see, that looks to be as good as you are going to get. The portraits and legends of this series were generally poorly struck, so they will be hard to make out.

Most cleaning will only remove caked on dirt. Your coins look to have been fully cleaned already.

Pictures would help.

All Roman coins were recovered from the ground, so nearly all of them have been cleaned to remove over 1,500 years of encrusted dirt. This can be done safely with a toothbrush and a long soak in distilled water to loosen up the really tough stuff.

If you are concerned that your coins aren't "shiny", that is completely normal. Bronze is a very reactive metal compared to silver or gold, and will absorb minerals from the ground to create a patina around the coin. This cannot be removed without severely damaging the coin.

It's possible to ID a Roman coin that is in such miserable shape that nobody would want to collect it. The fact that only a handful of coins were shown (and that the ones shown were in average to below average condition) is concerning. I would steer clear. You can get lots of coins in that condition for less than $1 per coin, and you can get individual coins that aren't a "sight unseen" auction for about that price.

Saflips are a good brand. I found a 100 pack on ebay for $19 with free shipping.

If you go for cardboard 2x2s, you can get them for way less than 10 cents each, but you can't get the coin back out without ruining the flip.

Looks perfectly fine. Common low grade denarii are seldom faked, and when they are, it's almost never with good silver, so they are significantly underweight. Validate it against the catalog weight using a trustworthy jeweler's scale.

Not a clear fake, but it needs to be assessed by an expert. This is one of the most famous and highly sought coins in the world, and as such warrants reproduction using genuine hammering methods in good silver.

If you obtained this coin for less than $500, it is most likely fake.

1. Japanese 4 mon, kanei tsuho type, 11 waves. Late 1700s

2. Fantasy charm

3. Tenpo Tsuho 100 mon, 1830s-1869. Beware of fakes; genuine pieces should have validation marks punched into the rim at about 3 and 9 o'clock.

Bhutan:

http://en.numista.com/catalogue/bhoutan-1.html

These are also very common. They usually sell for about $5 in this condition.

It's a late rendition of the "bull and horseman jital" from India. The type originated in the 700s or 800s, and persisted until the early 1300s, albeit with the figures presented as geometric shapes to appease the Arabic requirement of "no graven images on coins"

Page on the type:

http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/bh.html