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Now I can make it official!! A coin find in the Roma Coliseum!
oreville
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I was at the Roma Coliseum in June 2012 and spent the entire day there.
Near the end of the day, I spotted a somewhat shiny object in one of the tunnels that was being opened up over the last few years.
I immediately picked it up and brought it to the attention of a security person who brought me to the administrative office, not sure what to do.
It looked like a Emperor Domitian Denarius and I was right! I thought that perhaps I made a major discovery but actually the Coliseum curator was actually more excited because the coin had been stolen from them six months prior and I recovered it.
It took them over two years to confirm this with the Italian authorities and finally I received a thank you phone call.
I now have lifetime free passes to the Coliseum!! But I still have to pay for the plane fare!! LOL.
The coin I found looks very similar to this coin:
Near the end of the day, I spotted a somewhat shiny object in one of the tunnels that was being opened up over the last few years.
I immediately picked it up and brought it to the attention of a security person who brought me to the administrative office, not sure what to do.
It looked like a Emperor Domitian Denarius and I was right! I thought that perhaps I made a major discovery but actually the Coliseum curator was actually more excited because the coin had been stolen from them six months prior and I recovered it.
It took them over two years to confirm this with the Italian authorities and finally I received a thank you phone call.
I now have lifetime free passes to the Coliseum!! But I still have to pay for the plane fare!! LOL.
The coin I found looks very similar to this coin:
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Just curious,,, GrandAm
Looks like a billon or fourre denarius , and not in great shape,
must be the back scene with 3 persons around the altar that makes it rare , most have a goddess , or the emperor on horseback,
or an Altar without persons on the backside.
For what it's worth, the coin image you posted is a dupondius made of bronze, not a silver denarius. Was the coin you found about the size of a dime and silver or the size of a half dollar? If the former, it's a denarius; if the latter, it could be like the pictured coin and a dupondius or a sestertius. This particular coin commemorates the opening of Domitian's secular games of 88 AD and is a rather historical type.
I'd value this coin at around $400-500 due to its condition, however, the nicest examples can sell for $5K+
This might be an appropriate spot for the posting of a Coliseum sestertius if anyone in these parts has on.
<< <i>This is fantastic!
This might be an appropriate spot for the posting of a Coliseum sestertius if anyone in these parts has on.
If I must
Its construction began under the emperor Vespasian and took 10 years, finally finishing in 80 AD. It was built on the site of Nero's Golden Palace and was made for the people rather than just for the emperor.
Here's a Roman aureus of Vespasian:
Unfortunately, Vespasian died before it was completed. Titus, his successor, finished the building project and held a celebration which lasted for 100 days. This coin, a sestertius, was handed out by the emperor at the inaugural games and represents the only surviving original contemporary depiction of the Colosseum:
Its original name was the "Amphitheatrum Flavium", the "Flavian Ampitheater", named after Vespasian's family name. It was eventually given its common name from a massive statue of Nero which was moved in front of it by the emperor Hadrian. This type of statue was known as a “colossus”, and people over time said they would meet “near the Colossus”, resulting in the name Colosseum coming into use more officially around 480 AD.
Nero pictured this statue on an aureus of his from 64 AD:
Next time, bring a shovel.
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Just so you don't have to fight any lions.
Exactly what I was thinking! I was indeed thinking that I might be thrown into the gallows and facing the lions in a time warp, so I immediately confessed! It was so surreal!
as an aside, just being there, because it was not a crowded day, I finally made sense of how marble the Coliseum once had and how the St Peters Basilica acquired so much of their marble. Much of it was taken from the Coliseum.
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Sounds like you have a sharp eye.
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