Ancient ID?

Blackhawk · January 17, 2005 6:31AM

Could someone with knowledge of ancients tell me what this is? It's about 1.9 cm in diameter and looks to be made of bronze, although it's pretty dark with age and I could be wrong.

CIVITAS · January 17, 2005 7:18AM

Looks like an antoninianus of Victorinus 268-270 A.D.

BigAlan · January 17, 2005 7:31AM

Guessing---Mid 3rd century AD (Postumus?) "Jupiter Walking" reverse. Hard to tell without reading the legend.

PuddlePirate · January 17, 2005 9:41AM

I would say Josh nailed it - the lengend looks like IMP VICTORINVS PF AVF on the obverse, Jupiter walking left reverse possibly "SOL" INVICTVS reverse legend. That puts it 268-270AD, bronze.

Blackhawk · January 17, 2005 10:02AM

What is the value of such a piece?

PuddlePirate · January 17, 2005 2:39PM

Josh has a pretty cool web-site and features a nice variety of ancients there so his pricing would be better than mine. I'd grade it Good Obverse and Poor Reverse - and it looks a bit porous. Overall somewhere between 5 -15 USD.
Did you buy this one or clean it yourself? My personal ancient collection is about 90% cleaned by me. I do buy some peices when they catch my eye and I have some extra money in my cashbox.

coachleonard · January 17, 2005 11:12PM

My guess is that it's also a barbaric issue, struck maybe in Gaul or Britain. Those tend to be noticeably cruder than official Roman coins.

CIVITAS · January 18, 2005 12:54AM

All of Victorinus' coins come from Gallic/Germanic mints as he was a usurper in Britain (following in the footsteps of Postumus and Marius).

Stylistically, this is probably Cologne mint (but I'm not certain). They are "official" issues in as much as he was an "official" emperor.

Value? I'd pay you $15.00 without batting an eye, based on your picture. While the legends are weak, as is the reverse strike, this is fairly typical for this issue. Retail is probably somewhere between $30 and $40 for the coin.

PuddlePirate · January 18, 2005 1:04PM

Civitas - can you point the way to a "realistic" price guide on Ancient Roman/Greek coinage? I have quite a few peices that are duplicates+ and have considered putting them up on Ebay and taking what ever comes in. It would be better of course to have some idea of a more "realistic" value (so I can whine when I don't even come close)

CIVITAS · January 19, 2005 1:18AM

Puddlepirate,

A few places come to mind. First, try CNG's website: http://www.cngcoins.com Their "Research Sold Coins" section is very helpful and displays actual prices realized (not including buyer's fee for auction lots) for a lot of common as well as rare coins.

Also, check Vcoins for what people are currently asking for their material: http://www.vcoins.com/search There's usually a good assortment of common and slightly scarce material with which you can compare your coins.

If your duplicates are nice material, I'd like to know what you've got if and when you decide to eBay it (or before).

Hope that helps.

Ancient ID?

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