(LordM) Image drop: my Roman Twelve Caesars collection as of February 2026
lordmarcovan
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Here's a quick image drop of my Roman "Twelve Caesars" collection as of early February, 2026.
I am an eclectic collector and do a little bit of everything: Ancient, Medieval, World, and US. As such, this is only the Roman Twelve Caesars portion of my collection (excluding the other Ancients, which have their own category). Unlike the other collections I'm posting, this one is complete.
Here are the four main categories of my (certified) primary collection:
Ancient & Medieval Coins (to 1600 AD)
The Twelve Caesars of Rome
World Coins (1601-present)
United States Coins
My holed coin collection and my old metal detector finds album are currently not imaged.
One challenge that I have is that my Ancients & World coins compete with the US side for my limited budget. (There are so many nice coins and so few dollars to spend on them, right?) But I have fun being a "jack of all trades" and will continue walking that path.
My sister made a little video of me presenting this collection to my friend Jeff Brandenburg. Since that was a live conversation done without notes, there are minor errors in it- I misspoke in a few places.
https://youtu.be/I8qAThFUcv0
Here we go. The coins are listed chronologically, by date range.
Thanks for looking! I hope to hear what some of your favorites are. 
Collector since 1976. On the CU forums here since 2001.
Comments
I wonder why NGC uses Caligula, which was actually a nickname meaning "little boots". The nickname was given to him by soldiers under his father Germanicus. Hid actual name was Gaius.
Not just NGC. "Caligula" is used pretty much everywhere, even though you certainly wouldn't have called him that to his face unless you had a death wish. It's just one of those things that stuck. The name "Mercury dime" for the Winged Liberty dime is similarly erroneous, but it just became traditionally accepted.
Collector since 1976. On the CU forums here since 2001.
Love the 12 Caesars. It is a great set to build. Congrats! Now you have to get the aurei!
I have two in there. That is likely all the aurei I will ever be able to afford. Really, only a few years ago I never dreamed I would own even one, let alone two.
Having all twelve in gold aurei would be amazing. But that is an endeavor for those who have much, much deeper pockets than I do! I imagine the aurei from those short-lived civil war emperors like Otho and Vitellius would be beastly to afford.
Collector since 1976. On the CU forums here since 2001.
Now imagine a set of the 12 Caesars aurei, all Boscoreale toned!
I'd better not. I might swoon.
Collector since 1976. On the CU forums here since 2001.
Speaking of Boscoreale aurei, this one belonging to our very own @SmEagle1795 (aka "AncientJoe" on other sites), is probably my very favorite coin that is owned by someone else.
Collector since 1976. On the CU forums here since 2001.
I want a Boscoreale very much. Is it even possible to get all 12 Caesars like that?
I'm BACK!!! Used to be Billet7 on the old forum.
I do too.
But as to whether you could theoretically get all Twelve Caesars with Boscoreale toning (even assuming you had the incredible wealth that would require), I highly doubt it. For one thing, I doubt all twelve were represented in the original 1895 Boscoreae Hoard.
Edit- duh, of course they weren’t! Silly me. The latest coin in the hoard dated to 79 AD, the date of the eruption. And Domitian didn’t rule until 81. So unless there was a Domitian “as Caesar” aureus in the Boscoreale Hoard, then no, it’s impossible.
Collector since 1976. On the CU forums here since 2001.
Thanks for the tag, @lordmarcovan and congrats on an excellent Twelve!!
Happily Domitian can indeed be represented as Caesar (see my coin below). The full Twelve Caesars set in gold is tough for a few reasons: earlier emperors, Julius/Augustus/Tiberius, were all heavily circulated by the time they reached Pompeii and were presumably largely melted down when the hoard was found.
The generally tough emperors (Otho, Galba, Vitellius, Caligula) are always expensive and will tend to be well-preserved if they game from Boscoreale so they're in heavy demand.
Here are my Boscoreales (if that be made plural that way!)
Nero, not the most vibrantly toned but it has extensive additional pedigrees which mention Boscoreale as early as 1905 and this "Nero-as-Sol" reverse has a tie-in to the Colosseum so it's particularly appealing to me:
Claudius "De Britann", also from the collection of Sir Arthur Evans (of Knossos-discovering fame)
My best toned is the one posted above but this Vespasian Judaea Capta is more historic (and has a remarkably nice portrait):
And Domitian with Romulus & Remus, minted in 77/78, just a year or so before Pompeii erupted, exhibiting basically no wear which fits the timeline:
(For completeness, a Tiberius, which I sold to a friend - it's just not there aesthetically for me to keep)
So, I'm batting a .333 on Boscoreale but will keep chipping away at it whenever the right coins come along!
This is undoubtedly the nicest presentation I've ever seen.
@SmEagle1795 took it to another level with his incredible coins, but the video is excellent The historical facts sheets in between, were disappearing a little too quickly for me, but I guess I'll see it all by rewatching it a couple of times.
Rob, despite the fact that we have never met in person, judging from your old avatar and several other photos posted over the years, I think that you've aged very well. You really look like the scholar type of numismatist that you have always been.
myEbay
DPOTD 3
@lordmarcovan I will wait for you to change your mind...
@SmEagle1795 well done!
Thank you, Dimitri. Comments like yours warm my numismatic heart. 😄
Let me be very quick, however, to dispel any notion of my being a proper “scholar”. In Ancients, I’m actually a bit behind the curve in that regard (as the several glaring errors I made in that video will attest). When it comes to ancient coins, I consider myself barely within the “intermediate” range as a collector- both in knowledge and budgetary means. I do enjoy it, though.
Collector since 1976. On the CU forums here since 2001.
Well, we can't all be Sapyx. He's the walking numismatic encyclopedia , who re reads old Krause volumes as bedtime stories.
But there's room for improvement for the rest of us and the use of the video focused on a finished set as you said in the beginning , was a breath of fresh air for me and oerhaps others.
Well done!
myEbay
DPOTD 3
Thanks. I chuckled at "we can't all be Sapyx". So true! LOL
Collector since 1976. On the CU forums here since 2001.