The largest Roman gold coin, a medallion of the emperor Libius Severus

Gold medallion of Libius Severus

Technically this is not a coin, but a medallion. Nevertheless, it has the record of being the largest Roman piece minted in gold that has survived to this day. There was another even larger medallion of the emperor Justinian, but it was stolen and molten in the 19th century.

The splendor of this gold medallion hides the unexpected story of a weak emperor that was only a puppet in the hands of a powerful general of Germanic origin, Ricimer, the true power behind the throne of the Western Roman Empire.

An empire in crisis and a puppet emperor

By the middle of the 5th century A.D., the situation of the Roman Empire differed radically from that of earlier times. It was de facto divided into two states, the Eastern Empire with capital in Constantinople and the Western Empire with capital in Ravenna. The former faced a difficult situation, but the latter was immersed in a deep crisis that threatened its very survival, with large tracts of its territory under the control of Germanic Kings.

After the emperor Majorian was executed by the Master of Soldiers Ricimer on August 461, the western throne lay vacant for several months. His barbarian origin made it impossible for Ricimer to ascend the imperial throne himself. Thus, at his instigation, the Roman senate proclaimed Libius Severus emperor. He was a complete nonentity destined to fulfill only a symbolic role while Ricimer held firmly the reins of power in his hands. Severus should take care of the relationship with the Italian elites and the Christian church, without interfering with the real exercise of power.

It was probably to mark the occasion of Severus’ coronation at Ravenna that this huge gold medallion was minted, a multiple of 12 solidi (53.62 gr.), with a diameter of 52 mm.

solidus of Libius Severus

The obverse and reverse types

On the obverse we find the legend DN LIBIVS SEVE-RVS AVG (Dominus Noster Libius Severus Augustus) and a bust of the emperor with the head to the right and the body in three-quarter profile. An oversized eye occupies a large part of his face. The emperor wears armor and a military cloak attached with a large clasp on the right shoulder. He wears a headband adorned with a large rosette in the center consisting of a broad band divided into square fields, each with a large circular dot that surely represents a jewel. Under the headband, just above the eyebrow, it is possible to see a laurel wreath.

The legend of the reverse is PI-E-TAS AVG N-OSTRI (Pietas Augusti Nostri, "the mercy of our emperor"). In the exergue, the mintmark COMOB indicates that this medallion was struck by the comitatensian mint that accompanied the imperial court. The place of minting is not indicated but it was probably Ravenna. The emperor is represented standing and looking to the left in military clothing, he holds a scepter or an inverted spear with in left hand and with the right hand he holds the hand of a kneeling female figure. On the left, another female figure in military suit presents the kneeling woman to the emperor; she holds a large round shield on her left arm. To the right, a winged Victory carries a palm branch and with her right hand places a wreath of flowers on the emperor's head.

As we can see, in the mid-fifth century Western Empire the figure of the emperor was only an empty shell with no real power. Roman numismatic art, on the other hand, had not yet lost any of its expressive potential.

How to properly handle ancient and collectible coins

As I explained in an older post, it is not recommendable to clean ancient coins, because it is very easy to unintentionally damage them in the process. Much better is not to let ancient coins get dirty in the first place! Thus it is very important to properly store and handle the coins in a collection to prevent them from suffering damage which, if accumulated over time, could lead to their value decreasing.

One of the most common mistakes when handling a coin is to simply hold it in your hand and touch its faces with your bare fingers. On the contrary, a coin should always be held by its edges, never by the faces. One of the most common ways coins are damaged is when someone touches their surface and leaves dust that can generate scratches on the surface or traces of skin oil that can corrode it.

It is very important to wash your hands thoroughly before handling ancient coins. However, even when fingers are clean, a coin should always be carefully hold by the edges trying to avoid touching its faces. If coins are regularly hold without proper caution their surface will over time show signs of wear.

 

Inadequate way to hold an ancient coin 

The ideal way of handling an ancient coin is with special cotton gloves. Of course this is not essential if the precautions mentioned in the previous paragraph are taken.

Never use latex or plastic gloves! They are not suitable for handling ancient coins because they often have dust or lubricants that can pollute or damage the surface!

It should be noted that, when wearing gloves, there is a greater risk of accidentally dropping a coin, so special care must be taken to avoid this to happen. The best is to place a thick, soft cloth under the coin while holding it, so that if it slips or falls, it will not be damaged by the impact on a hard surface. A soft cloth will also prevent it from rolling.

Ancient coins are precious relics of the past and it is our responsibility to take care of them so they can be enjoyed by future generations of collectors.

The Komin Hoard, the largest Roman hoard ever found

The finding

Komin is a small village of 1300 inhabitants in Croatia, at the mouth of the river Neretva in the Adriatic. Its location corresponds to that of a small Roman settlement known as Pyrri, in the ancient province of Pannonia, as evidenced by the discovery of ancient tombs and other inscripted monuments in the region.

It was in this small village that a century ago, in 1918, the greatest hoard of Roman coins ever discovered was found by chance. It was found about half a mile from the local church. It contained more than 300,000 Roman coins! The earliest coins dated from the reign of Marcus Aurelius and the latest from the reigns of Aurelian and Tacitus at the end of the III century; however, the vast majority dated from this later period. Information is very scarce as the composition of the treasure does not seem to have been accurately recorded by the finders. The hoard was most likely buried under the short reign of Tacitus (275-6).

The fate of the Komin coins

Most of the hoard was dispersed and sold to coins and antiquities dealers, but a significant part of it was deposited in the museum of Zagreb, where it would be studied in the following decades by a small group of numismatists, among which the great Andreas Alföldy stood out. Finally, in 1937, a brief study was published with a list of just under 20,000 coins from the hoard, all Antoninians minted between 253 and 275 A.D., that is, between the reigns of Valerian and Aurelian, the vast majority of the pieces apparently coming from the reign of Gallienus. The list is accompanied by drawings of some selected coins. The list included only the small part at the disposal of the museum and this is not a representative selection of the whole, so it is not possible to reach definite conclusions.

The photograph accompanying this entry are illustrative only, since it seems than no photographs were taken at the moment of discovery. The photographs are from a similar but smaller hoard, that of Dorchester in England.

Sulla’s dream – a denarius of the Roman republic

The year 44 B.C. and the denarius of L. Aemilius Buca

44 BC was no ordinary year in the history of the Roman republic. Since his triumph in the civil war against Pompey, Julius Caesar exercised undisputed control over the Roman republic. In 46 BC, he had been appointed dictator, but at the beginning of 44 BC he received the even more elevated title of “dictator for life” (dictator perpetuo rei publicae constituendae). Shortly thereafter, on the Ides of March, he was murdered by a conspiracy of young aristocrats who saw him as a tyrant intent on destroying the freedom of the Roman people.

44 BC was also a decisive year in the history of Roman coinage. One of the officials in charge of the mint of Rome, Lucius Aemilius Buca, had an extensive series of denarii minted.The coins had varied motifs including obverses representing the bust of Caesar accompanied by a legend referring to his status as perpetual dictator.  It was the first time that a living citizen was portrayed on a Roman coin, an exceptional honour whose only precedent was that of the Hellenistic kings, Alexander the Great and his successors. Undoubtedly, Ceasar was depicted in a kingly manner that conflicted with the Roman republican tradition.

Reverse with the scene traditionally interpreted as " Sulla' s dream "

In addition to the denarius depicting Caesar’s head, Buca had another coin minted that has attracted the attention of numismatic scholars since the Renaissance.

The obverse shows Venus' head, while the reverse depicts a man lying down, his head leaning back. The trunk of his body is naked, while a mantle is wrapped around his legs. From the right, Selene, identified by a crescent on her head, descends towards him. In her right hand she holds a torch, while her left hand and right foot rest on a rock. Between the man and the goddess, at the back of the scene, is a winged female figure, carrying an object that looks like a palm branch or a stick.

The traditional interpretation

The French numismatist Andreas Morell (1646-1703) was the first to propose an interpretation of this reverse scene that would make the coin famous. It was based on a passage from the life of Lucius Cornelius Sulla written by Plutarch. According to the latter, 

"It is said, also, that to Sulla himself there appeared in his dreams a goddess whom the Romans learned to worship from the Cappadocians, whether she is Luna, or Minerva, or Bellona. This goddess, as Sulla fancied, stood by his side and put into his hand a thunder-bolt, and naming his enemies one by one, bade him smite them with it; and they were all smitten, and fell, and vanished away. Encouraged by the vision, he told it to his colleague, and at break of day led on towards Rome.

Morell identified the reverse of Buca’s denarius as a representation of Sulla's dream, who would be the reclining human figure visited by the goddess. His interpretation would be adopted by the great Austrian numismatist Joseph Eckhel and the latter’s authority would grant it the general acceptance that this interpretations enjoys to this day.

An Alternative Interpretation - The Myth of Endymion

The great French numismatist Ernest Babelon rejected Morell's interpretation, seeing in the scene a representation of the Greek myth of the shepherd Endymion. According to legend, the goddess Selene fell in love with this beautiful young shepherd and obtained from Zeus the concession that he would always stay young sleeping so as to be able to visit him every night.

The Myth of Endymion

I find this interpretation more convincing than the traditional one, since it seems difficult to believe that one of the mint officials appointed by Caesar would have coined a type paying homage to Sulla, who adhered to a diametrically opposed political position.

Moreover, it seems difficult to think that contemporaries would have been so familiar with a personal anecdote of Sulla's life that we know only from scarce and later sources. On the contrary, the myth of Endymion, like most Greek legends, was well known to the Romans, who saw it frequently represented in theatre and art. 

Endymion is often represented in funerary contexts as an allusion to the eternal life granted by the gods. So I think it is most likely that the reverse type was chosen by Aemilius Buca as a tribute to the assassinated Caesar.

The coins of Venice

Ducat of Andrea Dandolo c. 1354 - obverse

The history of Venice

During the fifth century AD, the north of Italy was in chaos as a result of the barbarian invasions that devastated much of the west of the Roman Empire. In this difficult times, the inhabitants of some of the towns of the region sought refuge in the scattered islets of the marshy lagoons north of the Adriatic Sea. There they found the security they longed for and also a basis for subsistence in fishing and in the salt trade. These were the modest origins of Venice, which with the passage of time grew to become a very prosperous city centered on trade, commerce, and international business. By the late Middle Ages it was one of the great economic and military powers of the Mediterranean.

Its unique nature as a city built on water provided Venice with protection and guaranteed its independence from the great powers of the Byzantine and Carolingian empires. The Venetians organized themselves in a republic controlled by the main merchant families, a form of government highly unusual during the middle Ages. The republic was led by the Doge, a ruler elected by an aristocratic assembly and whose power was controlled by a complex system of checks and balances.

 

Ducat of Andrea Dandolo c. 1354 - reverse

During its long history, the Venetian republic was remarkably stable and lacked the political turmoil that regularly affected the rest of the European states of the time. It was thus rightly called “the most serene”, la serenissima.

Because of its eminently commercial activity, Venice always had an intense monetary circulation. During the High Middle Ages, its merchants relied above all on Byzantine coins that were those of the highest quality available and were accepted throughout the Mediterranean world.

Grosso of Francesco Dandolo - c. 1328

The coins of Venice

The situation changed at the beginning of the thirteenth century. Byzantine coinage had been gradually debased and had consequently lost its reputation. A new international currency was urgently needed and the Venetians were ready to take the opportunity. Under the great Doge Enrico Dandolo (ruled 1192-1205), they introduced a new coin of high quality silver, the grosso or matapan. We do not know the exact date of its first minting but it was close to the beginning of the century.

With a theoretical weight of c. 2.2 g., the coin reached a purity of 98.5%, the maximum achievable with the technology of the time. This purity guaranteed a wide acceptance as a means of international payment. The design of the coin was strongly influenced by the Byzantine iconography, with a Christ enthroned on the obverse and Saint Mark and the Doge holding a banner, on the reverse.

Around 1250, as trade in the Mediterranean world flourished and expanded, Genoa and Florence - Venice's commercial rivals - minted new high-value pure gold coins, the Genovino and the Florin, with a standard of approximately 3.5 grams. The florin quickly established itself as the new standard currency for international trade. The success of this rival coinage would finally lead the Venetians in 1284 to introduce their own gold coin, the ducat. It had a theoretical weight of 3.53 grams and a purity of 99.5%, which would allow it to conquer a place as a widely accepted international currency and to compete successfully with the florin.

Ducat of Fra Giovanni Dandolo -1284

The obverse shows an upright figure of Jesus surrounded by stars, with the legend T[ibi] XPE (Christe) DAT[us] Q[uem] T[u] REGIS ISTE DVCAT[us]. On the reverse we see St. Mark handing over a banner to the Doge.

Venice would continue to mint ducats of the same quality until the end of the Republic in 1797.

How to clean ancient coins

How to clean ancient coins?

Should I clean my coins?

One of the questions I get asked most often is "How should I clean my coin collection?" Actually, the answer I give is very simple and always the same: you should not clean your coins. That is a rule that applies in the vast majority of cases. Why? Because the most likely result of cleaning will be that you will damage your collection.

Believe it or not, one of the most common mistakes made by beginners is the improper cleaning of their coins. Many times they irreparably damage them and cause them to lose their value, especially if they use abrasive commercial products, which, due to their acid composition, remove part of the metal from the surface. The result will be a coin with an artificial brightness that will alert any potential buyer.

The same can happen if you try to clean a coin using a brush. No matter how soft the bristles of the brush, it is very likely that they will end up scratching the surface of the coin and causing it to lose value.

Collectors strive to acquire coins that are as natural and damage free as possible and they will have no interest whatsoever in a coin that has been improperly cleaned

The formation of a patina depends on the metallic composition of the coin and is the result of a natural chemical process that takes a long time. The patina is a thin film that forms on the surface coins made of copper or other alloys due to oxidation. In the case of silver coins a similar process is usually called “toning”. Patina and intonation reflect the age of a coin and add aesthetic and economic value to it. If we clean a coin, it is most likely that we will eliminate or damage its patina or intonation, erasing in this way a good part of its history and beauty.

The only exception to the rule

One of the rare cases in which a coin should be cleaned is if it has become dirty with dust, grease left by fingers, or some other type of dirt due to improper handling or storage. In that case, it is always best to use distilled water (because running water contains chlorine that can damage the coin) and, if necessary, a bit of a mild neutral soap. The operation must be done with extreme care to avoid scratching the surface of the coin. For drying, it is best to let it dry alone or use a hot air to speed up the process.

The decussis, the largest Roman coin ever issued

Decussis - AE 1075 gr. c. 215 b.C. obv: Head of Rome to the right with helmet. Value mark X. rev: Roman galley to the left. Mark of value X.

The Second Punic War and the crisis of the archaic Roman monetary system

The Second Punic War (218-201 BC) was a crucial event in Roman history. An all-or-nothing struggle for hegemony in the western Mediterranean between the two powers of the region, Carthage and the Roman Republic.

At the beginning of the war, Hannibal's bold crossing of the Alps and the brilliant victories in the battles of Ticino, Trebia and Lake Trasimeno gave the Carthaginians an important advantage and left the Romans in a critical situation. Hannibal always seemed one step ahead of the Roman generals. For the campaigning season of 216 BC, the senate decided to gather a much larger army than the ones Hannibal had defeated, trusting that the numerical superiority would allow the Roman commanders to neutralize his tactical talent. They sent 80.000 men to face the Carthaginians in a decisive Battle.

Despite these enormous efforts, the 216 B.C. campaign ended in complete disaster. The Battle of Cannae was the greatest defeat of the Romans in all their history. In spite of his numerical inferiority, Hannibal made with his troops a brilliant pincer movement. The Roman soldiers, attacked from all sides, were annihilated in an unprecedented massacre.

The defeat left the Republic in a desperate situation. The losses could not be replenished in the short term and there was no longer enough metal to continue minting Roman coins to the standards in force before the start of the war. The quadrigatii were devalued by reducing their silver content and the bronze coins by reducing their weight.

The decussis

The years following the defeat of Cannae were critical for Rome. Devaluations seem to have led to a gradual loss of confidence in Roman currency. The Roman authorities reacted minting new types of coins. A particularly interesting issue is that of a complete set of bronze denominations that the English numismatist Michael Crawford dates to the years 215-212 BC. and includes large-sized cast coins.

The decussis is particularly striking because it is, in fact, the largest coin ever issued by the Roman state in all its long history, with 1075 grams of weight. Dea Roma is depicted on the obverse, wearing a Phrygian helmet and with the mark of value X behind. On the revers, we see the typical galley of the Roman bronze coins. These large cast coins were only a short lived experiment and are extremely rare. Only four decussis are known today, three of which are in museums and only one in the hands of a private collector, having been auctioned in 2010 for 240,000 Swiss francs.

The Brescello Hoard – the largest and most valuable hoard of Roman coins ever found

Brescello, the ancient municipium of Brixellum, is a small town in northern Italy near Modena. Originally, it was a Gallic settlement on banks of the Po River that was romanized after the area was annexed by the Roman republic. The city was transformed into a Roman colony in the period following the assassination of César and it quickly became an important transport and communication hub.

It was in this city that in the year 1714 one of the most remarkable numismatic discoveries ever recorded took place. A peasant, while ploughing a field, accidentally found a vessel containing about 80,000 republican aurei, that is, approximately 650kg of pure gold!

The treasure was composed entirely of only 32 varieties of types coined between the years 46 and 38 BC, so it is quite safe to assume that it was buried in 38 or 37 BC. The latest coin identified was an aureus minted by Octavian that mentions Agrippa as consul designate for the year 37 (Crawford 534/1).

The hoard was most likely the treasure chest of a warlord of the period of civil wars. Its nominal value was 2,000,000 denarii. To put that figure on an understandable scale, it must be considered that the annual pay of a legionary in that period amounted to 250 denarii. Of course, the current value of the treasure would be much higher. A fairly conservative estimate of about $ 1000 on average for each coin gives a total value of $ 80,000,000. Undoubtedly, it is the most valuable hoard of Roman coins ever recorded, and by a wide margin.

The sheer size of the hoard is a good indicator of the enormous quantities of gold that were coined after Caesar’s victory in the civil war against Pompey. The new Caesarian aurei were minted by the millions and an important portion of this output was accumulated by a small elite, mainly in the entourage of the great political leaders of the period.

Unfortunately, very few of the coins discovered at Brescello survived. At the beginning of the 18th century there was not a sufficiently developed numismatic market as to absorb such a number of ancient coins. Therefore, after dispersing a relatively small part, the rest was melted to mint ducats!

The reddish "Boscorale" aurei

“Boscoreale treasure” is the name given to a great collection of silver and gold objects (including many coins) discovered in the ruins of an old country villa near Pompeii. The villa belonged to a rich family amd was buried by the volcanic eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD.

The villa was excavated during several archaeological campaigns. It was discovered in 1876, but it was only in April 1895 that the remains of a vaulted box containing the treasure, hidden in the wine press room, were discovered.

The treasure is composed of more than a hundred pieces of exquisite silver (cups, jars and other containers, all finely decorated), some jewels and more than a thousand aurei. Its content clearly shows the wealth of the owners of the villa.

Boscoreale's Silver Treasure Tableware at the Louvre Museum

The excavation of the villa was undertaken by the landowner, Vincenzo de Prisco, who set out to take advantage of his find. As a result, most findings were secretly sold outside Italy before the composition of the treasure could be accurately recorded. The Baron Edmond de Rothschild was one of the main buyers. He donated his purchases to the Louvre in 1896. Other pieces came to the British Museum. A good part of the coins was dispersed between collectors of all Europe and appear today regularly in auctions all over the world.

The exceptional reddish aurei

 

The coins from the Bocoreale treause are exceptional for several reasons. The great majority of the pieces seem to have practically not circulated, so the treasure contained some fantastic uncirculated aurei that are among the best known for the reigns of Nero, Vespasian and Titus from which most coins dated.

Buried in lava for one thousand eight hundred years, the intense initial heat and the sulfurous content of the soil gave to all the gold coins a marked reddish tonality that is unique for imperial aurei.

It is usual that in modern auction catalogs every Roman aureus from the period with a reddish tone is attributed to this treasure. It is also common for collectors to pay a premium for possessing these coins over others that lack this tone.

Online Coins of the Roman Empire complete

OCRE (Online Coins of the Roman Empire) is a joint project of the American Numismatic Society (ANS) and the Institute for theStudy of the Ancient World at New York University. OCRE launched in July 2012 with the aim of creating a digital corpus of Roman imperial coins that could replace the old volumes of the RIC (Roman Imperial Coinage).

At the time of its launch, the catalog only included the coins minted from Augustus to Hadrian. At the end of 2012, it had already incorporated those minted until the reign of Antoninus Pius. Now, at the end of 2016, the catalog is complete and encompasses more than 500 years of Roman monetary history between Augustus and Zeno (31 BC - 491 AD).

The catalog offers a complete record of each issue. In many cases, it also includes images from coins in some of the most important numismatic collections in the world, such as those of the American Numismatic Society, the British Museum or the Münzkabinett in Berlin, among many others. More images will be incorporated in the future until all coin types are illustrated.

The great advantage of OCRE over the RIC volumes is that it allows users to search using a wide variety of criteria, such as issuing authority, mint, obverse and reverse legend, type, metal, denomination, place of discovery, etc.

One of the most useful features of OCRE is its mapstool, which allows you to locate coins from the mint in which they are minted, see the mints active in the reign of each emperor and much more. It also includes information on the place of discovery of some coins.

In short, OCRE is an indispensable assistant for both researchers and collectors of Roman imperial coinage.

How were ancient coins made?

In the Ancient World, everything was made by hand, including coins that were minted in the millions using very simple tools. Coins were sometimes produced by casting in a mould, but this process was only usual for large pieces. The common method was to strike them with a hammer.

The basic tools for coin production were a furnace for heating the blank metal discs or "flans", tongs for handling them, a bench on which an anvil was mounted, and a pair of dies struck with a heavy hammer to impress the design into the flan.

The dies were produced of hard bronze or iron and contained an inverse version of the image to be struck on each side of the coin. They were engraved by skilled artisans known as engravers.

Teams of at least three workers were involved in the minting process. Using tongs, one worker would bring the flan from the furnace, another would hold the upper die in place and a third would strike it with the hammer. By repeating this process, an experienced team of workers could produce thousands of coins in a day and Roman mints had generally several teams working side-by-side fulltime. The high frequency of misstruck coins indicates that minting teams worked at very high speed.

As a result of this process, each ancient coin is unique.

Which is the most expensive coin in the world? The flowing hair silver dollar of 1794

On January 24, 2012, Stack Bowers auctioned a "flowing hair" silver dollar of 1794 for a staggering $ 10.016.875 (including a 17.5 percent buyer's fee). Almost one year later, it remains the highest price ever achieved at an auction for a coin. The previous 7.5 million record was set in 2002 for a 1933 Double Eagle.

LegendNumismatics, a rare-coin firm, bought the coin, and its chairman, David Bowes, declared he was prepared to bid even higher in order to acquire it. Why is this coin so valuable? Because many experts believe it to be the very first dollar struck by the U.S. mint in 1794, the year in which the American government issued silver dollars for the first time. It is also the finest example known of this early issue. For all this reasons, this is an iconic coin, surely one of the most important numismatic objects in American history.

Legend numismatics still owns the coin and the firm will surely not offer it at a public auction any time soon betting its price will go up with time. 

The most expensive Roman Coin

In December 2008, Numismatica Genevensis held a spectacular auction with many lots of unique quality and rarity. A beautiful sestertius of Hadrian broke then all records for the price paid for a Roman coin at auction, changing hands for 2,300,000 CHF, including the 15 percent buyer’s fee. (2,561,530.74 USD).

This is a completely exceptional coin. The obverse presents an extraordinary portrait of Emperor Hadrian, the work of a master die-engraver dubbed the "Alphaeus Master" by C.T. Seltman ("Greek Sculpture and Some Festival Coins," Hesperia 17, 1948, 71-85). Many Scholars believe this engraver may in fact be the great sculptor Antoninianus of Aphrodisias whose superb style epitomized the Hadrianic revival of Greek classicism, but it is only speculation. The coin auctioned by Numismatica Genevensis is one of the best preserved of these sesterces.

On the obverse we see a striking portrait of the emperor and on the reverse the goddess of peace (Pax) standing and holding a branch and a cornucopia. This Sestertius was probably coined in 135 to mark the celebration of Hadrian Vicennalia (the 20th anniversary of his ascension to the throne). The selection of Pax for the reverse may well be a reference to the hope of the emperor to put a quick end to the Bar Kochba revolt in Judaea, a traumatic event that marred the last years of the emperor’s life.

The value of ancient coins -10 key factors

The value of ancient coins exerts a special fascination among both experts and beginners. In this post I want to consider some of the key factors affecting coin value.

There is not a precise guide to the value of ancient coins and there never will be. Each ancient coin is unique, and therefore its value is also unique. The asking price for any coin can vary considerable from dealer to dealer. The best way to form an idea of the value of a coin type is to check the price list of various dealers and also auction estimates and prices realized.

The following simple list of 10 key factors affecting coin value can be of great help in judging and comparing prices (they are not listed in order of priority)

Factors affecting the value of ancient coins

1) Grade: it refers to the extent of wear experienced by a coin compared to its newly minted state. The same is in direct relation to the time it remained in circulation. Most of the coins that have reached us from the ancient world remained in circulation for some time and their wear processes were variable. Coins preserved in their original mint state or close to it are rare and coveted. Scratches or cuts can significantly affect the grade of a coin.

2) Mintage: today, coins are produced on mechanical presses with high quality and complete uniformity. In ancient times, however, coins were minted by hand striking the metal blank between two dies with a hammer. Although this work was carried out by teams of professional craftsmen (the so called moneyers), the results were not always perfect. In many cases ancient coins are not well centered or were produced wit worn or broken dies. If for any of these reasons elements of design are not visible, the value of the coin drops

 Athenian obol with irregular shape

3) Shape: the blanks were produced using traditional methods, which resulted in significant variations in weight and shape. Broken blanks or well below the expected weight average affect negatively the value of a coin. The same happens if the form is too irregular.

4) Metal: The metal quality has an effect on value, as collectors prefer coins of high metal quality over debased coins.

5) Patina: a patina is a film that forms on the surface of copper or its alloys as a result of the oxidation process. The patina is a reflection of the antiquity of a coin and it adds aesthetic appeal and value when the tone is smooth and pleasant.

 Sesterce of Septimius Severus with spectacular green patina

6) Relevance to collectors: The physical characteristics of each coin are very important and affect its value, but depending on how they are perceived by collectors. This is the key factor and the one most difficult to assess, because the interests of those who collect coins can be very different and change over time. There are periods and cultures that are more collected than others and that affects demand and, consequently, value.

7) Rarity: There has never been a complete census of ancient coins in private collections, so that no one knows with absolute certainty how many copies exist of a certain type. For the coins of the Roman Empire we have the indications of rarity in the Roman Imperial Coinage, based on a survey of European museum collections at the time of drafting of the different volumes. In many cases, however, the findings of recent decades have dramatically altered the situation. The rarity of ancient coins today reflects, obviously, though not exactly, the rarity of coins in their time, so that the study of the composition of ancient hoards can help to estimate the rarity of certain types for some periods. Beyond all this, it is necessary to note that a new discovery may completely alter the situation and make a rare coin much more common, as happened, for example, with these coins of Arsinoe II.

8) Historic Significance: When a coin is associated with events, places, buildings or figures of historical relevance, then its value goes up, because this attracts the interest of collectors.

9) Aesthetic appeal: Ancient coins have, in comparison with modern ones, a far greater variety of types and designs, some quite elaborate. As a result, there are coins that can be considered true works of art, whose dies were engraved by true masters. These coins are very attractive to collectors, so their value rises.

10) Provenance: We do not know where the vast majority of ancient coins come from, so that the few ones that can be traced to a famous hoard may be more coveted than similar ones for which we do not have that information. The same goes for those coins that have been sold at important auctions and have been part of famous collections. Collectors are always willing to pay a little more for them, especially because this background is seen, deceivingly, as a guarantee of authenticity.

I could have made a longer list, but I think those mentioned are the most important factors to have in mind. Judging the value of ancient coins is not a science, and it can only be learned by experience.