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The Roman Empire

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Roman Empire, Page 3 = SUCCESSION

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Kohaku

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This new “Journal Entry” provides an update on the third Page of my NGC Ancient Custom Set entitled “The Roman Empire.”

 

This Page is 80% complete (12 coins out of 15 slots).  For one of the those 12 coins, I still have not completed my “Owner’s Comments.”

 

Here is a link to the Collection…

 

https://coins.www.collectors-society.com/wcm/CoinCustomSetGallery.aspx?s=16365

 

Here is the synopsis for the Page, entitled "SUCCESSION”…

 

Julio-Claudian dynasts feud amongst themselves, maintaining Rome sternly down the path of Empire amidst growing religiopolitcal upheavals.

 

The following is a brief description of the coins I choose to include and why.

 

  1. The first coin on this Page is a denarius featuring Augustus on obverse and two imperial succession candidates, Caius and Lucius Caesars, on the reverse.  This is a popular issue for collectors of ancient Roman coins.  I wanted to include this one not only to represent Caius and Lucius, but also as what seemed to be a seminal early coin of the Roman Empire, a fitting first coin to launch this Page focused on succession.  This one graded Ch AU, Strike = 3/5 and Surface = 3/5.
  2. The second coin in this Page features Augustus and his buddy Agrippa, who, along with his offspring, provided opportunities for imperial successors.  Like the previous coin, this one seems to be popular as well.  It is an example of a “crocodile” coin, that is, it features a crocodile as a symbol of Egypt, and this coin advertises Rome’s control over Egypt, an important realm for its resources.  In my Owner’s Comments, I took the opportunity to discuss the role of the crocodile as an apex predator, particularly in ancient times.  Of course, I also discuss Agrippa, and his accomplishments in various areas from warfare to civil engineering. Augustus was lucky to have such a faithful and productive comrade, who played a substantial role in the success of the early Roman Empire.
  3. For this slot, I choose an ancient bronze featuring Asinius Gallus, an interesting Roman patrician.  This coin is rare, and this one graded as MS, Strike=4/5 and Surface = 4/5, perhaps among the finest known, at least among examples I was able to search within readily available sources.  Asinius was a colleague of Augustus and, as such, yet another possible imperial candidate, or at least Asinius wanted to promote himself as such.   Besides describing the interesting history between Asinius and the Emperor, I also took the opportunity in my Owner’s Comments to talk about the origin and design on the coin.  Its origin was Aeolis, Temnus, famed as birthplace of Hermagoras, the 1st century BC rhetorician famous for the “seven circumstances” (who, what, when, where, why, in what way, by what means) that still provides a basis for modern investigation.  The coin’s design invokes the philosophical concept of the Apollonian and Dionysian, or dichotomy between the irrationality of emotions and rationality of reason, mirroring the ancient Chinese concept of yin and yang.
  4. This slot is not yet filled.  I originally thought to use this slot to include a coin of Agrippa Postumus, last child of Agrippa.  However, it turns out that such a coin is extremely difficult to obtain, and, so far, has proven out of my reach.  Therefore, I currently plan to include for this slot a coin of Herod Antipas.  Besides the interesting biblical history of Herod Antipas, I thought including such an issue would provide the opportunity to continue my theme of succession, and describe how Augustus not only had to grapple not only with his own succession, but also succession within his client states.  I will update this Journal Entry as I fill it and provide my Owner’s Comments.
  5. For this slot, I chose to include a prutah struck by Pontius Pilatel one of Rome’s prefects of Judaea. This coin was encapsulated as a “Coin of the Bible”, so there is no official grade.  It is obviously of very high historical interest.  This coin is heavily circulated (personally, I would consider it only F, maybe 3/5 for both strike and surface), but in my opinion that increases its historical interest to consider that it circulated and exchanged many hands in a time and place that held a tremendous impact on human history.
  6. This slot, assigned to Nero Cladius Drusus is not yet filled.  Nero Claudius Drusus was brother to Rome’s second Emperor, Tiberius. I will update this Journal Entry as I fill it and provide my Owner’s Comments.
  7. This slot, assigned to Tiberius, Rome’s second Emperor is not yet filled.  I intend to put a “Tribute penny” type coin here.  I will update this Journal Entry as I fill it and provide my Owner’s Comments.
  8. For this slot I chose another interesting dynastic issue, and ancient bronze featuring Tiberius and two of his Caesars, Drusus the Younger (his son and only child) and Germanicus (his nephew).  This coin graded VF, Strike = 4/5, Surface = 3/5.
  9. For this slot, I was lucky to obtain an example bronze featuring Sejanus, Tiberius’ Praetorian Prefect and would-be successor.  Thus coin graded F, Strike = 5/5, Surface = 2/5.  There are some ancient collectors who would argue that they would not consider a coin with a “2” grade (for either Strike or Surface) for their collection. While I understand that goal, I would say that for extremely rare coins, especially rare bronzes, one must accept that probability.  In this case, there are only 19 coins like this one in existence, so I don’t mind.  I’m just happy to have acquired one in any condition.
  10. For this slot, I chose to include the sole issue attributed to Livilla, who was Tiberius’ niece.  I found her history extremely interesting, see my Owner’s  Comments for details.  This relatively scarce coin graded Ch XF, Strike = 5/5, Surface = 3/5. 
  11. Here I picked Tiberius Gemellus.  This coin is extremely rare, I am not sure what the population is, but based on how infrequently I have seen up for auction and in auction archives, it seems nearly as rare my Sejanus coin.  This one graded F, Strike = 5/5, Surface = 2/5.  Again, no apologies for the low grade, it's the consequence of including such a rare and interesting coin in the collection. 
  12. Here I picked Germanicus Gemellus, and this one is very popular with collectors -  a sestertius featuring an iconic double cornucopia surmounted with the busts of Tiberius’ grandsons.  This one graded VF, Strike = 5/5, Surface = 2/5.  Uncommon but not especially rare, this one seems difficult to find in a good surface grade.  Perhaps that's because of its popularity and susceptibility for cleaning and surface manipulations by avid collectors who didn’t know better.   I may someday “upgrade” this one; in the meantime, I would rather invest in filling an empty slot in this collection instead.
  13. This coin is a very nice sestertius featuring Agrippina Sr, it graded VF, Strike = 5/5, Surface = 4/5.  I still have not completed my research and written my Owner’s Comments yet, stay tuned for that.
  14. This is another fabulous, iconic bronze, issues by Caligula to posthumously honor his brothers Nero and Drusus Ceasars.  It features the two brothers on horseback, and I took the opportunity in my Owner’s Comments to discuss to history of human domestication of the horse, and the relevance to the history of the Roman Empire.  This coin graded Ch VF, Strike = 5/5, Surface = 3/5.
  15. This coin features one of my favorite women in the Roman Empire’s history, namely Antonia, daughter of Marc Antonia and Octavia.  (The latter was Octavian/Augustus, so Antonia was his niece.)  This bronze graded XF, Strike = 4/5, Surface = 5/5.  I had to include Antonia since I kept coming across references to her “remarkable court,” referencing the scores of Roman nobles and dynasts from surrounding realms that she raised.  Thus, Antonia seemed a perfect slot as the last coin on this Page focused on succession.
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Nasty history indeed, it gets even juicier on the next Page = DECADENCE!

Edited by Kohaku
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Looking forward to it. You clearly have some knowledge of the history of the period, which gives context to the coins you collect.

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Thank you for all your effort and research, I for one am enjoying reading the coin descriptions in your set. I read a couple every so often.

Gary

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An update on this page...I procured a coin representing Herod III antics, its not particularly "pretty" but neither is the related history.

Coin Details: JUDAEA, Herodians, Herod III Antipas, 4 BCE-39 CE, Æ Half Unit (17.5mm, 3.93 g, 12h), Tiberias mint, Dated RY 37 (33/4 CE), NGC Grade: Pending, Strike: Pending, Surface: Pending, Obverse: Mint in two lines within wreath , Reverse: Palm branch, L-ΛZ (date) across field, References: Meshorer 88; Hendin 1212; RPC I 4931; cf. CNG E-389, lot 363. 

 

My Owner's Comments on this one are pending my ongoing research.

 

Now I only need Tiberius and Nero Claudius Drusus to complete this Page!

her anti front.png

her anti back.png

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Grading came back on the Herod Antipas bronze = XF, Strike =4/5, Surface = 2/5.  Pretty much what I expected - the XF is a great grade for an ancient bronze, particularly an ancient Judaean example from this era. I am a bit puzzled by the  2/5 surface grade since no comments were made on the slab (no remarks about  tooling, smoothing, etc).  In any case, a relatively worthy grade.

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