Sept 2007 finds page

UNITED KINGDOM
MN - Wigram Line
In use 1870 - 1915 ?
Stewards Button
Maker - Unknown

London and county Bank

1895
Pitt & Co

S.M.R Volunteers

Mounted Rifle Volunteers

Circa 17th century

A slightly convex symmetrical gilded mount with lobed ends, transverse ridges, and two integral pointed lugs

Circa 17th century

What a great find - Lord Nelson medallion

Victory at Trafalgar and death

'ADM Vicount Nelson Octb 21 1805'

1stC AD Roman bronze

28.44mm, 12.87g

The quick answer is that it's Trajan, 97-117 A.D. (Hadrian's predecessor) and so has every good reason to be in Britain. Given the diameter and weight, it would be an As - also, although perhaps just a tad heavy for an As at nearly 13gm, I see no traces of the radiate crown which would indicate that it was a Dupondius (2 Asses).
Now, on the downside (for the ID) - Trajan reigned for 20 years during a time of exceptional internal peace and prosperity in the Roman Empire.
During Trajan's reign, the Empire achieved its largest size, measured in geographical area His reign saw literally thousands of different types of coins struck, most of which circulated until they were worn smooth, this being the era of the "Adoptive Emperors" with financial stability for nearly a full century enabling these coins to stay in crculation so long. Many call this the "Golden Age" of Rome. Since there is so little by way of detail visible on the reverse of your coin, I doubt it's going to be possible to say much more than that it's an As of Trajan, since there is so little to distinguish it from the hundreds of other possible Trajanic reverses.

An interesting factoid about Trajan's coins: Not only did the Empire achieve its greatest size under his reign, the coins became longer-winded under him than any other ruler. Some of his sestertii have such an extensive laundry-list of his titles that they can have upwards of 75-80 characters in the obverse legend alone, then go on at even greater length on their reverses. For those of us who must type-up cards to go in coin-flips, Trajan's legends can be very challenging to fit onto a 2"x2" fliptag.

I'll try enlarging, tweaking and rotating the reverse image to see if I can make any sense out of it, but, as I said, Trajan had so many reverse types it may be hopeless.

Mark

C1000 BC Bronze Age socketed axe head fragment 37.44mm L 55.91mm W x 13.52 mm T

Circa 17th century

A slightly convex symmetrical mount with lobed ends, transverse ridges, and two integral pointed lugs

Saxon C600-775 AD Silver Sceat - 1.13g,11.28mm

'(Series C2), which I have recorded as EMC 2007.0228'.

17th/18thC apothecary weight 1 dram

French copper- alloy Jeton 1380AD Obv Shield of France bearing three feur de lys

Victorian Generic Military HQ Staff Officer

Smith & Wright
Birmingham

1840 -81

A large mount in the form of an acorn; two integral pointed lugs on the back.

Victorian Generic Military HQ Staff Officer

Smith & Wright
Birmingham

1840 -81

Victorian Generic Military HQ Staff Officer

Smith & Wright
Birmingham

1840 -81

4thC Roman bronze - sent off for ID

2.93g, 19.67mm

You're probably already aware it's Constantius II (337-361 A.D. - Constantine's youngest son and longest-surviving of his successors)- although the fact that it's his and not his brother's is not quite as obvious as you might think - older brother Constans shared the purple with Constantius until 350 A.D. and so had an almost equal number of the earlier types of FEL TEMP REPARATIO's struck in his name. It's the fact that the legend breaks where it does - DN CONSTAN - TIVS PF AVG - that shows that it's Constantius rather than Constans - his legend would break
at: DN CONSTA - NS PF AVG for this issue. The new, silver-plated AE Centenionalis series replaced Diocletian's much reduced and abused Follis as a part of the monetary reforms of 348 A.D.
and managed to produce some fairly nicely sized and well-worked coins before succumbing to the same economic pressures that did-in the Follis.

The reverse type is one of those marvels of Roman symbolic art - they packed a lot of PR (some might say propaganda) into those reverse types. This was really one of the few venues for official mass-media in the proto-literate Roman era - which lacked any of the communication devices we take for granted like newspapers, etc.
The idealized personification of the emperor stands boldly (perhaps remindng Yanks of a certain famous painting of George Washington crossing the Deleware River in the snow), he holds a radiate (Sol or Helios' radiate crown) Phoenix and a labarum (legionary banner with the Christian Chi-Rho symbol on
it) - deftly blending pagan and Christian symbolism, foot (in mastery) atop the prow of a galley steered by Victory - you gotta love it! The legend is the well known FEL(icitas) TEMP(orum) REPARATIO - "Happy days are here again" (actually it's closer to "[to] the return of happy times", but not so much closer that "happy days are here again" is way off the mark) Before settling into the overdone, stereotypical "Soldier spearing fallen horseman" type, the FEL TEMP series produced some other interesting types - I'm also fond of the type showing the Emperor leading a young barbarian forth from a hut under a tree (or dragging him - depends on who you read...)

Too bad the exergue is unclear - we won't be able to be certain about where it was minted unless a little careful cleaning in that area reveals some detail - I'll guess it's a Western European mint on the rather vague basis of "style". I was hoping the fact that there's no officina or sequence marks in the reverse fields might narrow down the list of possible mints some, but as it turns out, Antioch was the only mint which never struck this type without any fieldmarks.

You didn't specify a diameter this time, but using your fingers as a rough gauge, I'm guessing it's around 22-24mm, right?
This type in this size dates from the earlier emissions, post reform - mostly in the 348-351 A.D. timeframe before the AE2 (larger) module was completely replaced by the AE3's (smaller).
Some folks call this denomination a "Centenionalis", although this terminology, like most of what we think we know about the denominations after about 310, is theoretical at best - it may also or alternately have been called a "Majorina" - or it might have been neither. We know the names of these denominations, but frustratingly, we don't know with certainty the coins to which they refer.

Mark

East India Company, V (5) Cash from Madras, India.

One piece Navy button

HONI SOIT QUI MAN Y PENSE

PACKET

Honi soit qui mal y pense (Old French: shame upon him who thinks evil of it)

RN - Packet Service
( Mail & Supplies Delivery )

c.1800-1811
Firmin & Co

 

Roman bronze signet ring - the face is worn but appears to be T 2.43g, 21.25 mmdia

1stC Roman 17.27g, 28.42mm dia, 4.51mm thick sent off for ID

The "guy riding the lion" is actually the Eastern goddess Cybele, whose cult was popular in Rome in the later 2nd century. Her "consort" (weird thing to call him under the circumstances) Attis, as the mythos goes, castrated himself and well as performing a related - ahem - amputation in order that he not be distracted in any way in the purity of his devotion to Cybele - so it was a cult with eunuch priests - whether, if the criticisms of the era are accurate and these ad-hoc operations were actually carried out on the spur of the moment by devotees in transports of holy ecstasy joining in the course of the parades and processions this sect was fond of holding, is something I tend to doubt - but the histories are, after all, written by the victors and they got to say pretty much whatever they wanted to, eventually.
Cybele is seen here riding a lion - typically you'll see her either enthroned, flanked by her lions, or driving a trimuphal chairot pulled by lions. She's wearing a turreted headdress, and carrying a drum (also a typical attribute) and scepter.

Now, we come to the issues this coin presents - it seems, from the size, as though it should be an As - but this type isn't listed for anything in AE except Sestertii in any of my references - and actually, at 28+mm & 17.27gm, it's really too large and heavy to be an As of the era, so it pretty much has to be a Sestertius. I have several sestertii of Commodus very close to this in weight - less than 20gm - in my collection.

RIC III, Rome, # 599 AE Sestertius - 191 A.D.
Obv: (all off-flan, unfortunately, but should be:) L AEL AVREL COMM AVG P FEL. Laureate head right.
Rx:: (Also just about all off-flan) MATRI DEVM CONSERV AVG / COS VI PP (in
exergue) S - C (in fields)
Cybele, "towered", facing, riding right on lion and carrying drum and scepter

It's pretty scarce, too, rating an "R2" in RIC and carrying a retail estimate in David Sear's RC&TV of 2-3 times as much as the more common sestertii for this reign. Dating to 191, it's from the next-to-last year of his reign - by this time he seems to have lost touch with reality and was performing in the gladitorial arena on a regular basis (mostly killing
animals) In this time-frame, he also had himself portrayed wearing the lion-skin headdress of Hercules (and Alexander the Great) on his coins with reverse type of Hercules' club - so, he was pretty well out there by the end of his reign. http://www.stoa.org/gallery/album95/CommodusHerc

1stC Roman 12.49g,26.6mm dia, 3.97mm thick

The other, less-well preserved coin appears to be an As of Trajan (98-117
A.D.) It's actually a bit heavy to be an As, so it might be a Dupondius - however I can't see any traces of the radiate crown which would distinguish the denomination as a Dup...
The reverse seems to be a "trophy" - a pile of arms & armor ceremonally set up after a battle in commemoration - a fairly common reverse for Trajan..

See: http://www.stoa.org/gallery/album91/ML11_Trajan_Trophy_dup for a specimen from my own collection, similar to what I think this one is -

Mark

1582 - 4 Elizabeth 1st hammered silver half groat (2 pence)

Fifth issue A mintmark

Great find - copper shilling - Aug 1689 James II Irish 'gun metal' emergency coinage

Obv 1 - JACOBVS II DEI GRATIA - Rev 1

PROBABLY ?
Germany / Prussia
Army
WWI & Prior
Maker - Unknow

Great condition Roman bronze 307AD

6.45g, 27.98mm

it's Maximinus II, as Caesar - not to be confused with either Maximian or Galerius, both of whose legends are extremely similar-looking. And also, no relation to Maximinus I, "Thrax", from nearly a century earlier.
It's a follis, and a nice, big, earlier one - before they were scaled-down to the size of a newpence.
This one is a product of the mint at London, too - always desirable.

RIC vol VI, London, # 89a, Summer, 307 A.D.
Obv: GAL VAL MAXIMINVS NOB C. Laureate draped and cuirassed bust right.
Rx: GENIO POP ROM. Genius (of the Roman People) standing left holding patera and cornucopia.
Exergue: PLN (?) this is where I have some issues on the basis of what I think I see in the photograph - it looks to me like "SLN" - and that would work if London had been striking in more than a single officina at that time - so SLN would indicate second officina, but, according to RIC, they weren't striking in two workshops in London at this time- so, maybe I'm just not seeing it correctly - it looks like an "S" to me although it should be a "P".

Mark

 

1560-1 Elizabeth 1st hammered silver groat (4 pence)

1st Issue Martlet mintmark

1586 Hans Krauwincel II Rose orb Jeton

HANNS KRAVWINCKEL IN NVRENB

1793 Suffolk Sudbury Halfpenny Conder

OBVERSE: Shield of Arms of Sudbury; dog, lion. MAY THE TRADE OF SUDBURY FLOURISH. REVERSE: PRO BONO PUBLICO 1793. EDGE: PAYABLE AT GOLDSMITH & SONS SUDBURY .XXX.

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23 hammered