u/DanOfDragons

My fiancée got me the Book „The Roman Emperor Aurelian - Restorer of the World“ by John F White for my birthday last month. So while Aurelian usually is outside of my collection range, I felt it prudent to get a Restitutor Orbis Antoninianus of him after I read about the man.

I just had to get this one, even with the somewhat disappointing reverse inscription, because it easily is one of my favourite portraits of him on non-gold coins.
It is so human-like, without the giraffe neck or any other goofy traits. And as you can see it basically has retained it’s entire silvering. I love it.

I might pick up another Restitutor Orbis Antoninianus with a great reverse and make a display of front and back.
We‘ll see. Only time will tell.

Edit:
Some added details for you.

4.03g, 22.5mm
Antioch Mint with B mintmark

Obv.
IMP C AVRELIANVS AVG
Radiate, cuirassed bust right

Rev.
RESTITVT ORBIS
Woman standing right, presenting wreath to emperor, standing left, holding sceptre

Ref. RIC V-1, 386

I was just wondering how we were feeling about this one. A clearly marked replica of an Eid Mar denarius being sold on L5. (for what I consider a ridiculous sum, but that‘s beside the point.)

Now mind you, I own the same die-transfer coin, because I will never be able to afford a real one and it brings me joy. I might use it to make a pendant or whatever. But I bought it on ebay. Seeing it on an auction site like L5 feels weird to me. But that might just be a me problem.

Edit: I mean „Clearly marked replica“ in the listing, not on the coin itself.

Hey there.
I have had an itch for this specific Paul Newman Daytona look for a couple of years, but most homages and mods just come in 39-42 mm, which just doesn‘t capture the vintage feel for me. They also either get the subdials spaced incorrectly (due to the movements) or are just unbearably thick.

I need it to be slightly dainty, the bracelet needs to be janky and jingly, with hollow endlinks, and so on.

It is a Seikomod, no question about it, but I didn‘t build it myself. Mainly because there isn‘t a single source I could find for any 37mm vintage Daytona cases.
This was ordered from Verlion Mods, which means I likely overpaid in terms of components, but I really don‘t mind. I have put out a search infrequently on google, and the second this popped up, I did a quick check of the company and had ordered within 15 minutes.
(Yes, I now realise that I likely could have bought a Thorn watch, and taken the parts, but eh… I got excited 😉)

It sports the VK63 mechaquartz movement, and is only 12,5mm thick. It is domed sapphire instead of acrylic, but that‘s a compromise I don‘t mind.

I‘m ecstatic with it. The only thing I did, was change the bracelet to one with hollow endlinks, that had a narrower taper and fits the original look even better.

Please let me know what you think. 😊

I recently managed to track down the Commodus denarius type I really wanted for a while now for my collection: One where he calls himself the Roman Hercules.

This denarius is from within the last 2 years of Commodus‘ reign, where he started to show his increasing god complex. He would claim to be the reincarnation of the legendary Hercules, dress up like his alleged alter-ego with a lion skin, and „fight“ mock battles in the arena.

There are a couple of examples of denarii (and sestertii) that follow this Hercules propaganda. Some of them have Commodus even wearing the lion head on the obverse. Those are very cool, but as every other denarius in my collection show the emperors laureate (except for Otho, cause there are none), this was the type for me.

RIC 254a
Obv. L AEL AVREL COMM AVG P FEL
Commodus, laureate head right
Rev. HERCVLI ROMANO AVG
Hercules left, crowning trophy, holding club and lion skin

Edit:
As to why I wanted a Hercules denarius of Commodus specifically: This is Commodus to me. The man with whose ascension to the purple, the golden days of the Empire started dying. A self-centered megalomaniac. Yes, it was definitely partly the fault of Marcus Aurelius for breaking with the adoptive system for nepotism, but Commodus himself could have done well, but chose to put himself first.
It started with ending the Marcomannic war (which Rome was winning mind you) by abandoning the campaign, negotiating peace and heading back home to games and comfort. And it ended with the Emperor getting strangled by Narcissus in the bath.

Finally got my hands on a lovely Judaea Capta denarius. It has younger looking portrait of Vespasian rather than the pitbull-esque they usually engraved on the dies. It also is nicely centered and has the entire „IVDAEA“ legend on the flan. The die was just a bit worn/ blocked, so some of the letters are not wholly there.
I‘m extremely happy with it and it‘s fitting nicely into my year of the four emperors.

Edit to give some historical background to this important coin:
Vespasian and his son Titus were appointed to deal with the jewish revolt in 66 AD by Emperor Nero.
For the next 3, or rather 4 years, they claimed many victories, even taking Jerusalem in 70 AD.
After Nero‘s suicide in 68 AD, Rome was plunged into a civil war over the succession. First Galba, then Otho and then Vitellius claimed the title of Emperor, but only Vespasian would hold it longer than a couple of months in 69AD.
This coin marks an important piece of propaganda issued by Vespasian as a show of strength and foreign victory, rather than just victories against other Romans. A show of force and stability while Rome desperately needed both.

To photograph the different hues of color the denarii in my collection have is pretty difficult, so I took that as a challenge for today. Head on, most of them just look like regular silver, maybe toned dark grey-ish.

I have a Redgrass lamp for painting D&D miniatures that claims to show colors as truthfully as possible (which I can agree it does) and is pretty bright. I used my phone camera with a macro lens attachment and took the pictures through the ProjectIndigo app.

While the Tiberius might be the most colorful, the almost purple-gold of the Domitian is really awesome. And the dark oranges in the Hadrian really give depth to his portrait.
I‘m not sure what was done to the Hadrian before it came to me, but it arrived as very shiny untoned silver (as you can see in my post about the 5 good emperor collection) and in the year I‘ve had it, it toned quite drastically.

Hope you enjoy the color on them.