Ancient Coin Collection - Presenting interesting Roman and Greek Silver Coins in Detail

Today I would like to show you some of my ancient coins, just a small section of it. Okay, let's start with a stator from Tarsus in Calicia, struck around 330 BC, showing Athena on the obverse and the god Baal on the reverse, sitting to the left side. It has a little test cut, but it's anyway a beautiful coin and a rare type actually. Then we have a very common coin, Denarius of Antoninus Pius, which was a Roman emperor from 138 to 161 AD. Very nice bust of him on the obverse with a fine style and I always like his eyes on the coins, they look very alive. Always worth buying if the price is right. Alright, the next coin is another very impressive stator of ancient Greece. It's from Aspendas in Pamphylia. On the obverse we see two wrestlers in full action grappling and on the reverse we actually see a slinger in throwing stance to the right with a triskalas. This coin actually relates to the Olympic games held in ancient Greece and was struck between 380 to 330 BC. Now, here is the most iconic ancient Greek coin, the Athenian Owl Tetradrachma, showing the city goddess Athena on the obverse and the Athenian Owl on the reverse. It's sort of the dollar of the ancient Greek world and even collectors who don't collect Greek coins know this coin, because it's so famous. An ancient Greek coin type I also really like collecting are the with the typical shield on the obverse and amphoras on the reverse. This one is an earlier issue on the reverse with a little grape branch left or within the incuse square and this is a very rare type with only a few examples known actually. Really nice one. Here is another example from the Magistrat Vast. Let's move on to ancient Rome with the denarius of Maximinus Trax ruled from 235 to 238. Very lovely portrait of the emperor and on the reverse we see Celes seated on the throne feeding a serpent rising. Very interesting. We continue with serpents going back to ancient Greece for a kystophoric tetradrachm of Pergamon. Very mystical coin. On the reverse we see the two snakes wriggling and on the obverse there is the kystamystica which gave the coin its name where a snake comes out actually. Though this is a very common coin you don't see it very often in good condition. Mostly one of both sides is off-center so this is definitely one of the better ones. Let's move on to another beautiful denarius. It's Faustina the Younger, daughter of Antoninus Pius and wife of Marcus Aurelius, the famous Marcus Aurelius, which you have probably seen in the previous video of me showing a denarius of Marcus Aurelius. I bought this coin a couple of years ago completely cleaned, very shiny silver and just after a few years the coin started to get this very attractive dark toning and on the obverse you see this very lovely bust of Faustina. There were dye engravers and dye engravers. Some were very skilled and made those lovely portraits and other portraits are not so fine. And I would always recommend you look out for a fine style for good quality. If you can afford it go for a good very fine at least. You have so much more fun in the long run with these coins than buying poor quality for a low price. Now just for comparison a recently cleaned denarius of Emperor Trajan. It just looks like it was struck a few months ago. And now a very beautifully toned roman republican denarius from El Soufeus struck 152 BC showing the helmeted head of Roma on the obverse with the letter x, which is a mark of value. And on the reverse we see Victoria driving a galloping beager. Now I'd like to show you a very very small coin just as a counterpart to the other coins. This is a haemiobol from Kitsikos in ancient Greece struck 450 to 400 BC. It weighs under half of a gram. On the obverse we see the forepart of a wild boar with a tiny fish to the right side. I always have to smile looking at this coin because it looks a little bit funny how they engraved the wild boar. But on the other side it's also very fascinating how the ancient Greeks created art on such small coins in such small space. But I think I will make a separate video just for these small denominations. All right that should be enough for this video right now. If you have any questions concerning the shown coins or concerning collecting ancient coins in general please feel free to contact me. I will happily reply. If you like to see more videos please subscribe to my channel. See you in the next video!