Hadrian Silver Denarius Fine

This is something you will not see often. These bronze coins from Greek colony city of Olbia in Thrace were cast in the shape of a dolphin! They were made to honour their god Apollo Delphinios. This name is linked to the story of Cretan sailors in a storm who were guided to safety by Apollo shaped as a dolphin, landing at Delphi they became his priests. It also likely that the people were imitating what they saw, there were large numbers of dolphins in the Black Sea and still are today! Playful and intelligent, they would have been as friendly then as they are now. These were cast in bronze in the 5th to 4th centuries B.C., and because of this process do not have a tail. They show the body, the vast majority have the dorsal fin and some will even have eye pellets. As always the first to order will get the best, in this case the shape and features!

Marcus Aurelius is one of the most famous Roman Emperors, almost every day someone comes to the shop asking to buy his coins. His fame goes beyond ancient coins, he was also a brilliant Stoic philosopher, called the Philosopher-King in his lifetime he is now renowned the world over for his ‘Meditations’. As emperor he was just and able, but spent 16 of his nearly 20 years fighting wars & invasions, he died exhausted at 58 in A.D. 180. Cassius Dio later wrote: ‘History now descends from a kingdom of gold to one of iron and rust, as affairs did for the Romans of that day.’ While Marcus Aurelius’ coins were made in reasonable numbers his fame among collectors and others has meant his coins are Scarce; when they are available, people buy and keep them. We have a small group of his silver Denarius grading Fine with various reverses. Everyone has heard of Marcus Aurelius, you can own a piece of his legacy!

Publius Septimius Geta was born in A.D. 189 to Julia Domna and Septimius Severus, before the latter was emperor. He was kept as Caesar from A.D. 198 until A.D. 209 when he was finally made joint Emperor with his father and brother, Caracalla. When their father died in A.D. 211 he advised the brothers “Stay friends, be generous to the soldiers and no one else matters”. But, they despised each other; Caracalla become a military ruler while Geta cultivated a philosopher style to emulate previous emperors like Marcus Aurelius. Within the year Caracalla arranged a peace meeting in their mother’s apartments but had Geta assassinated by Centurions. With Geta dead, Caracalla massacred 20,000 of his followers and enacted what we call a Damnatio Memoriae to destroy his memory. This makes his coins Scarce as they were melted down by Caracalla. We offer a Silver Denarius in Good Very Fine condition from throughout his reign. They show his bust on the obverse with various reverses. We have never been able to offer Geta like this before, he is normally too Scarce...