Saturday 30 March 2013

Coins of Bonosus and Proculus on eBay


Another artefact bearing the name of Proculus has turned up on eBay: Roman Æ Medallion of Proculus being sold by seller 'legendsfromancienttime'. The price is GBP 10.99, it is of course a 'historical replica':
 PROCVLVS AVG laureated bust left / VICTORIA AVG Victoria with wreath advancing right. Weight: ~ 10 gram Diameter: ~ 24 mm [...] These pieces are NOT ancient coins. Each coin is stamped 'COPY' on the rim.

Now anyone who looks at this object can see at once that it is not an original coin, just a bit of fun. Matters are somewhat different with another item on sale at the moment: "Rare bronze antoninianus of Quintus Bonosus, Usurper in Gaul ca.280 AD" with a PAX reverse Item number 221197663023 being sold by coin dealer 'ancient-collection' (21 comments) many of whose somewhat over-priced goods look as if they've been tooled. That however does not put some buyers off. I'm interested to see if his Bonosus finds a buyer at  a BuyNow price of $5,599.00.   The description is not very encouraging:
1.28 gr. [...]  NFA XX #441, a prior listing of this coin, notes, "[...] Proculus is not known to have left behind any numismatic record, but a small number of crudely produced antoninianii appear to be attributable to Bonosus. These closely resemble the "barbarous radiates" of the period of the Gallic empire, though a little thicker and heavier than most of these issues. The present specimen also exhibits traces of original silvering."
Hmm. Many barb-rads do.  The dealer's idea of a description of the coin is to tell his buyers about the events of c. 280. He does not give the legend, probably wisely, all you can see is [...]AVG. No 'B' or 'Bono...' anywhere in sight on the flan. The portrait is rather too chunky even for a bad barb-rad.  It seems the only basis for the attribution (at least mentioned) is that this is "crudely produced " and "a little thicker and heavier"... I'll not be buying it. It is interesting that this dealer has apparently not heard of the upcoming sale of a Proculus coin in the UK, or perhaps he believes like the York FLO and Roger Bland that it is a fake?

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