The Wonderful World of Ancient Coin Collecting
Coinage of the Roman Empire


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Coin Details

  

Set Details
Coin Description:
Grade: NGC AU Surface: 3/5 Surface: 3/5
Owner: RAM-VT
 
Set Category: Ancients
Set Name: The Wonderful World of Ancient Coin Collecting
Slot Name: Coinage of the Roman Empire
Research: Currently not available

Owner's Description

Roman Empire Jovian AD June 27, 363 - February 17, 364 AE3 (Nummus) RIC 118 AU Strike 4/5 - Surface 3/5 Flavius Jovianus (331 – 17 February 364), commonly known as Jovian, was Roman Emperor from 363 to 364. Upon the death of emperor Julian during his Sassanid campaign, Jovian was hastily declared emperor by his soldiers. Jovian sought peace with the Persians on humiliating terms, and reestablished Christianity as the favored religion of the Empire. Emperor by accident???? After a small but decisive engagement the Roman army was forced to retreat from the numerically superior Persian force. Julian was mortally wounded during the retreat and died on 26 June 363. The next day, after the aged Saturninius Secundus Salutius, praetorian prefect of the Orient, declined the purple, the choice of the army fell upon Jovian. His election caused considerable surprise, and it is suggested by Ammianus Marcellinus that he was wrongly identified with another Jovianus, chief notary (primicerius notariorum), whose name also had been put forward, or that during the acclamations the soldiers mistook the name Jovianus for Julianus, and imagined that the latter had recovered from his illness. He died on 17 February 364 after a reign of only eight months. During his return to Constantinople, Jovian was found dead in bed in his tent at Dadastana, halfway between Ancyra and Nicaea. His death has been attributed to either a surfeit of mushrooms or the poisonous carbon monoxide fumes of a charcoal warming fire. Although I have a few high grade silver and billon ancients I am most pleased with several of my ancient bronzes such as this one. My pleasure is a result of the coins grade, its condition and its cost. This coin grades AU with condition descriptors of Strike: 4/5 Surface: 3/5. My cost was $120 (eBay) which may have been way too much, but the coin looks great so I paid it.

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