Nummi Antiqua

A while back, as a little kid, I was walking around a Roman archaeological site in Romania with my parents, doing what uninterested little kids usually do. But further in our trip, a generous metal detectorist gave me a gift; an ancient coin that he had unearthed a few minutes prior. To my little 7 year old self, this gift was little more than a meaningless lump of black metal, and soon found its way to the bottom of a drawer. Many years later, this coin would be unearthed once again, long after I forgot about it’s existence, and introduce me to the hobby of collecting ancient coins

I found this coin hidden away in a drawer wrapped in paper with a simple message on it “Roman Coin (100-300 AD), collected at Mahmudia, Romania”. I thought that this description was pitiful, and made it my objective to completely identify this coin! This is where my interest in ancient coins began, because I soon began to realize that, If I wanted to identify this coin, I would need to learn how to correctly clean ancient coins. Learning about how to clean ancient coins really introduced me to the world of collecting ancient coins, and coins in general. After successfully identifying this one coin, I was interested in expanding my collection, and getting better at identifying and cleaning ancient coins. Ancient coins also really spoke to me because of my interest in history, its incredible to hold something in your hand that is over a millennium old, just think of all the people who could have held that coin!

After cleaning and research, the coin turned out to be a Centenionalis of Constantius II “IVNIOR”, with a reverse legend of “FEL TEMP REPERATIO”, likely minted in Siscia. Although this is not the rarest coin, it is still special to me, and not worthless at all, because it is what got me fascinated with this incredible hobby!