1760 years old horse coin

I have been looking at the ancient coins for a while, trying to find one with a strong strike and with enough history to merit a position in my horse-themed set. There are several ancient coins from Greece featuring the winged horse, but most of these Pegasus coins are well out of my budget. Some of the very old "quadrigus" Roman coins feature a chariot being drawn by 4 horses (thus the QUAD part of the name), but again these are often priced for several hundred dollars for a reasonably struck example.

I did a lot of browsing of ancient coins, mostly Roman, just by using Google and clicking from page to page. There were a few that caught my attention, and I did a little more research on them to find some history and context. One of the Roman coins that featured a prominent horse image is that struck during the reign of the 34th Roman Emperor, Decius (reigned from 249-251 AD). Examples of this coin are generally well struck, feature an obverse with a very classic looking emperor bust, and display the Emperor on horse-back on the reverse.

Below is the example I recently added to my collection. It is graded NGC Choice Extra Fine, with 4/5 Surface and 4/5 Strike components. The obverse bust is sharp, and the horse and rider is well centered and quite detailed. Not bad for a coin that's been around more than 1750 years.

Also, if you haven't taken a look at my horse-themed set for a while, I have been working on composing all of the photos in a consistent style. They all feature the horse side of the coin prominently, the non-horse side in 1/2 the size of the horse side, and a coin description or photo of the label of the holder. In the 2nd photo slot I have made photo compilations related to the subject matter of the coin itself. This has been a fun task to pass the time, as I've had to cut back on purchases so my coin budget can recover from the July Heritage auction.

Happy collecting!

http://coins.www.collectors-society.com/WCM/CoinCustomSetView.aspx?s=5705

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