Coin Talk

Dear Friends of ancient mythology!

Today I want to talk about the mysterious Venus Verticordia.

The coin:
Roman Republic, Mn. Cordius Rufus, gens Cordia
AR - Denarius, 19.5mm, 3.82g
Rome, 46 B.C.
Obv.: Conjugate heads of the two Dioscuri, wearing laureate pilei surmounted by
stars.
behind RVFVS II.VIR
Rev.: Venus Verticordia standing l.., holding in extended r. hand scales and in the left
hand transverse sceptre; on her left shoulder Cupido
in right field MN.CORDIVS (MN ligate)
Ref.: Crawford 463/1a; Sydenham 976; Cordia 2s
about VF, weak struck on reverse left
ex Harlan J. Berk

Note:
The home of the gens Cordia, Tusculum, only 12 miles from Rome, was a center of worship of the Dioscuri. The reverse is a clever play on the moneyer's name (CORDIA > CORDIVS) and can also be taken as a compliment to Julius Caesar, whose gens claimed a direct descent from Venus. The particular representation of Venus on the rev. may be derived from a...

Glanum
Last summer I was in the South of France. We had a good time and visited some interesting Ancient sites. Although I thought about posting something about this before but I haven't had the time so far, but now I have.

The most interesting place that we visited were the ruins of ancient Glanum. That's why I want to post about that now.

The location
Glanum is located in the extreme south of France in the limestone hills of the Alpilles. it is around 25 km from the city of Arles. The area is very wooded and rocky. It can also become very hot in the summer. During my visit it was already around 35 ° C at the end of the morning.

The history of Glanum
The first settlement dates from between the fourth and second centuries BC.
Then Celto-Ligurian tribes built an oppidum in the valley. There would have been a water source with healing effect there. Soon a small town was created...

The "Happy Victory Day" post reminded me a group of medals that I have that were given to service men and women who participated in World War II. Since the whole article, which I wrote a few years ago, is rather long, I will break it up into posts.

Tom Brokaw called them "The Greatest Generation." Many of us call them "father and mother," "grandfather and grandmother," and now "great grandfather and great grandmother." As the passing of time push their heroic deeds further back into the pages of history, there is a series of military medals that provide us with tangible reminders of how they saved us from scourge of world domination by the Axis and Japan. Today we call those tangible reminders "World War II service medals." On a more informal basis we could call them "every man's World War II medals" because the U.S. Government awarded them to almost all of the 16 million men and women who served in the armed forces during the war era.

The American Defense Medal...

At the auction of the Oriental Numismatic Society (yesterday), a new avenue opened up for me. I had my attention fixed on several nice and attractive coins (Sasanian and Arab-Sasanian, Artuqid, Mongol and such), but there was a section on old Chinese coins too, and attractive Chinese cash coins of 2000 years old were going for only $15 or $20. The very first, an impressive thick piece from 7-23 AD, I bought for 14$, the price of a few beers! In fact I don't know about prices. But the coins look so attractive for so little money...

I restrained myself in the past because I’m not at all knowledgeable, while there are many fakes around. But the O.N.S. (old-fashioned website) is a serious society counting many renowned experts under its members, several of whom looked at the coins with their own eyes, and on the website (Zeno). I've been a member for ages. So I think I’m as safe as may be hoped for in this. In all I bought seven...

Here is a new Caracalla tetradrachm from the Michel Prieur collection that I won at a recent CNG auction. I think it just might be my favorite coin of the year so far, I absolutely LOVE this portrait. They took Caracalla’s usual angry scowl, dialed it up a few notches, and ended up with this:



Caracalla, Phoenicia (Tyre), AR Tetradrachm (27mm, 15.23 g, 12h). Struck AD 213-215. Laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right / Eagle standing facing on club right, head and tail left, with wings spread, holding wreath in beak; murex shell between legs. Prieur 1550.
CNG E-Auction 453, From the Michel Prieur Collection.

In the portrait, he really looks like the archetype of a murderous tyrant (from “Central Casting”, as my mother would say). His angry mug takes up almost all of the 27mm flan, and his scowl is so intense that it looks like the letters in the legend tried to run away over the top of the coin (or maybe it’s just struck a little off center, I...

Recently, I acquired an intriguing lot of banknote engravings that may be of interest to collectors of stocks, checks, and obsolete notes from the 1830s to '80s. These aren't vignette proofs, they are ornaments and elements used to "build" a banknote product. As the more mundane components of a note, proofs like these usually get little attention, so I thought I'd give them their own spotlight for once. I'm also including examples of usage, to give a better understanding of their placement.

Underprint patterns. These patterns were printed repetitively across a note or security, usually in a second color, to create a fine-line undertint that was difficult to counterfeit. The patterns on this proof are a little too large for a banknote and were probably used on a stock or bond.




Revenue stamp fields. Around the time of the...

I like coins that present a mystery, and this one has yet to be solved. Some background will be needed as most are probably unaware of this issue of coinage.

The proposed date of the coin in question is generally around the third Syrian war between the Seleucids and Ptolemies, at least that is a good place to start. Prior during the 2nd Syrian war Antiochus II made peace with Ptolemy II after 8 years of war. The stipulation was that Antiochus marry Ptolemy's daughter Berenice Syra. This was advantageous to Prolemy as the child of this marriage and future ruler would be from the house of Ptolemy. There was one problem however, Antiochus was already married to his cousin Laodice I.

But to make peace, Antiochus divorced his wife and married Berenice. The happy marriage lasted a few years until Ptolemy died, at which point Antiochus decided to go back to his first wife. After the divorce Laodice moved into a palace in Anatolia. It has been said Antiochus preferred Laodice as...

Rather than keep this buried in an unrelated thread, I thought I would start a new one on how to locate the diagnostics to determine the Japanese Military Peso notes counterfeited by the Allies. The counterfeits are all from the first series of notes. In the images below, the genuine note is on the left and the counterfeit on the right.

50 centavos - the diagnostic is just below the upper right counter on the face. The curved line below the counter is solid on genuine notes but broken on the counterfeit.



1 peso - the diagnostic is in the scrollwork of the upper left counter. The fingers below the three circles are separate on the original but come together on the counterfeit.



5 peso - the diagnostic is below the upper right counter. The curved lines below the counter are separate on the original but come together on the counterfeit.



10 peso - the diagnostic is above the upper left...

On my way to Agrigento and the valley of temples, I stopped at this amazing Roman Villa, near Piazza Armerina called Villa Romana del Casale famous for it's well preserved floor and wall mosaics, one of which you may of heard of before the famous "Bikini Girls". This splendid hunting residence was thought to be owned by Maximianus Herculeus, built in the early part of the fourth century covering 3,500 square metres, they are one of the most important works of Roman art. The most impressive mosaics of the villa are the ones which decorate the floors in the atrium, baths, peristyles and above all in the Corridoio della Grande Cassia and in the Sala della Dieci Ragazze which depict hunting scenes of which it is thought the animals from all regions that were gathered and transported to amphitheatre's such as the Coliseum. What saved these wonderful mosaics was a mudslide which coverered the villa and protected it from most looting and the Vandal's.

LOOKS LIKE THEY HAD SOME MODESTY...

Nathaniel Greene

The Battle of Eutaw Springs

September 8, 1781

Nathanael Greene was George Washington’s most trusted subordinate. Whenever Washington was away from the Continental Army, he left Greene in charge.

After Horatio Gates suffered his humiliating defeat at Camden, Washington appointed Greene to take responsibility of the Continental Army’s southern operations. Greene faced a formidable challenge which went well beyond the military situation. Greene had to negotiate with the individual southern states to obtain horses, supplies and troops. He also had to deal with independent irregular units lead by Francis Marian (a.k.a. “The Swamp Fox”) and Thomas Sumter who would later have a famous fort named after him. Greene had to maneuver his forces over five states and keep the local Tories (British sympathizer irregular militias) in check. All of this required...