Coin Talk

I bought a very very large collection of world coins and this piece was in there. It's pretty darn cool but I'm having a difficult time deciphering the meaning of the lettering before and after the date. If you have any thoughts or opinions on the meaning, I'd love to hear input. It was engraved on a late 1700s silver piece from Denmark I believe. The current weight is 9.17 grams, but I imagine it weighed somewhat more before the wear and filing, maybe in the 12 gram range? Its about the diameter of a US half dollar. Let me know your thoughts!

A new addition to my Greek island collection: A bronze coin from Mytilene on Lesbos island. However, this is not just a coin, but an interesting one.


Lesbos, Mytilene. 3rd-2nd centuries BC. AE Tetrachalkon.
Obverse: Head of Zeus-Ammon to right.
Reverse: M-Y/T-I Terminal figure of Dionysos facing on prow; grapes to left.
Reference: BMC 134. HGC 6, 1048.
7.8g; 18mm
Very rare.

On the reverse we see a cult figure of Dionysos, but this is actually a mask of Dionysos mounted on a crude triangular block representing his 'body'.
What is this mask? Pausanias relates a story of Methymnaean fishermen dragging up in their nets a xoanon (Archaic wooden cult image) of olive wood which was pronounced by the Delphic oracle to be Dionysos Κεφαλλήν (head). The people of Methymna started to offer sacrifices to it and sent a bronze copy to Delphi. This led to a cult on the island and Dionysos was worshipped as an...

I recently noticed that I have accumulated quite a few coins that are interesting enough to warrant their own thread but that I have been too busy to post a write up for. As such I thought it might be fun for me to group some of these coins together by category and give short explanations for why I think they are interesting.

This write up will cover Greek coins. Next I will post a thread covering a few Roman coins and then finish with a thread that includes Byzantine and Medieval coins. Hopefully the board will enjoy these vignette style threads.

A special thank you to @Ryro , whose generosity in a holiday exchange a few months ago gave me the opportunity to own two of the below coins.

A Obscure Satrap who Almost Changed History

Achaemenid Empire
Spithridates as Satrap
AE10, mint in Ionia or Lydia, struck 334 BC
Dia.: 10 mm
Wt.: 1.5 g
Obv.: Head of Spithridates right,...

All I am doing since April 1st is work/ however I always have coins/ auctions on my mind. Today, I was thinking about all the drab/ kitch most mints are turning out for circulation/ with the exception of the UK which kept older classic designs

I then thought, how neat it would have been to have been a "collector" in the Baroque period, living in Salzburg for example. They struck gold from the Quarter Dukat to the massive 24/ 36/ 44 Dukaten/ nice AR Thalers too.

Please post your Baroque coins....
AV Quarter Dukat ND (1712)
Transylvania
HRE Karl VI 1711-42

Hello everyone,

Some of yall might have realized that I haven't been very active lately. That's mainly because about 2 months ago I was accepted for a program called Witter U.

The program was put together by Seth Chandler and his team of employees and interns. It took place over the last week in San Francisco, CA. It was intended for YN's ages 13-21 and was attended by young numismatists from all over the country. Luckily I was accepted and got to go to San Francisco.

It was truly incredible. Not only did I get to meet the team of instructors (Steve Feltner, David McCarthy, Devin Hipp, Jim Stoutjesydk, John Brush, and Kevin Kaufmann). But I also got to spend a week with my best friends from the internet (some of them I have known since I began collecting almost 6 years ago!).



We were given what was basically an ANA Grading seminar with the PCGS grading set plus some super nice coins owned by the instructors. We started out doing individual...

Dwight Eisenhower was a child of the 20th Century and the Father of the American Century, which crystallized at the end of World War II. Born in Denison, Texas, on October 14th 1890, and raised in the agricultural hubs of Abilene, Kansas. His father labored in a creamery that was owned by his family, and the Eisenhower boys followed their father into the business as they tried to establish their futures. Eisenhower was swept up in the new trend of healthy living that focused on community sports and was a prominent athlete playing Football, well into his West Point career. His sporting life was slowed by a career altering knee injury in 1915, at the age of 25. His appointment to West Point assured a quality education, free of charge, and his career promotion in the rising US military. Born into a world of horse and buggies, and the Iron Horse rail, he ushered in and promoted the coming space age,...

I've always found this type very intriguing and when I found one whilst leisurely browsing biddr I just knew I had to get it. Lucky for me it was being offered in a budget auction and wasn't fully catalogued. I was thus able to get it relatively cheap. Couldn't be happier. Since it arrived, I've done a lot of reading and learning, having a blast while doing so! Hopefully this little write-up of mine does the type justice and can possibly ignite the interest of others. Enjoy!



Provincial coins of the Republic. Gaius Sosius or Augustus (?) Æ (25 mm, 17.48 g). Uncertain mint in Asia Minor. Bust of a man right / Miscellaneous array of Roman political items. From left to right: Hasta, sella questoria, fiscus. Q below. RPC I 5409; AMNG II 29. (My example)


This enigmatic bronze dates to the late Republic. We're not entirely sure where it was minted or for whom, leaving us to speculate on its origins. It belongs to a sequence of coins with shared...

One of my latest acquistions has proven to be quite a mystery. It's a denarius of Pescennius Niger. According to the auctioneer, the coin is unpublished, and possibly unique, which however is not unique when it comes to denari of Pescennius Niger, I’ve noticed. Also, I think the auctioneer made a mistake in their description, and since I lack quite a few reference books I turn to the members of this board and their infinite wisdom for help.

First, the coin in question:


Now for the mystery. The description of the auctioneer is the following: "Pescennius Niger AR Denarius. Caesarea(?), AD 193-194. [IMP CA]ES C PESC NIGER IVST AVG, laureate head to right / [V]IRTVTI AVG, Mars standing facing, helmeted, with cloak over shoulder, head to right, holding spear and parazonium. Unpublished; for discussion of the criteria for distinguishing coins struck at Caesarea in Cappadocia, cf. J. Van Heesch, “Les Ateliers Monétaires de Pescennius Niger” in RBN 124...

We all hope that "Fortuna" or good karma or heaven, smiles upon us and bring us good things. In the case of historians they often show us why historical characters were so favored (or not) in this life. Today, I'd like us to take a look at the life of a person most numismatists of ancient coins recognize, the Roman empress, Julia Domna.

Julia Domna's coins are among the better known coins of Ancient Rome but her biographers are not, as they are not numerous or as well known. For the empress we have the Fourth century Historia Augusta, which mentions her, but the author(s) who put together that compilation of stories is not considered reliable by later historians. We do have, however, two historians, both writing in Greek, Herodian and Cassius Dio, who actually lived during her lifetime and both are today considered to be fairly accurate recorders (if possibly melodramatic) of what they saw. Herodian was at one time dismissed as too anecdotal but recent finds and discoveries...

In 2004 and 2005 the US Mint decided to change the look of the nickel. The full profile of Jefferson looking to the left has been on the nickel since the end of the Buffalo Nickel. This look first appeared in 1938 and the last year of this obverse was 2004.

The westward journey Nichols commemorated the bicentennial of the Louisiana purchase and the journey of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark explore that territory, which was vast.

2004 the Louisiana Purchase/Peace Medal was adapted from the reverse of the original Indian Peace medal that was commission for that expedition. The obverse has the portrait of Thomas Jefferson as is was in 1938 when this nickel first appeared in circulation. The reverse contained the symbols of peace, two hands shaking and 2 crossed peace pipes.

The Keelboat reverse displays the boat that carried the Lewis and Clark expedition through the rivers of the newly purchased Louisiana Territory. This boat was built to the specifications of Captain Lewis....