Coin Talk

Normally I am just an armchair archaeologist, but this is a tale of a bit of coin sleuthing. This is about a pair of coins that I acquired at auction that came with their original tags. These coins were my first entry into making serious acquisitions into a more expensive level of collecting.

The two coins I acquired were Byzantine Hyperpyron gold coins. The coins were acquired at a European Auction and they were said to be from an old Swiss collector with original tickets.

I was happy with the coins sitting in my collection with the original envelopes from the dealer J Schulman. Something that made them special.

JACQUES SCHULMAN

NUMISMAAT

Keizersgracht 448

Amsterdam-C

Ticket numbers 2117 and 2104

I could have stopped there but in a moment of free time I looked up the original dealer on the internet. To my surprise I found this article.

http://www.numismaticmall.com/numismaticmall-com/schulman-jacques


In the article I found not...

Threads where people post images of their coins seem to be popular. Some go by date, some by country, others by theme, etc. Along the way I see occasional comments about not being aware of a country until a coin is posted. This got me thinking of the concept of a world tour, where we travel around the globe posting coins along the way. You never know, you may find out more about world geography!

If this seems interesting you then please play along. There are only three rules:

1. Your post must be a coin from a country which shares a border with the previously posted country. Date is not important.
2. If a country is on the ocean then any country across the ocean is acceptable as long as there is a direct, straight line between them with no intervening countries.
3. You cannot return to the previous country. That is, if the previous two countries are France and Spain you cannot return directly to France. This rules needs an exception only in the case of countries such...

Just received this neat Trajan Dupondius celebrating the the Via Traiana, constructed at Trajan's own expense between AD 109 and AD 113, replaced the Via Appia as the usual route between Brindisium to Beneventum, serving as an important link between Rome and the East.
Trajan. AD 98-117. Æ Dupondius (13.32 g, 6h). Struck circa AD 112-115. Radiate bust right, wearing aegis / VIA TRAIANA, female (Via Traiana) reclining left, holding wheel on knee and branch; S C in exergue. RIC II 641 corr. var. (no aegis); BMCRE 998 note. SR 3226. Purchased March 2019, Moneta (VCoins) Thanks Kenn.
A map below shows Trajan's new road Via Traiana branching off from Via Appia at Benevento.

One of the best investments ever made by the Romans was their road system, which included at least 250,000 miles of roads designed for high-speed travel that was reliable virtually year-round. No less than eleven of these major roads entered Rome, giving rise to...

Something interesting that I cannot remember seeing on medieval billon deniers outside of the Holy Land - a very nice iridescent golden glow:



This is a denier of Bohemond V (cf. Malloy 126, Metcalf Class O, Allen Type 6), one of the last billon coins of the Principality of Antioch.

AE16mm, 0.49g, billon denier, minted in the Citadel of Antioch or at a secondary location in the Principality(?), cca. 1235/1240 and later.

+ BOAMVNDVS; helmeted bust l., mail composed of crescents, crescent and star flanking the bust l and r.
+ ANTIOCHIA; cross, inverted crescent in second quarter.


The type is called "Late Style" and is recognizable by the smaller flan and low weight. These late issues are of very fine craftsmanship, have complete legends and correct spelling with clean and fine lettering. The type was probably minted well into the 1240s and even later, but its terminus post quem of cca. 1235 is based on the analysis of the al-Mina hoard (Malloy p.191,...

Most of us find the Oregon Trail half dollar one of the best in the entire early commemorative coin series. I've probably owned two or three thru the years. This is one I just purchased:




Here is how it all began:


1930 Association Logo. Courtesy of the “Idaho State Historical Society, Museum Collections.”


ing the city of Washington.


...

Dear Friends of ancient mythology!

Here I want to talk about Kadmos, the founder of Thebes. The coin shows him in the typical founder attitude, looking back to his comrades and pointing forward asking them to follow him to new shores.

The Coin:
Phoenicia, Sidon, Trajan, AD 98-117
AE 24, 8.72g, 0°
struck year 227 of Sidonian era = AD 116/7
Obv.: [AVTO NEP TPAI[ANΩ KAI ΣE]
Laureate head r.
Rev.: [ΣIΔΩNOΣ NAV] - APΞIΔOΣ
Kadmos, nude to hips, stg. l. on prow, lookong r., with outstretched r. hand pointing l.
in l. field LZKΣ (retrograde, year 227)
Ref.: BMC 218; SNG Copenhagen 252; Lindgren-Kovacs 2329
rare, F+, green-red patina
(missed legend parts completed according to Sear GIC 1087)

Note:
NAVAPΞIΣ = Mistress of a Fleet, epitheton of several important maritime cities


Mythology:
Kadmos was the son of the Phoenician king Agenor, son of Poseidon and Libye, and his wife Telephassa. His sister was Europa and his brothers Phoinix and...

Yesterday or today, the son of Philip II (the first man to be a United King of Europe), student of Aristotle and all around THE baddest dude on the planet... EVER (only man to be Greek King, Egyptian pharaoh and Persian King of Kings), Alexander the great died 21 July 356 BCE – 10 or 11 June 323 BCE.
Here's some of my favorite coins to remember the life of a God by:


Lysimachos
Kings of Thrace. Pella. 305-281 BC. Tetradrachm AR 27mm., 15,95g.
Head of the deified Alexander the Great to right, wearing diadem with fluttering ends and with the horn of Ammon around his ear / ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΛΥΣΙΜΑΧΟΥ, Athena, wearing robes and helmet, seated to left on throne, holding Nike on her right hand and resting her left elbow on large round shield adorned with a gorgoneion; to left monogram. very fine. Thompson 253; Müller 471.



MACEDONIAN KINGDOM. Alexander III the Great (336- 323 BC). AR tetradrachm (15.98 gm). About VF, countermark, graffito....

For many years this dynastic sestertius has been a personal 'dream' or 'grail' coin of mine. Thanks to @Jay GT4 for alerting me to the listing!




Vespasian
Æ Sestertius, 27.84g
Rome mint, 71 AD
RIC 143 (R). BMC 528.
Obv: IMP CAES VESPASIAN AVG P M TR P P P COS III; Head of Vespasian, laureate, r.
Rev: CAES AVG F DES IMP AVG F COS DES II; S C in field; Titus and Domitian stg. l. and r., with spears; Titus (to r.) also with parazonium, Domitian with roll
Acquired from Olding, MA Shops, May 2019 = Olding, List 96, March 2019, Sammlung Frita Reusing, no. 140. From the collection of Fritz Reusing (1874-1956), inherited and continued by Reusing's nephew Paul Schürer (1890-1976).

An iconic dynastic sestertius struck during Vespasian's great bronze issue of 71. Mattingly in BMCRE II calls it a 'famous' type but erroneously misidentifies the figures on the reverse placing Titus on the left and Domitian on the right. While that is a...

Some of the more popular coins of Trajan Decius are the antoniniani with the DACIA reverse type, such as this example from my collection:


Trajan Decius, AD 249-251.
Roman AR antoninianus, 3.81 g, 21 mm, 6 h.
Rome, AD 250-251.
Obv: IMP C M Q TRAIANVS DECIVS AVG, radiate, draped and cuirassed bust, right.
Rev: DACIA, Dacia standing left, holding Dacian draco battle standard.
Refs: RIC 12b; Cohen 16; RCV 9368; Hunter 7; ERIC II 59.

For centuries, the object in Dacia's hand has been misidentified as an ass's head.

The oldest reference I can find about this coin is Banduri's catalog, published in 1718.[1]


The reverse description, hastam tenet dextra, in cujus summitate caput asininum, is translated, "holding in the right hand a staff, at the top of which is the head of an ass."

The catalog of Sulzer's collection,[2] published in 1777, makes the same error.



The reverse description, dextra...

I love the feel of Alexandrian drachms, but I also love the artistry on Alexandrian coinage. It isn’t quite as naturalistic as some Greek or Roman coinage, and they are often in pretty dreadful condition, but they have an originality and exoticism which isn’t found on a lot of ancient coinage. Because of that, I’ve made them a major part of my collection, and have specifically focused on those which display some form of Egyptian imagery. It’s been a while since I made a new thread, but I would like to share a few of these coins and invite everyone to share some of theirs as well. So, here are some of my coins depicting Egyptian (or ‘Egyptianizing’) deities.


Antoninus Pius drachm
Obverse: Laureate bust right
Reverse: Isis, crowned with disk, horns and plumes right, holding Harpocrates, crowned and holding lotus flower.
Struck at Alexandria in 146/7, 34mm, 27.1g, Dattari 2648, RPC 13597 (temp)

Depictions Isis and Harpocrates in one...