Coin Talk

To my considerable regret, I've lately been too busy with personal negotium to post much — I'm never too busy to spend too much money on stuff I don't need, though. In that vein, I present my recentest acquisition, from last month's Roma auction:



Eucratides I Megas, c. 170-145BC: O: draped, cuirassed, diademed, helmeted bust right, bead-and-reel border / the Dioscuri mounted right, each holding lance and palm, ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΜΕΓΑΛΟΥ ΕΥΚΡΑΤΙΔΟΥ, monogram in right field. Seller's photo.

Absolutely impeccable style on this one, I feel — the portrait lacks the charming cragginess of some specimens but it's quite perfectly rendered to my eyes.

This will be a very short post because I think one would have to be rather brave, or foolhardy, to venture much about this fellow — for all his numismatic fame his biography is (to put it mildly) fairly obscure.

He was, we can say for certain, a powerful monarch of the Bactrians. His dates, as...

This is an anonymous issue minted during the lordship of Balian Grenier as Lord of Sidon (1202/4-1241) Constable of Tyre (1229-1231) and Bailie of the Kingdom of Jerusalem (1229-1240/1)

13x12mm, 0.31g silver denier, minted in the City of Sidon, cca. 1230s.





OBV: + · D · Є · N · I · Є · R · ; cross pattee

REV: + · D · Є · S · Є · Є · T · Є · ; the domed Cathedral of Sidon

REF: Malloy 4, Schlumberger V 8, Metcalf 213.

Balian was one of the leading local barons in the Kingdom of Jerusalem and a vassal and ally of Emperor Frederick II after he seized the throne of Jerusalem in 1225.

During his reign, the inlands of Seigneurie de Sidon were reconquered after they had been lost to Saladin in 1187/8. He took part as one of the representatives of the local barons in the Fifth and Sixth Crusade and fought alongside Thibaut "le Chansonnier" de Champagne, Henry II de Bar, Amaury VI de Montfort and Hugo of Burgundy during the Barons Crusade in 1239. He was...

In light of the great articles posted here about various numismatic topics, I thought I would do my part to contribute in my area of collecting: Banknotes of the Russian Empire, Russian Provisional Government, and the Soviet Union. In the span of only 5 years, Russians witnessed the deposition of the royal family that ruled the Russian Empire for 300 years, a brief post-imperial Provisional Government, a brutal civil war, the formation of a Russian Socialist Republic, and the joining of multiple socialist republics into a massive Soviet Union that would collapse 70 years later. As a collector, I’ve always been fascinated by the way that this chaotic history was captured in the country’s banknotes. The regimes and people of these times are long gone, but the banknotes they created and circulated are left behind to us as historical relics.

My first piece in a series of posts (for those who find it interesting, or for those future collectors who find this page in pursuit of knowledge)...

Sorry for the long post...

My plan this summer is to build a coin cabinet.. I was thinking a small "table top" type with slide out drawers that would nicely hold a few of the inexpensive "Lighthouse" type coin tray liners (like below).
We each have our own way of storing our coins.. I have thought about this a lot over the last year - I dislike flips very much as I like to handle my coins a lot. My plan was to number each compartment in each tray with a small "dot" sticker under the coin... this number would correspond to a binder I am building with 5X7 photos of the obverse and reverse of each coin with attributions, a paragraph or two on the history of the ruler or the coin itself (describing the god depicted or other information about the coin that makes it interesting to me.) I own about 80 coins - so this is a large undertaking - I also understand that my collection is very small compared to most here...


Then I came across this homemade coin...

It's time to dust off another of my old articles that I wrote for my local club. Here one about the 1848 CAL. $2.50 gold piece.



In January of 1848 James Marshall, who was an employee of John Sutter, discovered gold in the race of a sawmill that was under construction on Sutter’s property near Coloma, California. (Coloma is located about 36 miles northeast of the state capitol, Sacramento.) The men soon discovered additional gold deposits further upstream, and it was found that there was more gold in the area. Sutter and his men tried to keep their discovery a secret, but that was impossible. By spring dozens of prospectors were looking for gold with tools that ranged from a simple metal pan to a primitive trough-like device called a cradle.

In Monterey, California Colonel Richard B. Mason, who was the military governor of the U.S. territory, viewed the developments with concern and interest. “Gold fever” had...

That's right! 1,831 years ago that absolute maniac is born.


Looking at him, who could've guessed such a mad man lay underneath the exterior of such a mad looking man???
I know, I know. It's hard to judge someone nearly 2,000 years after the fact. But, as they say, class tells ever time. And his shown again and again.
Attempts to kill father in front of troops, then changes mind.
Kills own brother in momma Domna's arms (that's gonna leave scares for lifetimes).


And due to a few Greeks defacing a statue of him, he killed, stated by some, 10,000 Greeks!
Enough about the good things he did. I joke. Calm down.
He did the considerably amazing thing known as the "Edict of Caracalla". Wherein he gave all free men the rights of a Roman citizen.
He was very known for the opulent baths that he built:



And the, maybe, even more amazing thing he did was die in 217 CE.



Caracalla...

Mattingly and Sydenham have commented that Nerva’s coin portraits are consistent in depicting his "ungainly" features without modification.
However, while many of his gold and silver issues may portray Nerva with grotesque features, this is not an accurate statement when we consider the bronze issues, which often present Nerva as nobly idealized, following in the Hellenistic tradition.



IMP NERVA CAES AVG PM TR P COS III P P - Laureate head of Nerva right /
FORTVNA AVGVST S C – Fortuna, wearing long dress and mantle, standing facing, head left, holding a rudder set on ground in right hand and a cornucopiae in left hand
Sestertius, Rome mint, 01.01.-18.09.97 a.D. (3rd emission of Nerva)
35 mm / 31,2 gr
RIC 83, Cohen 67, BMCRE 107, Sear -, Banti 21 (18 specimens)
From the collections of Fritz Reusing (1874-1956, acquired from Adolph Hess Nachf., Frankfurt, ca. 1930) and Paul Schürer (1890-1976), Manfred Olding fixed price list 96 (March 2019), Nr.200...

Dear Friends of ancient mythology!

Here I have the next mythological interesting coin. I know its conservation is not exceeding F+ but in EF this type is hardly affordable. It is said this type is extremely rare, only about a Dozen known!

The Coin:
Thrace, Mesambria, Gordian III & Tranquillina, AD 241-244
AE 27, 13.2g, 26.78mm, 180°
obv. AVT K M ANT ΓOPΔIANOC AV CEB / TPANKVΛΛIN (AV ligate)
Confronted busts of Gordian III, draped and laureate, r., and Tranquillina, draped
and diademed, l.
rev. [MECAM] - BPIANΩN
Two Kuretes, helmeted, in short chiton and boots, performing the Pyrrhic dance.
Standing turned away, but looking at each other, holding each a round shield
above the head and beating with short swords against it.
ref. Varbanov 4186; Karajatov (2001) 111; SNG Fitzwilliam 1560
very rare, F+, dark green Patina


Mythology:
This coin leads us to the great Creation Myths of the Olympic gods. Like many others Zeus was the son of Rhea and...

While recently reading R. Hobbs' Currency and Exchange in Ancient Pompeii, I came across this fascinating table. It's a list of 1,385 coins found in a large dolia at a bar in Pompeii. Presumably the coins were left behind by the owner who fled the eruption in a hurry.


Unsurprisingly, coins struck by Vespasian dominate the hoard.

The dolia was sunk into the counter (like the one pictured below) and perhaps held the previous evening's takings.




Prices normally were listed in asses because bronze was the common currency for everyday exchange while gold and silver was for storing one's wealth. Poignantly, silver and gold coins are normally found on the fleeing victims of the eruption who wished to take their stored wealth with them. Rarely are bronze and precious metal coins found in a mixed condition. The Pompeian fresco below wonderfully illustrates this - precious metal on the left, bronze on the...

I ordered this coin continuing to fill out more of my Sicilian Greek coinage sub-collection that I've recently found a spark of interest in. So, as you might have assumed, I bought this initially with the belief that it was from Sicily and was listed as such struck by Hieron II.

I received it yesterday and started to do more researching on ACSearch and found similar coins... but to my confusion, they were listed as Ptolemy II, and... well, I guess it had that common type with Zeus and and eagle, but it had more of a similar Greek-style Zeus to the Mamertine coin I recently shared. I decided to go to CNG to research a bit more there, and came across this listing describing that this type has recently become to be thought of as more probably being struck in Sicily by Hieron II imitating the Ptolemy type. So, as with any Ptolemy coin, I ventured to the Ptolemaic Bronze site to see if I can find out more from Wolf & Lorber....