Coin Talk

Does no one like half cents? I ask this only because, given their relatively tiny mintages and pretty obvious rarity, good examples don't seem particularly difficult to find. The Red Book has said that "all half cents are scarce" for years, but does anybody care? It doesn't seem to really impact their value immensely.

I have begun reading Bill Eckberg's fantastic book The Half Cent, 1793-1857: The Story of America's Greatest Little Coin and have found myself far more interested in the half cents that I already have around. None of the examples shown below broke the bank (depending on one's budget, of course), but when I looked at the mintages and the number of estimated survivors from Eckberg's book, I became stunned that these little things with the fractured denomination have not caught on more. Maybe they have but with a relatively small group of collectors?

Whatever the case, I'm starting to become slightly obsessed with them, though I highly doubt that I will ever...

Silver Tram - King Levon I (Leo, Leon or Lewan)
Mint - Sis

Born: AD 1150 (est)
Lord of Cilicia: AD 1187-1198
King of Armenian Cilicia: AD 1199-1219


Obverse: Seated Crowned Figure Holding Cross and Fluer-de-lis - Text: "Levon King of the Armenians"

Reverse: Cross Between Two Lions Rampant - Text: "By the Will of God"

This is a silver tram of Levon I, the tenth Roupenian (Rubinid) prince of Cilician Armenia and its first king. He is variously referred to as Leo II, Leon II, Lewan, Levon II as a prince, Levon I as King. He is also often referred to as "Lord of the Mountains" or "Levon the Magnificent".


Obverse: Depiction of King Levon I enthroned facing, crowned with mantle and sitting on a lion throne. He holds a cross in his right hand and a Fluer-de-lis in his left hand. The inscription in Armenian states "Levon King of the Armenians."...

Maximinus Thrax is one of those emperors, who, despite of a rather short reign of 3 years (235-238) left us with large quantities of high quality coins. Nevertheless, I have only four denari of Maximinus Thrax in my collection. The last one of which I bought just recently, to complete the series of different bust styles.

Maximinus Thrax is particularly interesting to me. I am from northern Germany and Maximinus Thrax appears to have been the last emperor to make it to my home region, where he fought the fabled battle in the bog (proelium in palude) in which he is said to have personally distinguished himself. There is a lot of controversy regarding the significance and size of this battle. Some think that it was little more than a skirmish, with farmers who tried to defend their homes and families against pillaging Roman troops. Indeed, the whole campaign was a retaliation for a large scale Germanic attack on the Limes in the years 231 to 234, in which numerous Roman...

The Spartans had their Three Hundred and the Persians had their Immortals. Alexander had his Companions and his got his Successors. And in the First century BC the Romans would have what I like to call, the Essentials, those who were indispensable to Rome moving from a Republic of the Senate and People of Rome to a monarchy of a Princeps.

Now what do I mean by "essential"? There are many characters in history who contribute to what turn out to be pivotal moments in time. Take your pick of these moments. Many characters at these times are a part of what happened, but their presence or actions were not essential to the moment. The important happening was going to happen whether or not those individuals were part of it, perhaps changing or modifying what was going to happen, but not essentially. Their absence would have been immaterial to the event occurring. The American Colonists won the war of the American Revolution and John Paul Jones was an important character in that event....

Most of you are probably aware that Roman Provincial coins in the Western provinces (Hispania and Gaul), issued with Latin legends by local "colonies" and municipalities, ceased being minted very early. (By contrast, Roman Provincial coins in the East mostly had Greek legends, and lasted until the reign of Diocletian.) See K. Butcher, Roman Provincial Coins: An Introduction to the Greek Imperials (Seaby 1988) at p. 17: "the western coinage began to dwindle in the reign of Tiberius . . . and had died out altogether early in the reign of Claudius." In fact, with specific respect to Hispania, David Sear states that " some of the Spanish mints had a final burst of activity under [Caligula], but before the accession of the next emperor, Claudius, all local issues had ceased in the province, never again to recommence." D. Sear, Greek Imperial Coins and their Values (Seaby 1982) at p. 34.

Thus, the overwhelming majority of Western Provincial coins were issued under Augustus...

Happy Birthday to me. Today is my birthday and I decided to purchase this CSA Note. It is endorsed on the back side with a signature and A.R. 30th. This is the Arkansas 30th Infantry Regiment (1862-1865). They were a Civil War regiment also known as the 5th Arkansas Cavalry, the Trans-Mississippi Regiment or 39th Regiment after April 1863. They were converted to mounted infantry for Price's Missouri Expedition in 1864, also known as Rogan's Arkansas Cavalry.

Originally formed on June 18, 1862, with Colonel Archibald J. McNeill as the first commander. The state was facing an invasion after the defeat of General Earl Van Dorn at the battle of Pea Ridge. McNeill was a Major in early June 1862, until his appointment to protect the state of Arkansas. General Van Dorn was ordered East to what became the battle of Shiloh. He took all of Arkansas organized units with him.

Major McNeill was promoted to Colonel and ordered to rebuild the defenses for the state. McNeill rebuilt the forces...

I've been putting off this write up for a bit due to my upcoming move (lived in Utah most of my life and I'm not planning on suffering my boy-Os the same).
My apolo-gies for the delay
I've had a couple coins nagging at me to be certified due to lack of provenance and unique style for a while now.
And I've always heard there is none better than David R Sear.
But I've never had anything that nagged enough for me to put my money where my mouth is and send them off to him.
The trigger: However, in the last Auctiones GmbH (a trusted and upstanding auction house) I purchased some spendy but flawed coins.

Bruttium, Kaulonia. Circa 525-500 BC. AR Nomos (31 mm, 6.63 g).
Obv. Apollo advancing right, holding branch aloft in right hand, left arm extended, upon which a small daimon, holding branch in each hand, runs right; KAVΛ to left; to right, stag standing right, head reverted.
Rev. Incuse of obverse, but daimon in outline and no ethnic.
Noe, Caulonia Group...

Asklepios is a rather famous deity, the god of medicine, healing, doctors, etc. He's a cool dude who often looks like Zeus with the beard and all that getup. My man also got the pecs, no doubt a result of his healthy lifestyle.

Temples to Asklepios were common across the Hellenistic realms, with the most famous one in Epidaurus, which had a whole giant healing complex, basically the Disneyland for the sick.

An interesting feature of the main temple was that it included an accessibility ramp for the mobility-impaired to more easily get inside, preceding the ADA by a solid two thousand years.


Inside the temple it was a little different than most other major temples. Most of the major temples disallowed the public except for special occasions and festivals/feasts. However, Asklepion temples allowed select sick people to actually stay for several days and were attended to by the temple priests,...

Another unresolved question, although there's certainly not as much disagreement about it (at least anymore) compared to No. 55. Hence, a shorter footnote!

Roman Republic, Cn. Domitius Ahenobarbus, AR Denarius Rome 128 BCE [Crawford] or after 122 BCE [BMCRR]. Obv. Head of Roma right, wearing winged helmet and single-drop earring, stalk of grain [Br. Corn] upright behind, monogram (*) for value (XVI asses) in right field beneath chin / Rev. Victory driving galloping biga right, holding reins in left hand and whip in right; below, man with tall conical cap holding spear right, fighting lion (Crawford, RSC, Sear) or hound (BMCRR, Sydenham, Babelon) left; above, ROMA; in exergue, CN•DOM. Crawford 261/1, RSC I [Babelon] Domitia 14, BMCRR 1025, Sear RCV I 137 (ill.), RBW Collection 1056, Sydenham 514. 18 mm., 3.85 g., 3 h.*



*Because the moneyer’s cognomen does not appear on this coin, the attribution of the moneyer to the plebeian branch of the...

TGIFF!!



I have a little something out of the ordinary for today's installment of Faustina Friday. Today's installment deals not only with Faustina's hairdo or whether or not she's wearing a strand of pearls or a stephane in her hair, but also about ancient errors -- brockages!

Most of us know how brockages happen, but not everyone does. So, I'm going to briefly explain, helped along by images courtesy of Peter Lewis, who has an excellent paper online about ancient brockages.[1]

Normally, the die for the obverse of a coin was fixed in a metal anvil, and the die for the reverse die was fixed in a metal punch which was hit with a hammer so that the designs on the dies were pressed into the planchet. (Figure 1)



A brockage occurs when the coin remains between the two dies and is thereby involved in striking a second coin. Because the second coin usually has the...