Coin Talk
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Asklepios and Telesphoros - Recovery Tag Team
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,... -
Roman Republican No. 56: Lion(ess) or Hound?
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... -
Faustina Friday – Brockage edition
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... -
Valerian Sestertius - the Celators of Rome Still Had it
Valerian I Sestertius
14.01 grams
30mm
RIC 184 - noted as common, but a check of databases indicates that rare or scarce would be more accurate.
You have to have to hand it to the ancient celators - it takes an enormous amount of skill to engrave the wonderful portraits of much of the imperial period. Compare the engravings from that time to, for example, the crude portraits of later periods. It is not surprising that that ancient art, including coins, inspired the Renaissance.
I have always been fascinated by the sestertii of the emperors who directly preceded or lived during the early part of the time of troubles ca. 250 - 260 - Trajan Decius, Trebonianus Gallus, Volusian, Valerian, Gallienus, plus empresses, princes usurpers et als. The web-site "Four Bad Years:"
http://www.sonic.net/~marius1/mysite/
shows that the Rome mint was still capable of engraving gorgeous, if not stunning portraits - I go... -
Chola coins that are actually ancient!
So far the only Chola coins posted in this forum came from the medieval imperial Cholas (985 AD- 1044 AD), when emperors like Raja Raja and his son Rajendra expanded their empire to encompass all of South India, and reach as far as the South East Asia.
However, these following coins come from a time when the Cholas were just another local Kingdom!
This period is known as the Sangam age of Tamil society (300 BCE-300 AD), when trade and literature flourished among the three main kingdoms (Chera, Chola and Pandyas).
Since the period encompasses 600 years, the date range of these coins are only an estimate.
1. Sangam Chola anonymous ruler, these square shaped coins came before the circular issues, the obverse features a standing tiger raising its tail, and the reverse has an elephant with religious symbols... -
Isvaradatta, a mysterious usurper
While my main interest in numismatics has always been Roman Imperial coinage, I can't deny that I have also taken a liking to Bactrian and Indo-Greek coinage and, from there, it has developed into an interest for the other nations that existed in that area, both in the same timeframe and also after it. Out of them, one of the most prolific in issuing coins was that of the Western Satraps, to which my most recent acquisition belongs to:
Isvaradatta (242-243?), Drachm, Mint B.
Obverse: head right, wearing satrapal cap, surrounded by blundered Greek legend;
Reverse: Rajno Mahaksatrapasa Isvaradattasa Varse Prathame, three-arched hill, with crescents above and to the left, sun to the right and river below;
Fishman 24.2
The history of the Western Satraps is very incomplete, due to a lack of sources, but historians were still able to piece it together thanks to numismatic evidence as well as the scant literary fragments. The Western Satraps arose in the... -
An excellent Constantinian campgate with an important provenance
While I normally put historical interest and rarity over grade and condition, it is undeniable that a common coin in an excellent state of preservation is still a fantastic addition to any collection. This is the case with this recent acquisition of mine, a very common type that not only does not show any sign of wear, and even has portions of silvering left, but also comes with an important provenance (it's my first coin with one):
Constantine I, as Augustus (306-337), Follis, Trier mint.
Obverse: CONSTAN-TINVS AVG, laureate head right;
Reverse: PROVIDEN-TIAE AVGG, campgate, two turrets, 6 layers, star above. Mintmark PTR dot-in-crescent;
RIC VII 475
This coin comes from the Peter Weiß collection, which was auctioned a few weeks ago by Gorny & Mosch; it contained a great number of late Roman coins, including some very rare and impressive ones, and its owner had also written several articles regarding coinage from the Constantinian period. If anybody... -
Inadvertent date set--Japan 10 sen Aluminum Bronze 1938-1940
Every time I see one of these, I forget I have one, so over the years I seem to have managed to acquire a complete set of these. It's only 3 years, so it's not much of an achievement. The Showa 15 (1940) seems to be the least common of the three.
I have kind of a 10 sen coin addiction. Every time I see one in a junk bin I can't help picking one up. I probably have ~200 by now for a grand total of a little over $20.
It would be nice to complete a base metal 10 yen date set from Taisho 9 (1920) to Showa 21 (1946). Here's what a random distribution has gotten me so far:
Taisho Copper-Nickel: Taisho 9-15 = 1920-26
I have all but Taisho 13, which wasn't minted. (Please ignore that I accidentally put another year 11 where 15 should be.... -
Japanese Porcelain Coins
Why not a thread of their own? I have a couple newps and I've mentioned a few in other posts, but time to pull it together. Will mix up the commentary with my actual coins.
Here was my first one ever! The common type.
Typical color, Mt. Fuji and cherry blossom, undated but 1945 attributed.
The porcelain coins really aren’t precisely porcelain, but a clay mix baked in high heat. Somehow the translation went that way though and the coins carry the name. Their production was at the end of WWII and there has been some debate on various message boards as to whether they circulated officially or unofficially. Most clearly did not, but as one type is much more commonly found, this has been ascribed to it having been out in the wild for a limited time. Or, that the rumor of circulation just a speculation that has been repeated.
It’s an interesting little niche, but little literature exists in English, and apparently not much in Japanese either. I... -
Fourth Meris problems: What's this? Could it be?
I've been on the hunt for a coin from the forth Meris of Macedonia without much luck.
As we all know, once Perseus tried striking back at Rome after they had just crushed his father's resistance, enough was enough. Rome split Macedon into 4 different pieces, or as they called them Meris's.
The first Meris coins are plentiful (don't worry I've added my 2 below). The second Meris is more of a bucket list coin. But they are easy to get if your wallet is DEEP. Strangely, the third Meris has no known coins that we can identify as theirs. And then lastly, the fourth Meris. Which only made a few bronze coins.
I LOVE little Greek bronze coins. Especially when they are from Macedonia!
And then I happened upon this little hot mess as it jumped out at me from my coin cabinet as I was perusing my MSCs:
that I bought as:
Philip V – Perseus
(187-168 BC). Æ (22mm). Uncertain Macedonian mint. Diademed head of Poseidon r. R/...
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