Coin Talk

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...

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...

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...

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...