Coin Talk

My first 50 Roman Republican coins were all denarii. But I've seen a lot of people post very appealing examples of the quinarius (half-denarius) in the year-plus I've been here, and recently I saw two of them that I really liked and decided to buy. From what little I know, they're among the most common types of the denomination issued during the Republic. The dealers' photos don't really do them justice, but I couldn't manage any better.

First:

Roman Republic, M. Cato, AR Quinarius [half denarius], 89 BCE. Obv. Head of young Liber (or Bacchus) right, M•CATO (AT ligate) downwards behind; below, control-mark star/ Rev. Victory seated right, holding patera with outstretched right hand and palm branch over left shoulder; in exergue, VICTRIX (TR ligate). Crawford 343/2b, RSC I Porcia 7 (ill.) (type with symbol as control-mark), BMCRR 662, Sydenham 597(c), Sear RCV I 248 (ill.), RBW Collection 1298. 15 mm., 1.58 g., 6 h. Ex. Numismatique Louis Brousseau Auction 1, Aug. 24, 2019,...

Humans have been making images of cattle for many millennia - this painting from Lascaux caves depicts aurochs (wild ancestors of domesticated cattle), horses and deer. The Magdalénien people of the Upper Paleolithic in western Europe that produced these paintings are estimated to have lived 12,000-17,000 years ago.

Image from Prof. Saxx of a Lascaux cave painting, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

My latest ancient coin has a beautiful image of a bull facing on the obverse and Artemis on the reverse. Recently, I have been reading a book by Jeremy McInerney about cattle and the Greeks. The book covers many aspects of the relationship between cattle and the ancient Greeks.

“The accumulation of experience between cattle – hunted, tamed, bred, nurtured, yoked, milked, killed, eaten, worshiped – fixes...

My first gold coin, and my third coin with dies engraved by Benvenuto Cellini arrived in the mail today from Heritage. This coin was minted after the election of Alessandro Farnese as pope Paul III. Taking advantage of the fact that new popes traditionally issued mass pardons, Cellini had commited murder during the interregnum, after the death of Clement VII, ostensibly to avenge his brother.

Like the other coins I have purchased, Cellini describes this coin in his autobiography (together with requisite drama and bravado) (LXXV):

Ἀλέξανδρος ἦν, καὶτήν τε μνήμην αὐτοῦπαντοίως ἀνενεώσατο, εἰκόνας τε καὶἀνδριάντας ἐν πάσαις πόλεσιν ἀναστῆναι ἐκέλευσε (Herodian IV,8)

He was Alexander. He revived his memory in a thousand ways and ordered that portraits and statues be erected in all the cities.

The history
Emperor Caracalla owes his nickname to a Gallic mantle he wore regularly, but his real name is Lucius Septimius Bassianus. He is the eldest son of Emperor Septimius Severus, and his birth takes place in April 4th 188 AD in Lugdunum. A fervent admirer of Alexander the Great, Caracalla comes to power by assassinating his brother, and he will reign terror during his six years in power. In power from the age of 23, he quickly became a tyrant whose excesses of all kinds seemed bordering on madness.


Metropolitan Museum of Art

However, he is very popular with the...

My coins bigger than yours. I know, I know. It's not the size of the coin but what you spend it on.
Buuuut


Now that we have that over with, UNLEASH THE GORGON!!!


SKYTHIA Olbia - Gorgoneion Proto Money
437-410 BC
Obv: facing gorgon's head. Rev: sea eagle flying right. 65.4 mm, 89.7 grams. Poor. Scarce.
Provenance
Property of a European collector; acquired in 2007; previously in a Dutch collection formed in the 1980s-1990s.
Literature Sear 1682. Purchased from Timeline Auctions Feb 2021


(I lift this bad boy 3 sets of 10 each day and my biceps are looking swole! But seriously, in hand it is a BEAST)
This highly sought after type is the largest coin type for size, period. The reverse is more than likely a love song to Perikles who secured trade with them and democracy for them on his naval expedition the very same year these coins...

Manuel I Komnenos, the last Byzantine ruler to dominate the politics in the Mediterranean world, eager to restore his empire to its past glories as the superpower.



He ruled nearly 40 years, from 1143 to 1180 which makes his coinage quite abundant and complex. Manuel started his reign with his father's very considerable treasury, which he effectively exhausted in 1156 during his failed expedition to Italy fighting the Normands. He had spent an enormous sum of 2,100,000 hyperpyra on this expedition (we are talking here about around 9 tons of pure gold).
The denominations in his reign, which were created in the monetary reform by his grandfather, were the AV Hyperpyron, EL Aspron trachy, worth 1/3 of the Hyperpyron, BI Trachy, worth 1/48 of the hyperpyron and the AE Tetarteron including it's half (and also the Metropolitan issues, which had a couple of percent of silver added to them).

The EL Aspron...

For years I looked for an example. I had only seen one and that was from a fellow collector on Forum Ancient Coins, I helped him attribute it. After that I never saw another Until……..

A collection of coins from Simon Bendall came to market, I bid on this coin and lost and very much regretted it. Well in this case opportunity struck twice and the coin came back to market, I acquired it and received it today.



Andronicus I SBCV-1988 DOC 7

2.57gm

20mm

From the collection of Simon Bendall.

Now the original attribution by Michael Hendy was this was a coin made during the siege of Thessalonica in the month of August 1185 AD, the normal issue from this mint was a coin depicting the Virgin (Type A, SBCV-1987) and this rare coin was considered type B ( SBCV-1988). The tie in is two of these coins were found at the Athens and none in Corinth excavations. One of the 2 coins found was overstruck over type A. I have not seen this overstruck...

As maybe some of you know one of my focusses is to collect coins from the Greek islands. What interest me about them is that these islands often have distinct traditions and mythology on their own, which is obviously reflected on the coinage. Some iconography on their coins stay unchanged for centuries (from the Archaic age all the way to Roman provincial coinage). Most islands did not produce that much silver, mostly fractions and bronze coinage. The bigger and more significant islands did strike large amounts of silver (depending on the time period), we can think of islands like Thasos, Aegina, Samos, and Rhodos.

I wanted to give a small summary of each island I own a coin of right now, with the corresponding coin there. I ofcourse cannot show all my coins of the Greek islands, therefore I will make a selection of one coin per island.
I included a map if it makes it easier to locate the islands:


Starting with,
Rhodos...

Gold coinage was an important part of late Medieval and early modern English coinage. Denominations such as nobles, angels, crowns, pounds, and sovereigns were produced from the 14th century until the modern era when precious metals were phased out of circulating coinage. However in the early medieval period, gold coinage was rarely produced. A few gold coins were tried, such as gold pennies of Alfred the Great, Aethelred the Unready and Edward the Confessor, and a gold penny of Henry III. But these were not widely used or successful coinages and these coins are known from only a minuscule number of rare survivors.

However, in the misty past, there was a robust and diverse series of gold coins made in the early Anglo-Saxon period. From about 600 until 675, gold coins were produced in the fledgling Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, depicting a variety of imagery. At least a dozen types are known, with diademed busts, copies of Roman clasped hands and seated despots, and a variety of Cristian...

I have found myself recently drawn to the coinage of Sweden. Being a world coin collector, I have always had some coins from Sweden in my collection but I think that I am starting to appreciate them more. There aren’t many (at least in the United States) collectors to compete with. The designs tend to be simple.

My first real purchase was 1724 dated, ½ Daler, piece of plate money. Since that time, I had added a 2 Daler and 4 Daler. If you like large, crude coins then these were made for you. The 4 Daler piece weighs over 4 pounds. Swedish copper plate money was introduced due to the abundance of copper from Sweden’s mines and the lack of availability of silver and gold. These cumbersome coins were issued in copper bullion with content reflecting the value of the silver that they replaced. These highly collectible “coins” circulated throughout Sweden and Finland.