Coin Talk

Let's see your coins of Faustina you consider to be of "fine style"!

I have a handful of denarii in my collection whose portraits are quite likely to have been carved by the same die-engraver. This die engraver was clearly a master and his portraits are of a particularly fine style. I have identified the following characteristics of his work:

His portraits clearly portray Faustina wearing a stola fastened at the shoulder with a looped-shaped fibula and a palla over her stola. Unlike the situation with Julia Domna, where the loop-shaped fibula is a characteristic of the "Laodicea mint," the presence of such a design element on the coins of Faustina is not a regular feature, nor is it indicative of a particular mint. Similarly, the stola is not usually so clearly distinguished from the palla on Faustina's coinage and her portraits typically show only the palla or just the barest hint of a stola underneath. If you...

Got a pretty interesting phenomenon to share today.

I recently picked up a box of 2021 Shield Cents to search for new errors and varieties. While searching the first roll, I came across a pretty nice strikethrough error, which was exciting! What I did not expect to find was the progression of this strikethrough on other shield cents within the same roll and next 2 rolls. I know that there are such things as early, mid, and late die states for many doubled dies, but I did not know a similar thing existed with strikethroughs as well. Below are the examples the best I could photograph them as well as a small description of each one. (Photos should be in the order as listed)

1. Early Progression: Very minor strikethough error on the back of Lincoln's neck as well as in front of his mouth and below the beard.
2. Early-Mid Progression: Strikethough becomes more pronounced in front of Lincoln's bust as well as on the spot on the back of his neck.
3. Mid Progression:...

Here's a broad thaler, struck with roller dies, from Brunswick-Lüneburg-Celle, dated 1662, produced during the reign of Duke Christian Ludwig (1622-1665).



The Dutchy of Brunswick included rich deposits of silver in the Harz Mountains, located in central Germany.

From Wikipedia:

The Upper Harz was once one of the most important mining regions in Germany.[1] The major products of its mines were silver, copper, lead, iron and, from the 19th century, zinc as well. The main source of income, however, was silver. From the 16th to the middle of the 19th centuries about 40–50% of the entire German silver production originated in the Upper Harz.[2] The taxes raised from this contributed significantly to the revenue of the royal houses in Hanover and Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel and...

Fall of 269 AD.
Victorinus had been declared emperor by the troops located at Augusta Treverorum. However, only the provinces of Gaul, Germania and Great Britain recognized him. Hispania deserted the Gallic Empire and declared its loyalty to Claudius Gothicus. This inspired the city of Autun to abandon Victorinus and declare its intention to declare itself for Claudius Gothicus. This forced Victorinus to march south and lay siege to it.
Claudius did not send troops to the city, which was left alone without any rescuers. In the summer of 270, after a siege of seven months, the troops of Victorinus managed to take, plunder, and partially destroy the city.


Autun defensive walls from the Roman era.

The Roman Empire and the Gallic Empire had at least one thing in common: they both used their coinage in a purpose of propaganda, in other words promoting a particular politic cause or point of view. It was the case with the coinage of...

Following the death of his wife Faustina I, Antoninus Pius issued an astonishingly large series of posthumous issues in her name, dwarfing the coinage produced in her lifetime. There are literally dozens of different reverse types in each denomination of these posthumous coins. In contrast, her lifetime issues are limited in scope and reverse types and are not nearly as commonly encountered in the market.

Her lifetime issues are typically divided into three periods, characterized by different obverse legends.

As some of you will know I collect (hoard) the coins of Probus from Lugdunum. This collection will never be complete as there are simply too many people who are willing to pay decent money for the scarcer bust types. I am happy to continue filling gaps elsewhere where I can. A new acquisition gives me the excuse to share a section of my obsession.

In the 9th emission, Lugdunum uses the letters A, B, C and D to represent the officina marks for officinae 1 through 4. The officina marks are almost exclusively in the left and right fields on the reverse. There is one die where the officina mark is in the exe but that is a post for a different day. The officina marks for B, C and D also appear as retrograde on some coins. Why they did this we simply do not know but they are not isolated errors and are certainly intentional.

Within the output of the third officina is the SPES AVG reverse with Spes standing left, holding flower and raising robe.

This reverse type occurs with two...

This coin was #8 on my Top 10 list for 2020, but I haven't had the chance to give a write-up until now.

Normans in Sicily. AE follaro (12 mm). William II (1166-1189). Obverse: Lion scalp facing. Reverse: Arabic inscription "al-malik/ Ghulyam/ al-thank" (King William the Second). This coin: Frank S. Robinson Sale 113, lot 405 (alternate).

The Norman kingdom in Sicily, while fairly short-lived, is one of the more interesting states in medieval Europe. For a while, it served as a model of peaceful coexistence between different cultures (Latin [Roman Catholic] Christians, Greek Christians, and North African Muslims) and was a thriving center of agriculture and art. It played a part in the Crusades, and was deeply involved in the shifting political relations between the Catholic Church, the Holy Roman Empire and the Byzantine Empire. I can't do the situation justice in this post; I recommend the book "The Normans in Sicily" by John Julius...

When the mention of silver coins comes up, one often thinks of the silver dollars of the United States, the 8 reales of Mexico and Latin America, or the Maria Theresa dollars, to name a few.

However, in the late 1400's and most notably the early 1500's there was intensive mining of rich silver deposits in Bohemia, in the vicinity of Joachimsthal (Jáchymov in Czech). Indeed one could argue that these deposits, along with those in the Harz Mountains of Germany and elsewhere constituted a major source of silver coinage in Europe, before the flood of silver arrived from Latin America later in the century.

As noted, in Wikipedia,

"At the beginning of the 16th century, silver was found in the area of Joachimsthal. The village of Joachimsthal was founded in 1516 in place of the former abandoned village of Konradsgrun in order to facilitate the exploitation of this valuable resource. Stefan Schlick was the founder of Jáchymov. The silver caused the...

Dear Friends of ancient mythology!

I know that Christmas was some time ago, but I don't want to deprive you of this article that I just rediscovered.

"Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold there came wise men from the East to Jerusalem, Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and have come to worship him." (Matthew 2: 1f.)

"and, look, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was." (Matthew 2:9)


The pic shows the "Adoration of the Magi" of Giotto di Bondone (the great pioneer of the Italian Renaissance, 1267 or 1276-1337), a fresco in the Cappella degli Scrovegni in Padova/Italy, c. 1303. Above the scene, one recognises the Star of Bethlehem in the shape of a comet. This may be the first depiction of Halley's Comet, which was visible to the naked eye in 1301.

Since the late ancient...

Scipio Africanus may have his image on a couple of coin types. He may have it on none.
He may be the first living Roman to have his likeness on a coin. Or not.
We're not even sure if this is his likeness:

(If this is him, then the legends are true of him being the world's first unified staring contest champion)

We do know that after Hannibal's brother, Hasdrubal Barca (those Carthaginians had some rad last names. Barca=thunderbolt), killed Scipio's father and uncle at the battle of the Upper Baetis he was the only Roman willing to lead another attack on this rampaging enemy. Everyone else believed the position an assisted suicide.
This Scipio though was the little Roman who could... and would bring down the second greatest threat Rome would ever know.


He was a 25 year old kid, a decade too young to even hold the proconsular position the Roman people gave him in hopes of some of that Scipio magic.
As we all know, Lil...