Coin Talk

One of the beneficial attributes of steel is that it can be heat treated in numerous ways to get a wide variety of properties for many different end applications. One of these applications are the dies used to strike coins. I’ve seen terms like “hardening,” “annealing,” and “quenching” in coin-related publications before, and after working with this subject for a year and a half, I’ve gotten to learn quite a bit about how the various heat treating processes work. I thought it would be helpful to share what goes on when heat treating a coin die, like the 1820 half eagle die shown below (I believe this is the ANA’s image).





To start out, steel is characterized as an iron-carbon alloy. Other alloying elements (e.g., manganese, chromium, nickel, molybdenum, etc.) are added to achieve a wide array of properties (e.g., strength, hardness, toughness, corrosion resistance, machineability, etc.). At room temperature, steel is generally made up of two phases...

Dear Friends of ancient Mythology!

I have wanted to write an article on Ahura Mazda for a long time, but have always shied away from it because it seemed like too extensive an undertaking. Now, during my Corona time, I have decided to finally start. For this article, the subtitle of my mythology book applies especially: "Journey to a distant land"! I have 3 coins in my collection that refer to Ahura Mazda, and they are closely related, as we will see. The coin that is at the beginning of the article I have already presented once in an article about Hormisdas. But that was about the Sassanid Great King. The Sassanid Empire was the second Persian empire after the Achaemenid Empire and declined in the 7th century AD due to the expansion of the Islamic Arabs.

Coin #1
Sassanid Empire, Hormizd II, 309-309 AD.
AR - Drachm, 3.48g, 27.2mm, 90°.
Obv.: Legend in Pahlevi, abbreviated and corrupted:
　 　 ly. .KLM n . KLM [ydzmrhw'] y gb n s d [y?]z m
　 (= "The worshipper of...

Geopolitics can be a troublesome thing. Today's friend is tomorrow's enemy, yesterday's rival is today's trade partner. This is certainly true of our times and perhaps was even truer in the ancient world. When it comes to forming complicated alliances the Byzantine Empire is among the first to come to mind, with its biggest frienemy Venice a close second. Their relationship has always been a very complex one, and my latest arrivals, one silver coin from the Byzantine capital and another one from the watery Italian city-state will allow me to research their monetary and cultural connections to some degree of detail. The coinage of these two empires shares many common characteristics and these two coins are no exception despite that they were minted a few centuries apart:


(Tran. Legends: OBV=Jesus Christ conquers, REV= John emperor king of the Romans)


(Legends: OBV=RAGENO S.M.VENETI, REV= IC XC)

My only...

I keep seeing coins being posted here with the tag of who used to own and all, even paying some premium for their namesake! whereas every single coin in my collection comes from the retailer, whether be it from Vcoins or just ebay!
Can I simply add my name to the coins to start the provenance from there?!

Hey guys I recently was looking through my safe and found a bunch of international bullion I bought about 5 years ago from a well known, internationally reputable, dealer and among my order were several Australian Kookaburras & Chinese Pandas.


Just for fun I decided to test the dimensions and weight and get a feel for what the real ones are supposed to feel like.

However when I was weighing them I noticed something really strange. ALL of the Australian silver bullion had at least a half of gram of silver more than the Chinese Panda.

Many of the Chinese pandas didn’t even weigh 1 troy ounce!

I understand that the weights among these bullion coins varies even between the same coin by the same country but this was every single coin. I tested at least 40 of each and not once did even the heaviest Chinese Panda weigh more than the lightest Australian Kookaburras.

If you’re losing 1/2 gram of silver per troy ounce purchased that means you’re losing 3 full troy ounces of...

December 6th is St. Nicholas’ day. Today, the saint is most closely associated as the inspiration for Santa Claus, as the original saint was known for his kindness to children. Other more entertaining (if perhaps inaccurate) tales of the saint exist, including his attendance at the Council of Nicaea where he supposedly assaulted the heretic Arius. His feast day is celebrated by giving small gifts such as leaving chocolates or coins in the shoes of children left out her night.


Nicholas punching Arius

In late medieval England, another tradition developed around St. Nicholas’ day. Because of his association with Children, it was the day that some churches (particularly in East Anglia) chose a Boy Bishop for the later feast of the Holy Innocents held on December 28th. During this time, the bishop symbolically stepped down from his duties and allowed a chosen boy from the parish to oversee his duties (excepting saying the mass). The...

Dear Friends of ancient mythology!

The Roman emperor Elagabal (218-222) was actually called Varius Avitus Bassianus and was given the name Marcus Aurelius Antoninus as emperor. Elagabal or Heliogabal he was called much later. But Elagabal was actually the name of the god he worshipped, the sun god of Emesa, today's Homs in Syria. To distinguish these two, I will always call the emperor Antoninus. So Elagabal here always means the sun god!

In this article I would like to show where Elagabal comes from and into which cultural landscape he is to be classified.

1st coin: The Holy Stone of Emesa
Syria, Emesa, Antoninus Pius, 138-161
AE 23, 10.19g, 180°
struck 138/9 (RY 1)
Obv.: [AVT KAI TI] AIΛ A [NTO - NEINOC CEB EVC] Awarded head n.r.
Rev.: EMI - [C]HNΩN
Eagle with closed wings standing r. on the Holy Stone of Emesa, head with wreath in beak turned.l., [stone decorated with a star in the middle at the top and a pellet on the left and right].
in right field A (RY 1)
Ref.: BMC...

This is a coin that I obtained from World-wide Coins of California back in the late 1980's. Normally, I do not concentrate on British coinage, but this coin has proven to be a well worthwhile type acquisition for the period of the English Civil War (1642–1651).

Massive and impressive, the silver half pound of 10 shillings, and the even more massive pound were produced in Oxford by Charles I, following the inconclusive battle of Edgehill on October 23, 1642, when Charles I and his queen, Henrietta moved to Oxford from London to establish their capital.



The half pound was produced in 1642 and 1643. This coin, dated 1643, was hammer struck, as were the coins produced for Charles I at Oxford and other mints during the conflict. As a hammer struck coin, this example has good detail, but not the best artistry,...

I had for some years been looking for a portrait coin of Cleopatra Selene II, and was both surprised and pleased when I finally managed to win one that I liked and could afford. Her parents, Cleopatra VII of Egypt and the Roman triumvir Mark Antony, were both in their lifetime and to the present day, amongst the most notorious and written about historical figures. Comparatively few details, however, have survived about Cleopatra Selene's life after the death of her parents.

Antony and Cleopatra were defeated by the future first emperor of the Roman Empire, Augustus, at the Battle of Actium in 30 BC. After the lovers had committed suicide at Alexandria, their young children, Alexander Helios, Cleopatra Selene, and Ptolemy Philadelphios were taken to Rome as captives. At his triumph in 29 BC, Augustus paraded 11-year old Selene and her twin brother Alexander Helios, both of them weighed down by heavy gold chains, behind a wax effigy of their mother. All three children were...

Ionia - Magnesia ad Maeandrum, circa 155-145 BC, Magistrate Herognetos, son of Zopryionos. AR Tetradrachm: 16.89 gm, 31 mm, 12 h (reduced Attic standard). Obverse: Draped bust of Artemis wearing a diadem, with bow and quiver over left shoulder. Reverse: Apollo Delphios leaning on tripod censer and holding a branch tied with fillet, meander pattern under feet. The inscription in the left field identifies the issuing authority, and the inscription in the right field translates "of the Magnesians", all within a laurel wreath. SNG von Aulock 7921, BMC Ionia pg. 162.
Roma Numismatics Ltd. Auction XX, lot 178, Oct. 2020
Heritage Auction 3081, lot 30081, NGC 2490574-004, Ch AU*, Strike 5/5, Surface 5/5, Jan. 2020
CNG Triton VI, lot 357, Jan. 2003

The instant I saw this coin I remembered seeing it in a Heritage auction earlier this year, however, at that time it was in an NGC slab. The coin was removed from the slab and no mention of the Heritage...