Coin Talk

...No, really! People have been posting artifacts on this forum for as long as I’ve been paying any attention. They’re unfailingly cool, not least in the Ciceronian sense. Meanwhile, for those of us who spend more time in the Middle Ages than Antiquity, the progression from coins to (sorry to get all bilingual --especially in contrast to what I can do with Cicero) ‘artefacts’ can be no less compelling and seamless.

Heraldic harness furniture has to be one collective instance. The commonest examples, conspicuously from detector finds in England, are little shield-shaped decorations (pendants or studs), mostly made of bronze (‘latten’). They depict real, historic coats of arms, originally with their tinctures (colors) rendered in enamel. The run of them date from around the mid-13th century to the mid-14th, with “the peak period for the larger, shield-shaped pendants …[apparently] around 1280 to 1350.” (Baker p. 22; cf. pp. 6; 2 and note 5 regarding the earlier...

The lives, untimely deaths, and groats of the first five King James' of Scotland.

From 1406-1542 the king of Scotland was named James, and there were five of them. Dynastic successors of the house of Stuart, they were descendants of Robert the Bruce through his daughter Marjorie. With an unbroken five generation regnal succession of father to son (seven really if you go back to Robert II), one might think this was a peaceful age for Scotland, compared to the violent wars of succession in England. Wrong! All of the James' faced rebellion from their subjects and conflicts with England. All five of the first James' met premature ends as well.



James I 1406-1437: Captured by the English around the time of his father's death, he was king in exile for over a decade where he was apparently treated well by Henry V and learned from his style of leadership. When he was able to return to Scotland after Henry's death, he tried to impose a similar...

Antiochus I Soter was born in late 324 or early 323 BCE, to Seleucus I Nikator and the Iranian princess Apama. Antiochus's parents were wed at Susa along with many other Macedonian and Iranian couples at the behest of Alexander III. Seleucus was one of the few Macedonian officers who did not immediately divorce his wife when Alexander died in 323 BCE. It seems that Seleucus and his wife genuinely loved each other, as they would remain married with her until her death decades later.

Antiochus had a fairly tumultuous childhood, as he was only nine years old when he and his family was forced to flee Babylon to Egypt in order to escape the wrath of Antigonus I. Antiochus next appears with his father at the Battle of Ipsus in 301 BCE, age 23 or 22, where he was given command of one wing of the allied calvary. At Ipsus, Antiochus directly faced off against Demetrius I Poliorcetes and Pyrrhus of Epirus. Whether by design or accident, Antiochus and his calvary detachment were routed, with...

Inspired by @furryfrog02 - I just picked up a giant piece of Egypto-Greek bronze (AE Drachm, 75.52 grams) featuring the syncretic king of the gods Zeus-Ammon on the obverse. By combining the Egyptian supreme god with Zeus, the supreme god of the Greeks, an all-powerful deity was created.

Ptolemy IV Philopator, or full regnal name in Egyptian "Iwaennetjerwy-menkhwy Setepptah Userkare Sekhemankhamun," a designation that means "Heir of the [two] Beneficent Gods, Chosen of Ptah, Powerful is the Soul of Re, Living Image of Amun."


Relief depicting Ptolemy IV making an offering to Montu at Deir el-Medina. The cartouche on the right reads "Ptolemaios may he live forever and ever."

He was somewhat dissolute according to the sources, mainly...

I got these from the last CNG auction, in early May. They helped out with the increasingly long slog involved for anyone who collects this. Here's the first one.


Aphilas (c. 290- early 4th c. ACE).* AR unit, with gilding on the reverse.
Obv. Aphilas r., wearing headcloth and earring (most of which is very worn).
(From 8 o'clock: ) AφIλA [crescent with star] βαςιλI
("Aphila Bacili;" King Aphilas.)
Rev. Profile (Possibly of a son and heir of Aphilas, or even of Ousanas, his successor, as a co-issue; see Munro-Hay's note). Thank you, with gilding.
(From 6 o'clock: ) IAφιλAς β [crescent with star] Aςιλεγς ("Iaphilas Basileus.")
(Munro-Hay /Juel/jensen Type 10. Cf. Phillipson, Foundations of an African Civilization, 184-5; Munro-Hay, Aksum, 186-8; "Aksumite Coinage" (In African Zion: The Sacred Art of Ethiopia), p. 105, no. 18.)


Ezana (c. 330-360 CE --again from Phillipson). AR unit,...

This year continues to bring more coins of Asia Minor than Roman republic to my collection. Today a coin from Phrygia, Laodikeia - also spelled Laodicea, on the western edge of modern Turkey on the river Lycus, not Loadicea ad Mare, today a port city in Syria called Latakia.

Phrygia, Laodikeia, 133/88-67 BC
Obv: Diademed and draped bust of Aphrodite or the foundress Laodice right
Rev: Filleted cornucopia to right; filleted kerykeion to left
Size: 20mm, 6.55g
Ref: BMC 40-4, SNG Copenhagen 501-2

There are several variations of this coins with single and double cornucopiae, with and without kerykeion (the Greek name for the staff of Hermes that Romans would have called a caduceus). Laodicea was founded by Antiochus II Theos in 261-253 BC in honor of his sister/wife Laodice. It was part of Roman Asia minor when this coin was minted and a thriving city during the later years of the Roman republic. During the period...

This is a neat little token of William Penn and Pennsylvania's Bicentennial.

It was struck in 1882 by the US Mint in Philadelphia. It's brass, 25 mm,with a plain or smooth edge design. It was made to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the state of Pennsylvania and the person the state is named after, William Penn.

The obverse features the Bust of William Penn facing three quarters left with the date 1682 and his last name. The reverse has: DISTRIBUTED BY EMPLOYEES OF U.S. MINT DURING THE CELEBRATION OF PENNSYLVANIAS BI-CENTENNIAL. Then it has the date OCT. 24, 1882. Pennsylvania's Coat of Arms (so to speak) is on the center.

As you can see, the obverse is a slight MAD or misaligned die strike. His nose has a shine but that's from a small scrape. No metal is missing but it did remove the toning. I can't see any missing or moved metal.

While not graded it appears to be a very strong XF but it could make a light AU. Now if that nose just retones.
...

I wasn’t really looking for this particular type. But since I got the book by Sear, The history and coinage of the Roman imperators, as well as the Dutch translation of Appianus, I have been diving deeper into the imperatorial era/late republic and this fascinating part of Roman history and the accompanying coinage. When I saw this coin, I immediately fell for the well proportioned portrait of the youthful Octavian, which although worn, still shows a great amount of detail. The depiction of the deity on the reverse is in my opinion artistic, and interesting, like several other issues of this series. And, more importantly, I was missing a coin of Octavian in my collection, as part of the ‘imperatorial series’!

After some more research, it became clear to me that this new addition covers more then just being a very good looking coin. An extra bonus! Below I will share my findings and hopefully you will find this as interesting as me!


After the...

The history
The rare coins featuring a young boy portrait with the inscription DIVO NIGRINIANO have long mystified collectors and historians, who couldn't find any reference of a prince of this name in the historical sources. An inscription at the base of a statue, later reused as a sarcophagus, was discovered in Rome in 1888 when demolishing buildings leaning against the wall of the Forum of Augustus. It reads: Divo / Nigriniano , / Nepoti Cari, / Geminivs Festvs, v(ir) [p(erfectissimus)] , / rationalis. I believe that nepoti means nephew, but it could also be translate by relatives. So if someone here remember his latin lessons better than I do, please explain why it was translated by grandson...Anyway, if Nigrinian is a grandson of the Emperor Carus , it reduces the possibilities to Carus' two sons, Carinus or Numerian, both of whom ruled in the same period with their father and by themselves after his death. Taking the fact...

(I posted stuff about this already in one of LordMorcovan's justly celebrated giveaway threads, but now I can't even find it.)
Not That long ago, I saw a, shall we say, underattributed denier on French ebay. Nabbed it.
Denier of Bayeux, anon. c. (?) mid-late 10th c.; immobilized from later (...and very common) 'GDR' issues of Charles II, le Chauve /the Bald. The pics, from the original listing, start with the reverse; I'm running with it.
Rev. +IAIOCASH CITAS. ([Blundered Medieval Latin for 'Bayeux'] civitas.)
Obv. 'KAROLVS' monogram;
(From 10 o'clock: ) +CPATIA D-I REX. [Blundered version of 'GRATIA D-I REX'; Gratia Dei Rex.]
I'm not as good at this as other people, but this might be a die match of Dumas, Le Tresor de Fecamp, no. 6047 (pp. 104-5 and pl. VI). See also Moesgaard's article, "A Survey of Coin Production and Currency in Normandy, 864-945," in Graham-Campbell et al., eds., Silver Economy in the Viking Age (2007), 99-121, esp. pp. 104-5 and Fig....