Coin Talk

ROMAN IMPERIAL COIN INSCRIPTIONAL LETTERING


My pen and ink rendition of typical
Capitalis Monumentalis lettering

Roman Imperial coin inscriptional letterforms are based on those of CAPITALIS MONUMENTALIS employed by stone cutters for edifices, monuments, tombstones, etc. A fine extant example is found on Trajan's column in Rome and the essential constructs of these letterforms are the models for all Majuscule (Capital) alphabets used in the western world. Stone cutters in particular still employ their distinctive proportions and terminating serifs. It should be noted that only twenty letters were normally used in the ancient Roman alphabet: A B C D E F G H I L M N O P Q R S T V X. Our modern J and U were not used, their equivalents being I and V respectively. Thus, our modern...

2 JIAO (20 Cents) COIN - REPUBLIC OF CHINA - YUAN SHIKAI
Date: A.D. 1916



Obverse: Portrait head left of Yuan Shikai - (1916) YEAR 5 OF THE REPUBLIC / REPUBLIC OF CHINA

Reverse: Lettering with wreath - "Five Pieces for One Yuan Two Jiao"

Engraver: Luigi Giorgi

This coin depicts Yuan Shikai, a high ranking military official, politician, warlord, and president of the Chinese Republic who attempted to place himself on the throne of a short lived new imperial dynasty. He is one of the most significant Chinese political figures in the late 19th and early 20th century. This coin type was dated 1914 (3), 1916 (5), and 1920 (9).

Under Yuan Shikai new regulations were promulgated under which 280 million older silver coins were recalled and a new series was issued bearing the portrait of Yuan Shikai himself. The dollar coin, known colloquially by some collectors as the "Fatman Dollar", became the most widely circulated coin in...

Dear friends of ancient mythology!

Today I would like to tell something about one of the countless gods of the East: Hadad.

The Coin:
Syria, Dium, Geta as Caesar, AD 209-211
AE 24, 11.37g, 2.35g, 0°
struck AD 205/6 (= year 268)
Obv.: ΠOVΠ C - ΓETAC K
Bust, draped and cuirassed, seen from behind, bare-headed, r.
Rev.: HZC - ΔEIHN - ΩN (year 268)
Hadad (Jupiter Heliopolitanus), in typical scaly garment, wearing kalathos with
bull's horns, stg. frontal, holding eagle-tipped sceptre in r. hand and Nike in l.
hand; at his feet on each side a bull's protome looking outwards.
Ref.: Spijkerman p.118, 6, pl.24, 6; SNG ANS, 1281-2; BMC 1; Lindgren 2202;
Rosenberger IV, 34, 5; Meshorer 244; Hendin 848
very rare, VF, brown Patina

Mythology
Hadad is a West Semitic weather and storm god, son of the sky god Anu. He corresponds to the Accadic god Adad. His veneration is traceable from the end of the 3rd century BC, in...

For many years I have proudly owned a shekel of the first Jewish war, a period of upheaval, the loss of tens of thousands of lives and the destruction of the second temple in Jerusalem.

The shekel came to me by way of a Ponterio & Associates auction, in the early 90's, as I recall. I was able to secure the coin for $875, I guess because it is darkly toned (hoard patina, graded VF) plus the fact that a small hoard became available at the time.

I've been looking to add a mate for this period. Buying another shekel, or half shekel, was (as still is) out of the question. So I looked around, on an on and off basis, at the bronze coins.

Finally, last week, I found one that was reasonably "affordable", at $99 (off center obverse, grade: about Fine). This coin, while somewhat scarce, is really nothing to write home about in terms of condition, but in light of the fact that anything better would cost exponential dollars, it is a decent example.

So, here are the two coins:

First...

This medal is a little more modern than what I usually collect but the obverse imagery spoke to me. It was created to commemorate the expansion of a Catholic church in Portugal.


OBVERSE: Of the four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (Conquest, War, Famine, and Death), War rides a red horse and wields a sword, shown here, ready to dispatch two lost souls. As told in the Book of Revelations 6:4, “And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword.” This medal was designed and signed by Miguel T., unknown to me except for this medal.

REVERSE: With a parish growing rapidly, the small Portuguese Church of Saint Martin of Aldoar (Igreja de Sao Martinho de Aldoar) dedicated the new Igreja Matriz de Aldoar in 1988, pictured on this medal’s reverse beneath a peacock in full display.

Edge: 400-1000

Diameter: 91mm...

Today political commentators talk about candidates and those in office who are constantly saying and doing things that “appeal to their base.” It is nothing new. In the 19th century candidates and office holders did the same thing.




Here is a political token that has been on my want list for at least 20 years. It is quite scarce. I have seen only about 4 or 5 pieces in auctions over the last two decades or so. For me the ideal piece would one struck in white metal with a hole at the top. This piece is struck on copper, which makes it rarer, with a layer of gold plating. It was perhaps given to a high official of the Democratic Party, or it might have been made for a 19th century collector. In any case this is the only piece that I have had to chance to buy when my finances dictated that I could buy it.

The obverse features a portrait of Martin Van Buren, who was Andrew Jackson’s protégé and successor. The slogan reads, “The prudence and principles...

Here's a fun one, if you like this sort of thing.
Robert II, ‘le Jeune,’ Comte de Dreux 1188-1218. AR denier parisis of Dreux.



Obv. [in two lines, partly retrograde:] HC-O [/] M[E]S (‘A COMES;’ of the Count.)
(Apparently a combination of the genitive case in Old French, à, with the more conventional, formulaic Medieval Latin comes. Other feudal issues, at least from the 12th century, have a similar juxtaposition of linguistic elements. Reminiscent of the formula of later Anglo-Saxon -Angevin English pennies, with the royal name and title in Latin, and the moneyer's signature in Old -Middle English.)
[From 3 o’clock:] X MI: ROBERTVS (“+ME[I?] ROBERTVS;” [of?] me, Robert).
Rev. Cross, Alpha (‘/\’) in lower right and (inverted) upper left angles.
+DRVCAS CASTA (Castle of Dreux).
(Boudeau 4, Duplessy 421, Legros 113, Poey d’Avant 91, Roberts 3935.)
This is one of a relatively few instances of French...

Seigneurie de Nogent-le-Roi entered the possession of Hugo de Beauvais during the reign of Hugo Capet and was inherited by Roger at the death of Hugo in 1008.

It remained in this branch of the family Beauvais-Blois until the death of Roger in 1022. Nogent was a seigneurie tied to the County of Dreux, and the rights of Roger to Nogent and Beauvais were acknowledged by Eudes II de Blois and the French King in 1014, after the conflict (1008-1014) between Richard II of Normandy and Eudes II de Blois for the county and castle of Dreux was concluded.



AR22mm, 1.01g, silver grand denier, minted at Chateau Nogent, cca. 1015-1020.
+ ROGERIVS EPIS; Facade of a towered church.
+ NVIGENTI CAS; cross.
Boudeau 1var, p. 3 (NVIGENTI instead of NVICENTE/NVICETE), not in Poey d'Avant.


In 1015 the Bishop of Beauvais became also Count of Beauvais and Lord of Nogent and was also rose to Peer of France (Léon-Honoré Labande; Honoré Lambert Labande (1892)....

Gaius Pescennius Niger Justus (Justus=The Just, was given to him on his claiming of the purple) was late. To many it appeared that he was THE guy to rule Rome...but he took his time.



After Commodus (if Commodus isn't the reason we call the toilet the "commode" then it should be), the delusional scoundrel was to be murdered in his bath by one of his own strong men at the instigation of his inner circle including his own wife, death, things were good in Rome again.


Commodus
177-192 AD AE As 24-25 mm, 10.34 g, Rome, 192 AD.
Obv. L AEL AVREL COMM AVG P FEL, Head to right, wearing lion skin headdress.
Rev. HERCVL / ROMAN / AVGV / S C, Legend divided by club within laurel wreath.
RIC III 644; C. 193; BMC 722.
An interesting type. Fine to very fine. From: Auctiones GmbH

Pertinax ascension to the throne was a given. With the old general garnering more respect and auctoritas then anyone in the mightiest empire the world would...

Britain’s history is long and illustrious. Shakespeare, Newton and Darwin have reached every corner of the world. Yet while Alexander the Great was defeating the Persians at the Battle of Gaugamela, Qin Shi Huang was creating an army of terracotta and Ashoka the Great was building an empire from Afghanistan to Kerala, the Britons were…well, nobody really knows.

The history of Britain in the thousand years before the Romans arrived is vague to say the least. It's based on little more than DNA, stone positioning and bits of iron found deep in the ground. The problem was that while the Greeks had Homer and Aristotle, the British (whatever that meant at the time) didn’t write anything down. They didn’t even draw anything. Because of this, they were thought to have been savages. But they weren’t. Probably.


The Uffington White Horse. Perhaps they did draw something.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uffington_White_Horse

Most of what’s known...