Coin Talk

"Whenever you desire to cheer yourself, think upon the merits of those who are alive with you; the energy of one, for instance, the modesty of another, the generosity of a third, of another some other gift. For nothing is so cheering as the images of the virtues shining in the character of contemporaries, and meeting so far as possible in a group. Therefore you should keep them ready to your hand."
-Marcus Aurelius Meditations, VI.48

In my last post on one of the earliest coins of Hadrian, I mentioned that the featured coin inappropriately carried over the titles of Trajan on the coin of Hadrian. This was perhaps a result of poor succession planning and the hurried efforts during the transition from Trajan. The...

King Edward VI was the son that Henry VIII had always wanted. To produce this heir, Henry changed the history of England itself. Henry died in 1547, likely feeling that he had fulfilled his sacred duty to carry on the Royal succession, but he had done so far more than he could possibly imagine, just not with his only son. Of course Henry never knew that Edward died at the age of 15 and so never fully ruled the kingdom left to him. Edward and his regents apparently had plans to build a strict Protestant state, but of course those never materialized.

Sadly, his father had debased the coinage to such an extent that the economy had faltered to a startling degree. Rather than addressing the issue, Edward's protectors instead sought further profit by continuing this practice. As Edward wrote in his diary on August 18, 1551: "The shilling fell from nine pence to six pence, the groat from three pence to two pence, the twopence to a penny, the penny to a halfpenny, the halfpenny to a...

Antoninianus - IMP TRAJAN DECIUS
Rome Mint
Gaius Messius Quintus Traianus Decius



Born: A.D. 201
Emperor: A.D. 249-251

Obverse: Portrait radiate, draped and cuirassed bust right - IMP C M Q TRAIANVS DECIVS AVG

Reverse: Decius on horseback with right hand raised in salute and holding scepter - ADVENTVS AVG

Inscriptions: IMP(erator) C(aesar) M(essius) Q(uintus) TRAIANVS DECIVS AVG(ustus) / ADVENTVS AVG(ustus)

Emperor Caesar Messius Quintus Trajianus Decius Augustus / Arrival of Augustus (Commemorates the arrival of the Emperor to Rome)


Early Career and Ascension: Decius is thought to have been born in Lower Pannonia, possibly in the town of Budalia near the city of Sirmium (modern Serbia). There is uncertainty as to the origins of his family as the name of his father is not known. He is the first in a line of emperors who would...

First I quick story, have a buddy that bought off of Ampex and said one was odd. He knew I knew Kennedy's so he asked...couldn't get the eight correct but it seemed heavy. 16 months later I get my hands on it....

Sound test - not right, yet not like a clad coin either but off when directly compared with a real 1964.


Next the weight, the most important test. (I thought)



Definitely heavy....


Its a good fake, cast I bet, but still trying to look at it up close, USB camera doesn't work since billy gates forced me to Win10.

Still a pretty good job was done here..







Final test, yeah I know should have been earlier but was 99% convinced it was counterfeit.

The picture speaks for itself......

From the Stack's auction at the Bellegio a couple weeks ago... I love coins with a story, and this one really has a story.

Piastre of Francesco I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany aka Davenport-8386. Population 1/0 finer at PCGS. Reverse depicts Christ over the River Jordan.

First machine struck silver crown in Florence, very high tech for its day.

Interesting guy Francesco, likely off'd his Austrian wife to elope with his Venetian mistress Bianca Cappello, who likely off'd her husband just prior to marrying Francesco. They eventually died a day apart and historians have argued ever since if they were poisoned or died from malaria.

The art collection at the Uffizi and Pitti Palace? All of it belonged to Francesco, though the Uffizi itself dates to his father and the Pitti Palace much earlier.

There is a hotel in Florence called the Palazzo Bianca Cappello where the future duchess lived while waiting for the Duke to become "available". A street view pic of it below. It's...

Earlier this summer, I was lucky enough to bid on what I considered to be three very original bust dimes, all from the same little collection. I won them all. They were all part of an estate that was being settled, and the coins were sent to auction by his relatives. What made this so risky and exciting, however, is that the seller's pics made it all a huge guessing game as to what exactly I was bidding on. Were the coins AU? Were they UNC? Personally, I couldn't be sure, but I hoped. So I chased them in the bidding war.

Below you will see all 3 dimes. First, the seller's pics with the price I paid, followed by my pics, followed by the PCGS grades and TrueViews. Where exactly did these coins come from? They all arrived tucked into little paper envelopes. How fascinating is it that this collector had a relatively small collection of such pristine coins? I am amazed, and I feel very blessed. It's always a risk buying from bad pictures. I am not a traditional gambler, but I do...

Hello everyone! I've had these two odd tin cash type coins for awhile now and am finally getting around to researching them more and wanted to share the odd story of the coins' history here. These two examples are part of a scarce series of tin coins in the style of Chinese cash coins that were apparently minted locally in Palembang, Sumatra in present-day Indonesia.

If you're familiar at all with Chinese cash coins then you know that they are easily recognizable by the square center hole surrounded on all four sides by a Chinese character that together reads the legend, usually the emperor's name or the name of the era of rule. The hole in the center allowed for merchants to put standardized amounts of the coins onto a closed string for quick and easy trading.

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...