Coin Talk

Hadrian
The Roman Emperor Hadrian (117-138 AD) enjoyed visiting provinces of the Empire, spending more than half of his time outside of Italy. In these tours, the first of which began in 121 AD, he would inspect the borders, encourage military discipline, and launch building projects. In 122 AD, he began the ~six-year construction of the well-known Hadrian’s Wall which stretched 73 miles from coast to coast to mark the northern limit of Britannia. Hadrian had been nicknamed “Graeculus” (“little Greek”) as a youth, and as a philhellene world leader, sought to make Athens the cultural capital of the Empire.

In 130 AD, Hadrian visited Iudaea. He found Jerusalem still in ruins, 60 years after its fall in 70 AD during the first Jewish-Roman War of 66-74 AD. General Titus led the siege of Jerusalem and the destruction of the Second Temple. Proceeds from war spoils and Jewish slaves were used to construct the Amphitheatric Flavium (now known as the...

Many amateur astronomers had the chance to observe Sunday in the sky of East Africa, for the summer solstice, a rare solar eclipse of the type "ring of fire".
This astronomical phenomenon, which occurs only once or twice a year, began shortly after sunrise in central Africa, crossing the Democratic Republic of the Congo , South Sudan, northern Ethiopia, before taking the direction of Asia, to finish in the Pacific Ocean, south of the island of Guam, at 9:32 GMT. In this type of eclipse, the Moon passes in front of the Sun, in an alignment with the Earth sufficiently perfect to hide it. But not entirely, as during a total eclipse: the Moon not being close enough to Earth, it is an annular eclipse, that is to say that at its maximum, there remains a ring around the Sun, called "ring of fire". Only 2% of the Earth's surface...

Public Domain image, C. Comiers, "Pratique Curieuse", 1735.

The Sibylline books were consulted by Romans from the time of the republic through to the end of the Empire. The books were destroyed with the temple of Jupiter in 83 BC, but a copy was found and arbitrated. Augustus moved them to temple of Apollo in 12 BC. There are many references to these books over time, here are just three for illustration. Livy writes of the books being consulted in 399 BC after bout of pestilence:


This resulted in a lectisternium being set up for the first time i.e. a couch (pulvinar) for images of the gods to recline with a meal served to them on a table. Seutonius reports...

I accidentally started this on another thread, but I thought it might be fun to list animal on ancient coins in terms of rarity. I will throw something against the wall, if you disagree or want to add to it, just post and we can update it. It could actually be helpful to newcomers to the hobby if they want to buy a coin of their favorite animal to know how challenging it will be, (*cough* rhinos *cough*). Sorry, it still greaves me personally the low number of rhino coins, but I digress.

Here is a rough attempt to start it:

Very Common: Eagle, horses, lions, elephants, snakes
Common: Dolphins, "fish", bull/cow, Owl, bee, turtle,
Scarce: Pigs/boar, camel, crabs, mollusks, dogs/wolf, chickens, ducks, gazelle/deer, crocodile, goat, peacock, crayfish, rabbit/hare, donkey/mule, scorpion, octopus
Rare: Hippos, Ostrich, swan, stork/ibis, leopard/snow leopard, raven, fox, moose, manta ray
Very Rare: Apes, (1 type), rhino (2 types), Bear, (know of 1 now), seal
Extinct:

I had Bear as...

By 1872 some of the scandals that would plague the Grant presidency were coming to light. Chief among them was the Credit Mobilier scandal which involved the construction of the transcontinental railroad by the Union Pacific Corporation. A group of leading Union Pacific stockholders founded Credit Mobilier of America as a purchasing and construction company. The company's mission was to construct the tracks for the railroad's westward expansion. During this period the Federal Government was paying the Union Pacific Railroad Corporation generous subsidies for each mile of track it laid. Through overbilling and creative bookkeeping, Credit Mobilier reaped huge profits for its stockholders.



After vice presidnet Schuyler Colfax was implicated in the Credit Mobilier scandal, he was dropped from the Republican ticket in 1872.

To keep Congress on board with the scheme, company officers sold shares of Credit Mobilier stock at deeply discounted...

Two coins acquired back in November (yes, I'm finally catching up):

Coin 1. Sasanian Persia. AR drachm. Kavad I, 2nd reign (499-532), Royal Year 36. Obverse: Bust of king right, Pahlavi inscription before "KaVAT AFZUTU" (May Kavad Prosper). Reverse: Zoroastrian fire-altar with two attendants, star and crescent above, to right mintmark DYNAS, to left date 36. This coin: Picked from a dealer's "choose-your-own" pile of Kavad I drachms at the Baltimore Whitman coin show, November 2019.


Coin 2. Sasanian Persia. AR drachm. Kavad I, 2nd reign (499-532), Royal Year 34. Obverse: Bust of king right, Pahlavi inscription before "KaVAT AFZUTU" (May Kavad Prosper). Reverse: Zoroastrian fire-altar with two attendants, star and crescent above, to right mintmark AS, to left date 34. This coin: Picked from a dealer's "choose-your-own" pile of Kavad I drachms at the Baltimore Whitman coin show, November 2019.

Kavad was born...

BRONZE MEDAL - LEIPZIG WAR COMMEMORATIVE
Year: 1913



City of Leipzig Bronze Medal / Völkerschlachtdenkmal: Peoples Monument of the Battle of Leipzig - 100th Year Anniversary of the Battle of Nations.

This medal is dated 1913, it commemorates the 100th year anniversary of the Battle of Leipzig, also known as the "Battle of Nations". The Medal depicts the Völkerschlachtdenkmal (Peoples Monument of the Battle of Nations) in the city of Leipzig Germany. It depicts the giant armored statue of St. Michael standing guard at the base of the monument as well many other collosal statues both inside and on the exterior. This is one of several different medals and coins issued depicting the Völkerschlachtdenkmal.

To go along with the Parthian AE drachm of Vardanes I that I posted last week, here's another coin with some mystery over where it was struck. This time it's a Sasanian AR drachm:

Sasanian Persia. AR drachm. Hormazd IV (579-590 AD), Royal Year uncertain. Mintmark ZwZwN (see explanation below). Obverse: Crowned bust of king right, name and titles before and behind. Reverse: Zoroastrian fire-altar with two attendants, star and crescent above, to right mintmark in Pahlavi ZwZwN, to left date (unread). This coin: Purchased from Allen G. Berman at the Baltimore Whitman coin show, November 2019.

Hormazd IV was the son of Khusro I (531-579 AD); his mother was the daughter of a foreign khagan, though whether it was the Turkish or Khazar khagan seems to be in dispute. Hormazd clashed often with the nobles and the Zoroastrian religious leaders, and is said to have ordered the executions of over 13,000 of his noble and religious opponents. He fought a...

Hey everyone. I just wanted to let you know this is my first post ever on CT, and I would like to share some of the varieties of Seleucid Tetradrachms that I have recently studied. Please enjoy this post and let me know if any information is wrong or if you have any questions.

Antiochos and Apollo:

Antiochos I Soter spent his first 10 years of his reign as joint-ruler with his father Seleukos I Nikator. After his father died, he reigned from 281-261 BC. He also married Demitrios Poliorketes’ daughter Stratonice.

On the assassination of his father, keeping together the huge empire he had built proved to be a challenging task. The Goths, seeing a weakness in the Seleucid empire, attempted to invade Anatolia. Antiochos stepped in with the famous Seleucid war elephants acquired by his father. Thankfully, with the destruction of the invaders, Antiochos bore the title of Soter or “Savior”.

During his reign, Antiochos struck four Tetradrachm varieties. The majority of...