Coin Talk

Friday, June 12, 1366
The village of Tourves (France) was in shock. Around nine o'clock in the morning, children came to play waking up a young shepherd who was grazing his sheep. They suddenly saw silver coins emerging from the ground through a hole at first so small that one could barely pass their fingers through it, in such a quantity that the inhabitants of the village carried it in their purses, their pockets and even in their aprons.There were so many pieces that it took 20 mules to transport them. An estimation of the weight of this considerable amount of coins is about 5000 pounds. This is probably the oldest discovery of a hoard which we have a written and official record.

The Romans did not know the banknotes, the checkbook, or the deposit banks. A soldier received as salary 1 aureus per month (the equivalent of 25 denarii or 100 sestertius). So if he wanted to put away his savings, the best solution would be to dig a hole in the backyard and hide the money...

1 CENT COIN - SARAWAK - RAJAH VYNER
Date: A.D. 1930



Obverse: Portrait facing right - C.V.BROOKE RAJAH

Reverse: Wreath of olive branches with ribbon tied at bottom - SARAWAK ONE CENT 1930

Minted by: Ralph Heaton & Sons - Birmingham

This one cent coin was minted By Ralph Heaton & Sons of Birmingham in the thirteenth regnal year of Charles Vyner Brooke. He is the third and last 'White' Rajah of Sarawak, a state on the island of Borneo ruled for about 100 years by the Englishman James Brooke and his family.

Borneo, located in South East Asia, is the third largest island in the world. It has been known for its abundant natural resources by China and India as far back as the 6th century AD and its coastal settlements served as lucrative trading ports. By the time the adventurer James Brooke arrived in Sarawak it was a part of the Sultanate of Brunei in decline.

The Brunei Islamic Malay Sultanate saw its golden age from the 15th...

(My first instinct was to call this thread Republican Snakes, but I didn't want to be accused of being political.)

I think we're all aware that snakes had generally positive connotations in Ancient Greek and Roman culture -- for their association with good health (Aesculapius and Salus), and for their religious associations with various cults connected with the earth, as well as domestically with the concept of venerating the "house snake."

I have four Roman Republican denarii showing snakes, and three of those portrayals of snakes are almost certainly intended to be perceived positively.

1. I just received the first one, and am very pleased with it (despite the clear evidence of a double strike around Salus's nose and chin on the obverse.)

Roman Republic, Manius Acilius Glabrio, AR Denarius, 50 BCE (Harlan and BMCRR) or 49 BCE (Crawford), Rome Mint. Obv. Laureate head of Salus right, wearing necklace and earring, with hair collected behind in knot ornamented with jewels,...

Parthian Kingdom. Margiana or Aria. AE drachm. Vardanes I (?)(c.40-45 AD). Obverse: Bust left, short beard curved on back side, before face star and crescent (?). Reverse: Archer seated right, below bow mintmark (resembles pi), uncertain two-line legend behind. Cf. Sellwood 64.37, Koch Group 5. This coin: Frank S. Robinson Auction 112, lot 130 (2020) (sold as "Sanabares").

Vardanes I and Gotarzes II were brothers from different mothers, though both were legitimate offspring of their father Artabanos II (or IV, by the most recent research). Artabanos died in 38 AD. Details of the succession are unclear, but it appears Gotarzes may have taken the throne briefly, only to be overthrown. Gotarzes tried to reclaim the throne, aided by Dahae and Hyrkaneian nomads, but the brothers were temporarily reconciled and agreed that Vardanes could retain the throne, while Gotarzes withdrew to Hyrkaneia (a region southeast of the Caspian Sea). Vardanes went on...

From Wikipedia: A bracteate (from the Latin bractea, a thin piece of metal) is a flat, thin, single-sided gold medal worn as jewelry that was produced in Northern Europe predominantly during the Migration Period of the Germanic Iron Age (including the Vendel era in Sweden). The term is also used for thin discs, especially in gold, to be sewn onto clothing in the ancient world, as found for example in the ancient Persian Oxus treasure, and also later silver coins produced in central Europe during the Early Middle Ages.

I was kind of surprised to see that there wasn’t a single thread on CT dedicated to bracteates. At least none that mention them in the title. There are only a handful of times that they are mentioned...

Recently @Eduard posted pictures of a very nice group of early U.S. dimes. I mentioned that the 1797, 16 star dime had hash marks under the stars. The die maker etched these small marks into the die face so that he could position the stars on the coin properly.

In the early days of the U.S. mint, an additional star was added to the obverse of the silver and gold coins each time a new state was added to the Union. When Tennessee joined the Union on June 1, 1796, the number of states reached 16. At that point, Chief Mint Engraver, Robert Scot, came to the conclusion that there was not enough room on the coin to add more. He cut back the number to 13 in honor of the 13 original states on the last half dime die he made in 1797. The 1797 half dime is the only coin that had 15, 16 and 13 star varieties on the obverse in a single year. Here are examples of the three coins in the order in which they were issued:

The 15 star coin was issued first...

So I got a job at a new store in early March (Better pay/hours/yada yada who cares) and I've been eagerly going through the rolls in this 'New Territory' scoping out the rolls, looking through the bills people bring in and seeing if this step up in the job market translated to a step up in my hobby as well...

I gotta say, for the first three months I'm not disappointed...

5+ War Nickels (I find those a lot regardless of the store)
50+ Wheats (I don't know what bank we use, but I love it)
1 Silver Dime (They pop up from time to time)

But the finds of the job so far...



The elusive Buffalo Nickel... I got two Shield Nickels at my last job and between the two about $1.00 face of War Nickels but I could never find that Buffalo... Until about two weeks ago...


Is that... No... Not out of a roll of BU 2020's...

...

For those readers familiar with Plutarch you may know that in his Parallel Lives the author compared Julius Caesar with Alexander the Great, an obvious parallel comparison, but I think he might have done just as well, or better, comparing him to another Greek military commander and author. Far fewer folks are as familiar with this runner-up as with Alexander but bear me out and see what you think.

The person in Ancient Greece I think whose life most parallels that of the famous Caesar, was an Athenian commander, office holder and author, whose long life spanned the end of the Peloponnesian War to the emergence of Phillip of Macedonia. Some readers will recognize his name, Xenophon of Athens, (born ca. 430 BC) and if you do, it will probably be in connection with the event known from his major literary achievement, the book known as The Anabasis ( Moving Upcountry). But to compare him to Julius Caesar, Xenophon has got to account for more than his autobiographical account of a...

Philip II of Macedon would hire Celtic mercenaries to aid in his military campaigns, and would often pay these warriors with gold staters struck at a variety of different mints. These staters had a laureate head of Apollo on the obverse, and a charioteer driving a biga while holding a kentron on the reverse. The coins contained on average 8.60 gm of pure gold and circulated throughout Celtic Europe; they were also imported into Britain. Celtic craftsmen soon began making their own staters, half, and quarter staters using the Macedonian staters as a template. The Celtic coins soon devolved in style becoming very abstract and truly Celtic in appearance. Different tribes developed their own styles creating some beautiful coins. Many numismatists believe the oldest form of abstract art are the Gallo-Belgic coins of Celtic Europe and Britain. Modern artists like Pablo Picasso and Joan Miro admired and were influenced by Celtic coins.

There is something magical or mystical about these...