Coin Talk

Here is another article from the archives. I wrote this in 2014.

I've been working on a very general collection of English coinage. My goal has been to locate at least one piece for each British monarch who issued a coin in his or her name. Where it has been financially feasible I have bought a gold coin. Recently I completed a collection of the three of the four kings who held the British throne during the 20th century. For reasons I will explain later, acquiring an example of any coin for the fourth king is virtually impossible. Each of these kings led a unique, interesting and sometimes scandalous life, and each of their coins was struck using a different minting process.

Edward VII was king from 1901 to 1910. Like Charles, the current Prince of Wales, he had to wait many years before he became king. For a time it appeared that his mother might outlive him and that he would never become king. Like Queen Elizabeth II, Queen Victoria a long rule, from 1837...

Hi CT folks !

Why this ?

I have for long been admiring electrum staters issued by the bosporan kings. I like the oriental style to them, and the dual portraits on some of them are terrific : as a client state of Rome, the bosporan kingdom was somewhat autonomous, but not to the point where the kings would forget to pay tribute to the Master by not putting their portraits on their coinage.

I have no ancient gold coinage yet, but I had the intuition of electrum having a special flavour. Gold and silver : tell me the truth, when you’re about eating a vanilla/chocolate ice cream, I bet you feel a preference for vanilla, no chocolate, no vanilla, no chocolate,….. don’t you ?

I had selected a few items at the late april Naville auction. This one was one of them, but out of my range, should things go the right way. They didn’t, so I could concentrate my budget on just one bigger target, and here it is !



Bosporan kingdom – El stater, dated...

Knowledge is like money: to be of value it must circulate, and in circulating it can increase in quantity and, hopefully, in value.


Louis L'Amour

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( I wrote this for forum Ancient Coins, I thought I would share it here as well. This is part one, it has already been completed but photos need to be sorted. I realize only aa small group on the board will find this of interest.)


When you specialize in a denomination you learn more than the average collector and in other cases more than the numismatists who looked at the currency as a whole instead of specializing in one solitary denomination.

Here is what I learned on the way.

To start Michael Hendy in Coinage and Money 12-13th century published in 1969 was the genesis for accurate information regarding the 12th century coinage especially the tetarteron , his work changed...

The tale of the 1903-O Morgan is one of my favorite in all of numismatics. With a mintage of 4.45 million, the coin should never have been rare. Yet, at one time...they were nowhere to be found. When they did turn up, they were almost always circulated. Prices for MS grade coins were astronomical...if you could find one. Trouble was, nobody could.

According to the Red Book, published in 1960, these are the values of the "key" date Morgan's in UNC grade (Red Book did not break it down further at this time, the highest was UNC).

1889-CC: $95.00

1893-S: $500.00

1895 (Proof): $625.00

1903-O: $500.00

In 1960, the 1903-O was right on par with the 1893-S and just a bit below the legendary 1895 Proof! How could this be?

This trend continued and by 1963, here is the Red Book prices for the same coins:

1889-CC: $275.00

1893-S: $1200.00

1895 (Proof): $1500.00

1903-O: $1500.00

Although all the prices had jumped, the...

The Humiliation of Valerian by Shapur I, French 15th Century
Digital image courtesy of the Getty's Open Content Program
When I first noticed the coin, I knew it wouldn’t fit my definition of “inexpensive” and that I might have to wait a bit for another one to show up:

• None have shown up in ACSearch so far this year
• <50 on ACSearch since 2002, 2-3 per year
• Prices range from a low of 100 to a high of 600
• This coin in nice condition, maybe not as flawless as the highest end

Why I was interested
There are many ways to bring a set of coins together to tell a story, and I like to have sets of a few coins that connect to each other by history, theme, time period, or other numismatic characteristics e.g....

Recently, I was able to obtain a budget example of a coin that has been on by 'grail' list for quite some time. Although it's worn - there is no tooling, no smoothing, no bronze disease, and no fake patina, in other words an honest piece. I'm happy.


Titus
Æ Sestertius, 24.04g
Eastern Mint (Thrace?), 80-81 AD
Obv: IMP T CAES DIVI VESP F AVG P M TR P P P COS VIII; Head of Titus, laureate, bearded, r.
Rev: IVD CAP; S C in field; Palm tree; to l., Judaea std. l. on arms; to r., captive stg. r.
RIC 500 (R2). BMC p. 433 note. BNC -. RPC 503 (1 spec.).
Acquired from Incitatus Coins, May 2020.

The Jewish War was a gift that kept on giving for the Flavian dynasty. This rare Judaea Capta sestertius was struck a decade after the fall of Jerusalem for Titus as Augustus. The new emperor wished to remind the Roman populace of his military bona fides. The coin is from of a very mysterious issue of bronze struck in 80-81. The style (heavily seriffed letters,...

This is a piece that recently crossed my radar. German States Thalers are my primary collecting focus and the imagery on this one really appealed to me. I decided that I liked it but wanted to find one a little bit better. Well after a pretty thorough search I found that the condition of this one is pretty representative of the ones both available and recently sold. Actually, parts of the legend appear to be pretty sharp so I think most of the condition problems can mostly be explained by a weak/uneven strike. The look is very similar to the other ones I have seen.


Description and photo from the seller.

Obverse: Standing figure of St. George slaying dragon with lance, the shield of old Mansfeld arms below in front
Obverse Legend: GEBHART. E. HANS. G. PET(ER). E. C. (D.) I M(A).
Reverse: Shield of new Mansfeld arms divides date, 2 ornate helmets above, date between helmets
Reverse Legend: MON(E). NO(VA). AR(G). (C.) C. ET. D. I. MAN(SF).
Reverse...

Hello everyone! I wanted to share a small selection of coins pulled from a much larger hoard of Arabic silver dirhams that was discovered in an ancient coastal port region in present-day Indonesia. The hoard has not been published or documented before this, and this sample of it was graciously shared with me for research purposes by the Sumatran Numismatic Museum, or Museum Uang Sumatera, located in Medan, North Sumatra.

The hoard was discovered the in village of Jago-Jago by numismatists and was composed of a little over one hundred silver dirham coins. The photo above shows around forty coins from the find. The collection is an interesting time capsule and evidence of the strong influx of trade and influences from the Middle East, particular the Arabic Muslim merchants who dominated much of the Indian Ocean trade during the later portion of the first...

If you were to conduct a "man-in-the-street" interview with passersby and ask them, "Do you know the names of some Roman Emperors", you would, no doubt, get the names, from some of the folks you asked, of a few of the better known ones. Perhaps those interested in Biblical or religious history might name Augustus, Tiberius or perhaps Constantine. Those in Britain might name Claudius or Hadrian and many would answer with Julius Caesar although, technically, he is not usually considered to have been an emperor. But you can almost guarantee that one of the Roman emperors would be frequently mentioned, maybe more than any other, Nero Caesar Augustus Drusus Germanicus, or just plain, Nero. If you went further and asked them what they know about him you would get answers like "He's the one who killed his mother, burned down most of Rome and fed all those Christians to the lions". A few of the more literate interviewees might throw in killing his brother and his long time tutor along...

It took me about a year to find one of these medals that I liked. Finding one is not that hard, if you know the token and medal dealers, but many of the pieces that are offered have marks, especially rim problems. I was therefore happy to locate this one in an auction, with the added bonus that it came in what I presume to be the original box.



It looks as if the piece has been stored in this box for a long time. As a result, it has a very pleasing layer of toning which makes it look like silver although the piece is made of white medal. It also has very few handling marks, which is an added bonus. I probably paid too much for it, but given that it came with the box and that the state of preservation is well about average, it pleases me.



Charles Augustus Lafayette Lamar

This piece was commissioned by a southern gentleman, Charles Augustus Lafayette Lamar. Charles Augustus...