Coin Talk

In 1928, Al Smith, “the happy warrior,” finally got to run for president. It had not been an easy road. He had been a candidate for the Democratic nomination in 1924. That year Smith and William Gibbs McAdoo, who was Woodrow Wilson’s son-in-law and a coin collector, fought it out for 100 ballots to get the nomination. After ballot 100, both of them withdrew. On the 103rd ballot, John W. Davis won the nomination. Given that the party was split so badly, it was a foregone conclusion that Davis would lose to Calvin Coolidge.

In 1928, Smith won the nomination. He got a big boost from Franklin D. Roosevelt who was now crippled by polio. FDR managed to make his way to the podium, dragging his paralyzed legs, supported by braces, on a pair of crutches, to give Smith’s nominating speech. Smith had been the Governor of New York and Roosevelt would succeed him.

Smith was the first Roman Catholic to be nominated for President, and it was a major issue. Many false statements were whispered...

Hi everyone,
In this post I will try to rank the first six rulers of the Seleucid Empire in terms of success of their respective reigns. The Seleucids in my opinion are are one of the most underrated kingdoms in antiquity.
My ranking system consists of six letter categories with S being the highest and F being the lowest. Feel free to agree or disagree with my assessments in the comments below.

So lets start!

Seleucus I Nikator(The Victor)
-First known command was during Alexander's Indian campaign where he played a relatively minor role.
-Married an Bactrian woman named Apama, he was also the only known Macedonian officer that didn't divorce his wife.
-Murdered Perdiccas in 321/320 BCE
-Granted the Satrapy of Babylon, then lost said Satrapy when Antigonus I invaded his territory.
-Assisted Ptolemy I against Demetrius I at the battle of Gaza, then regained his satrapy with the assistance of 500 loyal supporters.
-Successfully fought off both Antigonus I and...

I recently added an interesting piece of cast bronze to my collection of Roman Republican coins, cast bronze money from Central Italy and Roman scale weights. The marks of value, if that is what they are, are the same as a 2 As Roman scale weight found in excavations of Pompeii - II. The weight, 559 grams = 280 gr equivalent As, is close to two Roman pounds, 654 grams. Only a few of the early cast Asses weigh over 280 grams. This piece was advertised as - Of the greatest historical interest and apparently unpublished. A description of the piece and how it fits my collection is below.


Roman Republic / Central Italy – Cast Bronze with Marks
Cast bronze was a form of money before Rome and Central Italy issued coins. This triangular piece looks like it was broken from a pie shaped circular ingot. Two marks “II” on this piece could indicate it had a value of two...

There's been a little loosing of restrictions here in Virginia. Not sure that's a good thing. Too many people not wearing masks. I have some medical concerns that will affect me if I catch the virus.

A very interesting history lesson here about the New Rochelle half dollar. That's what I think anyhoo...




In my Numismatic Library.




25,015 pieces coined at the Philadelphia Mint with 13 pieces reserved for annual assay and 9,749 melted. Initial design given to Lorillard Wise who then resigned his commission. Miss Gertrude K. Lathrop of Albany, N.Y., finished the design. Distributed by the New Rochelle Commemorative Coin Committee, Mr. Pitt M. Skipton, chairman. Image courtesy of Stacks Bowers Galleries, Guttag Family Collection Part I, 2011 Chicago ANA Coin Auction.


Approved by Congress on May 5, 1936, and issued in commemoration of the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the...

In ancient Mesopotamia, doves were a prominent symbol of Inanna-Ishtar, the goddess of love, sexuality, and war. In classical antiquity, many of the attributes of Inanna-Ishtar were incorporated into the goddess Aphrodite, including her association with love, sex, and doves. Quite naturally, Aphrodite's association with doves influenced the Roman goddess Venus, and she become associated with doves as well.


Early fifth-century BC statue of Aphrodite from Cyprus, showing her wearing a cylinder crown and holding a dove. Neues Museum, Berlin.

Aphrodite appears here with a dove on this volute krater of The Iliupersis Painter, ca. 365-355 BC, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston:



In Roman numismatics, Venus and her dove appear on an anonymous quadrans from the time of Domitian to Antoninus Pius.


Anonymous--Domitian to Antoninus Pius.
Roman Æ quadrans, 12.9 mm, 2.37 g, 4 h
Rome, A.D. 81-161.
Obv: Bust of...

With the shelter in place still in effect, at least where I live, and having a lot of time to actually use my brain, something that has been a prime activity for me since retiring at the end of 2015, I was wondering the other day, insofar as I wonder, whether this shutdown, which has been in effect for most of the country since at least March, will be the death knell for the old local bricks-and-mortar coin shop.

There was a time, in the not-too-distant past, when collectors would gather at the local coin shop to swap stories, to look at coins and generally consume time immersed in the culture of coin collecting. The shop would often be small, somewhat dingy, crowded , often located in a rundown strip mall, with stacks of magazines and catalogs strewn in piles resembling small geological formations, with old copies of Coin World in another pile, rows of Whitman coin folders on back shelves, half consumed cups of coffee, and cases covered in a decent layer of dust, mostly...

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...