Coin Talk

I do not post reviews Ever but the service and outcome I have recently experienced at GreatCollections has motivated me to post a POSITIVE review about Ian Russell (GC President) and GreatCollections.

Let me start by setting the tone. I'm in an industry that is highly litigious and I normally hear more about the negative than the positive. In my environment, first class service and communication is the key. I received both of these from Ian at GC thus this post.

Ian has consistently overly impressed me with his communication. I send emails direct to him (his email address is on the website) and he typically responds within a day (sometimes within hours). I typically ask direct questions and expect a direct response. Ian replies with an email that could only be described as "Southern Hospitality" with the answer to my questions as well as some additional insight.

My most recent submittal worked out very well for me. One of the coins sold for about 2x PCGS price guide...

This month of May, it will be the 140th anniversary of the death of an extraordinary numismatist and coin lover, Henry Cohen. Everyone of us who collect Roman coins are still using from time to time his very practical books written almost a century and a half ago. His writings paved the way for several reference catalogs for so-called Roman Imperial coins. But who was this man who has dedicated a large part of his life to research the greatest collections all over Europe ?



Henry Cohen is born in 1806 in Amsterdam (Netherlands), but his family moved to France when he was still a child. In Paris, he studied music with the composer Anton Reicha, a longtime friend of Beethoven, and also singing with François Lays, one of Napoleon's favorite artist. Before he reached his thirties, he was already an active opera composer and in the meantime a very busy music teacher. He also performed in Naples,...

Going into this year's Heritage Central States auction there weren't very many lots that had caught my attention. I had only flagged 4 lots on my watch list pre-sale and the one below was the only one that I felt I "needed".

The bishopric of Eichstadt (Eichstätt) was located in central Bavaria, south of Nuremberg. It was established around an old Roman station by St. Boniface about 745ad. The first bishop, St. Willibald, and his sister, St. Walburga, who was associated with him, were of royal Anglo-Saxon blood. The bishops subsequently became princes of the Empire and rulers of a domain at its height of 437 square miles and 56,000 subjects. Bishop Raimond Anton (1757-1781) wrote a well known “Instructio Pastoralis,” which is still much admired. Eichstadt was secularized in 1803 and turned over to Bavaria.




This is a Sede Vacante (vacant seat) thaler struck after the passing of Bishop Johann Anton II von Freinerg-Hopferau. Less is known of him than...

The State of Maine was granted statehood on March 15th 1820, to become the 23rd state as part of the Missouri Compromise. Which was designed to balance the power between the North and South in the Senate. Maine has a few thing (like all states do) that make it unique. It is the only state that has a one syllable name and the only state to border just one other state. It is the northernmost state east of the Great Lakes and it is also the easternmost state among the contiguous United States. Maine is the first state to receive a sunrise.

For Maine’s 200th birthday a Token has been issued to commemorate the occasion. It comes in brass and a special mintage issued in nickel. I have not been able to find any information about who designed this medal and where they were made. I was able to purchase the bronze variety shown here.


In 1920 the U.S. Mint issued a Commemorative Half Dollar for Maine’s...

From Wikipedia:

Originally known as Pityusa or Pityussa, it was colonized from Phocaea and Miletus. During the 6th and 5th century BC, Lampsakos was successively dominated by Lydia, Persia, Athens, and Sparta; Artaxerxes I assigned it to Themistocles with the expectation that the city supply the Persian king with its famous wine. When Lampsakos joined the Delian League after the battle of Mycale (479 BC), it paid a tribute of twelve talents, a testimony to its wealth; it had a gold coinage in the 4th century, an activity only available to the more prosperous cities.

A revolt against the Athenians in 411 BC was put down by force. In 196 BC, the Romans defended the town against Antiochus the Great, and it became an ally of Rome; Cicero and Strabo attest its continuing prosperity under Roman rule. Lampsakos was also notable for its worship of Priapus, who was said to have been born there....

Dear Friends of ancient mythology!

I was interested in the history of the Silphium Plant since I began collecting ancient coins. In particular because it is the proof that the extinction of species is not the privileg of modern mankind.

The Coin:
Cyrenaica, Kyrene, c. 250 BC
AE 21, 7.56g
Obv.: Head of Zeus-Ammon, wearing taenia, r.
Rev.: Silphium Plant
in l. and r. field KOI - NON
Ref.: SNG Copenhagen 1276-84
Rare, VF, dark green patina with earthen deposits
Many of the botanical details of the plant can be seen sharp and clear.

Some notes on the Cyrenaica:
In 247 BC Ptolemy III (Euergetes) succeeded to the throne of Egypt, and by his marriage with Berenice, daughter of Magas, who was queen in her own right of Cyrenaica, united the diadems of Egypt and that country. The evidence of the coins goes to prove that throughout the reign of Euergetes, whether owning to a successful revolt or not, the Cyrenaeans enjoyed an interval of...

Hello everyone,

Nikola Tesla.. was a Serbian-American inventor, electrical engineer, mechanical engineer, and futurist who is best known for his contributions to the design of the modern alternating current (AC) electricity supply system.
Born and raised in the Austrian Empire, Tesla studied engineering and physics in the 1870s without receiving a degree, and gained practical experience in the early 1880s working in telephony and at Continental Edison in the new electric power industry. He emigrated in 1884 to the United States, where he became a naturalized citizen. He worked for a short time at the Edison Machine Works in New York City before he struck out on his own. With the help of partners to finance and market his ideas, Tesla set up laboratories and companies in New York to develop a range of electrical and mechanical devices. His alternating current (AC) induction motor and related polyphase AC patents, licensed by Westinghouse Electric in 1888, earned him...

Every United States commemorative coin has a story to tell, but the history surrounding the 1925 Stone Mountain half dollar is one of the most interesting tales in U.S. numismatics. The legislation that authorized this coin rekindled a debate that had started before the end of the Civil War, and the project that it partially funded would remain incomplete for more than 30 years.

The Daughters of the Confederacy Initiate the Project

Mrs. Helen Plane was a charter member of the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC). For some years, she supported an idea to establish a Confederate monument at Stone Mountain, which is located 15 miles northeast of Atlanta, Georgia. Her plan called for a 70 foot high statue of Robert E. Lee that would be carved into the side of the mountain.

In 1915, after she was elected president of the Atlanta chapter of the UDC, Mrs. Plane convinced other members of the group to ask sculptor Gutzon Borglum to do a feasibility study....

18th and 19th Century fisherman faced many perils at sea. Storms, hurricanes, shallow water reefs, pirates, wrecks, being swept overboard, drowning, these and many more plagued fishermen and some of these are still problems. A successful trip out to sea meant coming home with the holds full of fish and alive, coming back with empty holds could be a disaster, not coming back at all could crush a community. Many men were lost chasing food and profit. Fishermen often took risks to ensure success.
Many fishermen counted on the Lord and luck to help them through their journey. They did this through prayer and sometimes a talisman. These could be blessed or not, they could symbolize safety or a good harvest.
This particular talisman is for safety at sea; the showthalter was struck sometime between 1680-1780 at the Hungarian mint in Kremnitz, this medal is a copy of a 5 ducat piece designed by Christian Herman Roth between 1645-1690. In fact, this design, copied from the 5 ducat piece,...

The influence of Mithridates VI on the Greek world and it’s coins interest me a lot, and since I already made 2 write ups about it, and I will probably keep doing it when I get new coins, I thought it was nice to make a series about it. So this is part 3: The influence of Mithridates VI on the coastal cities of Thrace.

Please see the other 2 parts here:
Part 1: Cappadocia, The puppet kingdom of Mithridates VI Eupator
Part 2: Ionia and its surroundings, Welcome Mithridates to our city

Greek colonies found at the coast of Thrace and the Black Sea were located very advantageously at the sea, profiting immensely from trade.



The problem of the so...