Coin Talk

Phoenicia - Tyre, 126 BC - AD 66 (struck 96/95 BC), Obverse: Laureate head of Melkart wearing a lion skin around his neck (not visible on this coin). Reverse: Eagle standing on prow, palm frond behind eagle, club of Melkart in left field. AR Shekel: 14.16 gm, 29 mm, 1 h. Photo courtesy of CNG.

The handsome autonomous Tyrian shekels were the most widely accepted silver coins circulating throughout the Levant for nearly 200 years because of their consistent weight (14.00-14.25 gm), and high purity. Robert Deutsch did a metallurgical test on 6 of these shekels and their purity averaged 96.16 %. Aramaic, Greek, and Arab speaking people accepted these coins without question. The Tyrian shekel and half shekel were the only coins accepted by the Jews for their annual Temple tax. During the Roman occupation the Tyrian shekel was worth 4 denarii. So why did these coins disappear from circulation?
During the Roman occupation the 2nd most common...

It's time for another article from the archives. I hope that you enjoy it.

This one needs lots of pictures, so it will take me a two or three messages to post all of it.


Today the nickel five cent piece is just behind the cent when it comes to modern coins that are on “life support.” Like the cent, the nickel has little purchasing power, and it now costs the mint more than five cents to make a five cent piece. The day might not be far in the future when the nickel will either have be modified from its present form (the new half dime?) or dropped as a circulating coin.

Like the cent the five cent piece has been a part of our monetary system since its inception. In April 1792, Congress passed the first coinage act which some collectors refer to as “Act One.” The Coinage Act of 1792 established ten denominations of coins from the half cent through the eagle or ten dollar gold piece and defined their weights and compositions. The Coinage Act also authorized the...

Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809 in Harden County, Kentucky. Lincoln once said that his childhood could be condensed into one sentence from Gray’s Elegy, “The short and simple annals of the poor.” His parents, Thomas and Nancy Hanks Lincoln, struggled to survive on the American frontier. That struggle involved many hours of back breaking work and frequent shortages of the basic necessities.

Thomas Lincoln moved his family several times during Abraham’s childhood and teenage years. Thomas moved his family to another farm in Kentucky when Abraham was two years old and later moved to Indiana and finally Illinois before the future president set out on his own. The Lincoln family moves were usually prompted by a desire to find better land, but the move from Kentucky to Indiana reflected Thomas’ desire not to live in a state that allowed slavery.

Lincoln’s mother, Nancy Hanks Lincoln, died in 1818 when he was nine years old. It was a devastating blow for...

Ancient Iranian Numismatics: In Memory of David Sellwood. Mostafa Faghfoury (editor). 238 + xxviii pages. UCI Jordan Center for Persian Studies (2020).


David Sellwood (1925-2012) is a name well-known to anyone interested in ancient Persian coins. He wrote two editions of "An Introduction to the Coinage of Parthia", which is still the standard reference for Parthian coins, as well as other works on Parthian and Sasanian numismatics. The current volume serves as a celebration of his life and work, as well as a convenient excuse to collect a number of new papers on ancient Iranian numismatics by various authors. After introductory sections giving a brief biography of David Sellwood, as well as memories and tributes from various colleagues and a complete bibliography of his numismatic publications, we reach the section of novel numismatic papers. There is one paper on Seleucid coins, four papers on Parthian coins and history, two papers on the history and coins of Persis, and...

Coinage executed at the Philadelphia Mint was 2,314,709 pieces. Total coins reserved for annual assay by the Philadelphia Mint is shown as 1,179 pieces. Designed and modeled by Gutzon Borglum, issued by the Stone Mountain Confederate Monumental Association; Hollins N. Randolph, President. Coin image courtesy of the Louis Bassano Collection.

“Early in June the editor of The Numismatist (Frank G. Duffield) invited some 25 or 30 prominent members of the A. N. A., including a number of dealers, to express for publication, their opinions, from any angle, on the Stone Mountain half dollar. This issue of coins has been given greater publicity and has aroused more criticism in the daily press than any of the commemorative coins which have preceded it, and it was thought that the views of some of the members of the A. N. A. regarding the coin would be interesting to our readers.

A few have replied and their comments are given below. Several others...

This Philip I antoninianus with a stag on the reverse is a new acquisition. It's one of the coins issued for the games held in 248 AD commemorating the 1,000th anniversary of the traditional founding of Rome:

Philip I AR Antoninianus, 248 AD, Rome Mint, 5th Officina. Obv. Radiate, draped, & cuirassed bust right, IMP PHILIPPVS AVG/ Rev. Stag standing right, SAECVLARES AVGG, V in exergue. RIC IV-3 19, RSC IV 182, Sear RCV III 8958. 4.32 g. (Games commemorating 1,000th anniversary of founding of Rome.)



And here's another example I've had for a while:

Philip I AR Antoninianus, 248 AD, Rome Mint, 1st Officina. Obv. Radiate, draped, & cuirassed bust right, IMP PHILIPPVS AVG/ Rev. Lion walking right, SAECVLARES AVGG, I in exergue. RIC IV-3 12, RSC IV 173. 23 mm., 3.41 g. (Games commemorating 1,000th anniversary of founding of Rome.)



Finally, another Philip I antoninianus I have with an elephant reverse, that's...

One coin type that was often imitated in ancient times was the very common ancient coin "soldier spearing fallen horseman" (SSFH) with legend FEL TEMP REPARATIO (FTR), best known as an AE2 under Constantius II after the coin reform of 348. Here is a prototype:


Large. 25-23 mm. RIC Antioch 132. 4:30. "AD 350-355". The gamma in field left identifies it as from the "first series" (among three) in this time period. It therefore dates c. 350-1.

Originals come from a few different emperors from lots of mints, lot of different field marks, and a few different postures of the "fallen horseman," and the same type soon was issued smaller and smaller, down to about 16-17 mm, so it can be fun to collect varieties.

It was often imitated in ancient times and commonly is found in Britain. When I went to small coin shows in England in the late 1980s and 1990s some small dealers had bags I could pick from of hundreds of grotty green-patinated tiny disks which...

Greetings fellow shut-ins!

Today is Wednesday, April 87th. Since there are 120 days in April, that means we have only 33 days left of this month. Buck up! Word has it that May might only be 75 days long, but that is strictly unofficial.

Today I got out on parole. My wife and I went to the grocery store during the “senior hour" at 7 AM. The aisles are now marked “one way,” and there are pit bulls stationed in the middle of each row to set any wayward shoppers straight if they might be waking in the wrong direction.

But let’s think of those wild and wooly days when you could go to coin shows and personal contact was normal. Like the Margaret Mitchell novel, it seems like a time that has Gone With the Wind. Here is a chronical of that distant time before “The Plague.”

Almost 40 years ago I owned an original 1909 Proof set. I acquired the set at the 1976 ANA convention which was held in New York City. I sold the set in the early 1980s...

Someone asked me how I attributed large cents so quickly. I thought I would share my process with everyone to hopefully help those who find it a struggle.

1. (Green) Device styles. The style of the devices can quickly narrow down varieties, such as style 1 and 2 hair, or reverse of 1794/5/7, or stems/stemless, or shapes of the bow, or even the numbers of leaves in the various bunches around the wreath on the reverse.

2. (Orange) Clear die markers. These include die cracks, die chips, cuds, clashes, die sinking, and even die rotation. Such diagnostics can often narrow down possible varieties to 1 or a few more if the die was used on different varieties. Memorizing these will allow you to make attributions far more quickly.

3. (Red) Number/letter styles. This can be useful to determine large/small dates, large/small fractions, narrow down 1798 varieties, or even identify dateless 1793 cents.

4. (Yellow) Letter relationships. The positions of BERT in LIBERTY of the obverse...

KAHLA 75 PFENNIG SERIES NOTES 1921

The following set of 75 pfennig Series Notes or Serienscheine were printed and distributed by the town of Kahla in 1921. This is an interesting series of notes bearing cartoon illustrations with short sociopolitical themed messages. These cartoons are signed Olaf G. and are the work of well known Norwegian artist, painter, cartoonist and caricaturist, illustrator Olaf Gulbransson (1873 - 1958). The work in this post is a good example of his post World War I propaganda.

Born in Christiana Norway in 1873 the son of a book printer, Olaf Gulbransson became an artist particularly known for Caracatures. He found success early on in his career working for mostly norwegian satirical magazines. He was a major contributor to the publication Simplicissimus and would...