Coin Talk

Greetings fellow shut-ins!

My wife is really depressed. Easter is usually the time when the family got together. Not this year. My father in law is locked down in a retirement facility, and everyone else is at home.

So it's time for another archives articel.


November 22, 1963, “A day that will live in infamy.” For many Americans that phrase, which President Franklin D. Roosevelt used to describe the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, aptly applied to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. In the wake of that awful event, streets and boulevards were renamed, state and federal buildings were rededicated and even Cape Canaveral was briefly changed to Cape Kennedy. Of equal significance was a change in our nation’s coinage that would have a profound effect upon the half dollar as circulating coin.

Plans for a new Kennedy coin were in the works only days after the assassination. By November 27 it had been determined that a Kennedy design would...

Hadrianopolis (Ἁδριανούπολις in Greek; modern Edirne, Turkey) was re-founded by Hadrian (Duh!) at the site of a Thracian city once known as Uscudama[1] but then subsequently renamed Orestias or Odrysus.[2] The city was situated in Thrace, at the point where the river Tonzus joins the Hebrus.[3]



Hadrian developed the city and made it the capital of the Roman province of Thrace. Military historian John Keegan identifies Hadrianopolis as the site of no fewer than 15 major battles or sieges, the first in AD 323 and the last in July, 1913, and attributes this to its geographical location.[4] Licinius was defeated there by Constantine I in 323,[5] and Valens was killed by the Goths during the Battle of Adrianople in 378.[6]

I have four coins minted in this city. Let's see your coins of Hadrianopolis in Thrace!


Faustina II, AD 147-175.
Roman...

GROSSO - VENICE - DOGE GIOVANNI SORANZO: A.D. 1312-1328



Obverse: Christ Pantocrator enthroned facing - IC-XC

Reverse: Doge (Duke) receiving banner from the patron Saint Mark both standing facing - IO SVPANTIO DVX S M VENETI

Translation: IC-XC - This is the abbreviation (Christogram) of Jesus Christ in medieval Greek tradition showing the first and last letters of word "IHCOYC XPICTOC with titlos / IO SVPANTIO DVX S M VENETI - Giovanni Soranzo - Duke - Saint Mark of Venice

This is a coin I wanted for quite some time because I love the style. I waited to buy one until I saw this one a few years ago. While it is far from perfect the details are quite good for the price paid.

This is a silver grosso minted under the tenure of Giovanni Soranzo, the 51st Doge of the Republic of Venice, a major financial and maritime power in northern Italy, who served from 1312 until his death in 1328. With iconography and style...

Leave it to a collector to be spending money during a financial crisis! Here is my latest purchase, a 1902 Edward VII coronation short set. This set is “short” because it does not include the two and five pound gold coins. There were 7,057 short sets issued and 8,066 long sets.

The set includes the Maundy Set of four coins plus the crown, half crown, two shillings, one shilling and the six pence.



One of the attractions that I had for this set, is that they are all Matte Proofs. Matte Proof U.S. gold coins are unaffordable. The silver pieces are so rare that they are virtually unobtainable. Here is this set are samples of both.


Edward VII was a very interesting person. He was the second child and oldest son of Queen Victoria. The Queen and Prince Albert tried to raise him as a model monarch, but he would have none of it. He was a poor student, and once he got out from under their clutches...

I have proof read this article twice, but there may be grammatical errors.



MY HUNT FOR THE PIRATE TREASURE SHIP, WHIDAH

By Robert Ransom



This account is solely based on my memory of events which occurred during my hunt for the sunken pirate ship Whydah. The ship was attacked and captured off the coast of The Bahamas in the early 1700’s by Samuel “Black Sam” Bellamy who decided to use this newly acquired vessel as his flagship. Two other ships were under his command. Black Sam then proceeded up the east coast toward Maine attacking ships and plundering their cargo. Sailing off the coast of Cape Cod, his ship was caught in the grips of a powerful nor-Easter, ran aground on a sandbar and ultimately capsized then sank in the waters off Wellfleet, Massachusetts. The value the treasure aboard was thought to be in the millions of dollars. Rumors exist of coins still washing up on the beach....

This time It's a confrontation between to asses in my collection; in the right corner weighting 9.7g, Antoninus the Pius. In the left corner, weighting exactly 9.79g, Claudius the First. LET'S GET READY TO RUMBLE ! Ok,ok, no fighting today. At least one of those two emperors didn't like the war.





But let's focus instead on the common point between these two pieces. You surely noticed they both featured the goddess Libertas; and also that she is holding in her right hand a pileus. Let's talk a bit about this famous hat and its origin. First, the title of this thread is rather inaccurate, the pileus having a Phrygian's origin. It was a soft woven wool cap often associated with the notion of freedom( that's why Libertas is holding it). The pilei was found in several form: often round, sometimes looking like a helmet, even shaped almost like a pyramid. The pileus originated in Greek...

Prelude
Few rulers in history had the deck stacked against them so lopsidedly as Seleucus II Callinicus had.
Seleucus II was the firstborn son of Antiochus II and Laodice I and was born in 265 BCE. One failure of Antiochus II was in his inability to induct his oldest son into government duties early on as had been the tradition dating from Seleucus I. Under an ideal circumstance, Antiochus II would have lived a long life and would have had decades to prepare young Seleucus II for the throne. Unfortunately, Antiochus II died at the age of 40, while leaving an unexperienced 19-year-old son to deal with a confusing dynastic situation.

Collapse
Almost immediately after Antiochus II's death in 246, partisans of his first wife, Laodice I, had his second wife and five-year old son murdered in Antioch. This was unfortunate as his second wife, Bernice, was the sister to the Egyptian King Ptolemy III. It didn't take long for the Egyptians to hear about the murder and begin...

BRONZE MEDAL - PHILANTHROPIN JEWISH SCHOOL
Frankfurt am Main
Year: 1904


This is a very large (66 mm) and very rare medal Commemorating 100 Years Since the Founding of the Philanthropin Jewish School in Frankfurt am Main in 1804. It is signed by the Jewish medalist Leo Horovitz.

Obverse: Depicts a man working in the fields planting seeds with the city of Frankfurt in the background / DIE JUGEND IST DIE ZEIT DER SAAT (Youth is the time of the seed.)

Reverse: Wheat bundles with a beehive separating the date 1804 and 1904 / JAHRHUNDERTFEIER DES PHILANTHROPINS ZU FRANKFURT AM - FUR AUFKLARUNG UND HUMANITAT (Century Celebration of the Philanthropins - School Motto: For Enlightenment and Humanity.)


The Philanthropin was a school for poor Jewish children in the city of Frankfurt's Judengasse, the oldest Jewish Ghetto in Germany. It...

I have posted a number of recent struck counterfeits, mostly early copper in this forum. Today's subject is based on the reverse of the 1826 C-1 and a still researched obverse.

One of the recent examples for sale on the "Bay" is this bad "1810" half cent. Not only did the seller have this 1810 but a couple of others with the same overall appearance; unfortunately, I didn't save images of the group prior to the listings being removed but did some screen shots of the listings.



One of the 1st things to stand out is the apparent strange date; upon further review the head style is incorrect for the date and is typical of the style of 1833-1835. The obverse certainly doesn't match an 1810 C-1 (the only variety for the year). I have noted (in red) a couple of interesting marks on the subject coin (hold that thought!)


And the reverse is certainly wrong for the date but it loosely matches an 1826...

Guy Lacam authored a monumental study of two volumes (1107 pages), La fin de L'Empire romain et le monnayage or en Italie: 455-493 (The end of the Roman Empire and the Gold Coinage in Italy: 455-493), copyright 1983, published by Adolph Hess. Many experts and European auction houses are using Lacam's publication as the bible for Roman gold coinage for the period of AD 455-493. I became aware of Guy Lacam and the coin pictured below 33 years ago while browsing thru the NFA XVIII Auction catalog, April 1, 1987.




In January of 2003, CNG offered the same coin in their Triton VI auction, lot 1186, with virtually the same description. The very same coin reappeared in September 2017, in CNG Auction 106, lot 862, with a more detailed description and different attribution, see the attached link below.

https://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=342581

The coin is now described as "uncertain mint" and they...