Coin Talk

In April of 1899, control of the Philippine Islands was transferred from Spain to the United States as a condition of the treaty ending the Spanish-American War. One of the first tasks at hand was to develop a territorial coinage which was compatible with the old Spanish issues, but legally exchangeable with US money. The rate of exchange decided upon was two 'Filipina' Pesos to the US Dollar.

The peso, along with other territorial coinage, was designed by Melecio Figueroa and entered circulation in 1903. Dies for the coins were prepared at the Philadelphia mint under the direction of chief engraver Charles E. Barber. The peso was struck at both the Philadelphia and San Francisco mints. The mint mark (S) for the branch mint (San Francisco) was punched into the die on site.

The obverse of the peso exhibits Miss Liberty in an elegant gown, holding in one hand, a hammer which is striking an anvil. This is thought to symbolize the work of the Philippine people and the US in the...

Alaric Enters Rome: 19th century engraving, after a drawing by Hermann Knackfuss

** This is a pretty long post, but it’s divided into three sections: intro, history, then coins. If you get bored at any point, just skip ahead to the next section… plus there’s a tl;dr summary at the end.

Introduction

Any history-based collector will want to represent The Sack of Rome of 410 in their collection, but how to do it? This post is an attempt to answer that question, but first: the event itself.

I have been looking for a nice Titus for a while. I saw this denarius in a recent Catawiki auction. I was immediately interested mainly because of the combination of the depicted emperor and reverse. However, I had never participated in auctions before this purchase. I don't like it because you are constantly losing coins that you have been looking forward to. And the honesty area to say that my budget is also not sufficient for all auction fees. You also quickly pay more than you want (I experienced it).

My idea was to make a bid in the last two minutes, which I did. I expected that no one would go over it because my bid was fairly high (for the state of the coin). However, I was immediately outbid. I decided to make a final offer. And that turned out to be enough for my first auction acquisition.


T CAESAR IMP VESPASIAN
laureate head right
COS V
bull standing right

Titus Caesar 69-79
AR Denarius
Struck 76
2,77g/18mm
Ric 858...

The following is a counterfeit/replica of what some refer to as the "Hofmann" mule cent, which despite having the year 1959 it dons a "Wheat" instead of a "Memorial" reverse as it should have; below the two sides is the actual Hofmann cent, which itself has a questionable authenticity.

Reportedly, during the early-mid 1980s, a rare-documents treasure hunter and dealer in Salt Lake City, Utah named Mark Hofmann gained notoriety by "discovering" historically significant early Morman Church artifacts (including Mormon paper currency), some of which served to potentially change the course of Mormon recorded history. In addition, he seemed to somehow come up with very rare documents with signatures of America's Founders and signers of the Declaration of Independence, classical writers/poets, and other historical notables.

Hofmann easily found buyers and sold his treasures for multiple thousands of dollars to private collectors and Mormon Church officials. His documents were...

My newest Sestertius is only of mediocre quality, but the type is quite rare and interesting.

IVNO CONSERVATRIX was the very first reverse type of Julia Mamaea, introducing the mother of the new Augustus Severus Alexander to the public as the new Empress in the spring of AD 222.

The type of Juno "the Preserver" was also used for her mother Julia Maesa and promotes the continuity of the Severan regime after the murder of both Elagabalus and his mother Julia Soaemias on March 11, AD 222. It presents the sister and companion of Jupiter as protector of Mamaea´s and Maesa´s lives during the pretorian guard´s revolt that had actually been their own plan.

Mamaea´s portrait at this point still very much resembles that of her elder sister Julia Soaemias with her long neck and slim face.



IVLIA MAMAEA AVGVSTA - Draped bust right, diademed, hair weaved in rows and tucked at base of head
IVNO CONSERVATRIX S C - Juno, diademed and veiled, standing left, patera...

My last acquisition of 2019 has finally arrived, so here it is:



L SEPT SEV PE-RT AVG IMP VIII – Laureate and cuirassed bust of Septimius Severus right, seen 3/4 from behind
ADVENTVI AVG FELICISSIMO S C - Septimius Severus, in military attire, on horse prancing right, raising right hand in salute; in front helmeted Roma advancing right, looking left, leading the emperor´s horse by holding it´s bridle in right hand and vexillum in left hand
Sestertius, Rome 196 aD.
32,9 mm / 19,06 gr
RIC 719c (R2); BMCRE 596; Cohen 8 var. (draped and cuirassed, 25 F), CSS 227; Sear 6403, Banti 4 (26 specimens)
ex Auctions Jean Elsen Nr. 142, 14.09.2019, lot 513 and Nr.143, 07.12.2019, lot 454



And here is a little historic and numismatic background:

While campaigning against the Parthians in retaliation for their support for Pescennius Niger in early 196 aD, Septimius Severus received the news of Clodius Albinus´ usurpation in...

Egypt, 290-298 AD
The Corrector
Throughout the third century, the power of Egypt declined: supplanted by Africa as Rome's breadbasket, it suffered as much from piracy in the Red Sea as from the agitation of the Blemmyes, a nomadic tribe from northern Nubia, who ruined its trade with the India . The province also suffers from the loss of value of Roman coins, in particular the silver tetradrachm, while the increase in prices leaves the rural populations in great difficulty . Neither the monetary reforms of the Emperor Diocletian, nor the stabilization of the domestic political situation, the premise of a resumption of economic activity, succeeded in reversing the phenomenon and relieving local populations of the burden of taxation. Also, between 290 and 292 AD, a revolt broke out in Upper Egypt. The insurgency spreads quickly since it reaches in particular the region of Fayoum, that of Thebaïde as well as the cities of Busiris and Coptos. This uprising is, if not triggered,...

Most of us on this site are interested in ancient history as well as coins. As we read about the people who wind up on those coins it becomes painfully obvious that most of them are not the kind of people we would like to have move in next door. Of course by the behavioral standards of that day, much of what they did would not have been reprehensible or at least, not as morally repugnant as we would see it.

In your study of ancient history who would you consider to be the most nasty, brutish (but not short), vicious, dangerous, callous, malign, menacing monarch of ancient or medieval times and do you have a coin or two of such maleficent rulers?

My choice may not immediately come to mind as one of those kind of rulers. it is the Roman emperor, Caracalla (198-217). I guess his murdering his little brother (Geta) by dragging him out of the arms of their mother to do so, does get one's attention. To make sure he did not take too much heat from that, he exterminated thousands of...

Following up from posts on the 1000 Yen banknote and the 2000 Yen banknote, here is the 5000 Japanese Yen banknote. Worth $45.39 US as of this moment, this note circulates widely in Japan and its high usage and larger denomination means that it's scattered with even more anti-counterfeit devices than the 1000 Yen note.



日本銀行券 (Nipponginkōken) - Bank of Japan banknote
五千円 (sen'en) - 5000 Yen
日本銀行 (Nipponginkō) - Bank of Japan
樋口一葉 Higuchi Ichiyō- Meiji Period writer - she lived for only 24 years but her short stories remain among the most famous in Japan and many have been made into movies
国立印刷局製造 (Kokuritsu insatsu-kyoku seizō) -...

While I was at FUN, a dealer friend bought a large hoard of about 200 Da Quan Wu Shi coins. This hoard was intact, never picked through, and never cleaned. Since I love going through hoards, I looked through all of the coins, and presented here are my observations. I bought 24 of the coins.

The vast majority were nice official issues. Many were rather crusty or had problems such as cracks, holes, etc. Pictured here are the nicest. Notice how bold the inscriptions and rims are, and how symmetric the characters are. These all weighed over 5 grams, with the heaviest being about 9.7 grams.



Closeup of the two nicest from the hoard so that the style is clear:



Wang Mang’s rule was quite turbulent and marked by rampant counterfeiting. With several of his spade types, there are more extant contemporary counterfeits than official issues, which makes finding official...