Coin Talk

My first purchase this year was a batch of five Byzantine folles from eBay, otherwise undescribed. One was weird and worn with an odd reverse - just an M and a cross. I had no idea what it was until I got it in hand and I did a little digging on the Internet.

Turns out it is a Justinian I follis from the Salona (or possibly the Ravenna) mint. It is thought this was from a military issue for the Gothic Wars - so I learned from a CNG auction:

"The correct attribution of this unsigned series of bronzes remains uncertain, but numerous examples have been found in the environs of Salona in Illyria, an important Byzantine fort and staging area for military activity in Italy. Both Belisarius and Narses used it as a headquarters in their campaigns against the Ostrogothic king Baduila (Totila, 541-552), who conducted a brilliant guerrilla campaign against superior Imperial forces until his death at Busta Gallorum in 552. There is some debate about the date of coinage at this...

It's a slow day at work so I was working on cleaning up the files on my computer. I came across this piece I wrote a while back. I've never shared it here so, enjoy.

This piece appealed to me for multiple reasons. Not only does it have a stunning reverse but it is a numismatic item with a numismatic topic. It doesn’t get better than this for me.

AUSTRIA: Vienna 1816 42mm Medal Franz Neumann, dir. Of coin cabinets at Wien Mus – White Metal




This medal was produced to honor the passing of Franz Neumann the director of Coin Cabinets at the Wien Museum in Vienna Austria in 1816. Here is a short history of this amazing museum and its holdings.

Coin Collection

The Coin Collection is one of the five largest and most important coin collections in the world. With some 600,000 objects from three millennia, it contains not only coins but also paper money, medallions, orders, etc. Some 2,000 objects can be seen in the three halls housing the permanent...

PHOTO: CNG RESEARCH (NOT MINE, ALAS). Galerius. AD 305-311. Æ Follis (26mm, 6.55 g, 6h). Cyzicus mint, 2nd officina. Struck circa AD 308-309. GAL MAXIMIANVS P F AVG, laureate bust right / VIRTVTI E-XERCITVS, Mars advancing right, holding trophy and transverse spear.

So students of the First Tetrarchy know that Diocletian identified the Eastern Empire with Jove, while the West under Maximian was associated with Hercules. But things get complicated when each Augustus and his Caesar adopt protective deities. I’ve encountered contradictory information on this score.

Paul Stephenson, in Constantine: Roman Emperor, Christian Victor, states, “The situation was complicated further when the Caesars took patron gods of their own, with Constantius favouring Mars, popular in the west, and Galerius venerating the eastern favourite, Sol Invictus” (91).

Timothy Barnes, however, in...

Hello everyone! For several months I've been studying and creating a research piece that covers the numismatic history of the ancient maritime kingdoms of Southeast Asia that covers the pre-Islamic coin series from ancient Sumatra, Java, and the Philippines. The main polities covered are the Srivijaya of Sumatra, the Shailendra of Java, the Majapahit of Java, and the Ma-yi of the Philippines. There's a lot to it and it's been very interesting; I plan to share the majority of my findings here in time.

I wanted to introduce a new discovery that has never been documented anywhere else to the best of my knowledge. The discovery is a previously-unknown reverse design on a rare denomination of gold. Some context should be known about the coinage series first.

The island kingdoms of Southeast Asia are generally held to have been not very important in numismatic history. There was little everyday usage of coins until around 1300 CE when...

Filippo Maria Visconti


Bronze, 99.3 mm Ø, 389.4 g

By Antonio di Puccio Pisano, called Pisanello, c. 1441.

Obverse: Bust of Filippo Maria Visconti facing right, wearing soft-top cap and brocaded top embroidered with flowers and a crowned wreath encircling a dove. Around, PHILIPPVS MARIA · ANGLVS · DVX · MEDIOLANI · ETCETERA · PAPIE · ANGLERIE · QVE · COMES · AC · GENVE · DOMINVS (Filippo Maria Anglus, Duke of Milan et cetera, Count of Pavia and Angera, and Lord of Genoa), with a star separating the beginning and end of the inscription.

Reverse: At the left, Visconti on horseback prancing left, wearing full armor with biscione crest on helmet and holding lance. In the middle, another horseman wearing armor and holding lance. At the right, a page on horseback seen from behind. All within a mountainous landscape, with various buildings in the background, and a colossal female statue amongst...

This afternoon I received this beautiful denarius.


HADRIANVS AVG COS III P P
bare head left, draped
FORTVNAE REDVCI
Fortuna standing left with rudder on globe & cornucopiae, shaking hands with Hadrian

Hadrian 117-138
AR Denarius
Struck 134-138
3,32g/18mm
Ric 248 (not recorded with this left bust)

I was pretty excited that I could buy this coin from my Christmas money. In the first place because this is a beautiful piece with a beautiful portrait of Hadrian facing to the left. Also because the reverse political meaning is very interesting. The reverse shows Fortuna shaking Hadrian's hand. But the most special thing about this coin is that it is unpublished with this left-facing bust. So it's my first unpublished coin.

Left-facing busts of Hadrian on denarii are certainly not unique. They are even quite common. Remarkably, they are often unpublished. This may be due to their rarity, but it remains uncommon for RIC writers to rarely register...

I inherited the 10 cent note from my dad. It is quite a nice note, in fantastic condition. I don't know enough about how to grade notes to put a grade on it, but I would imagine it would be unc or at least au.

The 25 cent note I got from my niece who found it this past summer.

So, I was looking for a 50 cent note to complete the 5th issue set, and found this damaged one on the bay with a minimum bid of 3 bucks. I bid on it at the minimum and forgot about......well, no one else bid on it so I got it. It is in terrible shape, but I am pleased to have it for 3 bucks (+ $2 shipping) until I can upgrade down (probably way down) the road.

So, though it doesn't compare in quality with many of the paper collectors here (except the 10 cent note), I'm very happy with this complete set (for now).

And, as far as I can tell, this is a complete set of the 5th issue.....Correct?


Bob

p.s. Feel free to post your fractionals as well.....I love these...

This is a medal that I picked up a few years ago from one of my favorite sellers from Germany. It was kind of an impulse purchase. The quality of the engraving really spoke to me. That a medal was produced to commemorate such a minor (to me) event is kind of surprising. Being such a well-produced medal the fact that it is unsigned (per the seller)is surprising as well. I do see some letters (initials?) at the bottom of the reverse.

Below is the seller’s description:

On the laying of the foundation stone of the Trinity Church on 4 July.

Obverse: View of the church, on the left an angel with a palm branch, on the right an angel with an olive branch, above it the Trinity in clouds

Reverse: Writing in the heraldic wreath.

Regensburg-Stadt Am Henkel

Catalog: Plato 23.

Diameter: 40.5 mm
Weight: 19.68 g
Silver medal 1627
Unsigned

It doesn’t bother me in the least that someone mounted this at some point. The mount is well done, unlike many mounted...

Admittedly, I've become used to seeing a beautiful ladies face on an ancient Greek, and going, "No helmet, no Athena.", "No Crown, no Hera." "No bow, no Artemis." Fooled by Apollo again!


But I was pretty stoked to get such a nicely struck, near as struck Greek, for next to the price of religion (here in Utah they're giving it away for free!)


LYDIA, Sardes. Circa 133 BC-AD 14.
Æ.
Laureate head of Apollo right. / Club within laurel wreath; monogram above.
SNG Copenhagen 470-482. BMC 238
17 mm, 4,62 g



Was certainly excited to receive it, as in hand the little thing sings Apollo is so feminine to modern standards it's high-larious You can see where they didn't smooth the flan out enough before striking, the extra metal they left and that saweet monogram at the top of the reverse#class! What's not to love?


And...

Dear Friends of ancient mythology!

The Coin:
Egypt, Alexandria, Hadrian, AD 117-138
AE - drachm, 35.3g, 20.22g
Alexandria, AD 117/8 (RY 2)
Obv.: AVT KAIC TPAIANOC AΔPIANOC
Bust, draped, laureate, r.
Rev.: Euthenia, clad in garment of Isis (in chiton and peplos with the typical knot before her breast), wearing crown of Isis (sun disk between horns), leaning l., resting l. arm on small sphinx, laying r., and holding in raised r. hand grain-ears, poppies and lotus-flower(?).
in field LB (= year 2)
Ref.: Milne 844; BMC -
VF, green brown patina

Notes:
(1) The portrait of Hadrian is a bit unusual and reminds of Caligula. It seems that it needed some time until the Alexandrians got the right portrait!
(2) The typical knot at the breast is the so-called Knot of Isis, the Tit-Knot. This knot originally was a special knottet girdle tie und has relations to the religious sign of Ankh. The Ankh Cross was suggested in ancient Egypt as...