Coin Talk

As some may have noted, I'm a fan of proto money... especially Roman types! It has always been of great interest how the ancients bought and sold things as money evolved


And also how some may have tried to save money...


Here's my Aes rude:

In Italy, as with other nations, early trade used a system of barter. Aes rude(Latin: "rough bronze"), used perhaps as early as the early 8th century B.C., was the earliest metal proto-currency in central Italy. In the 5th century B.C., bronze replaced cattle as the primary measure of value in trade. Aes rude are rough lumpy bronze ingots with no marks or design, some are flat and oblong, others are square, while many are irregular and shapeless.
The metal is mostly copper with roughly 5% tin. Weight varies considerably with some exceeding twelve pounds and others under an ounce. Many smaller examples are fragments of broken larger specimens. A...

"Well, then, I will not govern you either, if he has become in your eyes base and hostile and a public foe. For in that case you will, of course, soon annul all his acts, of which my adoption was one."

Cassius Dio attributes these words to the mouth of Antoninus Pius on the senate's refusal to deify his adoptive father, Hadrian. According to Dio and the Historia Augusta, Hadrian had been responsible for the 'illegal' deaths of a number of senators, and at the time of his death there were other senators waiting to be executed. Antoninus pardoned these men, claiming that Hadrian was already resolved to do the same before his passing.

Compared to Hadrian's frosty and distant relationship with the senate, being a man who extensively toured his empire and invested heavily in works across many of the provinces, Antoninus spent almost his entire reign in close proximity to Rome and supposedly lived as humble a life as is possible given his situation.

He initially refused to be hailed...

The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday, 18 June 1815 near Waterloo in Belgium, part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands at the time. A French army under the command of Napoleon Bonaparte was defeated by two of the armies of the Seventh Coalition: an army consisting of units from Britain, Ireland, the German Legion, the Netherlands, Hanover, Brunswick and Nassau, under the command of the Duke of Wellington, referred to by many authors as the Anglo-allied army, and a Prussian army under the command of Field Marshal Blücher. The battle marked the end of the Napoleonic Wars.

On 28 June 1815, ten days after the Battle of Waterloo in June 1815, the victorious general, the Duke of Wellington proposed to Frederick, Duke of York that bronze medals be presented to the British soldiers at Waterloo, silver to their officers and gold to the sovereigns of the victorious nations, and to their generals and ministers. Wellington's brother was William Wellesley-Pole, the Master of the...

Hey Everyone! I was wondering what coins you hold in your collection that regardless of what you are offered you won't sell, or trade for. These are the coins that have meaning to you, coins with not only personality but history. Coins that share a deeper connection and story to you, sentimental coins.

For me I have one coin that I will never sell, and that is my AU 55 1949 S Franklin Half Dollar.

This coin is particularly special to me simply because of the moment I got the coin, and its impact that day had on my life. My grandfather who was a very honorable and respectful man who taught me a lot about life, who helped me when I needed it, who gave me a roof over my head and who shared his wisdom to me had a heart attack in may of 2017. He survived but it impacted us all greatly, we were so close to losing him. Flash forward to April of 2019 and while doing yard work with my brother he had another heart attack, It was so...

Last year I posted about tentatively completing my 1815-1828 bust quarter set. While I doubt I'll ever be able to completely stop buying them, I decided to try to assemble a well circulated capped bust dime set with the goal of putting them into the corresponding Dansco album (#6121). For the time being I don't want to afford the 1809, 1811/09, or 1822, and if I did ever buy them I would want them to be certified. Fortunately the 1809 and 1811/09 are on the first page of the album (with all of the expensive draped bust dimes), so I can easily ignore them or remove the first page entirely. I may get an 1822 Spanish or Mexican 1 real to fill the hole for the 1822. This leaves a total of 28 holes in the album for various dates and varieties.

My goal was to get well circulated coins that had an original appearance and without issues too severe for the grade. So far I've gotten 9 dimes since December, and...

Here's my latest treasure, from Vauctions/ Pegasi Sale 330:

Achaemenid Persian Empire, Sardis mint. AR siglos (5.30 g). c. 510- 480 BC (temp. Darius I- Xerxes I). Obverse: Persian King kneeling right, drawing bow. Reverse: Incuse punch mark. Carradice Type II, Sunrise 21. This coin: Vauctions/Pegasi Sale 330, lot 174.

This coin dates to a time and place where Greek and Persian civilizations clashed, in a series of battles that were critical in shaping the course of ancient history. The history of this time is well-documented by both ancient and modern historians, and my very brief summary below is only meant to goad you to seek out the full story. Read Herodotus, and then read one of the modern historical retellings of the story, which incorporate additional ancient documents and archaeological findings. (The movie "300" is entertaining, but not a very accurate retelling of events.)

Darius I became King of Kings of the Persian Empire in 522...

I thought I would post my only add from the Baltimore Whitman Expo to my odd collection; it was held back by a dealer friend who told me it "had my name on it"! It literally did, with a stick on with my name on the slab.



Folks who know me know I collect low grade early large cents and "authenticity challenged coins", so why would a "1787" Connecticut Copper be for me?



Short story, it isn't what it's "cracked up" to be; and doing a little researching late night I found it previously sold in a 2010 Heritage auction correctly identified as what it actually is.



Since it is provenanced back to a 1954 Stacks sale I sent a note to Harvey Stack and David Bowers and received a note back from Harvey stating how cool it is to see a coin still linked back to one of his sales and suggested looking for 2 auction catalogs from then to try and further the history trail....

After reading all I could find on this great CT community about how to storage coins I decided to say goodbye to my cardboard holders. Not an easy decision to make cause this means a whole, whole lot of work

Why did I decide to quit those holders?

1. You cannot get the coin out without destroying the holder. For me that is a big problem!
2. Big coins (sestertii) don’t fit easily....
3. There is not much space to write things down, especially with those big coins.
4. I somehow never seem to have cardboard holders in the good size.
5. IMO coins don’t look that nice in those holders.....

What next ?
I was not sure what the best choice was: envelopes or flips. I decided to go for saflips and didn’t regret it for one moment. Why not ?

1. These saflips are wonderful. I have no problem handling them and they don’t crack (anyway mine don’t....).
2. You can go throug your coins and see every coin. A big plus for me.
3. Mine came...

Many of you already know that this was the year that a new Emperor took the throne in Japan. Emperor Akihito stepped down due to age and his son Naruhito became Emperor. Those of us who get excited about Japanese coins know that this means that Japanese coins will show a new era date, since traditional Japanese dates go by the reign of the current Emperor. Akihito went by "平成" or "Heisei" and his son took on the era name "令和" or "Reiwa." So, just like in 1989 after Emperor Hirohito died, the first round of coins contained the previous Emperor's era name and the second contained the new Emperor's era name. So in 2019 the first round of coins displayed the date "平成31年" or "平成三十一年" meaning "the 31st year of Heisei." The new Emperor's first year doesn't show a numeral date, but instead includes a character that means "beginning" or "元". So the second batch of coins for 2019 includes the date "令和元年" or "Reiwa Gannen." So I really wanted to have some of these on hand.

After watching the...

My AMCC 2 wins arrived earlier this week and I was excited to receive my first ever coin from the famed BCD collection. This coin has a lot of eye appeal to me and depicts an interesting subject.


Thessaly, Krannon
AE Chalkous, struck ca. 350-300 BC
Dia.: 15.4 mm
Wt.: 2.41 g
Obv.: Thessalian rider and horse, rearing right
Rev.: KPAN Bull butting right, trident above
Ref.: BCD Thessaly II 118.5; HGC 4, 391
Ex zumbly collection; Ex BCD collection with tag stating “V. Ex Thess., Apr. 94, DM 35”; Ex AMCC 2, Lot 5 (Nov. 9, 2019)

The Thessalian Taurokathapsia
In ancient mythology, the plain of Thessaly was once a giant lake surrounded on all sides by mountains. Poseidon, in his role as the god of earthquakes, split open an outlet through the mountains by which the lake was drained and the land of Thessaly was created.

In gratitude to Poseidon, the Thessalians held festivals in his...