I saw a post recently in which someone mentioned not seeing enough ancient coins. It seems like the recent topics are nearly all ancient coins now! In any case, I wanted to show a recent acquirement. I finally found a coin category that my wife fully endorses: Biblical era coins. Here is a tetradrachm from Nero. It is my favorite ancient I own. The toning is very even, and the strike is about as centered as I've seen. Now a question: Early Geek Tetradrachms seem to generally weigh above 16 grams. Did tetradrachms get reduced in content as time went on?
NERO AR Tetradrachm OBVERSE: NERWN KAISAR SEBASTOS, laureate bust right, wearing aegis REVERSE: ETOYS BIP.I, eagle standing right on thunderbolt, wings spread, palm to right. Struck at Antioch Regnal year 10, Caesarian year 112 = 63 AD 10.7g, 23mm RPC 4189
@JoshuaP Your tetradrachm is a beauty. Great acquisition! Nero's tetradrachms from Alexandria, Eagle head to left, typically weigh between 14.5 and 15.5 grams. On acsearch one can find several weighing around 14 grams. For RPC I, 5283 the average weigh is 12.03 g. You can see it for example here: https://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/1/5283 By the way, it was me who was saying that there was not going on much in ancients. But now, it started to get moving, which is awesome
The official standard of the Attic tetradrachm in the 5th-4th c. BC was 17.20 g., but most coins were slightly lighter; with c. 16,5 g. The Alexander tetradrachms, in the 4th c. BC, followed the same standards. But in Egypt Ptolemy I Soter reformed the silver coinage : in 305 BC he minted Egyptian tetradrachms of 14 g only. Foreign coins were no longer accepted in Egypt, merchants and travelers had to exchange their money when entering Egyptian territories. Everywhere else there were 16 g tetradrachms (Attic standard) but in Egypt there were 14 or 13 g tetradrachms (Egyptian standard). The Romans changed nothing to it, and the Egyptian exception lasted until the late 3rd c. AD.
