Post pix of GOLD ancients you can get for less than $1,000

VALENS
AV Solidus
OBVERSE: DN VALENS PER F AVG, pearl-diademed, draped & cuirassed bust right
REVERSE: RESTITVTOR REIPUBLICAE, Valens standing right, holding labarum in right hand & Victory on globe in left, cross to left. Mintmark star ANTE star
Struck at Antioch, 364 AD
3.6g, 19mm
Antioch RIC 2d,xxxvii-5

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

Never mind the amazing coin, my envy is only exceeded by my admiration of your facility in Arabic. --Sure, Why Not, even at the level of something approximate to 'Coin Latin.'
I have a tari, from this guy who was ruling Sicily autonomously, more or less in the name of the Fatimid dynasty, but along the lines of, 'Heaven is high, and the king is far away.' ...But someone already posted a better example, and it's more emphatically 'Medieval' than 'Ancient.'
...Oh...Kay, Fine, here's that. Sure enough, it was imitated by the Normans, as early as c. 1061-1071, during the initial phases of the invasion of Sicily.

 

Aristotle lived on Mytilene during the period in which these coins were minted (dates vary, somewhere between 340-335 BC) after being tutor to Alexander, son of King Philip II of Macedon. During this time he did scientific research, in zoology and marine biology.
Mytilene, Lesbos, c. 377-326 BC, Electrum Hekte
Obv: Head of Apollo wearing laurel wreath right
Rev: Head of Artemis right, her hair in sphendone; snake symbol in left field

 

CONSTANTINOPLE: Leo I
Leo I. AD 457-474. AV Solidus (21mm, 4.46 g, 6h). Constantinople mint, 10th officina. Struck AD 462 or 466. D N LEO PE RPET AVG, pearl-diademed, helmeted, and cuirassed bust facing slightly right, holding spear over shoulder and shield with horseman motif / VICTORI A AVGGG, Victory standing left, holding long, jeweled cross in right hand; star to right; I//CONOB. RIC X 605; Depeyrot 93/1. VF, “X” graffito on obverse, a few light marks on reverse.

 

...Weeeell, both philosophically and methodologically, he was more a prototype than a proponent of empiricism; less so of the scientific method (vis-a-vis Bacon).

 

...Fine, except, semantic nit-picking aside, the aggregate coin and historical context are The Best. ...Never Mind in this price range.

 

Damaged I know, but such a beautiful coin.

 

this is such a cool coin! Thanks for sharing.

 

Thank you for both comments - I enjoyed the "semantic nit-picking" as it raised for me an interesting thought about where we might draw a line on science vs. pre-science....

Bernardus Aretinus, Illustrator, 1554

I like the imagined scene of Aristotle enjoying his days on Lesbos, talking with fisherman, watching sea life, making notes and drawings and trying to make sense of what he saw....and centuries/millennia later Darwin weathered by his sea voyage similarly observing finches.

Blind Orion with Cedelion as his eyes
and further meandering to the life-cycle of ideas and how important it is to have diversity of experience and perspective, seeing with the eyes of each other and open exchange of ideas to build up the shoulders that the next person stands on. Good company, glasses of wine, some salty seafood, fresh herbs, olive oil, good bread and the sounds and smells of the ocean all go well with these thoughts...I think my next post-COVID-19, dream vacation is taking shape. This coin from Sicily, not Gold and not Lesbos, somehow seems relevant...

Syracuse, Second Democracy, 435-415BC, AE Tetrante or Trionkia
Obv: Head of Arethusa right, hair in korymbos, dolphin before and behind, ΣYPA before; all in linear circle
Rev: Octopus and three pellets (mark of value)
Size: 3.38g, 15mm
Ref: Hoover 1428; the first bronze coins struck in Syracuse

 

Sulla80, your added context and nuance are very welcome counterweights to my nit-picking. ...I wonder whether we could make one last hard distinction between Science, including Mathematics, and Empirical Science in its modern, methodologically fully realized form (more from Bacon on)? Of course it's impossible to minimize the accomplishments of the Greek mathematicians (and proto-empirical-scientists), any more than of the Islamic proponents, especially from the Abbasid Caliphate onwards (who were that instrumental in reintroducing Europeans to Aristotle, round about the 13th c. ACE).
But in our present milieu, the need to insist on methodological norms for the physical sciences is pretty dire. It's not that people of your calibre can't appreciate the nuances, so much as that that many other people lack the same capacity and inclination. ...It's still early here, and this has gone on too long....

 

Too easy to for me to slip into topics that are no longer relevant to CT (if I haven't already) - but I certainly agree that what was innovative "science" in the age of Aristotle is not acceptable as science in the 21st century. We will have more positive outcomes looking from the giant's shoulders rather than lying under his feet. Now where is that coin of Asclepius that I had here somewhere....

 

...You are So Not Alone! My single worst habit --trying to put on the brakes; obviously a steep learning curve. Gonna shut up now! But, Yeah, the fact that we were in implicit agreement all along is welcome, if hardly surprising.

 

Byzantine Gold is very affordable, I managed to complete a collection of John II Comnenus , no coin over $600.00

JOHN II HYPERPYRON NOMISMA IV DOC 1 Thessalonica First Coinage SBCV-1947
JOHN II HYPERPYRON NOMISMA IV DOC 1 Thessalonica First Coinage SBCV-1947
OBV Christ Bearded and Nimbate , wearing tunic and kolobion, seated upon a throne without back: r. hand raised in benediction , holds gospels in l.

REV Half length figure of emperor on l. and of Virgin , holding between them Partriarcghal cross on long shaft. Emperor wears stemma, divitision, collar piece, and paneled loros of simplified type; holds anexikakia in r. hand. Virgin wears tunic and maphorion. Manus Dei in upeer left field.

Size 29mm

Weight 4.5gm

Thicker metal than Constantinople issue, very difficult to differentiate between the same issue from different mints.

JOHN II HYPERPYRON NOMISMA IV DOC 2 Constantinople Second Coinage SBCV-1939
OBV IC XC in upper field.

Christ bearded and nimbate, wearing tunic and kolobion, seated upon throne without back: r hand raised in benediction , holds gospels in l.
REV Full length figure of emperor on l. , crowned by Virgin. Emperor wears stemma, divitision. Collar piece, and paneled loros of a simplified type; holds in r. hand labarum on long shaft, and in l., anexikakia. Virgin wears tunic and maphorion.

Size 32mm

Weight 4.38gm

DOC lists 22 examples with weights from 3.73gm to 4.45gm and sizes from 30 mm to 34mm

 

The Aspron Trachea are very Affordable, 1/3 gold . This one is the rarest for John II under $300.00

JOHN II ASPRON TRACHY NOMISA IV DOC 8e Thessalonica SBCV-1951
OBV IC XC in upper field.
Christ bearded and nimbate, wearing tunic and kolobion, seated upon throne without back: , holds gospels in l. Single pellet at each end of cushion on throne.

REV Full length figure of emperor on l. and of St. George, nimbate and beardless, holding between them patriarchal cross on long shaft at the base of which a small globe. Emperor wears stemma, divitision and chlamys; saint wears short military tunic, breastplate and sagion, Emperor and Saint hold between them labarum on a long shaft at the base of which a small globe.

Size 30.48mm

Weight 4.1gm

DOC lists 3 examples total with weights from 3.98gm to 4.12gm and sizes from 31 to 33 mm.

 

Marcian, Eastern Roman Empire
AV solidus
Obv: D N MARCIA-NVS P F AVG, diademed, helmeted and cuirassed three-quarter facing bust, holding spear over shoulder and shield decorated with horseman
Rev: VICTORI-A AVGGG, Victory standing left, holding long jeweled cross, star in right field
Mint: Constantinople
Mintmark: CONOB
Date: 450-457 AD
Ref: RIC 510
Size: 4.46 gr., 21 mm wide

 

Still waiting for a true AV aureus... though I think 1 grand is a bit too optimistic for an actual aureus >(