Finally got around to taking my own photo of one of my favorite coins from my early Germanic collection, my very rare nummus of Gelimer, the last king of the Vandals. My only camera (besides my phone camera, which isn't suited for small things like coins) eats battery energy so fast, it is always running out of power, so its not often I shoot photos on account I don't want to keep buying batteries for it (its pretty much the only thing besides tv remotes I use that runs on run-of-the-mill batteries). But now that I recently bought some for my camera I decided to shoot my own photos of my Gelimer. It's more olive-green in hand but to show the details well I had to photograph the coin at an angle. About the coin (basically a revisit): Gelimer was the king of the Vandals and Alans, barbarian tribes that had migrated to Roman North Africa over the course of the early-mid 5th century AD, in the process taking the vital region away from the deteriorating Western Roman Empire. During their rule, the Arian Christian Vandals oftentimes came into religious tension and conflict with their Catholic Roman subjects. Later on, the Vandals expanded their kingdom to include Sicily and the other islands of the western Mediterranean, and would go on to sack the city of Rome in 455 AD. Around 75 years after attacking the imperial city, Gelimer took the throne from his predecessor and cousin Hilderic in a coup. The Eastern Roman Empire under Justinian used this as an excuse to invade Gelimer's kingdom (since under the pro-Roman Hilderic, relations were good between him and the Eastern Romans). The Romans quickly conquered the Vandal Kingdom, bringing Roman rule back to the region for the first time in a century, and Gelimer was taken prisoner. But clemency was shown to the barbarian former king, and so Gelimer took up an offer to live in retirement in the region of Galata (in today's Turkey). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gelimer, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vandalic_Kingdom, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vandalic_War This ruler is very tough to find for sale in any condition, so I feel fortunate to have come across this one at a price I could agree to (it cost me around $50). Gelimer, Vandal Kingdom of North Africa (reigned 530-534 AD) AE Nummus Obv: GEILAMIR , pearl-diademed, draped bust right Rev: Monogram of Gelimer within wreath Mint: Carthage(?), struck 530-534 AD Ref: MEC 1, 28-30; BMC Vandals 4-6 (if you look closely at the lower right-hand corner of the obverse, like 3-4 o clock, you can see the vague outlines of IR from 'GEILAMIR', the original form of his name) Compare to the seller's photo:
Very cool coin with an interesting historical context. Thanks for the info. Your image is certainly much sharper than the seller's. Nice job. A recommendation: if you have access to photo editing software like Photoshop, it's a good idea to reduce the negative space around the coin, like in the following.
Your shot is much better than the seller's, VK. The detail really stands out. I agree about cropping the negative space.
Thanks for the feedback. I only left all that space because I didn't want the thread page to blow up the photo like my photo viewing program does and make the details hard to see (this happens with the photos of my really small coins), but I see the details still look fine after your editing so in the future I'll crop my tiny coins like I do with the rest of my coins. Really glad you like my post green18. I have a bit more background in my original thread here: https://www.cointalk.com/threads/gelimer-last-king-of-the-vandals-and-alans.245618/ But I revisited this coin so I shortened the info a bit this time around. Interesting fact I found btw: when Rome was sacked by the Vandals in 455 AD (guess where our definition of 'vandal/vandalism' comes from ), they carried off as part of their loot the golden menorah that the Romans had taken from the Jews in Jerusalem in 70 AD (the same menorah depicted on the Arch of Titus). They kept the menorah in their capital Carthage. When the Byzantine Roman army captured Carthage, they took it back to Constantinople and displayed it during the last ever Roman triumph. The menorah is last recorded as having been transported back to Jerusalem. Thanks all for the complements!
I always knew of the connection of Vandals with our more colloquial term of vandalism. Thanks for the link to the original thread. Shoot, I always thought of Vandals originating from Northern Africa and not from Scandinavia.......early Vikings?
