Ancients => Wait, I have a couple of last-minute additions!!

Very nice pieces, here's a few of mine...

Manuel...1143-80
28mm x 3.67g.
Lots of Slivering...



Alexius..1081-1118..
28mm x4.40g.
Good silvering..



Manuel..1043-80..
28mm x 2.37g.
Obv. hard to say whats going on here, but has cool stars.
Rev.the virgin Mary on right, crowns Manuel on left..

 

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Then you have the big guns..."Gold"

Yes hard to photo, use a lot of bright light..

 

Try this Bing

https://www.academia.edu/3455689/Why_Did_Byzantine_Coinage_Become_Cup-Shaped_in_the_11th_Century Try this Bing

 

Very cool link ... thanks

 

askea's link is very good. It mentions several theories for the use of cup-shaped coins. The old theory that "they stack better" has been repeated many times and that erroneous theory shows how little the scientific method leaps to mind among average readers, and how hard it is to kill off a bad idea. Anyone who has access to a dozen of these, say, from a hoard, can try to stack them and see it simply doesn't work.

 

Try bouncing a lot of light around the room but have none directly on the coin or use a ring light that lights evenly from all sides and wiggle the coin until you see the glares from the coin in places that strike you as pleasing. Coins are metal and metal has glare. The secret is playing around until it looks like you know what you are doing. Every time I get a cup, I start over. I will point out that you must have some glare on a metal object to keep it looking like a 3D metal object rather than a flat plaster cast.

Copper plays nicer than gold or electrum. This is Alexius III with a bent edge.

 

Those are some of the best pics of those types I've seen, Doug. Well done.

 

http://www.coinweek.com/featured-news/byzantine-coins-become-cup-shaped/

This is the best summary I have seen but it still ends with a lot of 'don't know' attached.

 

I don't collect these, but fascinating articles!

 

Thanks for posting all of your coins and for posting those cool links (it ended-up being a very sweet thread)

Cheers

 

I have some cups to share but I am heading out of the house right now, Ill post when I return.

 

The first trachy posted by stevex6 (Cited from: https://www.cointalk.com/threads/ancients-wait-i-have-a-couple-of-last-minute-additions.257234/) is actually Theodore I of Nicaea, S.2062.

 

The first trachy posted by stevex6 (Cited from: https://www.cointalk.com/threads/ancients-wait-i-have-a-couple-of-last-minute-additions.257234/) is actually Theodore I of Nicaea, S.2062.

 

The first trachy posted by stevex6 (Cited from: https://www.cointalk.com/threads/ancients-wait-i-have-a-couple-of-last-minute-additions.257234/) is actually Theodore I of Nicaea, S.2062.

 

"Isaac II BI Trachy
Date: 1185-1195 AD
Diameter: 28.1 mm
Weight: 3.5 grams
Obverse: Mary, nimbate, seated, holding the nimbate head of infant Christ.
Reverse: Isaac holding cross-headed sceptre and akakia, crowned by hand of God in upper right field"

The first trachy posted by stevex6 (Cited from: https://www.cointalk.com/threads/ancients-wait-i-have-a-couple-of-last-minute-additions.257234/) is actually S.2062, of Theodore I (1208-1222), Emperor at Nicaea, and assumed to have been struck at Nicaea. Christ is enthroned on the obverse, and the emperor is wearing a chlamys; Isaac II is wearing a loros on his S.2003 trachy. To the right of the akakia, the inscription KOMNHNOC will be partially visible on most specimens.

 

No. I follow the literature on these and no one has a close-to-convincing explanation.

 

fulguritics => hey, thanks for the coin-correction (the seller agreed that you're correct)



wow, this is an old thread that you dug-up, eh? (thanks for investigating, my new coin-friend)