Ok then. Recently our friend Ken Dorney had a book sale and I picked up Hill's The Monuments of Ancient Rome as Coin Types, an enjoyable read that I heartily recommend. I came away with an iconic as of Nero, Temple of Janus reverse... Post coins that you were inspired to buy from reading a book first. (Or post anything of Janus - the Roman Festival of Janus was held on January 9, which we missed, but better late than never. Lock your doors!)
Absolutely LOVE that AS of Nero !! Jeez, I didn't start collecting until about 46 years of age, so I read a ton of books first and they all inspired me to grab all the ancient coins I could---especially Roman---and then I sold most and started collecting again a year ago... I'll have to think about this a bit in the morning LOL
Gosh, that's a nice one, JA. Mine was bought before the book... frankly, I'm guilty of that with all my coins. Maybe once I read the book, I'll buy another one of these .
That was Vespasian, from whom we get the saying pecunia non olet, which incidentally I don't agree with. Ill-gotten gains = bad karma in my book. But it was the buyers of the urine that had to pay the tax, not everyone.
This is a coin I've been wanting to find within my budget. As you say, iconic. And this one is quite nice.
I don't have any coins with Roman architecture on them but some would consider a visit to the Waldorf Astoria would be a good celebration. I saw a lot of people sacrificing trees rather than goats but hey, a celebration is a celebrations.
After giving it some thought, realizing all the books I've read (or re-read) over the past 12 months primarily depicted coins a bit out of my budget, it seems all those biographies and classical writers compelled me to generally up-grade a bit, rather than seek a specific coin. So, here's the 'iconic' but somewhat 'boring' denarius of Augustus: Modest purchases of Carthage probably most apply here:
As I understand it, it was used by 'fullers' to clean clothes----all those togas needed to be harshly 'bleached' to look nice and white LOL
Yes, the ammonia and acid were what they wanted, not only for tanning and cleaning, but many other chemical applications.
This is the drachm version of the type. I hunted for months for this coin after reading Antigonos the One Eyed. This issue commemorates his son's victory, Demetrius I Poliorketes, over Ptolemy's fleet at Cyprus.
Great coins everyone! I'm reading through David Hendin's Guide to Biblical Coins right now and have a good sized wish list that I've built from it. The first coin that I struck off that list was the Hasmonean Puritan I bought the other day: Erin
my first coin was partially inspired by a book, but not a coin book. it's a historical fiction book about the waning days of the roman empire in britian, but got me looking for "late roman related stuff"..and found my first coin. that's one SWEET nero temple JA...awsome!
I've historically been fascinated by the Punic Wars, especially the 2nd. Thus, my original moniker of "Carthago" which I adopted as an online avatar long before I was even into ancients. So, here's a book I really enjoyed from many years ago and one of my 2 remaining Carthaginian coins which really no longer fit into my collection but I won't be getting rid of anytime soon.
