Love holed coins

Maybe it's strange, but I simply love ancient coins with a hole in it. I guess it adds something to my imagination about the history of the coin.
I have a few holed coins, only one with a picture though.....

In this case I guess the coin was holed to remember the secular games. Someone in ancient Rome must have had a jolly good time, got drunk and thought it was a good idea to nail a coin to the wall as a reminder of the party (or something like that.....).

As you can see the hole is put on a place where it doesn't damage the portrait of the emperor or the lyre and flute players. Maybe he wasn't drunk.....

I found a very nice article about holed coins on
http://www.forumancientcoins.com/moonmoth/holed_coins.html

For me the extra fun is that these holed coins cost less than other examples

I am of course interested in other holed coins and the story behind the hole



Domitian, as
RIC 623
Mint in Rome, 88 AD
11,51 g, 30 mm
Obv. IMP CAES DOMIT AVG GERM P M TR P VIII CENS PER P P / laureate head of Domitian right.
Rev. COS XIIII - LVD SEC FEC SC / Domitian standing left, sacrificing over altar; to left, lyre and flute players standing right; temple in background.
Issued for the Secular Games

 

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Not an ancient but holed long before our time. A gift from my next door neighbor

 

Very cool! Yea I find it fun to imagine what the hole was for... Was the coin displayed in someone's home long ago? For how long? Did they remove it when times got tough and used it do buy a meal? Who knows...

 

Possibly holed in history as a "Touch Piece", AKA a Good Luck Charm.



Edward VI (1547 - 1553 A.D.)
AR Shilling
O: (tun) ЄDWΛRD’· VI : D’· S’ ΛGl’: FRΛ’· Z : hIB’· RЄX :, crowned and mantled bust facing slightly left; rose to left, XII to right.
R: (tun) POSVI DЄVM ·’ : ΛDIVTOR Є’· MEV·’·, coat-of-arms over long cross fourchée.
5.7g
32mm
North 1937; SCBC 2482


Charles I (1625 - 1649)
AR Shilling
O: CAROLVS D G MAG BRI FRA ET HIB REX (Charles, by the Grace of God, King of Great Britain, France and Ireland), crowned bust left, XII (value mark) behind.
R: CHRISTO AVSPICE REGNO (I reign under the auspices of Christ), cross moline over square-topped shield coat-of-arms. Triangle-in-circle mintmark.
Tower Mint
6.16g
30mm
SCBC 2799, North 2231

 

My first ancient is a holed Fallen Horseman. I thought it was holed to adorn some item of fashion at some point over the millennia. When I found it was possibly holed to nail over a door to show political affiliation, I was hooked.

 

HOLES


China ANCIENT Cowrie Currency - Shang Dynasty 1750-1150 BCE BONE 2 holes 20mm Hartill 1-2v Coole 51-66

2 Holes for clothing or funerary bier




Roman Imperatorial Spain Lepida-Clesa Lepidus 44-36BCE (2nd Triumverate - Triumvir with Octavianus, Marcus Antonius, Marcus Aemilius Lepidus) C Balbus L Porcius Colonia Victrix Ivlia Lepida Victory - Bull holed RPI 262 plate 19

The Trimvirs were probably out target shooting with their .22's...

 

Saw your holed coins and by the looks of it, someone has used a drill to it to place on a necklace.. Technically with the hole, it is classified as damaged and no longer has numismatic value...However as a piece of jewellry or simply the silver value, there can be some capital gain..... It is like buying a painting that has had a razor blade taken to it...Now would you buy that damaged painting?? Or what about a car that has been keyed all across the duco or paintwork or what about a car with no engine?? Would you buy that?? Or a house with foundations almost rotting to the fullest...would you buy that??...I can go on and on but i think you have the meaning...HOLED COINS LIKE THE ONES YOU SHOWED ARE DRILLED AND ARE DAMAGED....Now i have a holed coin but was minted that way...Pic included here for your viewing. They are telephone tokens made for public phones long before the ordinary coinage was able to be used.

 

This is the Ancients Forum. Your coins / tokens should be posted in the modern coins section.

Ancient Coins and relics are considered much differently than modern MILLED coins. Expertise and historical significance are much different.

Ancient Coins are not considered as "damaged" in the same sense as modern coins.

 

Here's a holed Constantine from an uncleaned hoard I purchased. It's kind of an interesting coin with Constantine wearing an elaborate crested helmet.

 

Got an elephant to spare..

 

My first and only holed coin. But I couldn't resist the rev. depiction.

Lydia, Magnesia ad Sipylum, Commodus, AD 180-192
AE 30, 14.18g, 180°
struck under strategos Aelius Kodratus(?)
obv. AVT KAI MAP - AVPH KOMOΔOC
Bust, draped and cuirassed, laureate, r.
rv. EΠI CTPA A KOΔ - PA / MAΓNHTΩN CIΠVΛO
Kybele in long clothes, wearing mural crown, stg. l. in biga, drawn by two lions with raised r. fore-feet, holding reins in r. hand and holding in l. hand unknown object(?)
Ref.: BMC 60
S+/about SS, brown-olive patina, some overall roughness, holed

 

I like holes too.

A RR As. It could be either V or Anchor. The seller's description -
Serie anonima sestantale. Asse, dopo il 211 a.C. Cr. 56/2. AE. g. 32.56 mm. 33.00 Forato MB.

I had to google Forato. It means drilled (or hole). There is an interesting mountain in Italy, Mt Forato.

 

While I disagree with you both, at least one pays enough attention to know where he is posting instead of dropping in and telling how it is with modern tokens. IMO some hole do reduce the value of an ancient coin almost as much as they would were the coin modern while others that were made in ancient times can add interest to the item. This is not saying that the hole does not reduce the coin value; it does. Relatively few people will consider buying coins with holes so they should be cheaper. I'll offer a couple coins with holes that may not be quite as lacking in numismatic interest as our modern expert would believe.

First is a restored (under Nerva) AE as of the divine Augustus issued many years after his death. The question is why the coin needed three holes to affix it to something. The dreamer in me would like to think that it was used to 'decorate' a coffin/memorial to a veteran whose service started under Augustus but that would require the veteran to have lived beyond 100 years old - possible but unlikely. I don't know but this is a case where the 3 holes are more interesting than would be just one.


Some holes are drilled; some holes are punched. This denarius of Augustus received its hole when pierced by an iron nail some of which remains in the hole. The hole reduces the value but not as much as did that last stroke of the hammer that smashed the obverse of the coin. Why was this coin worth a day's pay nailed to something so roughly? The dreamer answer is it was a bar bet with the winner getting the rights to return for the coin. The truth will never be known.


Some coins are rare enough that a hole may be tolerable simply because the chance of finding a hole free coin of the type is a bit remote. I have not done great research but this Alexandrian diobol of Antoninus Pius will retain a bit of numismatic value until someone shows me a better coin of the type with no hole (or any of the other ills that can beset a coin in 1900 years). It is only an R3 in Emmett so several others exist. Do they have enough bull detail to make this one worthless? If they don't have any good detail does their lack of a hole make them rank over this one? Opinions will differ.

 

waiting...

 

I dont know what you think Doug , but i was taught any coin with a hole technically is just a space filler or damaged.. Personally i got burnt with ancients in my early 20's and lost about 150.00 or so,,,However in those years i was only earning $46.00 a week ( before Tax ) so it was like a months wages.... I had not touched them since and if they came my way, they went on ebay at a start price of 99c.... I have had more luck with scrip plastics than with ancients...As i did not want to pay for it to get verified as the collectors are so few and far betwen in Australia, i just refused them if they came my way....On top of that , collectors in australia are so stingy...I do better from other countries. oio

 

OTACILIA SEVERA
Æ Sestertius
OBVERSE: MARCIA OTACILIA SEVERA AVG, diademed and draped bust right
REVERSE: SAECVLARES AVGG, SC in ex, Hippopotamus standing right, head raised
Struck at Rome, 248 AD
18.6g, 30mm
RIC 200a, Cohen 65
ex Warren Esty


QUINTILLUS
Antoninianus
OBVERSE: IMP CM AVR CL QVINTILLVS AVG, radiate, draped, cuirassed bust right
REVERSE: PAX AVGVSTI, Pax standing left, holding olive branch and transverse sceptre, A in left field
Struck at Rome, 270 AD
2.2g, 20mm
RIC 26

 

You can feel that way and that's fine for you. However, coins in any state speak of their lives and you can read them just as you would the faces of people. It is a fact of history that people in ancient Hellenic and Roman times wore coins of Alexander the Great as amulets. Agreed, a holed coin is not as collectible in standard terms or as commonly attractive as an undamaged coin, but it is what it is.

What you are saying, essentially, is that any wear on a coin degrades it from Mint state and renders it uncollectible.

 

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Ok ...As you are not under british rule , you may not know the meaning of the word Maundy...I have a bit of information about some of the items in your lot of coins there... On the 2nd line, you have a threepence , 2nd from the end...On the bottom line , you have 2d second in from the start....These were known as Maundy money.... They were given out to the poor by Queen Victoria on easter time....All are made of 92.5% sterling silver and we in australia used to place one of them in a pudding and the person at the dinner who got the coin, got the present...Normally it was a voucher from a place like Macys. On top of that, from 1910 to 1945, all 3d and 6d coins in australia were made of 92.5% sterling silver and were used...One had to boil them first and then place into a jar before into the food to keep clean...Any coins under 92.5% had nickel and people got sick from it....Just a bit of trivia...OIO

 

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I did not say that...hard and low mintage dates like the 1911s and 1912s pennies are ok in any grade as few were minted...However if it was me wanting one, i know i would stay away from UNC or EF as when it comes time to sell it, the buyer want want to pay its true value and expect it for bulk ...I personally like VF to g/VF as it is appealing to many collectos , price wise...OIO

 

Not since 1783, anyway... Thanks for your officious reply, but I do know what Maundy Money is and Maundy Thursday. And for the arguments back and forth, I stick to the Latin: Mandatum novum do vobis ut diligatis invicem sicut dilexi vos.

And both coins are thruppences.

(I deleted the original reply when I realized that I was in the Ancient topics and I did not want to post off-topic.)