My Oldest Coin

I bought a pretty nice Miletos 48th stater at the Baltimore show this past spring. It's the last coin displayed on this Web page:

http://rg.ancients.info/lion/miletos.html

It was unattributed, so I got a very good deal on it: $40. But you might say it's stil unattributed because of the debate concerning the attribution of these.

 

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There is link through your page, on Miletian coins, I had not heard of 1/96 fractions before. Amazing, the 1/12ths are very small. The 1/48ths are incredibly small, but to think of 1/96th!

It is amazing the contrast in ancient coin sizes, from the ae5 of Miletos, to ae67 of Olbiya. Usually Olbiya coins are not very expensive, but ae67 is very rare so far.

 

The large cast Olbia cast bronze Medusa coins are very nice. I had considered buying one, but so far I haven't been able to justify their cost. Dmitry Markov had about six for sale at the NY Int'l a couple of years ago, and I almost bit. Maybe I should have.

 

Funny thing Ried, I was just admiring that web page yesterday and wondering if I should go in that direction. What is the protection from clever reproductions. I don't trust carbon dating for I saw reproduction Icons in Moscow in the 1980's that got around that. You might know the story Kras about the old KGB using artists on old linen/wood and then having it sold as a family treasure that was buried in secrecy for years.

 

Knowledge. Nothing else better protects you from ancient coin forgeries. It also helps in other areas of life too. Forgeries are an inevitable part of the ancient coin world, as they are of the larger antiquities world, as they are of the art world in general. You can choose to stay away out of fear. You can choose to delegate all knowledge about forgery by buying only from big-name, high-margin numismatist/dealers. Or you can learn what you can, buy smart, and have fun.

 

British Isles Traders' Token.

Jody,what is the placename, & the issuer of the piece? If it is about the size of a nickel,then it is a farthing.If it is about the size of a $1/2,then it
is a halfpenny.As these were used in circulation,they were technically coins.Dalton & Hamer were authors of a catalogue on these tokens,but sadly,the catalogue is out of print.

 

My oldest coins are some Roman coins I can not tell you when as for they are badly worn and crusted with dirt. As for why coins where created, although you gave many interesting ideas you did pretty much said the same thing a meduim of trade. If you used them to pay mercenaries the only reason they would take them is because they can trade them for something else food, clothing etc...

 

It can be had on the second hand markets fairly readily though if you have circa $150 to spare.

Seaby's `British Tokens and Their Values' and `Coins and Tokens of Scotland' basically cover the whole gambit although not in quite so much detail as D and H. They are very much an acceptable substitute for the beginner `Conder Token' collector and can be had on ebay for a mere few dollars apiece.

 

If someone one presents a circular cylinder of metal to you and says "this is an ounce of gold" or "this is worth a dollar" (depending on the time period), do you take them at their word? History is full of the creation of debased and otherwise fake coins.

If every merchant has a scale, and enough knowledge to tell if the lumps of metal are reasonably pure, trading lumps or jewelry works. But that doesn't work at all for fiduciary items. Tokens or coins reduce the effort of evaluating the payment.

If "coins" were issued without a special mark, anyone could issue coins that looked the same without repercussion. The mark gives the merchants confidence to accept the coin, and the issuer the right to go after someone who issues fakes and stop them saying "this is fraud".

The mark doesn't have to be one specific symbol on the coin, it can be a combination that fall under the general category of "Its shape and size and other details of its physical state". But it need to be something that the culture (and judicial system) would recognize as specific to coins and not acceptable to copy.