Coins And History

This thread must be kept alive at all costs

 

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No worries/ I am unemployed till snow melts in April/ so I have lots of free time to add many of my 900 coins/ history

 

AV Stater ND Salamis Mint
Cyprus/ under Ptolemaic satraps
Nikokreon 330-12BC King of Cyprus

After Alexander III died, the vast Empire was split among his generals. Almost immediately, wars broke out for supremacy. Egypt had been given to Ptolemy, meanwhile the King of Salamis, a City State on Cyprus, pledged his allegiance to Ptolemy. In 318BC, Ptolemy secured the entire island of Cyprus, forcing the Kings of the small city states to pledge allegiance to him. This would be important, since he needed to control Cyrenaica/ Syria/ Cyprus as buffer states. In 318BC Cyprus was attacked by Antigonus "The One Eye" , another of Alexanders generals wanting total rule. The invaders where defeated, upon which Ptolemy made Nikokreon hir governor on the island. Later in 312BC, Nikoktreon vanished from history.

 

AV Stater ND
struck Olbia Mint circa 44-42BC
Kotison? King in Thrace?

These coins where found in a hoard in Romania. Most are in mint state quality, thankfully the guys who found it kept it secret, thus average collectors can own a piece of ancient history. Otherwise they would have ended up in a Bucharest museum.
These coins likely where minted to pay the soldiers in Kotisons army. The obverse has the Roman Eagle with wreath/ the "B" for Brutus
The reverse show three Roman Consuls.
The aftermath of the battle between Brutus and allies ended in defeat, so the coins where likely buried to prevent them from falling in the hands of Octavius and Marc Anthonys forces.

 

Have always wanted one of these. Never understood how so many of them have existed in mint state over the years

 

Gorgeous piece!It's a well known type back home and plenty of them were sold on the black market by people who were making a living of illegally metal detecting on dacian archaeological sites!Sadly this is happening these days too!

 

we call it coson/koson

 

But, the alternative would be confiscation by the government, and they all end up in a museum. This way, at least ordinary collectors can afford to buy them.

 

The major issue there is the legislation regarding metal detecting finds, coin collecting and the provenience of your coins, should i mention that sometimes even the museum pieces vanish?

 

There are 2 or more sides to every discussion like this. If I found some treasure, I would surely want to keep it rather than give it to some government stooges who might steal it for themselves. Finders keepers is an old saying in the USA. Of course, if the treasure is found on another's property, without permission or agreement, then it could be considered theft. We could go on and on about this, and never reach agreement. Nice coin there panzerman!

 

Yugoslavia
King Alexander I/ Queen Maria
AV 4 Dukaten
Belgrade Mint
In 1918, the Allies carved up the Austro-Hungarian Empire to create Czechoslovakia/ Yugoslavia. Serbia had been involved in the assassination of the Austrian Archduke Ferdinand in Sarejevo. This led to WWI. Now Serbia was given Austro-Hungarian territory and became known as Yugoslavia/ Union of the Southern Slavs. Alexander became its first King. He ruled with an iron fist/ secret police to keep populace in fear. In 1934 he was assassinated in Paris. The revenge tactics of Versailles would lead to WW2.

 

I think the Nazis led us into WW2.

 

Had the Allied Powers followed Woodrow Wilson's advice, and implemented his "Fourteen Points" instead of Clemenceau's "Versailles Treaty", things would have turned out differently. Germany/ Austro-Hungary would not have faced Communist insurgencies in 1918-22/ no hyper inflation of 1923-25/ no chance for a rabble rouser like Hitler and crew to win popular support among a desperate people. Hence no War in 1939. There are also the fears that Josef Stalin/ Soviet Union would have tried world domination later in 40s/50s.

 

Gentlemen, can we please keep the discussion centered on coins and avoid politics? Here are a couple of WWII coins made of zink. Their gray, dusty appearance always reminds me of the ashes of dead people and the dreadful hardships suffered by all the participants in that war.

 

Absolutely, nothing political about what I said. Other poster is pure speculation as we will never know what if....

 

This odd denomination coin was struck in 1745 to celebrate the election of Franz I Von Lothringen as Holy Roman Emperor. Franz was married to Maria Theresia/ Habsburg Empress. Frankfurt was an Imperial City (part of HRE) and struck these coins for every elected HRE. Frankfurt would be later absorbed into Preussen-Brandenburg. Note: the "seeing Eye symbol" like on the US $1 bill.

 

Christian V, 1670-99, 4 Mark 1699



Frederik IV of Denmark, "Ryttermark", 1723. Kongsberg mint.


After having been a force to be reckoned with in the age of the Vikings, the Norwegians went quietly into history for several hundred years. First the Hanseatic states dominated. Then came the Danish rule for centuries. The Danish kings did little more than to keep the Norwegian people down. Few got education, and if they did, they suddenly became very Danish. The Danish kings did well to suck the silver out of the mines of Kongsberg (Kongsberg=Kings hill) and laying claims to all timber that was being produced in the "kings forrest". Black market trade of timber with the Dutch was rampant along the Norwegian west coast, my homeland.


Christian VII, 1766-1808, 1/3 speciedaler

Norwegians knew little about their history, because national pride was not useful for the Danish kings. However, in 1711 an Icelandic writer named Tormod Torfæus came with a 3500 page work called Historia Rerum Norvegicarum. Suddenly people heard about the Norwegian vikings and kings of old again. Along with the inherited increasing madness of the Danish kings generation for generation, the nation started to come back to life. As Denmark chose the wrong side in the Napoleonic wars, they lost the grip on Norway. It was time for Norway to become..... Swedish


Carl XIV Johan of Sweden, half speciedaler size "Kastepenning" ("throw penny") issued for the crowning in 1818. Kongsberg mint.

Times were changing though. Following the defeat of Napoleon's troops at the Battle of Leipzig in October 1813, the Treaty of Kiel of January 1814 ceded Norway to Sweden. In response, the Crown Prince of Denmark-Norway, Christian Frederik, the resident viceroy in Norway, founded a Norwegian independence movement. The most likely goal of the young Crown Prince was reunification with Denmark. His initiative was successful, and a national assembly at Eidsvoll was called. The assembled representatives were elected by the congregations of the state church throughout Norway, and by military units. They convened at the Eidsvoll manor on 10 April. During five weeks of the spring of 1814, the constitution was written. The constitution was ratified by the assembly on 16 May, and signed the following day, the latter date now celebrated as the Norwegian Constitution Day.

This constitution would be the tool that would break the foreign kings' clasp around Norway. During the next 90 years, the newly founded parliament (Stortinget) would make one law after the other that would fragment the power of the Swedish king. Norway was becoming unruly, but still peaceful. During the 1870s, parliamentarism was introduced, utterly weakening the Swedish king Oscar II. Now it was up to the parliament to veto laws. In 1905 they decided to declare Norway a sovereign nation. Scrounging for a king of their own, the Norwegians found prince Carl of Denmark. Now, that was no fitting name for a king whose people were not particularly keen on Danish royalty. He should have a Norwegian kings name of old. Håkon it was, after Håkon the Good that made us proud 1000 years earlier.

It's an understatement to say that the Norwegian people were excited. Oscar II of Sweden wasn't as excited. He threatened with war. 26 000 thousand young Norwegian men were sent to the border to stand guard, among them my great-grandfather. No attack came. The Swedes loved us too much, and we are still a brotherly people.

Numismatically, the young nation tried to bring out their best. Ivar Throndsen was the go-to engraver. His style is very much Art Noveau, and he is considered to have been a very gifted man artistically. His first pieces were silver 2-kroner coins commemorating the free nation. One of them had a low mintage, only 27.500. That issue also had crossed guns on the reverse. It was made for the 26 000 men that watched the border in 1905:



A few years later, Throndsen made his first gold coins; the 10 and 20 kroner cons from 1910. They have been voted the finest coins ever made in Norway. On the obverse the young king is wearing his crown (which Haakon VII did as seldom as he could). On the reverse the Viking king Olav the Holy is presenting his axe:

 

Beautifull coins svessien Your historical accounts are very informative.
John

 

Thanks Panzerman! And thank you for showing us beautiful gold coins on a Friday

Svein

 

Thank you! I would say coins are great, every day of the year! Beautifull hobby....