I'm sure you Ancient Coins Collectors know these already. I'm learning little by little. I had the privilege to see #1 at the NYINC Show. Does anyone own any of these? Show them off here! 2. The Athens Decadrachm, 460 - 430 BC I want to share this web article with you - https://www.thecollector.com/important-ancient-coins/amp/
My first thought is you are showing @AncientJoe's collection (well, part of it anyway) Q PS : not sure your #3 is actually Syracuse though
Interesting that the article listed the Athenian dekadrachm as the Syracuse. I don't see any of these as potentially 'important' since none really supported commerce but they are certainly the splashy and popular coins. The Caesar was possibly important since placing his portrait on the coins could have contributed in some part to the need for his assasination in the eyes of those who saw Caesar as a danger to the Republic.
Interesting list, thanks for sharing! I would only personally consider 1, 8, 10, and to a lesser extent 3 (which isn't showing up for some reason) to be important. The others are very expensive coins, but not very important IMO. I feel a Peloponnesian War-era Athens tetradrachm should have been 2, instead of the decadrachm, as its a much more historically significant and influential type. Other contenders in my mind are Alexander tetradrachms and gold staters of Philip II, as well as the first series of Roma+Dioscuri Denarii, and let's not forget the Achaemenid Sigloi+Daric combo which was the first truly 'global' and standardised bimetallic currency system.
I think all these Greek coins are here mostly for their artistry, I'd say the actual important coins with relevance to this day are the Brutus Eid-Mar, Mark Antony/Cleopatra, and the portrait coin of Caesar. If not for people like JC, Brutus, Octavian, and the subsequent founding of the empire, who knows if Christianity would've ever been adopted! Also, the coins of Nero and Titus portray an event that we can relate to, which I think is nice! But, the actual important coins would be the ones made during significant events in world history, like any lifetime coins of Alexander III, Karshapanas of Indian Janapadas during the time of Buddha, Judea Capta, coins of Odoacer, early coins of Islam, coins from Mongol invasions, last coin of Constantine XI (if not for the Ottomans, discovery of the new-world, the trade, and the industrialization from further events would've been questionable).
I think if you asked 10 people what the 10 most important coins are, you'd get at least 11 results back because someone would change their mind halfway through (I certainly would!) It looks like they took inspiration from the HJB "100 Greatest" sequencing where Berk asked a number of collectors to rank their favorites and then summed up the results. This follows the "wisdom of the crowd" which has some basis in mathematics and cognitive science. That said, the author couldn't recognize that they had two Athens dekadrachms in the same list so perhaps it isn't the most scientific. As for owning items on the list, I do have a number of these, depending on how precise your definitions are: #1. Eid Mar denarius: #2. No Athens dekadrachm but I'll share my Athens gold (detail in this thread) which is far more interesting in my opinion. #3. Syracuse dekadrachm. They meant to post a coin like this, a Kimon dekadrachm. The signed versions are more expensive but I find this pair of unsigned dies for Kimon to be more attractive: #4. The Akragas dekadrachm is virtually unattainable: the one nice example sold for $3M+ and the other looks like it went through a garbage disposal (but Clio bought it to have an example of the type, still costing > $100K). Here's my obol which is comparable in rarity to the dekadrachm (a single known pair of dies) and impressive for different reasons with its small size. I certainly wouldn't turn down a particularly fine style larger example but it wouldn't replace this coin: #5. I have no coins of Naxos. I can appreciate the artistic influence and the transition from archaic to classical but even the nice ones are available with some regularity as long as you're willing to spend a house for one. #6. Gold heavy stater of Croesus: #7. Titus Colosseum sestertius. Ex Dr. Paul Hartwig, MM P&P Santamaria, Rome 07.03.1910, Lot 1215 #8. Portrait denarius of Cleopatra and Mark Antony. As their example shows, it's hard to find a coin with CLEOPATRA fully visible on the flan which was my main factor: #9. Port of Ostia sestertius. #10. Julius Caesar denarius, a coin I'm working on upgrading although a friend tracked down a nice pedigree: Ex: Count Tolstoy, March 11, 1912, lot 706
#3, the Decadrachm from Syracuse, should look like this: CNG has one listed in the upcoming Triton auction is January.
One coin from the most lovely series sums up essentially the death of Greek independence. As significant as a Eid Mar.IMHO. Athens NewStyle Star between 2 Crescents magistrates King Mithradates Vl of Pontus and the tyrant Aristion 87/86 BC time of the Sullan encirclement of Piraeus and Athens. The pontic symbol has been removed ( on the original die or scraped off the coin (more likely)? how can one tell?) and replaced with a Headdress of Isis which I, extending from Ashton, recognise has a pro-Roman symbol since Isis appeared herself in the siege of Rhodes that failed. A very significant She is with us and against you message and coinage with Headdress of Isis symbols soon after 88 BC can be interpreted as pro-roman propaganda. This unique coin is in the BNF and appeared just after NSCCA and has attracted, surprisingly, little attention. Published in deCallatay Les Histoire des Guerres Mithradatiques pour vous monnaies 1997.
I wish that when people decide on a list of the "most ......" coins they would establish a definition of the term used. This list is certainly interesting but some of them had such limited circulation that they were hardly ever seen by Greco-Romans in any economic or financial setting and would have been seen as curious to them as to us. If important means something like, "facilitated trade, financed territorial expansion, set off rampant inflation, brought down rulers, that sort of thing, I could see the term "important" applying but I think that several of the coins on this list were little more than exotic. For "important" coinage i would have chosen something like the Athenian owl tetradrachmas or the tetradrachmas of Alexander and the successors, maybe the cistaphoric coinage or maybe just plain, everyday Roman Republic denarii, any of them.
I agree with AJ. You ask a hundred different collectors/ to pick a top ten/ you would have differing opinions and tastes. One such list, has none of the above/ but 5 US coins like the 1804 Dollar/ 1913 Nickel/ $4 Stella.... Some of the 100 Dukaten from Bohemia/ Poland/ Transylvania should be on the list. Probably the most imp. coin was the first archaiac one that started the show in 670BC/ earlier? Without that experiment, we would all be collecting different things today. Thank God for the Ionians/ Lydians in Asia Minor
As a corollary to the above discussion, I find it interesting that that most expensive Roman Imperial coins tend to be of people who had the least impact on western history. Laelianus? Domitian II? Compared with, say, Constantine or Trajan?
Makes perfect sense though/ Constans II/ Alexander of Carthage/ Saturninus/ Allectus/ Marius etc., all had short reigns/ never had time to strike many coins. However, thanks to a few known coins/ we now know of their historical importance. Without coins, history would have forgotten these Emperors/ Usurpers. Sometimes a small hoard is found/ and we still have no definative answers/ like the Koson AV Staters/ found in Romania.
Of the above list, I have only one, as well as a Slavei copy. However, as many stated above, I do NOT believe the list is correct nor complete. Coinage was used for transactions AS WELL AS sending messages to the public. If the coins were unattainable to the everyday people, they could not be as influential or IMPORTANT for Ancient times! GAIVS IVLIVS CAESAR Last TWO Weeks of his life... Roman Imperiatorial Julius Caesar Lifetime P Sepullius Macer AR Denarius, 1st 2 weeks-Mar 44 BCE, 19 mm, 4.03g. Obv: CAESAR – DICT PERPETVO Veiled and wreathed head of Caesar R. Rev: P·SEPVLLIVS – MACER Venus standing l., holding Victory and sceptre resting on star. Ref: Syd 1074a Sear Imperators 107e Crawford 480-14 Rare - minted in last two weeks of his reign, or two weeks before he was assassinated. - veiled, as he held the offce of Pontifex Maximus for several years, and that office was very important to him personally. - wreathed... just short of being king... big no-no - DICT PERPETVO - yeah, he was a king... so Roman Republic inherently and culturally hated kings. - fairly difficult to capture with the star on reverse - reasonably centered with most/all devices and legends (this is not as important to me cuz its numismatic vs the intrinsic Historical impact.) Alföldi arranges Crawford 480 series coins in (44 BC) month order as follows: RRC 480/1, Buca - January RRC 480/2, DICT QVART - early February RRC 480/3/4/5, CAESAR IMP - late February RRC 480/6/7/8/9/10/11/12/13/14, DICT PERPETVO - early to mid March RRC 480/17/18, CAESAR IMPER - late March RRC 480/19/20, PARENS PATRIAE - April RRC 480/15/16, MARIDIANVS - April RRC 480/21/22, CLEMENTIAE CAESARIS and Mark Antony - April SLAVEI COPY
