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<p>[QUOTE="SeptimusT, post: 4015354, member: 91240"]While it's less interesting to <i>look</i> at, there's some interesting stories about the metal itself, too. I don't know what proportion of coins were made out of virgin material, but lots of ancient coins have been melted down to make other coins. We'll never know most of there stories, but there are some exceptions. </p><p><br /></p><p>Supposedly the first denarius issues were struck on silver from melted down Syracuse silvers during the Second Punic War. Of course, lots of Syracuse bronzes were overstruck by the Romans at the same time. </p><p><br /></p><p><img src="https://www.cointalk.com/attachments/anonymous-denarius-copy-png.861962/" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /> </p><p><b>Anonymous 2nd Punic War Denarius, After 211 BC, Brinkman Group 6</b></p><p><br /></p><p><img src="https://www.cointalk.com/attachments/overstruck-sextans-png.1001593/" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /> </p><p><b>Anonymous AE Sextans, overstruck on coin of Hiero II</b></p><p><br /></p><p>This one isn't quite ancient, but it's got a good story. In the late 1500s, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the successor of Oda Nobunaga and the first person to rule (more or less) a unified Japan, confiscated weapons belonging to the non-samurai populace. The weapons were melted down and in 1588 the metal collected from that project was used to create a massive bronze Buddha statue (Daibutsu) at Hoko-Ji Temple in Kyoto. The temple and the Buddha were destroyed soon thereafter in an earthquake, and in 1668 Tokugawa Ietsuna, the Shogun at the time, had the remnants of the statue melted down and used to make these coins, commonly known as bun-sen. </p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1055896[/ATTACH] </p><p><b>Kanei Tsuho, Kameido Mint (Near Edo/Tokyo), 1668</b></p><p><b>Obverse: </b>Kan Ei Tsu Ho </p><p><b>Reverse: </b>Bun[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>
[QUOTE="SeptimusT, post: 4015354, member: 91240"]While it's less interesting to [I]look[/I] at, there's some interesting stories about the metal itself, too. I don't know what proportion of coins were made out of virgin material, but lots of ancient coins have been melted down to make other coins. We'll never know most of there stories, but there are some exceptions. Supposedly the first denarius issues were struck on silver from melted down Syracuse silvers during the Second Punic War. Of course, lots of Syracuse bronzes were overstruck by the Romans at the same time. [IMG]https://www.cointalk.com/attachments/anonymous-denarius-copy-png.861962/[/IMG] [B]Anonymous 2nd Punic War Denarius, After 211 BC, Brinkman Group 6[/B] [IMG]https://www.cointalk.com/attachments/overstruck-sextans-png.1001593/[/IMG] [B]Anonymous AE Sextans, overstruck on coin of Hiero II[/B] This one isn't quite ancient, but it's got a good story. In the late 1500s, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the successor of Oda Nobunaga and the first person to rule (more or less) a unified Japan, confiscated weapons belonging to the non-samurai populace. The weapons were melted down and in 1588 the metal collected from that project was used to create a massive bronze Buddha statue (Daibutsu) at Hoko-Ji Temple in Kyoto. The temple and the Buddha were destroyed soon thereafter in an earthquake, and in 1668 Tokugawa Ietsuna, the Shogun at the time, had the remnants of the statue melted down and used to make these coins, commonly known as bun-sen. [ATTACH=full]1055896[/ATTACH] [B]Kanei Tsuho, Kameido Mint (Near Edo/Tokyo), 1668 Obverse: [/B]Kan Ei Tsu Ho [B]Reverse: [/B]Bun[/QUOTE]
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