As my name suggests, I am into old gold. However, this is misleading. My name should read "Pre-1933 US Mint State Gold Coin Appreciating Gentleman". With that said, I do mainly collect graded, key date, mint state 90% gold US coins. However, I have a few little side collections. Recently, I saw a coin that sent that blood a rushin like it used to in the good ol days. So I started doing some research. Let me preface this with a statement, I feel absolutely clueless when it comes to ancients. First, there is a whole new language to learn just to understand what you are looking at (latin). That is a huge entry barrier for me. Languages and I do not mix. Took 4 years of Spanish and 3 years of French, and cannot get past "hola" and "donde es el bano". But I am getting off track. What I really want to know is this; is there a site where I can find composition of coins as well as mintage figures? I am sure most of the knowledge of mintages has been lost to antiquity, but composition can be tested, so this at least should be verifiable - IS THERE A WEBSITE, BOOK, CT FORUM MEMBER (i already wrote a 3 page message to one I have come to believe is very knowledgeable from his posts, who hasn't even responded in days) WHERE I CAN FIND MINTAGE FIGURES AND METAL COMPOSITIONS OF ANCIENTS? And to save the Obvious Ottos a post, yes, I have utilized the search function on this site as well as Google, but the problem is, the information I find is sporadic and scattered, there is no continuity, uniformity, etc for me to look at the big picture and delve in where I feel compelled. And maybe I do not know what I am looking at fully yet. On a side note, is it common knowledge the Spartans did not have coinage? They used iron rods (ingots) as their currency to discourage hoarding and focusing on war preparation? I was ready to drop some dough on some Spartan money. But other than one single King names Aureus, or Auros, or something along those lines, I cannot find a single thing? If someone knows of a website that chronologically lists different issues, mintages, compositions, etc, I would owe you.
I think you should watch this video for a lot of basics about ancient coins. It also has some information about minting statistics in the video.
For these subjects that you want to know, some studying on your part is necessary. Ancient coins are very fun but it takes some amount of effort to learn and deduce many forms of information. There are also debates on various subjects because we really don't know a lot of things about ancient coins. As far as the Roman Empire is concerned, you may figure some estimated mintage figures for each emperor to some extent. For each emperor that's on a coin, there are many reverse types for all the major metal types, gold, silver, bronze. There are other metals used but they are uncommon or even rare such as lead, electrum, even nickle. Here is a site, Tantalus coin gallery. http://www.tantaluscoins.com/browse.php The coins that are registered here is a fraction of what's out there, what people own and the coins that are waiting to be found but it's possible that the ratio could be close. For example, Constantine I has more coins than anyone and more coin types and designs. Constantine I has 4780 registered coins out of a total of 69,279 registered coins. Again, this is only a fraction out of millions and millions, maybe billions of minted coins.
There has been metal analysis of coins, debates about silver debasement of coins. Coins that only merely have a "silver wash". These things I leave to you to research and of course other people here may post what they know. I'm giving you enough to get started, I think.
Ok, wow. Lots of useful information, I really appreciate it. I watched the majority of that video but it is not as detailed as I was hoping. Your reply here was much more useful. Talk to me about the gold, silver and electrum coins, and their differing reverses, as I am only interested in the precious metal based coins. What about mintmarks? What are these "post-humous" coins I keep seeing? You may not have realized it, but you made a couple statements in your reply that were golden facts/concepts that saved me hours of research. Keep it coming.
That video is much more useful than you might think as it covers a lot of basics. Think of it as a primer before moving on. Coins and history are linked, believe it. Mint marks denote a particular mint city and often the workshop as well. The mint mark system more or less started to be mainstream in the Tetrachy era, through the Constantinian dynasty all the way to the end of the Byzantine Empire. Lots of information about this topic exists. Divus Constantine AE3/4. 337-340 AD. 15mm, 1.5g OBV: DV CONSTANTINVS PF AVGG, Veiled head right. REV: Constantine in quadriga right, the hand of God, upper center, grasping the chariot, CONS in ex. REF: RIC VIII Constantinopolis 37 This is one such example of a posthumous coin. A coin that commemorates the life and death of a emperor. This such coin commemorates Constantine I ascending to the heavens by the hand of God. On the reverse of the coin under the quadriga is CONS, CONS is the mintmark for the city Constantinopolis (Constantinople).
If you're interested in Roman gold, you should familiarize yourself with the Aureus and Solidus. If there is a particular coin you are interested in acquiring, let us know the exact type, and we can direct you to much more specific information.
I do not think I can add much more, except I think I saw something about metal composition either by Warren Esty or something he linked. You might want to contact him at westy@gmail.com. I figure if he dosen't have the information at his fingertips, he will know where to find it. Good luck. BTW, Ancients are great fun.
For an in depth discussion of coin composition, circulation, and Roman monetary policy, check out: http://www.amazon.com/Coinage-Economy-Ancient-Society-History/dp/0801852919
