Sub-Saharan Africa in Antiquity is not well-known... There is an exception, the kingdom of Axum in today's Ethiopia. This African kingdom traded with Arabs and Greeks since the 1st c. AD but direct contacts with the classical world were scarce. It was initially influenced by South Arabian culture, began minting gold and silver coins with Greek legends in the late 3rd c., and in the 4th c. its king Ezanas (c.333 - c.356) converted to Christianity. The kingdom minted gold, silver and bronze coins until the beginning of the 7th c. These coins are typical and do not look like contemporaneous late Roman, Byzantine or Persian coinages. Silver and bronze coins are extremely thin and at first sight look like the Western medieval deniers minted centuries later. Many of them are bimetallic : the cross on the reverse is gilt or inlaid with gold, even tiny bronze coins. Axum, anonymous issue, c. 410-450 (time of King Noe). AR 15 mm, 0.54 g. Obv.: CΛX ΛCΛ, king's bust draped, wearing headcloth, right, within double circle border. Rev.: OTYOT ΛPECH TH XWPΛ, gilt cross within circle. The meaning of the obv. legend is obscure, some specialists think it meant "King of the land of the Abyssinians" much abbreviated. The rev. legend is Greek, with first word retrograde: τοῦτο ἀρέσῃ τῇ χώρᾳ, "may this please the country" (this = the Cross). At the mint, the rev. cross was systematically gilded inside. Another one, a bit later: Axum, anonymous issue, c. 460-480 (time of King Ebana). AE 15 mm, 0.70 g. Obv.: CΛX ΛCΛ, king's bust draped and crowned, wearing long cross, right. Rev.: TOYTO ΛPECH TH XWPΛ, cross within circle, centre inlaid with gold.
Interesting ! I do have two reference books about them (by Stuart Munro-Hay), but never taken the plunge : most of my coin budget is literally "swallowed" by my Dombes addiction Q
I would like more of these but the dealers I have frequented don't often carry them. Big dealers more often have high priced (but pretty) gold or silver than the bronzes that tend to be lower grade (like mine). Kaleb and successors 520-540 AD - low grade but still has its gold Joel mid-late 6th century? Negus Armah (Najashi) 614-630 AD was the last Axum ruler to issue coins and is thought to have converted to Islam near the end of his reign. One thing you notice about Axum is that you find different dates depending on where you look. I believe coins are a large pat of what we have from some periods.
Two nice ones, @GinoLR. Here's a recent favorite, of Wazena (6th c.). By this time, the legends are in Ger'ez (proto-Amharic, still used liturgically) And a one-time coup, a 3rd-c. BCE amulet from Meroe, with a stylized ram's head of Amun (as in, Tutankhamun).
Very nice coins everyone. Axumite coinage is definitely interesting, it's one of the areas I've had to actively prevent myself from going into because my time and budget for collecting are limited and I can't collect everything. Here's my one Axumite coin, from c. 350 AD, with the obverse inscription "Basileou" (Of the King) without specifying which particular king:
I'd love to get some Axumite coinage, but as others have expressed, I haven't taken the plunge yet due to focusing on other areas. The History of Africa podcast covered Axum in season 2. I thought it was an enjoyable listen. It was interesting to learn about how Axumite history has crossovers with Roman, Jewish, Persian, and Islamic history. https://historyofafricapodcast.blogspot.com/p/season-two-origins-of-ethiopia.html
Many thanks, @DiomedesofArgos, for the links (bookmarked). Here are a couple more of mine --recently posted, but at 11 pm and change, Pacific time, who's counting? Another variant of the anonymous issue of the later 4th c., as posted by @GinoLR and @Parthicus. The legends are all still in late Koine Greek; 'BACILEUS,' followed by 'TOYTOAPECHTHXWPA' ('May this [the cross] please the people.') My only complete (if clipped) 'ancient' gold coin.* Kaleb, the king who was in sustained diplomatic contact with Justinian I, and who invaded a part of western Yemen in 525, ostensibly in defense of its Christian population, under a regime which was newly converted to Judaism. Here, the legends are in blundered (sometimes retrograde) Koine Greek, apart from the two characters directly above the obverse crown, which are effectively Kaleb's monogram, in Ge'ez. *(Apart from some Islamic fractiononal dinars; from Sicily under nominal Fatimid rule, and the taifas of al Andalus; all c. 11th c. CE.)
It is a pity that nearly all of these coins surface on the international market with no whereabouts at all: we shall never know where they were found. I read somewhere (sorry, I forgot it) that gold coins mostly come from hoards found in Yemen and Saudi Arabia, more often than from Eritrea or Ethiopia itself. Bronze coins are found in Ethiopia, but also in Egypt, Jordan (Aqaba, Petra, Jerash), Israel (Caesarea) and Jerusalem. Obviously they were brought there by African pilgrims to Jerusalem.
