Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;kevin McGonigal, post: 6447064, member: 72790&quot;]I am glad you posted those coins. For me, what is most interesting is the fabric of the coins, the&nbsp; metallic composition. As you mention there&#039;s some hesitation about whether the Antonia coin should be listed as silver or billon. There&#039;s a good reason for that. The early Alexandrine tetradrachmas still had enough silver in them to pass as silver. Harl records those of Tiberius averaging 30.5 % Ag and those of Claudius at 22.94% Ag. For the first couple years those of Nero averaged 23.15% Ag and then afterwards quickly down to 16.54% Ag. as part of an overall reduction of silver, easily detected in his denarii by a reduction in weight. Nero&#039;s tetradrachmas were issued in very large numbers after that debasement and are fairly common today, in pretty nice condition, too,&nbsp; but those of his first two years, as well as those of Tiberius and Claudius are not so common. The difference in percentage of silver probably invited melting them down. In value it seems that the amount of silver in them now equaled the silver content of the denarii so that they trafficked at one denarius = one tetradrachma, at least within Roman Egypt.</p><p><br /></p><p>I have also posted a tetradrachma of Agrippina from the Antioch mint as Antioch produced some coins of the first families but these were minted with a higher percentage of silver than those of Alexandria. Harl has them with a content of about 78 % Ag. They often show the same members of the Imperial Family and it is interesting to see how they were pictured compared to the issues of Alexandria.</p><p><br /></p><p>The first coin is similar to yours, an Alexandrine Tetra with Antonia, mother of Claudius, issued in L B, year two of his reign with Claudius on the obverse. Considering how indifferently, some may say cruelly, she treated her &quot;half formed son&quot;, it&#039;s a work of notable piety that she was featured at all. The second coin is one from the Antioch mint showing Agrippina with her son, Nero, on the obverse. it is a good thing that on both coins the names are clearly legible as their appearance is similar and one could otherwise wonder who was on the coin if they were not legible. The third Tetra is one of Nero after the great debasement with the personification of Alexandria on the reverse. I have posted them side to side for a better comparison of both the images and the appearance of the fabric. Perhaps i am seeing things but I think one can distinguish the difference in silver content by the shading of the coins.[ATTACH=full]1256270[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]1256271[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in