Cool things you can do with ancients

One of my favorite things to do with my Roman coins is hold them. Hold all of them in my hand. At once.


My entire Gordian III collection. Yes, it's just a mere 12 coins at this time, but it will grow. However, if I held my Indian Head Cent collection like this, I would be yelled at.

 

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Nice shot! It reminds me that these were really used for everyday things. I wonder how much wine those denarii would buy.

 

There's actually only 1 denarius is the pic. The rest of the silver is Antoniniani. Not sure how much inflation affected the price of wine, but I bet I could buy a couple of bottles with what's in my hand.

 

Though Diocletian's “Edict of Maximum Prices” was issued almost 60 years after the rule of Gordian III, it lists prices for wine and beer

Wine & Beer
Prices refer to one sextarius. 1 sextarius=1.14 Pints or .546 liters
beer, Celtic or Pannonian ....................................................................................4
Egyptian ............................................................................................................2
Aminean, Falernian, Picene, Sabine, Tiburtine regional wines ................................30
aged wine .........................................................................................................24
second quality ...................................................................................................16
chrysattic wine ..................................................................................................24
Maeonian wine, boiled down one-third ................................................................30
must, boiled down .............................................................................................16
must, boiled down one-half ................................................................................20
rose wine ..........................................................................................................20
spiced wine .......................................................................................................24
wine with wormwood.........................................................................................20
vin ordinaire (ordinary wine) ...............................................................................8


here is a page with more data, from Ancient Coins for Education (ACE).

http://www.constantinethegreatcoins.com/edict/

 

Are those prices in Denarii?

 

"All the prices and wages are listed in denarii communes, which were not actually silver denarii as we usually think of when discussing ancient Roman coinage. Denarii communes, or d.c., were notational currency. What this means is, an exchange rate was given, telling how much of the currency in circulation at that time (nummii) it took to equal one d.c. This made it easy to change the value of the money in circulation, without having to rewrite and redistribute the entire Edict. A series of exchange tables are at the end of this page."

http://www.constantinethegreatcoins.com/edict/

 

Agreed! The tactile pleasure of handling ancient coins is great. It's one of the reasons I don't care for slabs.

 

Ok, I'm dumb. 1 Antoninianus was 1 d.c.?

 

Maybe some Mad Dog or Wild Irish Rose but not good wine, lol.

 

that's a cool shot swish, and some nice looking coins!

so why all gordian iii? just out of curiosity

 

Some jingle in your toga.

 

I have two Alexander Tets, and to hold both of them in my hand is a rush. I wonder why people think coin collectors are weird???

 

Those do look like a nice group and will not suffer too badly from being held.

 

One of my favorite coin experiences is putting all the silver on a tabletop altogether. Something about letting all those emperors get to know one another..

 

It's what I collect. Not sure why, just have a fascination with him. The boy emperor. Died, or murdered (depends on what you think happened) at a very young age, but was still the ruler of Rome. His story is close to King Tut's story, just a few thousand years apart. There's not a lot known about Gordian III, which is what I think draws me to him. To solve the unsolved. I dunno. At any rate, I collect him, and that's my entire Gordian III collection in my hand.

 

I don't hold them all the time, but I just got 2 new ones today, bringing my total to 12, so I thought I'd take a pic with all of them. They will go back to their resting places soon. Maybe in another year, when there are more, I will get them all back together in my hand and take another pic.

 

One of my tactilely favorite coins.

 

They were also once held 1700+ years ago, and no one thought that was bad. They will be fine.

 

It is kinda crazy to think about it that way. These were the dollars and quarters of their time.

 

I agree, it is cool to hold ancient coins, and not too bad for the coins. I like big bronze -