Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Roman Collector, post: 3222348, member: 75937&quot;]I think you got an excellent deal on that coin, because what other hobby would allow you to get a genuine ancient artifact to hold in your hand for the price of a value meal at McDonald&#039;s?</p><p><br /></p><p>Moreover, there is a lot of fun and education to be had if you spend some time answering questions this coin raises. Here are a few. I will answer some of them in order to get you going in the right direction.</p><p><br /></p><blockquote>The obverse of the coin reads K ΠO KOP BAΛЄPIANOC; that&#039;s Greek, right?</p><blockquote><p><span style="color: #ff0000">Yes, it is.</span></p><p><span style="color: #ff0000"><br /></span></p></blockquote>Who is this K ΠO KOP BAΛЄPIANOC?</p><blockquote><p><span style="color: #ff0000">I can&#039;t expect you, being just new to the hobby, to know this, so I&#039;ll tell you. K stands for KAICAP, which is transliterated into Caesar. ΠO KOP is a Greek abbreviation for <i>Publius Cornelius</i>. BAΛЄPIANOC is transliterated into Latin as VALERIANUS. An interesting aside is that this inscription indicates that in the time and place where this was minted, when used as a consonant, the Latin V was pronounced more like our modern V, rather than the classical W sound. That&#039;s why it&#039;s spelled with a B. In a city a few hundred miles to the west, the name of this person is spelled OVAΛЄPIANOC, indicating it was pronounced like Walerianos.</span></p><p><span style="color: #ff0000"><br /></span></p></blockquote>Really? Isn&#039;t he a Roman? Wouldn&#039;t this be a Roman coin, then? What&#039;s it doing written in Greek?</p><blockquote><p><span style="color: #ff0000">Yes, he is a Roman and this is a Roman coin -- a Roman provincial coin. Why is it in Greek? That&#039;s the question first-year students ask at seminary when they learn that all 27 books of the New Testament as well as all of the letters of the church fathers (even to and from the church in Rome) are written in Greek, not Latin.</span></p><p><br /></p></blockquote>When did K ΠO KOP BAΛЄPIANOC live? Is this BAΛЄPIANOC I or his grandson, BAΛЄPIANOC II? What role did he play in Roman history?</p><blockquote><p><span style="color: #ff0000">Does he look old enough to have a grandson himself? I seriously urge you to read about this historical figure and his family.</span></p><p><span style="color: #ff0000"><br /></span></p></blockquote>The reverse of the coin reads KAICAPЄΩN BAΓHNΩN; is that the name of the place that issued the coin?</p><blockquote><p><span style="color: #ff0000">Yes, it is. Even experienced collectors might have trouble identifying this city, so</span> <a href="http://www.letmegooglethat.com/?q=KAICAP%D0%84%CE%A9N+BA%CE%93HN%CE%A9N&amp;l=1" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.letmegooglethat.com/?q=KAICAP%D0%84%CE%A9N+BA%CE%93HN%CE%A9N&amp;l=1" rel="nofollow">let me Google that for you</a>.</p><p><br /></p></blockquote>Where is that? Why is this in Greek? Don&#039;t they speak Turkish there?</p><blockquote><p><span style="color: #ff0000">If you Googled that, you&#039;ll see that it&#039;s in Lydia, in modern Turkey, on the south side of the Hermos River. I&#039;ll let you research the language issue.</span></p><p><span style="color: #ff0000"><br /></span></p></blockquote>Who is that on the reverse and what&#039;s he doing?</p><blockquote><p><span style="color: #ff0000">I&#039;ll show you the example in the collection of the Bibliotheque Nationale de France, Paris, which is more clear:</span></p><p><span style="color: #ff0000"><br /></span></p><p>[ATTACH=full]839241[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p><span style="color: #ff0000">You&#039;ll see it&#039;s a male deity holding an eagle and scepter. He&#039;s an important figure in the Greco-Roman pantheon.</span></p><p><span style="color: #ff0000"><br /></span></p></blockquote>Are there other examples of this coin? Does it appear in any catalogs or references?</p><blockquote><p><span style="color: #ff0000">Well, obviously there&#039;s the one in the Bibliotheque Nationale de France, because that&#039;s the one in the photo, above. Mionnet, writing in</span> <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=JoUCAAAAYAAJ&amp;printsec=titlepage&amp;source=gbs_summary_r#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://books.google.com/books?id=JoUCAAAAYAAJ&amp;printsec=titlepage&amp;source=gbs_summary_r#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false" rel="nofollow">Volume 4 of his <i>Description de Médailles antiques grecques et romaines</i></a><span style="color: #ff0000">, describes that same exact coin as this:</span></p><p><span style="color: #ff0000"><br /></span></p><p>[ATTACH=full]839244[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p><span style="color: #ff0000">And the</span> <a href="http://forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/BMC/BMC_Lydia.pdf" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/BMC/BMC_Lydia.pdf" rel="nofollow">British Museum&#039;s catalog of their coins from Lydia</a> <span style="color: #ff0000">describes it like this:</span></p><p><span style="color: #ff0000"><br /></span></p><p>[ATTACH=full]839245[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p></blockquote>Is it common? Scarce? Rare? Worth $6.00 or a fortune?</p><blockquote><p><span style="color: #ff0000">Does that matter?</span></p></blockquote></blockquote><p><br /></p><p>Yes, what a fascinating artifact that is, isn&#039;t it?[/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