Let’s see your OLDEST ancient!

[ATTACH = полный] 1252646 [/ ATTACH]
300 B.C. India

 

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AR for “Argentum” the Latin word for silver?

 

OMG you have a Croesus coin!!

I know the “badge of Phanes” well.

I wasn’t expecting anyone on this forum to have one of those!

Just due to the fact that APMEX sold a gold one for $49,995 which is a lot of money.

Incredible! I think you’ll win this contest since those are examples of some of the first coins EVER minted.

 

Very nice!

Looks like that heavy Denarius is from the earlier Roman Republic rather than the Roman Empire like most coinage.

I love the Roman Republic stuff. Before Emperors started screwing things up.

 

The Lydians made the first coins known so that definitely ranks high on the list of oldest coins. XD

 

The Heavy Denarius is before the Denarius Reform of 211 BCE. Many call these Roman Diadrachm. However, they were tariffed at 10 Asses, which make them a Denarius (the Roman Denarius - a name derivative of the number 10 in Latin - was 10 Asses up until approx 141 BCE, when it was devalued to 16 Asses), Kennith Harl stated this in his book “Coinage in the Roman Economy”, of which I agree.

The Roman Drachm was tariffed at 5 Asses or is a Heavy Quinarius at that time.

This is a hard one to get.

Roman Republic
Anon
Ca 240 BCE
AR Heavy Quinarius / Drachm
16mm 3.0g
Rome mint
Helmeted Head of Mars r -
Horse’s head sickle
Cr 25-2 Syd 25 RSC 34a Rare
Ex: CNG; From the RJM Collection. Ex Coin Galleries (17 July 1996)

 

I have that book! xD

 

I'm not sure, but a few of these offered dates older than Rome.

 

Would you consider that coinage though?

It looks more like commodity money like the Chinese spade money or Roman Kingdom bronze dolphins.

 

This is currently my oldest coin (still waiting for my Lydia third stater). An archaic Attica Owl tetradrachm. Off-centered, and therefore within budget.

500/490-485 BC. AR Tetradrachm
21.5mm, 16.89g, 3h.
Obv: Helmeted Head of Athena right
Rev: Owl standing right
Seltman Group Gii; Asyut group IVg.

 

I love the Athenian owls!

They are very popular and any person in Greece would’ve known what they were.

Very cool!

 

Amazing coin!

 

Please help me understand to what you are referring?

What are Roman Kingdom bronze dolphins?

 

Sorry I was wrong. They were proto-Greek. I’m always mixing up Greek and Roman things. I think it’s because the Romans modeled themselves after the Greeks.

They made Zeus into Jupiter, Mars into Ares, Hera into Athena, and basically just copied a lot of Greek culture.

I knew the time period was around the Roman Kingdom time period but I got the civilization wrong.


But anyway what I meant are these things.

They are actually pretty cheap for the history they have.

Looks like the head and neck of a goose to me.

 

Yeah I just got mixed up.

Its incredible that they’re only $23.

But it would definitely be a cool talking point.

I hear in Europe every time a farmer digs a hole they end up finding more Roman coins. Not literally but it happens a lot.

Ive always dreamed of finding a really nice old coin but sadly it won’t happen in the US since native Americans didn’t use coinage :/.

The oldest that could be found would probably be like a Pine Tree Shilling (only on the East Coast) but that would be cool too!

 

Hera corresponds to Junona and Athena to Minerva.
Olbia dolphins are not rare and I think I saw them in all of the large auctions I took part in. Even if they are interesting (even geographically and historically , they were used in my area) and cheap, I decided to skip them. Main reason is that I, personally, can't tell if they are genuine or 'reproductions' - to use a soft term.
I was very disappointed and concerned when I noticed there are modern fakes for cheap and common coins and I simply don't want one.