Oldest coin & Oldest Artifact

Thought this might be fun.

Just received a bronze age Italic dolphin fibula dated between the 8th-5th Century BC. Now my oldest artifact!

Considering it's most likely Italian, it pairs nicely with my oldest coin:




Italic bronze Dolphin Fibula

5.98g, 35 mm.

8th-5th Century BC

Hattatt 200 var.?

Ex-Noble Roman Coin




Lucania Sybaris drachm

Bull standing to left on dotted ground line, head turned back to right; all within border of dots VM in exergue

Bull standing to right, on dotted ground line; around, border of dots; all incuse.

LUCANIA, Sybaris

Circa 550-510 BC.

2.04g

HN III 1736. SNG ANS 847 ff.

Chipped. Old cabinet toning.

Ex-Londinium

Let's keep this simple. Post one of each, oldest coin and artifact. If you don't have any artifacts just a coin will suffice.

 

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Fun thread idea!

Oldest artifact:


Blue glazed steatite scarab. Egypt, Late Period, 664-332 BC. Face engraved with winged Isis standing right before a solar disk and a cartouche containing r’nfr, or “may beauty exist”; below, the hieroglyph n’b or “lord” (14x10mm). Crack down center with some very minor loss of material on back.
Ex Christie’s London ‘Fine Antiquities,’ 10 July 1991, lot 85 (part of).

Oldest coin:


KINGS OF LYDIA, temp. Ardys - Alyattes
c. 630s-564/53 BCE (dates from a CNG listing of a similar coin*; I do not have the reference books nor have I read the latest thoughts)
Electrum trite, 4.8 gm, 13.4 mm. Sardes mint.
Obv: head of roaring lion right, sun with four rays on forehead
Rev: two incuse square punches
Ref: Weidauer Group XV, 64; BMC 2

 

Those are really cool pieces Jay. My oldest artifact is my cuneiform student's exercise tablet. I don't recall exactly but I believe it is 3000 - 2500 BCE.


Oldest coin, Ionia. Uncertain. EL 1/24 Stater (Circa 650-600 BC).

 

Beautiful pieces Tif!

 

Very beautiful fibula!
In my little ancient artifact corner on the right is my ammonite fossil from 250-65 million years ago. Along with my cunieform from 2600-2100 BCE. Followed by my new (but used) Rude Aes and a piece of malachite for good luck!

 

That's one of the more interesting fibulas I have seen.

Hyksos Scarab
1650 to 1550 BC
Intact, once glazed, pierced for mounting.
Base engraved with a cut coiled cord pattern.
Steatite 10x15mm, 1.42g
Cf. Ben-Tor p.66, 12


Ionia
625 to 600 BC
Uncertain Mint
EL 1/24 Stater
Obvs: Raised swastika
Revs: Incuse square punch
7mm, 0.66g
SNG von Aulock 1778

 

Great OP and great posts everyone!

Oldest Coin:

Iona Kolophon AR Tetartemorion 530-520 BCE Archaic Apollo Incuse Punch 0.15g 4.5mm- SNG Kayhan 343
Ex: @John Anthony

Oldest Scarab:

Egypt SCARAB Middle Kingdom 2065-1650 BCE Scarabaeus Sphinx

Oldest Seal:

Akkadian 2350-2200 BCE Cylinder Seal Buff stone scene hero wresting antelope winged lion Ex J Tabot with SCENE

Oldest Relic Material:
These are figurines carved from Russian Mammoth Tusks imported into and carved in China into Chinese Zodiac Figurines: I am Year of the Boar, my Wife is Year of the Rabbit...
At the time, it was perfectly legal to own and transport Mammoth Tusk, as it was NOT an endangered species, rather it was Extinct. However, I understand NOW you cannot purchase nor transport them into the US. These are grandfathered.
I purchased these on one of my trips to China.


Mammoth Tusk - Russia find China carved Chinese Zodiac BOAR and RABBIT. Estimated age of Mammoth Tusks: 55,000-60,000 BCE.

 

not considered an artifact since it was not made by humans, but its the oldest thing i own and can hold...a piece of the Canyon Diablo meteorite...



8 cm long, 4 cm wide in the middle and weighs 86.4 grams
The Canyon Diablo meteorites are the many fragments of the asteroid that created Barringer Crater (Meteor Crater), Arizona, United States. Meteorites have been found around the crater rim, and are named for nearby Canyon Diablo, which lies about three to four miles west of the crater.

The asteroid fell about 50,000 years ago.
In 1953, Clair Cameron Patterson measured ratios of the lead isotopes in samples of the meteorite. The result permitted a refinement of the estimate of the age of the Earth to 4.550 billion years (± 70 million years).

Oldest coin is this...



GREEK
Sarmatia, Olbia
5th-4th Centuries BC
Bottlenose Dolphine - proto money
BMC Thrace Sarmatia 19
27mm 1.7g
BMC 19

 

Great pieces everyone!

 

Oldest Artifact

Oil lamp from Judaea from the 1st century AD

Obviously this was Jesus's lamp...

Oldest coin

Athens Tetradrachm ca. 434-405 BC

Pretty sure this was from the Pericles Collection .

 

pot of dolphins:

 

Lots of nice real old stuff everyone is posting. The beginnings of the CT ancient virtual museum.
oldest coin:
Ionien Trihemiobol 525/500 v. Chr.
Grade: VF- | Abbreviations
Catalog: Slg. Klein 420 Babelon, Traité II/1, 433 Rosen Coll. 579
Trihemiobol 525/500 v. Chr. Löwenkopf von vorn / Incusum mit geometrischem Muster und floralem Zentrum. Slg. Klein 420 Babelon, Traité II/1, 433 Rosen Coll. 579 1.51 g. Sehr selten Fast sehr schön

oldest artifact? carnelian scarab obtained for $15 in an antique store some years ago. smooth bottom with a hole through it to put a gold wire maybe?- any experts on these here for an attribution is appreciated. Not sure I have seen any w/o images or glyphs on the bottom so not sure if it is authentic. But it has the feel and look of maybe a later dynasty. It is translucent with a polished surface. Maybe a modern copy when Egypt was the rage?

 

How was the hole made? Does it look like modern tool marks?

 

I really like that fibula!!...i can't be 100% certain, but i believe these are my oldest known artifacts and coins...the calligraphy pieces date from either the Shang or Zhengzhou dynasties 1600-800 BC.. coins Greek and Persian 480BC +- a few..

 

It doesn't look like modern tools. There is a strange discoloration as you can see where maybe it had a metal ring that caused some oxidation. Not sure. You can see through the bottom shot how the hole is visible. Do any of these ever have a polished surface though? That is what makes me think it is not real. If it is then maybe it was preserved real well in a tomb that was robbed. Long shot however.

 

very nice!..i've got a couple of those trilobite bleeder arrows..

 

Great posts all!

The oldest thing I own is my body, made up of atoms that were born in the sun billions of years ago from nuclear fusion.

 

APOLLONIA PONTIKA
AR Hemiobol
OBVERSE: Anchor, A in field
REVERSE: Swastika with two parallel lines in each quadrant
Struck at Apollonia Pontika, circa 500BC
.28g, 6.54mm
SNG BM 149; Moushmov 3146
ex. Aegean Numismaics

Spear Point: 5.5 inches x 2.5 inches

 

LOVE it! We are all, truly, star dust.
(Thanks for not posting a pic of this particular artifact)

 

Well, I don't collect ancient (human-made) artifacts, so here's my oldest fossil, a trilobite (Elrathia kingi) from the Cambrian period (c.540-480 million years ago):


And my oldest coin (just received, will do full write-up later), Taxila AR 1/8 satamana, c.6th century BC-303 BC: