As some of you noticed, a contest was recently hosted by some members. The third part, on world and ancient coins, was designed to be tough to google. So I figured I'd post here and tell you how you could have gotten the answers. Most of the questions were inspired by coins in my collection, so a visit to my gallery could have helped a lot! #1 At which mints were coins struck in the name of the author of The Stratigikon? The first step would be to figure out who wrote the Stratigikon. Then you would have to find something that listed all the mints he used. Here's what I used: http://www.catbikes.ch/coinstuff/coins-ric.htm Particularly the Byzantine: Large M list. Answers:Antioch (Theopilus), Carthage, Constantinople, Cyzicus, Nicomedia, Ravenna, Syracuse, Thessalonica. #2 How many stycas are in a penny? Tough to find out, I know. If you had an actual book on early British coins you would be at an advantage. First, you had to figure out what a styca was: a bronze coin struck in Anglo-Saxon England, valued at 1/2 a farthing. Answer: 8 #3 The man-headed bull was a common symbol for which Sicilian town? The best bet would to be to go to wildwinds.com, go to the Greek section, and figure out which Sicilian city had the most man-headed bull coins. Answer: Gela #4 What was the last city to mint provincial coinage in the Roman Empire? Google could have probably handled this one. Answer: Alexandria, Egypt #5 Which Roman emperors or usurpers issued octodrachms? A truly hard one. I don't think anyone actually answered it right. I'd recommend perusing wildwinds again. The key word here was Roman emperor. I got a lot of Hellenistic Greek kings. Answer: Only one man struck these, Domitius Domitianus, usurper in Egypt in 295-296 AD. #6 In AD 273, what metal was the denarius struck in? A bit of a trick question. For most of the Empire, the denarius was a silver coin. But by the reign of Aurelian, in 273 AD, the denarius was merely a bronze or silvered bronze coin. It probably was struck more for presentation than circulation. Find it by finding the emperor in 273 AD and searching his denarii on wildwinds. Answer: bronze or silvered bronze #7 What is the proper Latin plural of the word quadrans? google should help here too, or a latin dictionary, or a knowledge of the third declension! Answer: quadrantes #8 Over which area did the satrap Spithridates rule? google/wikipedia. Or look at a coin of his in my gallery. Answer: Lydia and Ionia #9 What metals was the quinarius struck in? Google or wildwinds could have taken care of this one answer: gold, silver, and bronze (under Allectus) #10 The mint which operated in Ostia in the early fourth century AD was not created there. In which city did it originate? Google or wikipedia answer: Carthage #11 Who was the Roman Republican moneyer who struck a denarius showing Odysseus' dog? I would use coinarchives.com or wildwinds, again, for this one. Again, the coin is in my gallery. answer: C. Mamilius Limetanus #12 When were contorniates struck and where were they given out? A tough one, as the info on wikipedia is a bit out of date. A further google search may have helped. answer: Struck in the 4th century AD, distributed at the Circus Maximus #13 Where was Colonia Lucia Annia Commodiana? google, perhaps? answer: the city of Rome, it was renamed by Commodus. The name didn't stick. #14 What denominations of coins were issued by the Japanese puppet government in China during World War 2? I got mine from a book. Krause could have helped here, as well. Or http://www.zeno.ru/ answer: 5 li, 1 fen, 5 fen, 1 chaio, 10 chai, 10 fen. #15 What type of error is often found on the Philippine 1918-S 5 centavo? ebay or vcoins for this one answer: mule with the 20 centavo obverse Impossible bonus question: The Verulamium hoard helped to more precisely date which class of ancient coins? Called impossible for a reason. The first step would be to figure out what was in the Verulamium hoard. As the city existed from before the Roman Empire to well after, a number of hoards have been found there. The one that helped precisely date something was the one found during excavations in the 30's. Found in a stratified layer from the late 3rd century, it consisted of barbarous radiates, which were previously believed to have been made after 400 AD. In my research, I wasn't able to acquire the actual report for the hoard, but I did see it cited in a number of bibliographies. Remember, check your sources' sources!
