What is the oldest dated coin?

I have been curious as to what the first coin was to use a western style date on it? I have seen some from the 1400's, as I recall. It might be kind of fun to put together a linear date set from the early days of coinage. Thanks- Mike

 

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This is the oldest coin that I know of, a450 to 300 BC from Alexander the Great. I do not believe this is Authentic but it was given to me by a friend as a joke.

 

I think he's looking for coins that had dates on them.

 

It has a date on it but just not a western style.

 

Here is one I've got with the date 1549 and this link (I think) mentions that around the 1400s the first "anno domini" dates began showing up.
http://www.medievalcoinage.com/

 

The earliest dated coins with western numerals are from the late 1400s. They are rather rare and sell for a decent sum. With that said there are coins with full Roman numeral dates from a few centuries earlier and it is even possible to approximately date even older coins by going by the year of a ruler's ascension on a coin. I have a Byzantine coin from Justin II(565-578 A.D.) and I know without a doubt it was minted in the year 576 because it has "XI" on the coin which stands for the 11th year of his reign.

 

Thanks for the info and the pics!
It is a shame that I didn't know about the Roskilde coin. I stayed there for a couple of weeks and would have seen if one was close by. Kinda like seeing a Guttenburg Bible.
Thanks all- Mike

 

Imagine how valuable a coin would be if the real date on it was something like 450BC.

 

Would be strangely prophetic to have any coin with a BC date on it lol...

Reminds me of an episode of Dinosaurs: "I don't get why if this year is 60,000,003, next year is 60,000,002. What are we counting up to?"

 

Carl,

If I run across a coin with a BC date I'll sell it to you - cheap.