Your Most Interesting Coin

@Alegandron, I frankly don't get everybody's humor on this forum, but yours registers on a pretty routine basis. ...Should I worry?

 

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That's the way the other Doug (@GDJMSP ) did things when he was boss .

 

...Needed that. LOL

 

Get it right. He still is.

 

They're very beautiful - There's a spell about them. Art from a bygone era. Allow me to share an interesting trivia with you. The designer intended the obverse to be Lady Liberty wearing a winged Phyrgian cap. But many thought it was the Roman God Mercury, and the name stuck. Here's one of mine, but ungraded.

 

...Moral: you will never go broke underestimating the cultural literacy of the American public ...but if you overestimate it, Watch Out.

 

I had some recently, don't seem to have the kick they used too

 

That’s because they stopped infusing them with radiation

 

...I was gonna say something, but I guess it would be redundant....

 

Yes - but I do enjoy this coin as it is a great example to prove your point.

 

I never knew that. Thank you. Your coin is enchanting!

 

My most interesting is far and away this knife coin cast by Wang Mang between 7 and 9 AD. These were cast in an attempt to nationalize the wealth of ancient China, at a rate of two ounces of gold to one of these knives. The entire population of China was forced to turn in their gold, likely under the penalty of death.

This was done to consolidate the wealth (AKA political power) into the hands of Wang Mang so that no one could afford to raise an army against him. Right before Wang Mang usurped the throne in 9 AD, he had these knives demonetized (AKA worthless), destroying both the actual and fiat wealth of China’s elite. This one action proved that Wang Mang’s fiat coins could not be relied on, which pulled the rug of doom out from under Wang Mang’s reign. The following 14 years are a tale of woe, suffering, corruption, tyranny, and mass death, the likes of which could not be compared to until WWII.

Wang Mang was arguably the world’s first socialist/communist, and the spectacular failure of his reforms speak literal volumes about the efficacy of such systems. The coin below is arguably what started it all.

It is also interesting in the fact that it was once owned by an ancient Chinese noble.

 

I like everyday life. Here is an As cut in Half for change...
Made into a Semis or Half-As:


RI
Augustus
27 BCE-14CE
CUT AE As or Semis (Half-As)
Spain
Celsa Mint
29mm 5.0g
Laureate Augustus -
Bull
RPC271
Cut in ancient times to make change


Half-As

 

Of course, there's THIS US coin with LIBERTAS dressed in a Phrygian cap:

 

This is my most interesting coin (right now) as I have no clue who this is.
Maybe Avitas or Majorian and on the reverse, is it Concordia or Victoria
The only info I have is the mint: Rome
weight: 1.24 grams, diameter: 9.5 til 9.96 mm, thickness: 2.18 mm

Anyone knows more???

 

Most likely Honorius. He made tons of these little AE4s.

 

The luster is blinding...... A beautiful coin!

 

Wow...love it!