By Harvey Stack – Founder, Stack’s Bowers …… Editors Note: Links to the next two Articles…. Part2 Part 3 Counterfeiting, or making something false, has occurred since goods were exchanged for services or other items. If a bag that was supposed to contain wheat was instead full of another grain or even sand, that […]
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One of the elite coins from the prestigious Hunt Collection, a coin considered the most historically important of all ancient coins, will find a new home when it is sold in the CSNS World Coins Platinum and Signature Auction from Heritage Auctions May 3-5. The Marcus Junius Brutus, Assassin of Caesar and Imperator (44-42 BCE), […]
The post EID MAR Denarius Commemorating Julius Caesar’s Assassination Leads Heritage World & Ancient Coins Auction appeared first on CoinWeek: Rare Coin, Currency, and Bullion News for Collectors.
By Austin Andrews for American Numismatic Society (ANS) …… Infanthood is one of the few universal conditions that every adult has once experienced, which they cannot explicitly recall. Within this known ignorance, there is a fascinating projection of humanity onto the divine, in terms of religious sentiment and human psychology. If the gods look and […]
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By Mike Markowitz for CoinWeek ….. BORN IN 247 BCE at Carthage (near modern Tunis in North Africa), Hannibal Barca[1] is remembered as one of the greatest military commanders of ancient history. His father, Hamilcar Barca[2] (lived 275-228 BCE), led Carthaginian forces in Sicily during the 23 year-long First Punic War, defeating a revolt by […]
The post The Coins of Carthage During Hannibal’s War With Rome appeared first on CoinWeek: Rare Coin, Currency, and Bullion News for Collectors.
By Mike Markowitz for CoinWeek ….. BORN IN 247 BCE at Carthage (near modern Tunis in North Africa), Hannibal Barca[1] is remembered as one of the greatest military commanders of ancient history. His father, Hamilcar Barca[2] (lived 275-228 BCE), led Carthaginian forces in Sicily during the 23 year-long First Punic War, defeating a revolt […]
The post The Coins of Carthage During Hannibal’s War With Rome appeared first on CoinWeek: Rare Coin, Currency, and Bullion News for Collectors.
Ancient Coins and The Colosseo Collection, by Russell A. Augustin, AU Capital Management, LLC …… Depending on who was in control at the time, the electrum coinage of Phokaia and Mytilene in Ionia was struck as payment to either the Persian Empire or the Delian League. Issued semi-annually, the volume of ancient coins minted […]
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Overview In 1092 CE, the Byzantine emperor Alexius I Comnenus enacted sweeping coinage reforms. He stopped production of previous denominations and introduced five new ones: the gold hyperpyron (which served as the unit of account for the new money), the electrum aspron trachy, the billon (copper and silver) aspron trachy, the copper tetarteron, and the […]
The post Ancient Coin Profiles: Byzantine Empire – Manuel I Aspron Trachy appeared first on CoinWeek.
By Steve Benner for CoinWeek ….. Troas, unlike the subject of my previous article, was not a country unto itself. It was only the name of a district in northwest Asia Minor (Anatolia) adjacent to the Hellespont (Dardanelles). The area is bordered by the Aegean Sea to the west, the mountain massif that forms Mount […]
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By Mike Markowitz for CoinWeek ….. The Incas had rivers full of gold and mountains full of silver, and they used gold and silver for art and for worship, but they never invented money because it was a fiction they had no use for. (Goldstein, 4) THE CLASSIC DEFINITION of money found in most Economics […]
The post CoinWeek Ancient Coin Series: Money Before Coinage appeared first on CoinWeek.
By Tyler Rossi for CoinWeek ….. As a divine metal, gold not only served as a store of wealth for the rulers of ancient societies but it was also an earthly representation of unending and incorruptible divinity. Coins struck in gold, while definitely earthlier and more materialistic than religious or decorative items, also retained a […]
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By Jesse Kraft for American Numismatic Society (ANS) …… The discovery of vast amounts of gold in California upset the ratio between gold and silver, to the point where silver coins traded at $1.04 for every gold dollar. This amount—while seemingly small—caused enough of a disruption that silver coinage disappeared from circulation and was hoarded. […]
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CoinWeek Ancient Coin Series by Mike Markowitz ….. THROUGH A LONG chain of pious frauds and medieval myth-making, the February 14 feast day of St. Valentine, an obscure third-century martyr, became a day for celebrating romantic Love in Western popular culture. It may be no surprise to the reader that classical numismatics has relatively […]
The post Eroticism on Ancient Coins (Adults Only) appeared first on CoinWeek.
By Tyler Rossi for CoinWeek ….. In 1204, Constantinople was sacked during the Fourth Crusade. Less than six months later, Enrico Dandolo, the Doge of Venice; Boniface, the Marquess of Montferrat; Baldwin, Count of Flanders; and Louis I, Count of Blois signed the Partitio terrarum imperii Romaniae. Translated as “The Partition of the lands […]
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By Mike Markowitz for CoinWeek ….. This reptile, as an image of divinity and of nature, is figured both in its natural shape, and under a variety of monstrous and imaginary forms, on a great multitude of coins of Greek cities … It is less frequently found on coins with Latin inscriptions, but still there […]
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By Tyler Rossi for CoinWeek ….. Situated on an important trade route between the Greek mainland and Ionian colonies in Turkey, the island of Rhodes slowly became one of the most powerful maritime powers in the ancient Mediterranean. Most of the islands’ inhabitants lived in three cities: Ialysos, Kamiros, and Lindos. All three polities started […]
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By Tyler Rossi for CoinWeek ….. In 2016, archeologists discovered a small golden bead (3.175 mm, 0.148 g) while digging in the ancient village of Pazardzhik in central Bulgaria. Between 6,500 and 6,600 years old, this bead is the oldest processed gold artifact produced by human beings and is approximately four thousand years older than […]
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By Michael T. Shutterly for CoinWeek ….. Kroisos, King of Lydia Kroisos, the last king of the Ionian kingdom of Lydia in Asia Minor, launched a revolution in coinage when he minted the world’s first gold coins and first silver coins. With his “kroiseids” he also created the world’s first bi-metallic coinage system. The ancient […]
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CoinWeek Ancient Coin Series by Mike Markowitz ….. Majestic, powerful, swift, and intelligent, the eagle has held a strong grip on human imagination since the earliest times. The bald eagle, native to North America, features prominently on the Great Seal of the United States, and on many classic and modern American coins. The U.S. $10 […]
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By Elena Stolyarik for American Numismatic Society (ANS) …… The Byzantine Empire, which lasted more than a thousand years, had one of the most monetized economies in medieval Europe. The coinage of Byzantium was an essential element of this unique civilization, which preserved Roman law and state structures and inherited not only the Hellenistic […]
The post The Changing Iconography of Byzantine Gold Coins appeared first on CoinWeek.
By Michael T. Shutterly for CoinWeek ….. Virtually every collector has experienced “the one that got away”. This usually involves a coin from your Wish List that someone else snapped up. Sometimes because they saw it first and grabbed it before you could. Sometimes because they snuck in a last-second overbid at an online auction. […]
The post The One That Got Away: The Trials and Tribulations of Building an Ancient Coin Exhibit appeared first on CoinWeek.
By Austin Andrews for American Numismatic Society (ANS) …… With its range of hawk-headed and half-mummified deities, the Egyptian pantheon has inspired devotion and intrigue for millennia. Egyptians were drawing, painting, and carving images of their gods well before the first pharaohs, over five thousand years ago. While coined money was not a regular part […]
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By Austin Andrews for American Numismatic Society (ANS) …… With its range of hawk-headed and half-mummified deities, the Egyptian pantheon has inspired devotion and intrigue for millennia. Egyptians were drawing, painting, and carving images of their gods well before the first pharaohs, over five thousand years ago. While coined money was not a regular […]
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By Michael T. Shutterly for CoinWeek ….. The first coins to be struck appeared c. 650 BCE in what is now western Turkey. These coins were little more than blobs of electrum; what made these blobs “coins” rather than “bullion” is that they were cast to fit precisely within a measured system of weights and […]
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The Colosseo Collection Electrum Coins …… By Russell A. Augustin – AU Capital Management, LLC The ancient Greek island of Lesbos was located in the northeastern Aegean Sea off the coast of modern-day Turkey. Its largest and wealthiest city, Mytilene, was originally founded in the 11th century BCE by the Penthilidae family of Thessaly, who […]
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Ancient Gold Coins By Russell A. Augustin, AU Capital Management, LLC …… From the The Colosseo Collection The First Circulating Coinage Little is known about this mysterious archaic electrum coinage – the first ancient gold coins. It was minted in Ionia, somewhere in central Western Anatolia on the shores of the Aegean sea, but scholars […]
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CoinWeek Ancient Coin Series by Mike Markowitz ….. From the dawn of human society, the nature and origin of the bee have awakened the curiosity and interest of man. For thousands of years, honey was the only sweetening material known, and it is quite natural that in ancient times, the little busy creature who produced this […]
The post Bee All That You Can Bee: Honeybees on Ancient Coins appeared first on CoinWeek.
In numismatic circles, Croesus is most famous for introducing the world’s first bimetallic standard, issuing coins of both gold and silver. Prior to this, coins were produced in electrum, a naturally occurring alloy of gold and silver. This situation obviously caused a number of problems, most notably because the proportions of gold to silver were […]
The post Heritage Auctions – Seldom Seen Ancient Coins: Gold Light Stater of Croesus appeared first on CoinWeek.
Coins are the most abundant relics of the Second Punic War One of the most interesting and most challenging themes in the world of ancient coins is the Second Punic War, a monumental conflict in which Romans and Carthaginians battled each other for nearly two decades. At stake was supremacy over the Western Mediterranean. After […]
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“Tyrants of the Tigris & Euphrates” exhibit from the Tyrant Collection showcases nearly 2,600 years of numismatic history at June 2018 Long Beach Expo The second public display of a portion of the extensive numismatic treasures in the recently revealed Tyrant Collection (www.TheTyrantCollection.com) will include outstanding examples from the origins of coinage including a rare […]
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By Russell A. Augustin, AU Capital Management, LLC The Colosseo Collection …… Depending on who was in control at the time, the electrum coinage of Phokaia and Mytilene in Ionia was struck as payment to either the Persian Empire or the Delian League. Issued semi-annually, the volume of coins minted was prolific – both mints […]
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By Russell A. Augustin, AU Capital Management, LLC The Colosseo Collection …… Lydian Coins are considers to be the First Coins ever produced and used. The First Official Coin Natural resources are often a source of great wealth for a country, especially its king. The Pactolus River in Lydia, now modern day Turkey, was one […]
The post Ancient Coins : Lydian Gold Considered the First Coins in the World appeared first on CoinWeek.
By Harvey Stack – Founder, Stack’s Bowers…. Editors Note: Links to the next two Articles…. Part2 Part 3 Counterfeiting, or making something false, has occurred since goods were exchanged for services or other items. If a bag that was supposed to contain wheat was instead full of another grain or even sand, that was […]
The post Counterfeit Coins and the Effects on Numismatics appeared first on CoinWeek.
By Harvey Stack – Founder, Stack’s Bowers …… Editors Note: Links to the next two Articles…. Part2 Part 3 Counterfeiting, or making something false, has occurred since goods were exchanged for services or other items. If a bag that was supposed to contain wheat was instead full of another grain or even sand, […]
The post Counterfeit Coins and the Effects on Numismatics appeared first on CoinWeek.
By Joe Jaroch – Posted with Permission from AU Capital Management ………. Amassing a collection of ancient coins can seem like a daunting task: the U.S. Mint has existed for little more than two hundred years, but the Classical world spans a colossal twenty-one centuries. Where would a collection begin, let alone end? That’s where […]
The post A Guide to Ancient Coin Collecting appeared first on CoinWeek.
By Russell A. Augustin, AU Capital Management, LLC The Colosseo Collection ……… The Beginning of Coinage Shown with expressive and diverse imagery today, ancient coins started from very humble beginnings. The ancient author Herodotus wrote that the Lydians were “the first people we know of to use a gold and silver coinage”. Through hoard evidence […]
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Overview: Carthage At its peak, the ancient North African city of Carthage rivaled the Eternal City of Rome for military and economic control of the western Mediterranean Sea. Today, its ruins are a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the suburbs of the Tunisian capital. Most people, if they’ve heard of Carthage at all, are familiar […]
The post Ancient Coin Profiles – Goddess Tanit on Carthaginian Gold & Silver 1 1/2 Shekel appeared first on CoinWeek.
By Mike Markowitz for CoinWeek…. Hektor came on against them, as a murderous lions on cattle who in a low-lying meadow of a great marsh pasture by hundreds, and among them a herdsman who does not quite know how to fight a wild beast off from killing a horn-curved ox… —Iliad, Book 15:630-636 MORE THAN THIRTY THOUSAND YEARS AGO, […]
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CoinWeek Ancient Coin Series by Mike Markowitz …. Aren’t they very expensive? Along with How do you know they’re authentic?, this is probably the most common question that classical numismatists are asked about ancient coins. Well, yes and no. The price of an ancient coin, like any other price in an imperfect market economy, […]
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An ancient people’s reliance on the sea is reflected in money Finely engraved images of animals and mythic creatures are commonplace on ancient Greek coins. The spectrum is incredible, ranging from imaginary creatures to the kinds of animals the ancients encountered in everyday life. Among the most frequently shown are aquatic creatures. This is hardly […]
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Since Heritage’s first ANA showcase offering of world and ancient coins in 2014, the Platinum Night auction has been a marquee event for lovers of rare and beautiful coins. With nearly 500 exceptional lots from every era and region, this year’s offering, scheduled for Thursday, August 3, adds luster to this legacy. Their selection […]
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CoinWeek Ancient Coin Series by Mike Markowitz …. You ain’t nothing but a hound dog, crying all the time. You ain’t nothing but a hound dog, crying all the time. You ain’t never caught a rabbit, and you ain’t no friend of mine. –Elvis Presley, 20th-century American philosopher, covering Big Mama Thornton’s “Hound Dog” […]
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By Mike Markowitz for Coinweek …. Ancient Coin Series THE NIGHT SKY WAS ESPECIALLY IMPORTANT to ancient people. This can be hard for us to understand, living as we do in a world where light pollution denies us a clear view of the stars. What people saw in the sky – or thought they saw […]
The post Comets and Meteorites on Ancient Coins appeared first on CoinWeek.
CoinWeek Ancient Coin Series by Mike Markowitz …. …And unto Sarah he said, Behold, I have given thy brother a thousand pieces of silver. –Genesis, 20:16 ABIMELECH, PHILISTINE KING OF GERAR, gravely offended the patriarch Abraham by trying to appropriate his wife, Sarah, having been led to believe that Sarah was actually Abraham’s sister[1]. In […]
The post The Origin of Specie: How Gold and Silver Became Money appeared first on CoinWeek.
The business of a sphinx is to be mysterious By Mike Markowitz for CoinWeek …. …somewhere in sands of the desert A shape with lion body and the head of a man A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun, Is moving its slow thighs…[1] — W. B. Yeats, “The Second Coming” (1920) IN […]
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By Russell A. Augustin – AU Capital Management, LLC The Colosseo Collection …… The ancient Greek island of Lesbos was located in the northeastern Aegean Sea off the coast of modern-day Turkey. Its largest and wealthiest city, Mytilene, was originally founded in the 11th century BCE by the Penthilidae family of Thessaly, who ruled […]
The post Ancient Electrum Coins – Strength and Unity of an Empire appeared first on CoinWeek.
By Joe Jaroch - Posted with Permission from AU Capital Management ………. Amassing a collection of ancient coins can seem like a daunting task: the U.S. Mint has existed for little more than two hundred years, but the Classical world spans a colossal twenty-one centuries. Where would a collection begin, let alone end? That’s where […]
The post A Guide to Ancient Coin Collecting appeared first on CoinWeek.
Highlights of the upcoming Lanz Auction include an aureus of Magna Urbica with a provenance dating back as far as 1907 and an elaborately worked Bavarian gnadenpfennig By Numismatik Lanz …… Numismatic dealership Numismatik Lanz will auction off 710 lots comprising coins and medals from all over the world in their own premises on 7 […]
The post World Coin Auctions – Numismatic Rarities at Numismatik Lanz appeared first on CoinWeek.
By Russell A. Augustin, AU Capital Management, LLC The Colosseo Collection ……… The First Circulating Coinage Little is known about this mysterious archaic electrum coinage, the first ancient gold coin. It was minted in Ionia, somewhere in central Western Anatolia on the shores of the Aegean sea, but scholars have yet to identify the precise […]
The post Ancient Gold Coins : The First Circulating Gold Coinage & The Stag of Artemis appeared first on CoinWeek.
Heritage’s Long Beach World & Ancient coins Signature auction, scheduled for September 8-12, is open for bidding! Although it feels like the final hammer just fell on our August Platinum Night auction, we’ve managed, with the help of more than 270 consignors, to amass over 4,200 lots for your bidding consideration. Like our Long Beach […]
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The oldest coin in the world was just sold by a rare coin company in Austin to a private collector. Estimated to be one of only 12 known in the world today, the coin was struck 2,650 years ago in Ionia, or modern-day Turkey By Austin Rare Coins and Bullion ….. Austin Rare Coins […]
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Overview: Carthage At its peak, the ancient North African city of Carthage rivaled the Eternal City of Rome for military and economic control over the western Mediterranean Sea. Today, its ruins are a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the suburbs of the Tunisian capital. Most people, if they’ve heard of Carthage at all, are familiar […]
The post Ancient Coin Profiles: Carthaginian Gold & Silver 1 1/2 Shekel appeared first on CoinWeek.
Stack’s Bowers Galleries is pleased to announce details of their upcoming World Coin, Ancient Coin & World Paper Money Auction, to be held in conjunction with the 2016 ANA World’s Fair of Money between August 9 and 13. The sale will be held at the Anaheim Convention Center, located at 800 West Katella Avenue in […]
The post Stack’s Bowers to Host 2016 ANA Auction in Sunny California appeared first on CoinWeek.
Overview: In 1092 CE the Byzantine Emperor Alexius I Comnenus enacted sweeping coinage reforms. He stopped production of previous denominations and introduced five new ones: the gold hyperpyron (which served as the unit of account for the new money), the electrum aspron trachy, the billon (copper and silver) aspron trachy, the copper tetarteron, and the […]
The post Ancient Coin Profiles: Byzantine Empire – Manuel I Aspron Trachy appeared first on CoinWeek.
By Russell A. Augustin, AU Capital Management, LLC The Colosseo Collection ……… The First Circulating Coinage Little is known about this mysterious archaic electrum coinage. It was minted in Ionia, somewhere in central Western Anatolia on the shores of the Aegean sea, but scholars have yet to identify the precise city-state that produced this sophisticated […]
The post Ancient Coins : The First Circulating Gold Coinage & The Stag of Artemis appeared first on CoinWeek.