By Joël van Dam – Owner, Joëlnumismatics, for MA-Shops.com …… This blog is about one of the most iconic Greek coins ever minted, known to almost all coin collectors. It’s so famous, in fact, that this coin will also be recognized by much of the general public. It is pictured on the modern one euro […]
The post The Athenian Tetradrachm – The Most Iconic Ancient Greek Coin: MA-Shops appeared first on CoinWeek.
JANUS By Joël van Dam – Owner, Joëlnumismatics, for MA-Shops.com …… As we reflect on the past year, we have much to be thankful for. Our wonderful customers (both new and returning) continue to inspire us with their passion for history and collecting coins, banknotes and more. We are grateful for our trusted dealers, and […]
The post Janus and New Year Coins in Ancient Rome: MA-Shops appeared first on CoinWeek.
By Joël van Dam – Owner, Joëlnumismatics, for MA-Shops.com …… I wanted to discuss a topic about banknotes. So, I started searching for banknotes on MA-Shops. It came to my notice that MA-Shops has a great collection of banknotes for paper money collectors. In this blog, I will give a few examples of the banknotes […]
The post MA-Shops: A Brief Sampling of Banknotes appeared first on CoinWeek.
By Joël van Dam – Owner, Joëlnumismatics, for MA-Shops.com …… I wanted to discuss a topic about banknotes. So, I started searching for banknotes on MA-Shops. It came to my notice that MA-Shops has a great collection of banknotes for paper money collectors. In this blog, I will give a few examples of the […]
The post MA-Shops: A Brief Sampling of Banknotes appeared first on CoinWeek.
By Joël van Dam – Owner, Joëlnumismatics, for MA-Shops.com …… Coins from the Merovingian Empire are popular around the world. Their gold coins, the tremissises, being the most popular of all. Merovingian coins have a style that reminds people of the early middle ages, and most of the coins are very rare. So, to add […]
The post Merovingian Coins on MA-Shops.com appeared first on CoinWeek.
By Joël van Dam – Owner, Joëlnumismatics, for MA-Shops.com …… The question that is formulated in the title of this blog is a question that most collectors and dealers will naturally respond to with the phrase: ‘’Yes, of course, it’s important’’. Rest assured, it’s not my purpose in this blog to advocate that quality is […]
The post MA-Shops: The Quality of a Coin – Important or Not? appeared first on CoinWeek.
By Joël van Dam – Owner, Joëlnumismatics, for MA-Shops.com …… A Powerful and Flourishing City It’s not tough to find a topic to write about when there are so many fascinating and beautiful coins available. There is so much inspiration for my blogs but also a lot of inspiration for collectors among all those great […]
The post MA-Shops: The Ancient Coins of Syracuse appeared first on CoinWeek.
By Joël van Dam – Owner, Joëlnumismatics, for MA-Shops.com …… An Old Hobby In this blog, I will discuss the history of coin collection. It is an old hobby with an impressive history and I think this creates an extra dimension for the appreciation of coin collecting in general. And, it feels great to know […]
The post MA-Shops: The History of Coin Collecting appeared first on CoinWeek.
Emperor Nero By Joël van Dam – Owner, Joëlnumismatics, for MA-Shops.com …… Within numismatics, there is one general topic that I like the most and that is ancient coins. In particular, Roman coins. It doesn’t matter to me if I have to talk about coins from the early Republic or about coins minted at the […]
The post MA-Shops: Ancient Coins of the Roman Emperor Nero appeared first on CoinWeek.
By Joël van Dam – Owner, Joëlnumismatics, for MA-Shops.com …… Saint George and the Dragon A few days ago I bought a small lot of 19th-century golden world coins; one of these coins was a golden sovereign. I looked at the iconography of the coin and I liked it more than I realized. I appreciated […]
The post World Coins: Gold Sovereigns on MA-Shops appeared first on CoinWeek.
By Joël van Dam – Owner, Joëlnumismatics, for MA-Shops.com …… In this blog, I will discuss the subject of gold from a numismatic perspective. Above all, gold is a chemical element, found in the periodic table with atomic number 79 and the symbol “Au” (from the Latin for gold, aurum). It is a naturally occurring […]
The post MA-Shops: Gold From a Numismatic Perspective appeared first on CoinWeek.
By Joël van Dam – Owner, Joëlnumismatics, for MA-Shops.com …… When I am at coin fairs as an exhibitor, I get the same questions about coins and banknotes: Which coins should I buy? Which coins are the best investments? Which coin(s) would you buy? These are all understandable questions, of course. People spend a lot […]
The post MA-Shops: Which Coin Should I Buy? appeared first on CoinWeek.
By Joël van Dam – Owner, Joëlnumismatics, for MA-Shops.com …… I was reading through some numismatic books for a new subject for this blog, and several subjects crossed my view. For instance: military banknotes, Indian coinage, Byzantine coinage, and Ottoman banknotes. I know that these are specialized subjects for many collectors, and for this blog […]
The post Seven Dutch Monarchs: The Gulden on MA-Shops appeared first on CoinWeek.
By Joël van Dam – Owner, Joëlnumismatics, for MA-Shops.com …… My previous blog about the Morgan Dollar was a small success. It seems that there is a significant amount of interest in information about coins from the USA. This is not strange because these coins have several attractive aspects to them. This large interest in […]
The post MA-Shops: The Gold $20 Liberty Head Double Eagle – A Desirable Coin appeared first on CoinWeek.
By Joël van Dam – Owner, Joëlnumismatics, for MA-Shops.com …… Before I started as a dealer (when I was 18 years old), I collected many different types of coins and banknotes. I collected the things that I liked because of their aesthetic value or their historical value. Of course, since I was a teenager, it […]
The post MA-Shops: The Morgan Dollar appeared first on CoinWeek.
By Joël van Dam – Owner, Joëlnumismatics, for MA-Shops.com …… Jupiter, the Roman Zeus Last month I spoke a little about mythology on ancient coins. This month, I want to begin to discuss the gods and goddesses, and heroes and monsters of myth–beginning with the Roman god Jupiter. I came to the conclusion when I […]
The post MA-Shops: Jupiter on Ancient Coins appeared first on CoinWeek.
By Joël van Dam – Owner, Joëlnumismatics, for MA-Shops.com …… A Theoretical Context In this blog I will talk about an iconographic theme on coins that was very popular in ancient times: mythology. Yet it is very hard to give the exact definition on what mythology/myth exactly is. But I know for sure that when […]
The post MA-Shops: Myths on Ancient Coins appeared first on CoinWeek.
By Joël van Dam – Owner of Joëlnumismatics, for MA-Shops.com …… For some years, there was an empire inside the Roman Empire. It had his own Praetorian Guard, two annually elected consuls and possibly its own senate. This empire is known as the Gallic-Empire or in Latin as the Imperium Galliarum. The Empire came to […]
The post Ancient Coins and History of the Beginning of the Gallic Empire: MA-Shops appeared first on CoinWeek.
By Joël van Dam – Owner of Joëlnumismatics, for MA-Shops.com …… There is no theme based on myths in the history of coinage that can be detected so frequently as the ” Hercules ” theme. If you don’t know a lot about this theme, then it isn’t strange that you might expect that he was popular only […]
The post MA-Shops: Hercules on Ancient Coins appeared first on CoinWeek.
By Joël van Dam – Owner of Joëlnumismatics, for MA-Shops.com …… Ever since I started my career as a professional in the numismatic world, I get questions about quality almost every day. The questions I hear the most are Should I buy a more expensive high-quality coin or a less expensive, lower quality one? and […]
The post MA-Shops: What is a High-Quality Coin? appeared first on CoinWeek.
Most beginning collectors of ancient coins have something in common: they want an ancient gold coin in their collection. The Roman solidus is a good candidate. By Joël van Dam – Owner of Joëlnumismatics, for MA-Shops.com …… Gold coins from ancient times are most of the times expensive investments. Think of the golden aureus […]
The post Ancient Coins – The Gold Solidus of Rome: MA-Shops appeared first on CoinWeek.
By Joël van Dam – Owner of Joëlnumismatics, for MA-Shops.com …… When is a coin an Islamic coin? Before we can answer this question we should have a little historic background information. In the year 622 AD, Muhammad left the city of Mecca because the Meccan authorities didn’t like his religious teachings (for several reasons). […]
The post Islamic Coins on MA-Shops appeared first on CoinWeek.
By Joël van Dam – Owner of Joëlnumismatics, for MA-Shops.com …… The thaler is, with its impressive weight (around 30g), an innovative silver-type coin that was invented in the late 15th century. For me it is one of the most impressive kind of coin ever minted after the classical era. It was the archduke Sigismund […]
The post MA-Shops: Impressive Thaler Coins of Various Dates appeared first on CoinWeek.
By Joël van Dam – Owner of Joëlnumismatics, for MA-Shops.com …… The city of Akragas was one of the predominant cities of ancient Sicily. A typically Greek city, it was founded in 688 BCE by the Geloans in Sican territory in the southern part of the island settled by Dorians. They started minting coins in […]
The post MA-Shops: Ancient Coins from Akragas appeared first on CoinWeek.
By Joël van Dam – Owner of Joëlnumismatics, for MA-Shops.com …… The subject of this piece is about a gold coin most collectors of European coins know about, and it is probably the most famous gold coin of Europe: the golden ducat. But how much do you know about the coin and its huge history? […]
The post Why the Gold Ducat Is One of the Most Famous Gold Coins in the World appeared first on CoinWeek.
By Joël van Dam – Owner of Joëlnumismatics, for MA-Shops.com …… The subject of this piece is about a gold coin most collectors of European coins know about, and it is probably the most famous gold coin of Europe: the golden ducat. But how much do you know about the coin and its huge history? […]
The post Why the Gold Ducat Is One of the Most Famous Gold Coins in the World appeared first on CoinWeek.
Ancient Coins from the Source: Curated Highlights from MA-Shops By Joël van Dam, Owner of Joëlnumismatics for MA-Shops.com …… Typical Design of Persian coins The conquest of Cyrus of the Lydian Kingdom in the 540s BCE and of Babylonia in the 530s BCE extended the area of his power enormously beyond Iran. His son, Cambyses […]
The post Ancient Coins: Choice Persian Coins on MA-Shops appeared first on CoinWeek.