CoinWeek Ancient Coin Series by Mike Markowitz ….. His constitution was sickly and he was indeed invalid throughout his life. His father’s birth was doubtful; and he was himself born out of regular wedlock, although his legitimacy was afterwards grudgingly recognized. From his eighth to his 16th year he was the pawn, by turns of […]
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By Michael T. Shutterly for CoinWeek ….. The Iconoclastic Controversy was a period of near civil war in the Byzantine Empire that began in about 726 CE and lasted until about 787. It was revived in 814 and finally concluded in 843. The Controversy involved a religious dispute between Iconodules (“image servants”), who venerated icons […]
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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 Michael T. Shutterly for CoinWeek ….. Imperial Byzantine coinage served both economic and propaganda purposes. The coins routinely identified the reigning emperor or empress by name and title, and usually portrayed the ruler in some vigorous pose that demonstrated power and authority. One great exception was the copper coinage that began to appear circa […]
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By Mike Markowitz for CoinWeek ….. Apostate: (noun) a person who forsakes his religion, cause, party, etc.[1] REMEMBERED AS THE “Apostate” by his enemies, and “the Philosopher” by his friends, Flavius Claudius Julianus–or Julian–ruled as Roman emperor from November 3, 361 CE until his death on June 26, 363. On the list of emperors, […]
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By Mike Markowitz for CoinWeek ….. Constantine’s family was large and complex. Both he and his father had sired children with two different women, thus creating three branches [of] the Constantinian family. Most remote to Constantine was the step-family created by his father and most immediate were the two branches of direct descendants he had […]
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By Tyler Rossi for CoinWeek ….. Modern-day North Macedonia is a country of breathtaking natural beauty and ancient history that gained its independence in 1991 from the disintegrating Yugoslavia. A majority Slavic nation, North Macedonia has a rich monetary tradition stretching back through the socialist and royal iterations of Yugoslavia, medieval Bulgarian and Turkish empires, […]
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CoinWeek Ancient Coin Series by Mike Markowitz ….. THE LOMBARDS, A tribe that traced their origin to Scandinavia, migrated into Eastern Europe in the fifth century CE, earning a reputation for ferocity in that war-torn land. Under their king Alboin (reigned c. 560-572), they invaded northern Italy around 568, where their name endures today in […]
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By Mike Markowitz for CoinWeek ….. ATHENS IN THE eighth century was a provincial small town living on memories of past glories. But its aristocrats were proud of their daughters, reputedly the most talented and beautiful women in the Eastern Roman (“Byzantine”) empire. When Emperor Constantine V needed a bride for his son and heir, […]
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By Mike Markowitz for CoinWeek ….. IN THE ANCIENT WORLD, gold and silver were the coinage of the elite, but humble copper was the coinage of the common folk. For over 120 years, the single denomination of copper coinage issued by the Eastern Roman (“Byzantine”) Empire was “Anonymous”. The Anonymous follis did not bear […]
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By Mike Markowitz for CoinWeek ….. …the sick promenade while the doctors lie abed, the baths freeze while the houses burn, the living are thirsty while the buried swim, thieves are vigilant while the authorities sleep, the clergy lend money while the Syrian merchants sing psalms… (Deliyannis, 50) —Sidonius Apollinaris (c. 430-489 describing Ravenna as […]
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Excellent examples of Byzantine coins are easily affordable By Numismatic Guaranty Corporation (NGC) …… As we discovered in the previous two columns, the fields of ancient Greek and Roman coins provide the budget-minded collector with opportunities perhaps unequaled in any other area of numismatics. This month we’ll continue the discovery with Byzantine coins, which […]
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CoinWeek Ancient Coin Series by Mike Markowitz ….. Of the characters conspicuous in history, that of Heraclius is one of the most extraordinary and inconsistent. In the first and last years of a long reign, the emperor appears to be the slave of sloth, of pleasure, or of superstition, the careless and impotent spectator of the public […]
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By Numismatic Guaranty Corporation (NGC) …… The evolution of silver continued during the last two centuries of the Roman Empire In the previous column (Part I), we saw how the quality of silver coinage of the Roman Empire declined steadily from the reign of Augustus (27 BCE to 14 CE) to that of Gallienus (253 […]
The post NGC Ancients: The Decline of Roman Imperial Silver Coinage, Part II 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 […]
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CoinWeek Ancient Coin Series by Mike Markowitz …. IMPERIAL ROME NEVER REALLY solved the problem of orderly succession to power. The “normal” pattern of inheritance in a monarchy is an elderly ruler replaced after his natural death by a well-qualified adult son. For Rome, this was an exception, not a rule. Officially, an emperor had […]
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Collectors enjoy the challenge of building sets of Byzantine Coin denominations The Byzantine Empire (491 to 1453 CE/AD) produced a tremendous number of coins during its near-millennium of existence. A large percentage of these coins were struck in copper, often Byzantine Coin denominations marks are rendered in Greek or Latin. Byzantine coinage is generally considered to have […]
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By Mike Markowitz for CoinWeek …. BRICKS WERE PROBABLY the first mass-produced industrial product. Cast bronze arrowheads, produced by the millions, might well have been the second. But ancients coins were the most challenging mass-produced industrial product in antiquity. The successful mass production of ancient coins required many advances in metallurgy and a complex division […]
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