CoinWeek Ancient Coin Series by Mike Markowitz ….. I sing of golden-throned Hera whom Rhea bare. Queen of the immortals is she, surpassing all in beauty: she is the sister and the wife of loud-thundering Zeus, —the glorious one whom all the blessed throughout high Olympus reverence and honour even as Zeus who delights in […]
The post Hera on Ancient Coins – Queen of the Gods appeared first on CoinWeek: Rare Coin, Currency, and Bullion News for Collectors.
CoinWeek Ancient Coin Series by Mike Markowitz ….. THE ACHAEMENID EMPIRE of Persia founded by Cyrus the Great (ruled 559-530 BCE) was eventually conquered (330 BCE) by Alexander the Great. Achaemenid kings ruled their vast, multi-ethnic state through a system of appointed governors or satraps, recruited mainly from a narrow elite of closely related Iranian […]
The post Satraps: Ancient Coins of the Persian Governors appeared first on CoinWeek: Rare Coin, Currency, and Bullion News for Collectors.
CoinWeek Ancient Coin Series by Mike Markowitz ….. GOATS WERE FIRST domesticated as long as 11,000 years ago, probably in the Zagros Mountains of Iran (Daly, 1). The goat (Capra hircus) became a vital and much-loved element of ancient Greek agriculture, providing milk, meat, wool, and skins. Sure-footed goats easily managed the rugged mountainous terrain […]
The post Oh, You Kid: Goats on Ancient Coins 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 […]
The post Ancient Coins – Zeus, the King of the Gods appeared first on CoinWeek.
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 […]
The post Snakes on Ancient Coins appeared first on CoinWeek.
CoinWeek Ancient Coin Series by Mike Markowitz ….. Mona Lisa must have had the highway blues, You can tell by the way she smiled… — Bob Dylan, “Visions of Johanna”, Blonde on Blonde (1966) ANCIENT GREEK COINS struck before 500 BCE are called “archaic” by numismatists. Actually, archaic features continue to appear on coins for […]
The post The Archaic Smile on Ancient Coins appeared first on CoinWeek.
CoinWeek Ancient Coin Series by Mike Markowitz ….. MUSIC IS MUCH older than civilization — it may be as old as language itself. The earliest known musical instrument, a flute made from a bear’s shinbone found in 1995 in a cave in Slovenia, dates from 43,000 years ago[1]. In the ancient world, musical instruments played […]
The post Music on Ancient Coins appeared first on CoinWeek.
CoinWeek Ancient Coin Series by Mike Markowitz ….. MOST ANCIENT PEOPLE lived close to nature. Long before they built temples of stone, they worshipped their gods in sacred groves[1]. Greeks myths describe trees inhabited by supernatural spirits called dryads[2], who could take the form of beautiful young women. The ancient Mediterranean world was a much […]
The post Trees on Ancient Coins appeared first on CoinWeek.
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 […]
The post The Ancient Coins of Kroisos appeared first on CoinWeek.
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 […]
The post Eagles on Ancient Coins appeared first on CoinWeek.
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 […]
The post The Ancient Coins of Phanes appeared first on CoinWeek.
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 […]
The post Ancient Electrum Coins – Strength and Unity of an Empire appeared first on CoinWeek.
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 […]
The post Ancient Gold Coins : The First Circulating Gold Coinage and the Stag of Artemis appeared first on CoinWeek.
CoinWeek Ancient Coin Series by Mike Markowitz for CoinWeek ….. ANCIENT PEOPLE WHO lived around the shores of the Mediterranean were intimately familiar with the marine life around them. Fish were a critical resource for these societies, figuring prominently in their culture, art, and mythology from very early times. When coinage came into wide […]
The post Sea Creatures on Ancient Coins appeared first on CoinWeek.
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 […]
The post Ancient Coins – Zeus, the King of the Gods 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 […]
The post Ancient Coins: The Beginning of Coinage appeared first on CoinWeek.
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 […]
The post NGC Ancients: Sea Creatures on Greek Coins appeared first on CoinWeek.
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 […]
The post Ancient Coins – Zeus, the King of the Gods 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 […]
The post CoinWeek Ancient Coin Series: Sphinxes on Ancient Coins appeared first on CoinWeek.
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.
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 …… 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 […]
The post Ancient Coins : Zeus, the King of the Gods appeared first on CoinWeek.