By Dr. Steve Benner for CoinWeek ….. Doris was a small region on the southwest coast of Asia Minor (see Figure 1), which later became a part of Caria. It was settled by the Dorians at the end of the Bronze Age (3300-1200 BCE) and was probably part of the Sea Peoples’ invasions of the […]
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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 […]
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By Steve Benner for CoinWeek ….. The previous article that I wrote on Aiolis covered the larger commercial cities of Aigai, Cyme, and Myrina. I singled them out because these cities produced stephanophoric tetradrachms in the mid-second century BCE. This article covers the rest of the cities in Aiolis, which is a small region on […]
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By Steve Benner for CoinWeek ….. Pamphylia was not a country unto itself but a region. It is located on the southern coast of Asia Minor (Modern Turkey) surrounded by Lycia to the west, Cilicia to the east, and Pisidia to the north. In ancient Greek, Pamphylia meant “of mingled tribes or races”, and […]
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By Steve Benner for CoinWeek ….. Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 * * * This article is the second part on the coinage of Troas, a region of northwest Asia Minor adjacent to the Hellespont. Its history goes back to the Bronze Age and the Hittites, and Troy (Ilium), […]
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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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Fresco of dolphins, c. 1600 BC, from Knossos, Crete By Tyler Rossi for CoinWeek ….. The dolphin straddled the Greek worlds of mythology, religion, and the mundane. In Homer’s epic poem The Iliad, it plays the role of a hunter who stalked fish and man alike. Similar to the lion, or any other large land-based hunter, it […]
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By Steve Benner for CoinWeek ….. Kephallenia is the sixth-largest island of Greece and the largest in the Ionian Sea. It is located opposite the Gulf of Corinth (Figure 1). The island was associated with the city of Elis on the mainland but functioned independently. Kephallenia is about 31 miles long and 20 to three […]
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Coins of the Greek city of Larissa are among the most beautiful of the ancient world By Numismatic Guaranty Company (NGC) …… Located in central Greece, the site of Larissa has been inhabited for thousands of years. Through much of this time, it has been one of the most important cities in the region […]
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By Tyler Rossi for CoinWeek ….. When I was a kid, I walked to school both ways! When I was younger, movie tickets were only 50 cents! While these are a few of the stereotypical laments of many “older” folks, they speak to a series of deeper trends in our markets. Change is inevitable, […]
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By Steve Benner for CoinWeek ….. This is the third article in a series on the Greek colonies on the northern coast of the Black Sea (Euxine Sea). The first article was on Olbia, the second was on Tyras and Chersonesus, and this one covers the cities of Theodosia, Gorgippia, and Phanagoria in the Cimmerian […]
The post Theodosia, Gorgippia, & Phanagoria: Ancient Greek Coins of the Black Sea’s Northern Coast appeared first on CoinWeek.
CoinWeek Podcast #145: Ancient Coin Weight Standards Mobile phone users. Stream this podcast for free by downloading the podomatic app or subscribe to the CoinWeek Podcast on iTunes. This week on the CoinWeek Podcast, ancient coin writer Mike Markowitz gives an informative talk about ancient weight standards and how this important knowledge helps modern collectors ascertain […]
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By Steve Benner for CoinWeek ….. This is the second article in a series on the Greek colonies on the northern coast of the Black Sea (Euxine Sea). The first article was on Olbia, and this one covers the cities of Tyras and Chersonesus. Most of the colonies in the area, which is now southern […]
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By Steve Benner for CoinWeek ….. The northern coast of the Black Sea (Euxine Sea), which is southern Ukraine and Russia today, was considered to be at the extreme edge of the ancient Greek world. The area was settled during the great colonization period of Greek history in the eighth through sixth centuries BCE. […]
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By Mike Markowitz for CoinWeek ….. Thanks to rich silver deposits discovered at Laurion[1] in Attica in 483 BCE, the abundant “owl” tetradrachms of Athens became the dominant trade coin in the ancient world for over a century. But the Athenians had issued a variety of silver coins beginning around the year 560 BCE during […]
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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 […]
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Ancient Coins issued from colonies bordering the Strait of Messina are numerous and interesting Strait of Messina Coins By Numismatic Guaranty Corporation (NGC) …… The Strait of Messina, which separates Italy and Sicily and is just two miles wide at its narrowest point, has been the scene of many historic events. Countless armies have crossed […]
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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.
Greek coins are available for every budget By Numismatic Guaranty Corporation (NGC) …… As we saw in the last column, ancient Roman coins offer some unexpected opportunities for collectors at most every level of budget. This month we’ll focus on similar bargains available in the field of ancient Greek coins, many of which are […]
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CoinWeek Ancient Coin Series by Mike Markowitz ….. THE TRAGIC AND CHAOTIC last generations of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt were dominated by the growing power of Rome, and the fickle loyalties of Alexandria’s unruly population (usually described by historians as “the mob”). A lack of ancient statistics makes numerical estimates risky[1], but the consensus is that […]
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By Russell A. Augustin, AU Capital Management, LLC The Colosseo Collection …… Akragas was a wealthy and powerful Greek state on the southern coast of Sicily, second only to Syracuse in importance. The city was famous for its lavish building projects, proudly displaying its wealth in the form of numerous massive temples, many of which […]
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CoinWeek Ancient Coin Series by Mike Markowitz …. Muse, sing in honor of Hermes, the son of Zeus and Maia, lord of Kyllene, lord of Arcadia with all its sheep, bringer of luck, messenger of the gods. His mother was Maia with the wonderful hair, a shy and shamefaced nymph who stayed in her […]
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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 Russell A. Augustin, AU Capital Management, LLC The Colosseo Collection …… Akragas was a wealthy and powerful Greek state on the southern coast of Sicily, second only to Syracuse in importance. The city was famous for its lavish building projects, proudly displaying its wealth in the form of numerous massive temples, many of which […]
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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 Mike Markowitz for CoinWeek …. ANCIENT ROMANS KNEW even less about the prehistoric origins of their religion than we do, since we have knowledge from centuries of archaeology. Latin writers of the Classical era tried to connect their own native Italian gods to the prestigious gods of ancient Greece, with their complex genealogies […]
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By Mike Markowitz for CoinWeek …. ANCIENT ROMANS KNEW even less about the prehistoric origins of their religion than we do, since we have knowledge from centuries of archaeology. Latin writers of the Classical era tried to connect their own native Italian gods to the prestigious gods of ancient Greece, with their complex genealogies and […]
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CoinWeek Ancient Coin Series by Mike Markowitz …. A hare one day ridiculed the short feet and slow pace of the Tortoise, who replied, laughing: “Though you be swift as the wind, I will beat you in a race.” … On the day appointed for the race the two started together. The Tortoise never for […]
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CoinWeek Ancient Coin Series by Mike Markowitz …. My advice for those who die, Declare the pennies on your eyes — The Beatles, “Taxman”, Revolver (1966) IN THE HOLLYWOOD EPIC FILM Troy (2004), King Priam of Troy (Peter O’Toole) visits the tent of the Greek hero Achilles (Brad Pitt) by night to beg for the […]
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CoinWeek Ancient Coin Series by Mike Markowitz…. THE JEBEL AKHDAR OR “GREEN MOUNTAINS” OF LIBYA stretches eastward from Benghazi for a hundred miles (160 km) along the coast. With an average annual rainfall of 15-20 inches (375-500 mm), these limestone hills are the most forested region in North Africa. In ancient times, before centuries of […]
The post Coinage of Kyrene: A Greek City in Libya appeared first on CoinWeek.
By Russell A. Augustin, AU Capital Management, LLC The Colosseo Collection …… Akragas was a wealthy and powerful Greek state on the southern coast of Sicily, second only to Syracuse in importance. The city was famous for its lavish building projects, proudly displaying its wealth in the form of numerous massive temples, many of which […]
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