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 […]
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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 […]
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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 Steve Benner for CoinWeek ….. I consider myself well-read in ancient Greek history, but I have to admit that I wasn’t very familiar with Paeonia. I actually own a very nice Patraus tetradrachm, which probably triggered my interest in looking deeper into their history. The Paeonians were said to have derived their name from […]
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Over its long life, the Mediterranean superpower struck a wide array of silver ancient coins Roman silver coins were produced in astonishing variety over a period of about 800 years. Considering the broad historical themes they represent, it’s no surprise they are among the most popular of all ancient coins. Many collectors specialize in […]
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By Tyler Rossi for CoinWeek ….. History is a continuum and time moves linearly. Generally, as time progresses, artistic and cultural trends evolve and build upon each other. One perfect example is the Hellenistic influence seen in Buddhist artwork from the Gandharan province in the first century BCE. The Bactrian and other Greek kings who […]
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By Steve Benner for CoinWeek ….. The coinage of the ancient Romans underwent considerable changes as the government transitioned from a republic to an empire. Some coins like the denarius would continue through the imperatorial period into the Empire only slightly reduced in weight. Some would disappear, like the victoriatus. And some, like the sestertius, […]
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By David Hendin for CoinWeek ….. Silver shekels and half-shekels of Tyre were used by Jews in ancient Jerusalem to pay the annual Temple tribute of half a shekel per year per male adult. When the First and Second Temples stood in Jerusalem, local Jews, as well as Jews from around the ancient world, made […]
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By Steve Benner for CoinWeek ….. This is the last 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; the third covers the cities of Theodosia, Gorgippia, and Phanagoria in the Cimmerian Bosporos. […]
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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 […]
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By Willem Knapen – Numismatist, Catawiki …… Coins were the medium par excellence for bringing classical civilizations together and allowing cities to grow, and often featured the faces of rulers that were or felt responsible for this growth, in which cases coins were an excellent means of propaganda. The Persian satrap of Mysia, Tissaphernes (circa […]
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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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By Mike Markowitz for CoinWeek ….. EPIRUS IS A rugged corner of northwestern Greece and southern Albania. It emerged as an independent kingdom in the fourth century BCE, a time when other contemporary Greeks regarded the region’s tribes as “semi-barbarian”. About 319 BCE a prince of Epirus was born, named Pyrrhus, whose father was a […]
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By Mike Markowitz for CoinWeek ….. The extent of the Kingdom of Macedonia is as ill-defined as its history is fragmentary (Raymond, 3). ANCIENT MACEDONIANS[1] were marginal Greeks. Although permitted to compete in the Olympics, the Macedonians spoke a distinctive dialect. While their neighbors were creating novel forms of government like democracy, oligarchy and […]
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David Vagi continues his discussion of the designs of select ancient Greek coins in the second of a multi-part series By David Vagi – Director, NGC Ancients …… With this article we advance in our survey of Greek silver coins to Southern Italy and Sicily, a region the Romans called Magna Graecia (“Greater Greece”). The area […]
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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 […]
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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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The coinage of Nero spans his long reigns as Caesar and emperor Nero is among the best-known of all Roman emperors – but not for good reasons. During his eventful reign, from 54 to 68 CE, Nero had relatively few accomplishments, yet is credited with a long list of failures. The fact that he ruled […]
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Over its long life, the Mediterranean superpower struck a wide array of silver coins Roman silver coins were produced in astonishing variety over a period of about 800 years. Considering the broad historical themes they represent, it’s no surprise they are among the most popular of all ancient coins. Many collectors specialize in the silver […]
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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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CoinWeek Ancient Coin Series by Mike Markowitz …. FOR MUCH OF HUMAN HISTORY, WARFARE has absorbed our resources, energy and creativity. War is much older than coinage. One of the earliest images of war in Western art is the “Battlefield Palette”, a carved slate from pre-Dynastic Egypt dated c. 3100 BCE[1]. It depicts the aftermath […]
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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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By David Vagi, Director of NGC Ancients…. NGC offers premium access to an incomparable online resource that allows you to search through ancient coin auction prices realized and upcoming auctions from more than 80 auction firms. Ancient coins have come a long way in the last 20 years. A large number of scholarly books have […]
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Coins of exceptional beauty often deriving from famous old collections are a specialty of Harlan J. Berk, Ltd. The firm’s latest Buy or Bid Sale, which closes on 30 April 2015, offers collectors a choice of 542 ancient coins, plus 21 coins of the world and 46 antiquities or antique maps. Harlan J. Berk, Ltd., […]
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