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 Mike Markowitz for CoinWeek ….. No lonelier man ever occupied the Byzantine throne – or any other, for that matter. Basil was ugly, dirty, coarse, boorish, totally philistine and almost pathologically mean. He was, in short, profoundly un-Byzantine. And all these things, one suspects, he would have readily admitted. He was not concerned with […]
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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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CoinWeek Ancient Coin Series by Mike Markowitz ….. Don’t buy damaged coins. They will be impossible to sell. This was some of the best advice I ever got from an experienced collector of ancients. But like most things in classical numismatics, there are exceptions. Ancient coins were sometimes pierced with a hole, to be worn […]
The post The Hole Truth: Ancient Coins That Were Pierced appeared first on CoinWeek.
By Mike Markowitz for CoinWeek ….. “What was the last ancient coin?” The question is unanswerable. There was no “last” ancient coin, just as there was no “last” ancient person. Classical antiquity didn’t just stop — it morphed gradually into the medieval world, which morphed, in turn, into what we understand as the modern […]
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By Tyler Rossi for CoinWeek ….. As a collector, you have many different options when deciding on your collecting strategy. And while everyone starts in a different place, most run into the two main questions of quality or price. But it is important to realize that there are no correct answers to these questions, and […]
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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, […]
The post Byzantine Coinage of the Empress Irene – CoinWeek Ancient Coin Series appeared first on CoinWeek.
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 ….. SINCE ANCIENT TIMES, RUSSIA’S great rivers have served as trade routes, sending Baltic amber, luxury furs, beeswax, honey, and slaves southward in exchange for the wine, silver, silks and fine metalware of the Mediterranean and Islamic civilizations. About the year 860, Riurik[1], a legendary Scandinavian adventurer, was invited by […]
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The Gorny & Mosch October sale has much to offer. The sessions will present a wide range of numismatic highlights, featuring rarities from the ancient world and showpieces from Germany alike. The Middle Ages are particularly well represented as well. Over the course of its auction week, Gorny & Mosch will conduct three auction sales. […]
The post Gorny & Mosch Auctions: From the Wappenmünze to the German Thaler appeared first on CoinWeek.