Sicily, Syracuse. Agathokles. 317-289 BCE. Silver Tetradrachm By Russell A. Augustin – AU Capital Management, LLC …… Agathokles was the last of the larger-than-life rulers of Syracuse, but he was not merely given the right to the throne. He was born in Thermae in 361 BCE to a Greek manufacturer of pottery, but he quickly […]
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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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By Atlas Numismatics …… We have been hard at work preparing our latest selection of new coins and medals – there are 513 new pieces for your consideration and browsing enjoyment. We hope that you may find something of interest for your collection and look forward to hearing from you if have any questions. Atlas Numismatics […]
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By Harlan J. Berk, Ltd …… Harlan J. Berk, Ltd. has just launched sale 221 on their website with paper catalogs following in a few weeks. This catalog has a large number of affordable lots along with a few fantastic highlights worth noting. The entire sale consists of 580 ancient coins, 53 world coins […]
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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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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 […]
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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 […]
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By Oliver Hoover for American Numismatic Society (ANS) …… This last summer, an email message to the ANS Curatorial Department requested that an attempt be made to use the Society’s online resources, like Pocket Change, to offer some education regarding the famous “Tribute Penny” mentioned in the King James Version of Mark 12:13–17 (thought by […]
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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 […]
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CoinWeek Ancient Coin Series by Mike Markowitz ….. ANCIENT GREEK ARMIES fought mainly with the spear. Roman legions fought mostly with the sword. Persians fought largely with the bow and arrow[1]. The mythical warrior Herakles (or Hercules) wielded a knobby wooden club. All these weapons, and many others, feature prominently on ancient coins. War was […]
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Overview: This tetradrachm (a silver four-drachmae coin), issued around the year 2 BCE, is from the Greco-Roman city of Antioch-on-the-Orontes in what is now southern Turkey. In 31 BCE, the forces of Octavian, great-nephew and adopted son of Julius Caesar, had defeated the forces of Marc Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium, one […]
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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 […]
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By Jeremy Bostwick – Senior Numismatist & Cataloger, Stack’s Bowers …… With over 200 lots of ancient coins in the Stack’s Bowers Galleries June 2021 Ancient and World Collectors Choice Online (CCO) Auction, there are numerous exciting highlights. One particular standout is a silver tetradrachm of the Thracian king Lysimachos, who had served as one […]
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By Tyler Rossi for CoinWeek ….. What does it take for an ancient historian to claim that you died by having molten gold poured down your throat? Easy – you just need to be the richest Roman to have ever lived. It also helps if you earned your vast fortune through slavery, dubious business dealings, […]
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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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CoinWeek Ancient Coin Series by Mike Markowitz for CoinWeek ….. NORTH AFRICA IN antiquity was a greener place. Climate change and centuries of deforestation and overgrazing have caused extensive desertification of lands that once fed and sustained ancient empires. The kingdom of Numidia, which emerged in the third century BCE in parts of Tunisia and […]
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By Austin Andrews for American Numismatic Society (ANS) …… With its range of hawk-headed and half-mummified deities, the Egyptian pantheon has inspired devotion and intrigue for millennia. Egyptians were drawing, painting, and carving images of their gods well before the first pharaohs, over five thousand years ago. While coined money was not a regular part […]
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By Austin Andrews for American Numismatic Society (ANS) …… With its range of hawk-headed and half-mummified deities, the Egyptian pantheon has inspired devotion and intrigue for millennia. Egyptians were drawing, painting, and carving images of their gods well before the first pharaohs, over five thousand years ago. While coined money was not a regular […]
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By Mike Markowitz for CoinWeek ….. In recent years, Heritage Auctions has become a major player in the ancient coin market. Traditionally in America, the most important ancient coin auctions of the year take place in January, in association with the New York International Numismatic Convention (NYINC). This year is no exception, even though the […]
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By Michael T. Shutterly for CoinWeek ….. A long time ago, the goddess Athena purchased the naming rights to the town now known as Athens. Coins had not yet been invented so Athena could not pay cash for the naming rights, but she did have something valuable to offer instead: she gave the Athenians the […]
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CoinWeek Ancient Coin Series by Mike Markowitz for CoinWeek ….. FOR CENTURIES, THE narrow Strait of Messina that separates Sicily from the toe of Italy has been a crossroads of history. The town of Rhegium[1] (or Rhegion, today Reggio di Calabria) located on the Italian side of the Strait, was one of the first Greek […]
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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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CoinWeek Ancient Coin Series by Mike Markowitz for CoinWeek ….. Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children that dragons can be killed. ― G.K. Chesterton, a la Criminal Minds (CBS, 2007) CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY IS FILLED with monsters. For the civilizations of the ancient […]
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By Mike Markowitz for CoinWeek ….. All Gaul is divided into three parts, one of which the Belgae inhabit, the Aquitani another, those who in their own language are called Celts, in ours Gauls, the third. All these differ from each other in language, customs and laws (Caesar, 1). FOR MOST AMERICANS, “Celtic” means […]
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By Mike Markowitz for CoinWeek ….. During the first centuries of the Christian era, a vast inland empire stretched across Central Asia under the name Kushan. They have been referred to as a super power of their time along with the Chinese, Persians and Romans … Just how and when the Kushan dynasty was formed continues […]
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CoinWeek Ancient Coin Series by Mike Markowitz ….. Part I Antiochus III When Seleucus III was poisoned by his officers in 223 BCE, his 18-year-old son, Antiochus, inherited an empire that was rapidly falling apart. In a reign of 35 years, Antiochus III tried to emulate the conquests of Alexander, earning the epithet Megas (“the Great”). The […]
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CoinWeek Ancient Coin Series by Mike Markowitz ….. MURDEROUS AND TREACHEROUS, the Seleucids, a Greek dynasty who ruled much of the Middle East from 312 to 64 BCE, were a nasty lot. But they had exquisite artistic taste, rather like those brutal Italian Renaissance princes who sponsored sculptors, painters and architects who created sublime masterpieces of enduring […]
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Attica, Athens AR Tetradrachm. New Style Coinage, circa 154-153 BC By Russell A. Augustin, AU Capital Management, LLC …… Athens was once immensely powerful and independent, but its invincibility was ultimately disproved. It was conquered first by Sparta, then by Macedonia, and eventually by Rome. Athens’ value was well understood, and it was allowed […]
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Sicily, Syracuse. Agathokles. 317-289 BC. Silver Tetradrachm By Russell A. Augustin, AU Capital Management, LLC …… Agathokles was the last of the larger-than-life rulers of Syracuse, but he was not merely given the right to the throne. He was born in Thermae in 361 BCE to a Greek manufacturer of pottery, but he quickly tired […]
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CoinWeek Ancient Coins Series by Mike Markowitz…. Throughout the history of ancient coins two contradictory concepts have competed with each other. According to one concept, a coin is a piece of precious metal whose value is essentially equivalent to the value of the bullion from which it was made, and the stamp on its face […]
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New Tetradrachm Overview: The new style of Athenian “owl”–so-called due to the iconic image of Athena’s owl on the reverse–originated in a Greece newly conquered by the Romans. While retaining a profile of the Greek goddess Athena on the obverse and an owl (one of her symbols) on the reverse, several elaborate additions had been […]
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David Vagi continues his discussion of the designs of select ancient Greek coins in the fourth of a multi-part series By David Vagi – Director, NGC Ancients …… As our survey of Greek silver coins continues, we’ll depart from the geographical format and investigate the coins of the Hellenistic Kingdoms. With the expansion of the […]
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NGC’s David Vagi discusses the design varieties of select ancient Greek coins in this first of a multi-part series By David Vagi – Director, NGC Ancients …… The variety of designs found on ancient Greek coins seems limitless, and trying to pick the 10 most famous coin types is like trying to choose the 10 best […]
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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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CoinWeek Ancient Coin Series by Mike Markowitz …. And if any man will sue thee at law and take away thy coat [Greek: chiton; Latin: tunica], let him have thy cloak [Greek: himation; Latin: pallium] also. —Matthew, 5:40[1] LIVING IN A WORLD OF CHEAP, machine-made textiles, it is easy for us to forget that every […]
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The New York International Numismatic Convention (NYINC) is one of the most prestigious shows focused on ancient and world numismatics. Organized in 2018 from January 12 to 14 at the Grand Hyatt in Manhattan, it has moved down the street from its long-time home at the Waldorf Astoria
Silver tetradrachms of Sicily are highly sought after by ancient-coin collectors Collectors have long agreed that many of the most impressive ancient coins were produced in Sicily. With its advantageous location between Italy and North Africa, this island was a cultural crossroads of the Mediterranean. It also was the site of frequent warfare among those […]
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By Mike Markowitz for CoinWeek…. Hektor came on against them, as a murderous lions on cattle who in a low-lying meadow of a great marsh pasture by hundreds, and among them a herdsman who does not quite know how to fight a wild beast off from killing a horn-curved ox… —Iliad, Book 15:630-636 MORE THAN THIRTY THOUSAND YEARS AGO, […]
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CoinWeek Ancient Coin Series by Mike Markowitz …. It hardly needs repeating here that the gap between ancient and modern sensibilities is unbridgeable. — Caroline Vout (2007)[1] FOR MUCH OF THE YEAR, the Mediterranean climate is hot, and it makes a certain amount of sense for clothing to be optional. Every bit of thread in […]
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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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CoinWeek Ancient Coin Series by Mike Markowitz …. OUR MOON IS SOLID, not transparent. So it is impossible for a star to appear between the points of a crescent moon. But ancient artists did not care about this, even if they understood it. Because the orbits of the Earth, the Moon and the planets all […]
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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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By Atlas Numismatics …… Tokyo Bound We will be attending the Tokyo International Coin Convention (TICC). 来週、T.I.C.C.に東京お楽しみに会います。Please note that we will only be able to carry a portion of the inventory available on our website; if you would like us to include any specific items for your examination at the shows please contact us […]
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By Atlas Numismatics …… New Inventory These six coins are just a sample of the 738 recent additions to our inventory. We have added new material in Ancient (37), World (751) and US (13). Beautifully Toned Alexander III Tetradrachm http://atlasnumismatics.com/1040195 This and the following images courtesy of Atlas Numismatics 1040195 | GREEK. KINGDOM OF […]
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By Atlas Numismatics …… New Inventory These six coins are just a sample of the 738 recent additions to our inventory. We have added new material in Ancient (37), World (751) and US (13). Beautifully Toned Alexander III Tetradrachm http://atlasnumismatics.com/1040195 This and the following images courtesy of Atlas Numismatics 1040195 | GREEK. KINGDOM OF […]
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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 NGC Ancients ….. The royal busts of the Indo-Greek kings are often adorned with unusual helmets and headdresses Among the most interesting and diverse portraits on ancient ‘Greek’ coinage are those of the Indo-Greek kings of Bactria, a region on the fringe of the Greek world. In addition to the portraits themselves, which […]
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Excellent prices were realized in the Gorny & Mosch Fall Auction. Above all, the Archaic coins from Athens and the collection of exquisite German thalers achieved five-digit hammer prices. However, Poland caused more than one surprise, too. During the week from October 5 to 9, 2015, coin collectors gathered in Munich. Presented in no less […]
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