Category Archives: Hercules

Wee Deities on Ancient Coins

By Austin Andrews for American Numismatic Society (ANS) …… Infanthood is one of the few universal conditions that every adult has once experienced, which they cannot explicitly recall. Within this known ignorance, there is a fascinating projection of humanity onto the divine, in terms of religious sentiment and human psychology. If the gods look and […]

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Money in Mid-Republican Rome

By Lucia Carbone for American Numismatic Society (ANS) …… On February 16–18, 2023, the Royal Netherlands Institute of Rome (KNIR) hosted an international workshop titled Money in Mid-Republican Rome, to which the author was fortunate enough to participate. This workshop was organized by Fleur Kemmers (Goethe University, Frankfurt) and by Marleen Termeer (Radhoud University, Nijmegen) […]

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Aaron Berk: Ancient Coin Podcast – Episode 25

In the 25th episode of the Aaron Berk Ancient Coin Podcast, expert Aaron Berk and fellow Harlan J. Berk, Ltd. numismatist Mike Nottelmann take a look at a handful of ancient coins recently up for auction. Among the highlights are a drachm from Naxos, a “badge of Phanes“, and a Roman silver sestertius. With the […]

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Collecting French FDC Coin Sets

By Tyler Rossi for CoinWeek ….. Starting in 1964, the Paris Mint began producing a new series of special mint sets with very limited mintages. Marketed as Fleur De Coin (FDC), these sets contained between seven and 10 proof-like coins. Described on the internal information card included in all sets as “numismatic specimens” of the […]

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The Aes Grave Bronze Coin During the Roman Republic

By Tyler Rossi for CoinWeek ….. It is said that when Greece was building grand temples of white marble, the Romans were living in mud huts. While this is a sweeping generalization, there is some truth behind it as is demonstrated by the Republic’s earliest documented coinage, the Aes Rude or “Rough Bronze”. These proto-coins, […]

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The Influence of Historic and Ancient Coin Designs

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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The Franc: A Coin, a Currency, an Orphan

By Gilles Bransbourg for American Numismatic Society (ANS) ……   The Franc is one of the oldest and most widespread currency units in the world, currently the official currency of 25 states or autonomous territories. However, the Franc was never intended to become the name of a currency until the French kingdom issued a specific […]

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Ancient Roman Coinage From Republic to Empire

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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Ancient Coins – A Soldier’s Share of Alexander the Great’s Plunder

Ancient Coins By Russell A. Augustin, AU Capital Management, LLC …… Alexander the Great, born in the autumn of 356 BCE and taught by the famous Aristotle, was one of the most successful military generals of all time, conquering a large part of Asia and ruling a kingdom that spanned from the Ionian sea to […]

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Coins of the Ludi Saeculares and Rome’s Millennial Games

Coins of the Ludi Saeculares by Steve Benner for CoinWeek ….. Saeculum, an Etruscan word, referred to the length of a human lifetime (100 or 110 years), or the time necessary to replace an entire generation. You may recognize it from the phrase “Novus Ordo Seclorum” (“A New Order of the Ages”), which appears on […]

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Ancient Roman Coins of the Muses

By Michael T. Shutterly for CoinWeek ….. The Mint of the Roman Republic operated under the supervision of magistrates known as the Tresviri Aere Argento Auro Flando Feriundo (“three men for casting [and] striking bronze silver [and] gold”). This was a board of three men (tresviri), each of whom was just beginning his public career […]

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Stack’s Bowers to Display Cardinal Collection Tribute to Libertas Americana Medal

Stack’s Bowers Galleries is pleased to announce that it will display an incredible tribute to the Libertas Americana medal, assembled by the Cardinal Collection Education Foundation, at the upcoming Florida United Numismatists (FUN) Convention in Orlando, January 9-11, 2020. The display, centered around one of the most beautiful and important medals struck in American history, […]

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Hercules vs. the Nemean Lion: 1st Coin in New 12 Labors Series

First Release in New Series From Pobjoy Mint Sold Out Between 1997 and 2002, Pobjoy Mint released an incredibly popular series of £2 Bi-metal coins on behalf of the government of Gibraltar featuring the 12 Labors of Hercules. Pobjoy Mint is pleased to announce the reproduction of this popular series with a very low issue […]

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Ancient Coins – Coinage of the Ancient Olympics

Ancient Olympics – Elis, Olympia, 87th-90th Olympiad, 432-420 BC. AR Stater [1] Coins of the Ancient Olympics By Russell A. Augustin – AU Capital Management, LLC The Colosseo Collection …… One of the few ancient traditions to survive until the modern world is the Olympic games. Occurring in the same four-year cycle today as in […]

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NGC Ancients – Roman Republican Silver Serrati Coins

The reason for the serrated edges on some silver Roman Republic denarii is not known   By Numismatic Guaranty Corporation (NGC) …… The edges of most silver denarii of the Roman Republic have no particular features beyond those imparted by the flow of metal during the striking process. There is, however, a group of coins […]

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Ancient Coins – A Soldier’s Share of Alexander the Great’s Plunder

By Russell A. Augustin, AU Capital Management, LLC …… Alexander the Great, born in the autumn of 356 BCE and taught by the famous Aristotle, was one of the most successful military generals of all time, conquering a large part of Asia and ruling a kingdom that spanned from the Ionian sea to the Himalayas […]

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NGC Ancients: Classic Greek Coins, Part 4

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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Ancient Coins and History of the Beginning of the Gallic Empire: MA-Shops

By Joël van Dam – Owner of Joëlnumismatics, for MA-Shops.com …… For some years, there was an empire inside the Roman Empire. It had his own Praetorian Guard, two annually elected consuls and possibly its own senate. This empire is known as the Gallic-Empire or in Latin as the Imperium Galliarum. The Empire came to […]

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MA-Shops: Hercules on Ancient Coins

By Joël van Dam – Owner of Joëlnumismatics, for MA-Shops.com …… There is no theme based on myths in the history of coinage that can be detected so frequently as the ” Hercules ” theme. If you don’t know a lot about this theme, then it isn’t strange that you might expect that he was popular only […]

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Silver Tetradrachm Coins of Ancient Sicily: NGC Ancients

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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CoinWeek Ancient Coin Series: Lions on Ancient Coins

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: Heroic Nudity on Ancient Coins

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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Libertas Americana Medals from the Cardinal Collection Educational Foundation

By Stacks Bowers …… Following the decisive victories at Saratoga and Yorktown, Benjamin Franklin wrote to the United States Secretary of Foreign Affairs Robert Livingston: “This puts me in mind of a medal I have had a mind to strike … representing the United States by the figure of an infant Hercules in his cradle, […]

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Ancient Coins – A Soldier’s Share of Alexander the Great’s Plunder

By Russell A. Augustin, AU Capital Management, LLC…. Alexander the Great, born in the autumn of 356 BCE and taught by the famous Aristotle, was one of the most successful military generals of all time, conquering a large part of Asia and ruling a kingdom that spanned from the Ionian sea to the Himalayas before […]

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Dogs on Ancient Coins

  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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CoinWeek Ancient Coin Series: Two Heads Are Better Than One

By Mike Markowitz for CoinWeek …. THE RICH VOCABULARY OF NUMISMATICS has many terms to describe the things we see on coins. When a coin depicts two heads side by side, the usual description is “jugate busts”. The word derives from the Latin iuga, meaning “yoke”. Think of a pair of oxen yoked together. Jugate […]

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Jacquier’s to Auction 450 Lots Featuring Ancient Coins of the Gallic Empire

By Paul-Francis Jacquier Auctions ….   An unbelievable number of 450 lots featuring coins of the Gallic Empire are on offer at Paul-Francis Jacquier’s auction on September 16, 2016 with a focus on antoniniani and denarii, including all rarities imaginable Postumus, Laelianus, Marius, Victorinus, Tetricus I and his son Tetricus II – these were the […]

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CoinWeek Ancient Coin Series: The Christianization of Roman Coinage

By Mike Markowitz for CoinWeek…. We speak sometimes of the Roman religion as though it possessed a firm basis, but in fact it was constantly changing, the gods melting away and being replaced by others (Hale, 73). Decline of Paganism BY THE BEGINNING OF THE FOURTH CENTURY CE, the religious life of the Romans was […]

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The Lindworm of Klagenfurt

The Austrian Mint  fifth silver coin in the series “Tales and Legends in Austria”, recounts the legend of the Lindworm of Klagenfurt, which used to hinder trade in the Klagenfurt area of Carinthia in southern Austria. The obverse of the coin depicts the Lindworm fountain and the statue of Hercules in the central square of […]

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Austrian Commemorative Coin Profile – The Lindworm of Klagenfurt

The Austrian Mint  fifth silver coin in the series “Tales and Legends in Austria”, recounts the legend of the Lindworm of Klagenfurt, which used to hinder trade in the Klagenfurt area of Carinthia in southern Austria. The obverse of the coin depicts the Lindworm fountain and the statue of Hercules in the central square of […]

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NGC Ancient Coins: The Golden Age of Rome

Perhaps no epoch in history has been so admired as the Roman Empire of the 2nd Century CE – Rome’s ‘Golden Age’ – during which the Romans achieved a balance of political stability and economic and intellectual success that had never before existed Rome’s Golden Age is famously described by the historian Edward Gibbon. In […]

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NGC Ancient Roman Coins: The Golden Age of Rome

Perhaps no epoch in history has been so admired as the Roman Empire of the 2nd Century CE. The Emperors are depicted on these ancient Roman coins. During this time, Romans achieved a balance of political stability and economic and intellectual success that had never before existed Ancient Roman Coins Rome’s Golden Age is famously […]

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