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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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 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 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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By Steve Benner for CoinWeek ….. The Kingdom of Sophene is another one of those ancient countries that has not received very much attention from ancient coin collectors. Usually, it is just lumped in with Armenia because it was absorbed into the Armenian Empire by Tigranes II the Great (140–55 BCE) after 95 BCE. But […]
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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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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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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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MACEDONIAN KINGDOM. Alexander the Great Tetradrachms (336-323 BC). AR Tetradrachms By Russell A. Augustin, AU Capital Management, LLC …… The early Macedonian kingdom did not have sufficient access to mines to be able to mass-produce influential coinage. However, when Philip II rose to power in 359 BCE, he recognized the importance of mining and prioritized […]
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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 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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By Jeremy Bostwick – Senior Numismatist & Cataloger, Stack’s Bowers …… Outside of an Athenian “owl”, there may be no more desired and iconic coinage from antiquity than that featuring one of the most successful military commanders in history, Alexander the Great. Born in 356 BCE to Philip II, king of Macedon, at age 20 […]
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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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Macedonia, Philip II, struck under Philip III; Kolophon, c. 322 BC, Stater By Russell A. Augustin, AU Capital Management, LLC …… With no mass media, ancient coins functioned as powerful tools for propaganda due to their portability and potential to circulate widely. Rulers would carefully choose their types and each element of the designs […]
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Macedonia, Philip II, struck under Philip III; Kolophon, c. 322 BC, Stater By Russell A. Augustin, AU Capital Management, LLC …… With no mass media, ancient coins functioned as powerful tools for propaganda due to their portability and potential to circulate widely. Rulers would carefully choose their types and each element of the designs […]
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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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By Atlas Numismatics …… New Inventory These seven coins are just a sample of the 713 recent additions to our inventory. We have added new material in Ancient (60), World (647) and US (6). Berend Plate Coin http://atlasnumismatics.com/1038377 This and the following images courtesy of Atlas Numismatics 1038377 | GREEK. SICILY. Syracuse. Dionysios I. (Tyrant, […]
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By Mike Markowitz for CoinWeek…. NOW AND THEN IN HISTORY, economic, political and social forces come together in just the right combination to make a particular city the dynamic locus of cultural creativity. We see this in Athens in the time of Pericles (c. 495 – 429 BCE), Florence during the Renaissance (c. 1350 – 1450 […]
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