By Tyler Rossi for CoinWeek ….. Backstory Born in 400 BCE, Alexander of Pherae would go on to leave an indelible mark on the Thessalian city of Pherae. While the son of the city’s tyrant, Jason, he was not first in the line of succession. This was to change quickly. After Jason was assassinated in […]
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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 ….. 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 Mike Markowitz for CoinWeek ….. AT THE BEGINNING of recorded history, the Iberian Peninsula was inhabited by a variety of peoples. Iberians, who spoke a non-Indo-European language that might – or might not – be related to modern Basque, lived along the Mediterranean coast. Along the Atlantic coast lived Lusitanians[1], a warlike tribe that […]
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By Michael T. Shutterly for CoinWeek ….. Ardashir V, King of Persis, defeated Artabanus IV, the last Shahanshah (“King of Kings”) of Parthia, at the Battle of Hormozdgan in 224 CE. Persis was located in what is now southwestern Iran, while Parthia was located primarily in what is now northeastern Iran; both kingdoms were once […]
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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 ….. 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 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 Steve Benner for CoinWeek ….. The god Achelous was associated with the Achelous River, the largest river in Greece. This river still flows from the Pindar Mountains through western Greece and down into the Ionian Sea. It formed the border between Akarnania and Aetolia for part of its length. Like other river gods, Achelous […]
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By Mike Markowitz for CoinWeek ….. …[G]reat must have been the opulence of a city, which could dedicate such monuments to the memory of its rulers… (Burckhardt, 431) IN 2019, OVER A MILLION tourists visited the spectacular ancient site of Petra in the Jordanian desert, about 98 miles (157 km) south of Jerusalem. Surrounded […]
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CoinWeek Ancient Coin Series by Mike Markowitz ….. From the dawn of human society, the nature and origin of the bee have awakened the curiosity and interest of man. For thousands of years, honey was the only sweetening material known, and it is quite natural that in ancient times, the little busy creature who produced this […]
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CoinWeek Ancient Coin Series by Mike Markowitz ….. THE TRAGIC AND CHAOTIC last generations of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt were dominated by the growing power of Rome, and the fickle loyalties of Alexandria’s unruly population (usually described by historians as “the mob”). A lack of ancient statistics makes numerical estimates risky[1], but the consensus is that […]
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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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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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