Sol_Invictus

I have been hoping to see a total solar eclipse for decades, but it was always either too impractical to travel to see it, or something came up and forced us to change our plans. I had both the 2017 and 2024 North American eclipses on my calendar for 20 years. We weren't able to see it in 2017 for various reasons, but this time we managed to get ourselves into the path of totality near Dallas, and the clouds parted just at the right time to give us an uninterrupted view. It was absolutely, astonishingly beautiful. The corona was much larger than I expected, and the Solar prominences were clearer to the unaided eye than I expected. I didn't take any photos because I didn't want to be distracted during our few precious minutes, and instead just wanted to soak up seeing an extraordinary view of the sky that I may never again experience in my life. The only relevant coin I have to share is also my profile picture: Constantine I; 316 CE; AE follis, Trier mint. 20mm, 3.27 grams; Obv: CONSTANTINVS P F AVG, Bust of Constantine I, laureate, cuirassed, right. Rev: SOLI INVIC-TO COMITI, Sol standing left holding globe; TF in field; BTR in ex. RIC VII Treveri 105b. ex. Bourton on the Water Hoard 1970; ex Huddersfield Collection 1979; ex Den of Antiquity

Thanks so much for sharing your father’s collection! I’ve really been enjoying following along on this thread. Regarding your dirham, you can be a bit more precise with the date. These coins all have pretty much the same text, except the date and mint, which are written in the obverse margin in roughly the 1-2 o’clock and 6 o’clock positions, respectively. I have received help on this forum in the past from the many experts here on reading these Islamic coins. I think Zeno.ru is a good web resource for this. Especially http://search.zeno.ru/dictionary.php for reading the dates. Your father lists AH 95 as the date of the coin on the envelope, which looks about right to me, though I am no expert on this. This is the Hijri year, which counts lunar years since Muhammad left Mecca for Medina. The year AH 95 corresponds to 714-715 CE, which as @theotokevoithi notes, would place this coin as being minted just at the end of the reign of al-Walid. Lokking forward to your next coin!

Some nice Byzantine coins in this thread! I have a Justin II and Sophia half follis from the Antioch mint. It's a particular favorite of mine due to the misshapen flan. Justin II & Sophia, Byzantine Empire, 565 – 578 AD, AE25 ½ Follis, Antioch mint.; 27mm, 6.62 grams. Obv: Justin II and Sophia facing. Cross between. Rev: K, ANNO left, cross above, R in ex. X with star left. SB 831 ex. David Connors

Picked this one up from a coin store. My first Hieron II. Hieron II, Greek Sicily, Syracuse, 270 – 215 BC, AE26, Syracuse, 25.8mm, 17.1grams. Obv: Diademed head to left. Rev: Armored cavalryman on horseback and holding spear, riding to right; N below, IERΩNOΣ in ex. CNS-195; HCG-2, 1548

I love the imagery on Seljuq coins, especially the lion and sun as on the coins shown by @Sulla80 and @Bailathacl! My one Seljuq coin is the same as that of @Orange Julius, but I do not speak Arabic, and have not attempted to read the date on it myself yet. Sultan Rukn al-Din Sulayman II; Seljuqs of Rum; 1196 – 1204 AD; AE fals; 30mm, 8.41 grams.; Obv: Horseman advancing right, holding mace, star left. Rev: Arabic legend citing sultan name, mint and AH; M-964; A-1205.2; ex. James Theselius Collection. ex. Wayne G. Sayles.

I guess the material cost is quite low, and although these seem to be hand-struck rather than cast (or am I wrong about that?), someone who is skilled could probably churn them out pretty quickly. Still, it seems to me that whoever had the talent to produce these could probably find a better use of their time to maximize their profit per hour worked.

I wonder what the point of faking these coins was? How much profit could they possibly make off of fake bronzes of Aurelian, Probus, Severina, Diocletian, Carus or Constantius II?

link: lion Azes, Indo-Scythian Kingdom, 58 BCE – 12 BCE, AE Tetradrachm, 29mm, 12.92 grams, Obv: BAΣIΛEΩΣ BAΣIΛEΩN MEΓAΛOY / AZOY Bull standing right; above, monogram. Rev: 'Maharajasa rajadhirajasa mahatasa / Ayasa' ('of Great King, King of Kings, Azes the Great' in Kharoshthi) Lion standing right; above, monogram. HGC 12, 657. Senior 102. ex. Leu, Dr. Björn-Uwe Abels collection. ex. Robert Tye 2010

link: Poseidon/Neptune Postumus, Gallic Empire, 262 AD, Billon Antoninianus, 19.5mm, 3.38 grams. Trier mint. Obv: IMP C POSTVMVS P F AVG; Radiate bust of Postumus, right. Rev: NEPTVNO – RECVCI; Neptune naked, standing left, holding dolphin in right hand and trident in left. Bow of a ship in field to left; RIC V Postumus 76; ex. CGB.fr. ex. Guercheville hoard 2013.

link - tripod Marcus Aurelius, Roman Empire, 170 – 171 AD, AE Sestertius, 30.5mm, 24.69 grams. Rome mint. Obv: IMP M ANTONINVS AVG TR P XXV; head of Marcus Aurelius, laureate, right. Rev: VOTA SVSCEP DECENN II COS III S C; Marcus Aurelius, veiled, togate, standing left, sacrificing out of patera over tripod, holding scroll. RIC III 1017. ex. CGB.fr, ex. Aymé Cornu collection.

An Abbasid AE fals from the time of al-Mansur (AH 148 = 765 - 766 CE), Khazanat Halab mint, Album 289, ex. Wayne G. Sayles, ex James Theseelius Collection.

Happy leap day! I was surprised to see that today's Astronomy Picture of the Day is a Julius Caesar denarius, noting his role in the creation of the Julian Calendar which introduced leap years. I would post a Julius Caesar coin if I had one!

The Getty Villa has such a beautiful setting in the Malibu hills overlooking the Pacific Ocean! If you are in the area and haven’t been there before, I highly recommend a visit. They don’t have a huge number of coins on display, but those that are on display are all very lovely. Their Roman aureii display is jaw dropping (though I suppose some of our members here could make a similar display from their own collections 😀). Here’s a photo I took of it about a year ago, together with photos of the legend: And a few Sicilian coins: They also have some other Greek and Persian coins scattered around as well. Probably my favorite coin on display is a huge Gordian III medallion. Unfortunately I don’t have a photo of it, and curiously I can’t find in their database. They had a number of other medallions in the case, though I can’t remember all the emperors.

Very interesting discussion in this thread! I wonder if Noonans Mayfair might be a useful source of statistics on this issue? They make a point of highlighting “Detectorist Finds” in their auctions, including ones that aren’t large enough hoards to be reported to the PAS. If you focus just on British coins, where there is no incentive to obfuscate new finds, you might get a reasonably decent estimate for the ratio of new to recirculated British coins currently in the market. In their current auction, for example, Detectorist finds make up only a rather small fraction of all the pre-17th century British coins in the sale. However, they also have auctions where they sell a single large recently found hoard, and 100% of the coins in the auction are “detectorist finds.” So I guess a proper estimate would need to look back over a number of auctions from several years. Of course it’s also not clear how representative Noonans is of the overall market (do they sell more or fewer recent finds compared to other auction houses?), or how representative the British market is of coins sourced from other countries.

Thanks for this really interesting discussion! I find these Arab-Sassanian coins so fascinating, though I don't have any to share myself. I know this has been remarked on many times here and elsewhere, but it boggles my mind to know that early Caliphs continued issuing coins with Zoroastrian symbology on them, even as they were obviously updating the dies to include the Hijri date in Arabic on the reverse and the Arabic/Islamic text on the obverse.