Helvius Pertinax

Ah, the AI generated image gives off some very professional vibes, doesn't it? 

Also:

"All these coin have been dug from the soil and put straight into a bag"

"Our Roman coin hoards have been hand picked by our curator for there rarity and uniquness"

Okay, even the greatest experts sometimes write contradictory stuff. I guess we can count ourselves lucky that all coins have been picked for their UNIQUNESS 😭

And at least they are capable of using the right form of their/there, right? RIGHT??

Great coin, and nice writeup as well - I certainly wasn't aware that this one is in the run for the oldest bronze coinage!

I've recently read a study claiming Tissaphernes coins to be minted during the time he was karanos in Asia, before being replaced with Cyrus the Younger, from 413 to 407. It study also has quite an interesting section on the earliest bronzes, although the general argument against the minting of Tissaphernes' bronze issues around 400-395 fails to convince me entirely. But the theme of the beginning of bronze coinage is an interesting one for sure!

Great to know as well, that I am not the only 10.000 collector on here! I've got an upgrade for the man himself recently, Tissaphernes:

Achaemenid Empire

Tissaphernes (as karanos, 401-395 BCE) under Artaxerxes II (great king 404-359/8 BCE)

Chalkos, 400-395 BCE, Astyra

Obverse: TIΣΣA, bare bearded head facing right

Reverse: AΣTYPE legend left, next to cult statue of Artemis Astyrene wearing kalathos, legs of throne behind, club on upper right

Ex Leu Numismatik (web auction 27, lot 1011) 10.09.2023, ex collection Gerhard Plankenhorn formed 1960s-2020s 

11.7mm, 1.66g, AE

Artaxerxes II also shouldn't be missing, although the coin might be minted later than his reign.

Achaemenid Empire

Artaxerxes II (great king 404-359/8 BCE) to Artaxerxes III (great king 359/8-338 BCE) 

Siglos, 375-340 BCE, Sardes (?)

Obverse: great king in "Knielauf" to the right, wearing kandys and crowned with kidaris, carrying bow in left hand and dagger (akinakes) in right; indication of quiver and letter A at shoulder)

Reverse: incuse punch

Ex Leu Numismatik (web auction 27, lot 876) 10.09.2023

14.1mm, 5.55g, AR

And I've won another one on Sunday, Pharnabazos (who's name I have apparently typed often enough for my phone to automatically fill it in once I type P, the same goes for Tissaphernes 😅)

Achaemenid Empire

Pharnabazos (military commander, 413-374/3 BCE) under Artaxerxes II (great king 404-359/8 BCE)

Stater, 380-374/3 BCE, Tarsos

𐡁𐡏𐡋𐡕𐡓𐡆 ('bltrz' in Aramaic), Baaltars seated left on throne, holding long lotus tipped staff in his right hand

𐡅𐡓𐡍𐡁𐡆 - 𐡊𐡋𐡊 ('frnbz klk' in Aramaic), bearded and draped male bust to left, wearing crested Attic helmet decorated with a volute on the bowl

"Ex" Leu Numismatik (web auction 29, lot 897) 24.02.2024

22 mm, 10.96 g, AR

Looks like a Denarius of Sigismund III from 1589

That's one of the best memes I've seen on the sub, glad it got updated! I see myself as the Niche Collector, and sometimes the Anxious (about my Bronzes having BD 😅)

Looks like meme days are getting more traction finally, I really enjoyed this one

What an interesting story, thanks for this detailed writeup! I had heard of the Commune before but had no idea about its interesting social policies.

Here is a 20 Francs of mine struck just the year before the end of the Franco-Prussian war, as well as one struck way before during the II. Republic (and a Belgian 20 Francs, since I can't find the individual images)

Thanks for the link @DonnaML! The writeups were very interesting, great coins too of course 👏 

And now that you've shared your understanding of the sentence, I'm also pretty sure he means it in the way you've interpreted it. 

What an absolutely incredibly impressive collection, thanks for posting! The display choice is so fitting as well, really nice look

That medal looks great, Congratulations on the buy! The other two as well, what a powerful image on the "Mont Blanc school of mines".

The detached imperial portrait brings Depaulis closer to his contemporaries through the uniform. [Not sure what this means!]

Das abgehobene Kaiserporträt bringt Depaulis dem Zeitgenossen durch die Uniform näher.

I see why Google translate had problems with that sentence, even as a native speaker finding the right words to convey his message isn´t the easiest task. The best I can do:

"Depaulis brings the raised portrait of the emperor closer to his contemporaries through the uniform"

I hope the sentence makes sense as I translated it, my translation is pretty close to the original sentence, which I find a bit complicated.

Curious though, that it´s called the battle of Lützen in English. I´ve grown up around Lützen, and in German the battle is called "Schlacht von Großgörschen" - a smaller town, closer to the actual battle, perhaps to avoid confusion with the way more famous (here, at least) 1632 battle. They actually started building a museum at Lützen, near the wildlife park I used to visit so often with my recently deceased grandmother, who lived in Lützen. The museum mainly focusses on the 1632 battle, I guess it´s thanks to Saxonys deep connection with protestantism that this battle is so much more famous.

But it should also cover the 1813 battle and the findings from the area connected to it. That is, if the government didn´t cut off the funding for it. which I´m not too mad about, since the museum itself, which has already been built in a terrible spot next to the beautiful old battle memorial, looks absolutely horrendous! Well, perhaps we will see a museum focussing on those battles in the future, your medal would certainly fit into it 😁

Hey everyone, Happy new year 😁

Since I am incredibly bad at writing introductions, let's get straight to the point. Seeing all of your top 10s was great, you all got some incredible coins this year! I've written a couple sentences for some of my coins which I've already shared on discord, so why not share here too 😅

2022 might not have been the most successful year for me, but I was still able to add a couple coins that I am very satisfied with. To fill it up a bit, I'll fill the list up with some of last year's acquisitions, let's get started!

1. Septimius Severus (193-211) Denarius - Rome, 202 AD

Obverse: laureate head of Septimius facing right

Reverse: Tropaeum, mourning Parthian captives below

The reverse is particularly nice on this piece. Septimius wasn't the first one to use this design - it dates back as far as Julius Caesars Gallic campaign. Septimius celebrates a victory far, far away from Gaul, one that Caesar could only have dreamed of (though he did plan a campaign near the end of his life). We are talking about his victory over the Parthians. The Parthian campaign started in 195 and proved to be of some success at least, Septimius was able to capture Seleucia and Babylon. For this, the senate awarded him the title Parthicus Maximus.

2. Severus Alexander (222-235) Denarius - Rome, late 228 AD

Obverse: laureate head of Severus Alexander facing right

Reverse: Mars in full armour standing to right, holding spear and shield

Alexanders reign was a turbulent one to say the least and, according to our ancient sources, the young emperor was heavily influenced in his decisions by his mother and grandmother. During his reign, he was at war with Parthia and Germania, but all that happened after this coin was minted. He took the throne at only 18 years old, but surprisingly, he had managed to last a good 13 years on the throne until he was overthrown by Maximinus Thrax. He is said to have been a very cultured young man, but during this time just before the crisis of the 3rd century, the Romans needed a general, not a man of culture. The portrait on this piece is in quite high relief and captured his looks quite well when compared to contemporary busts.

3. Julia Domna (193-217) Denarius - Rome, 196-202 AD

Obverse: draped bust of Julia Domna

Reverse: Isis holding baby Horus, foot on ship prow, rudder leaning on altar to left

What most people seem to notice first about this coin is the great centering on the reverse. And, unsuprisingly, this it is indeed my favourite side of the coin - though, for different reasons. It is pretty well known that the Romans adopted just about every god they came across into their religious world view. One of the more important cults practiced in ancient Rome was the cult of Isis. It has its origins in Egypt and was brought to Rome by merchants. You can think of Isis and Horus as an early version of the Mary and Jesus, early Christian sculptors definately took inspiration from this scene. It was quite a controversial cult, being banned by emperors like Augustus and some of his predecessors with moderate success. The lower class loved it because it promised salvation and an afterlife (you can clearly see the line to Christianity there). By the time of the Severans, even the emperors participated in the annual festival of Isis and Caracalla even went as far as to build a temple for her on the Forum Romanum - bigger than that of Jupiter himself!

4. Probus (276-282) Tetradrachm - Alexandria, 280-281 AD

Obverse: laureate, draped and cuirassed bust of Probus right

Reverse: Eagle left, head turned to right, wreath in Schnabel 

Lets move right on to Aurelians successor, Probus! This coin is interesting to me for one particular reason: It was struck just years before Diocletian unified the empires coinage, practically ending Provincial coinage and making this one of the last Tetradrachms to be produced. It is quite pathetic compared to the Tets of 5th century Greece, but one of the cheapest you can have. They also have the huge convenience of being dated to the exact year of the reigning emperors rule. In this case it is year 6 of Probus, enabling us to date this piece to exactly 280-281 AD.

5. Xerxes I - Darius II (486-404 BC) Siglos - Sardes, ca. 480-420 BC

Obverse: great king wearing kandys, holding spear and bow in kneeling-running stance

Reverse: rectangular incuse

Now we are starting to get into my favourite niche of ancients, Persian Asia Minor in the 5th to 4th century BC. The archer siglos was one of the most minted types of its time, being instituted by Darius I and minted all the way until Alexander defeated the Persians in Asia Minor in 336 BC. It was a direct continuation of the Lydian coinage system, just with a different design. They circulated mainly in the Greek and Phoenician part of the Persian empire, so you can often see test cuts and bankers marks on them. This coin has two of each, the two bankers marks on the obverse and the test cuts on the reverse and on the edge. In some cases, it is even possible to connect the marks to the places the coin traveled to, but I have not been able to do that with my coin.

6. Weimar Republic, 1 Mark, 1921

I think this coin is quite a good representation of my collecting journey in 2022. It set me back an entire 50 Cents, but it is quite cool! In 1921, WW1 had just ended 3 years ago and money wasn't exactly in high supply. Germany was totally lacking metal, so they got creative with their coins. Some are made of fabric, the metal coins that circulated were made of Aluminum and a lot of paper money circulated. This particular piece is made of porcelain from Meissen, which was - and still is - one of the most popular porcelain manufacturers in the western world. It was a difficult time to be around, but the people managed it - sometimes better, sometimes worse.

7. Trajan Decius (149-151) Antoninianus - Rome, late 149 - early 150 CE

Obverse: draped bust of Decius wearing radiate crown right

Reverse: emperor on horseback advancing right

The most notable part about this one is also the portrait. It is not one of the usual generic busts, but a very detailed piece - the engraver probably either saw the emperor himself or had a good model of him. It celebrates the arrival of Decius at Rome with the legend ADVENTVS AVG. Decius was a well known face in the Roman upper class, having been a highly respected senator under Phillip the Arab. After a victory at Moesia, he was proclaimed emperor by his troops and defeated Phillip at Verona.

8. Hadrian (117-138) Denarius - Rome, 126/7 CE

Obverse: laureate head of Hadrian facing right

Reverse: Pudicitia seated to the left, holding hook

What is perhaps most notable about this coin is the wonderful engraving work on the obverse, the engraver really outdid himself there! 

There are of course many opinions about under which roman emperor the Roman mint reached its artistic height, but for me it just has to be Hadrian. In his 21 years of rule, he had three portrait types struck for himself, all of which were produced with an incredible consistency on an extremely high artistic level. The first type shows the emperors head quite small, but with very realistic features and was used from roughly 117-122. The second shows a way bigger head, the face of the emperor is more idealised. It was used around 125-128 and transforms into a fully idealised portrait, which you can see on my example. The third type is generally the most desirable and since Hadrians coins can get quite pricey, i was very happy to find this piece in a shop for a price I am very happy with.

The reverse, while not as amazing, is also very beautiful. It features Pudicitia, the personification of modesty and loyalty. In her hand, she is holding a "hook"... I dare to challenge this attribution though, since you can clearly see she is raising her hat at whoever I fortunate enough to come across her 😁

10. Tissaphernes (411-407 and 401-395) Chalkos - Astyra, 400-395 BC

Obverse: head of Tissaphernes facing right, legend below

Reverse: cult statue of Artemis Astyrene facing, wearing kalathos, club to right

The highlight of 2022! I just won this piece at Leu 24, but I've been after the type for a good half year. As some of you may know, Xenophons March of the 10.000 is my favourite book. In 401 BC, the persian prince Cyrus the Younger secretly assembled an army, including 10.000 greeks, and marched on his brother. The two sides met, and while the greeks were hugely successful, Cyrus - after successfully defeating the "immortals" protecting the king, was killed by a young nobleman. Tissaphernes was the satrap who warned the king of Cyrus' plans and led the kings left flank at the battle of Cunaxa. The greeks did not even realise the battle was lost until the next day, and soon after Tissaphernes tried to get them to lay down arms. The greeks, led by Cherisophus, refused his offer. They went on their way back home through Persian territory, being constantly chased by Tissaphernes except in the areas of the Persian empire even the Persian army didnt dare to cross through. After the defeat of Cyrus, Tissaphernes was at the height of his power and was awarded the title of karanos (supreme commander) of Asia Minor. During this time, he became the first human to put his face onto coins after Cyrus, whos image barely shows any facial features. 

I hope to add more coins of the Persian satraps to my collection soon, though I'll have to stick with bronze for the moment.

So that's it, my top coins of the last two years of collecting. I hope you enjoyed these little writeups, in case you read them through, I cant blame anyone for skipping this wall of text 😅 I'll end this post with a little group picture of the core part of my collection (hopefully Tissaphernes arrives soon to be added):

A great 2023 to everyone, may this year bring you lots of exciting new coins 🥳j

What an amazing piece with a great history behind it! Here are my two pieces:

36 minutes ago, KenDorney said:

You outbid me on that one!  Great coin and nice catch!

Thanks a lot for not going higher then 😂 My poor student budget would not have been able to keep up!

It might be weird reacting to a post thats over a month old, but now I finally have something to contribute, so why not 😅

I've been after this specific type for some time, due to its connection to the story of the 10.000. It shows the man who was Cyrus' biggest rival, after the King if course, who fought the 10.000 in battle, negotiated with their leaders and chased them through the empire.

I find the story of the 10.000 special in many aspects. Not only was it written by one of its main characters, it also provides an amazing view into the areas they crossed a good 2400 years ago. 

The dangers of crossing enemy territory, the way the soldiers got their food, what food they could hunt in which regions, the extreme heat of Syria and the extreme cold of Kolchis, Xenophon does a wonderful job getting us involved in the story and showing us what the life of a soldier looked like!

On 12/7/2022 at 6:16 AM, Severus Alexander said:

@ComicMan: Nice post! I love both of your new coins. Also, I haven't had a chance to welcome you to the forum: so, welcome! 🙂 I'm glad to hear you're a generalist like me.

@Roman Collector: what a great Faustina portrait! (I like the poppy too. And the fact that you used the word "occiput." 😁)

@Helvius Pertinax: that one was on my watchlist too. Also: you mentioned that there was a period during the Pelopponesian War during which Athens produced no tets. That surprised me! Surely they'd need the capital especially then! Do you happen to have a source for this info?

@Prieure de Sion: I know it wasn't a main target for you, but that unusual Domitian portrait on the fourrée is pretty cool!

@rhj959: Good to see you here! We all dream of finding a hoard like that. 😄 Luckily I already have my example and didn't have to battle the Leu bidders for it... that's an amazing price for a fairly common coin.

 

I first heard of Athens shopping to produce owls through a quite well written article, I think it is best to just let it speak for itself. I'll link it at the end

The 413 date comes from Sparta's disruption that year of the operation of Athens' silver mines at Laurion during the Peloponnesian War, which Athens would eventually lose to Sparta with the aid of Persia c. 404 BC. But there's no proof that Athens totally stopped minting its silver coinage afterward, and the evidence argues that minting continued, with Athens continuing to profit from the melting of other cities' silver coinage and the restriking of it into Owls and with other cities continuing to use the widely accepted Owls, including Sparta, Athens' enemy. No doubt, however, the number of Owls minted dropped considerably after c. 413 BC.

After that, I decided to take the study a bit further, and an excellent paper by J.Kroll confirmed what I read about the minting stop. 

The paper by Kroll is called "The reminting of Athenian silver coinage", it is accessible online, but I dont know how to link it 😔

I'll add some of my own thoughts: 413 was... not the best year for the Athenians. Not only had the slaves at Laurion fled to the Spartans, but they also suffered extreme losses of manpower and, quite importantly, money. Their coffers were near empty and they could not refill them through the mines at Laurion, which had served them for decades. Perhaps the minting did not stop completely, but the mint would have produced a lot less coins. 

Even though Athens must have been near bankrupt by the end of 404, they were able to recover - ironically, with the help of the very Persians that had supported Sparta just two decades earlier. In 393, the general Konon returned to Athens with money given to him by the Persians, it was used to mint the early "Late classical" Owls which were used to rebuild Athens.

I think thats the main points, the article I'll link below has some more details. Krolls study is quite useful for the period after 393.

2 hours ago, Severus Alexander said:

@ComicMan: Nice post! I love both of your new coins. Also, I haven't had a chance to welcome you to the forum: so, welcome! 🙂 I'm glad to hear you're a generalist like me.

@Roman Collector: what a great Faustina portrait! (I like the poppy too. And the fact that you used the word "occiput." 😁)

@Helvius Pertinax: that one was on my watchlist too. Also: you mentioned that there was a period during the Pelopponesian War during which Athens produced no tets. That surprised me! Surely they'd need the capital especially then! Do you happen to have a source for this info?

@Prieure de Sion: I know it wasn't a main target for you, but that unusual Domitian portrait on the fourrée is pretty cool!

@rhj959: Good to see you here! We all dream of finding a hoard like that. 😄 Luckily I already have my example and didn't have to battle the Leu bidders for it... that's an amazing price for a fairly common coin.

 

Thanks for having mercy on me then 😅 

Unfortunately I dont have my notebook on me atm, but I can write a bit after school and gather the sources.

2 hours ago, ComicMan said:

Wow, that's cool! Who was the first though?

I am looking around for an Artemis cult statue reverse on ma-shops right now to take a picture of it. It would be pretty meta to make a picture of a stamp of an engraving of a statue.

The first Was Cyrus the Younger, not more than 10 years earlier. During the Peleponnesian war, Athens stopped producing owl tets, but since the Spartan fleet that the Persians sponsored wanted to be paid in owls, they struck their own. The very first ones have an image of Cyrus on Athenas cheek, there are 2 known examples iirc.

Not my coin, obviously. Sold at Künker for around 20.000€

Congrats on the interesting wins, the Fostlus is a really nice type! I was able to win something too, this time, and I am looking forward to it a lot. It is my first auction win ever (after a good 20 losses on other auction) so that adds to the excitement.

I'll go ahead and show the coin now, there's a lot to write about it, so it will get a post in the future.

Tissaphernes, 400-395 BC, Mysia (Astyra)

Obv: portrait of Tissaphernes (the second portrait if a living man on a coin, and the first one to survive in large quantity), TISSA below

Rev: cult statue of Artemis Astyrene facing, wearing kalathos, club right and ASTYRE left 

Awesome idea for a thread! I'm gonna go with the most obvious one: Rome. Seems to be very popular in the US, there are citys named Rome in Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, Indian, Iowa, Kansas etc.

What an amazing collection theme! There's so many coins that can be linked to the Story, from all over the greek and Persian world, one could surely make a giant collection of coins relating to the Story and its characters. You did a great job picking out some of the coins linked more directly to the story, nice Owl in particular 😍

You say you have twelve coins for the story, I'm curious what the other nine are! Perhaps a Siglos from Artaxerxes II's time, some coins from the regions the 10.000 traveled through like Kolchis or Sinope? I'm looking forward to your full post!

An Anabasis-themed collection has been my plan for a collection too, for a long time. Unfortunately due to some difficulties, I was only able to study the time period and the related coins so far and haven't bought a coin in over 8 months 😅

Now that my situation has gotten better, I have a nice goal in an auction in the near future, a type minted by one of the main characters, Tissaphernes - I see yours is also a really nice one, the details on the Soldier are great! I'm going for a portrait piece, I really hope I'll be able to win that one!

Also, I gotta take a moment to compliment your photography, these pictures look amazing! 

Good luck with completing the collection 😁

These coins are so incredibly, incredibly cool! I had the pleasure of seeing one at the Dresden Royal (Saxonian) Cabinet this summer. The relief is crazy, especially the eyes were very deep and the hair stood out at least 1mm or two! My pictures are terrible, unfortunately, but this is one of the coins one just has to see in person!

I dont see any Alexandrian AE coins yet, so here you go 😅

This took decades to upload 

It may not be a coin, but I think this fits into the context well:

Print from 1551, you can think of it as an early version of a minimum wage guideline by profession. I have a similar print from 1545, the citys coat of arms is being held by a Wildmann and... the female version, whatever that is called 😅

Wow, this is probably the most intrigued I've ever been by a brick 😅 And congrats on the nice lizard!

Accidentally submitted twice 🤦‍♂️

I only have one that gets close, only on the reverse unfortunately:

A tiny bit on the bottom is chopped off due to the irregular flan, but I consider it pretty much complete