seth77

It's probably safe to say some of the coins in that pile are Bohemond IV, some first reign, some second reign and maybe even some Bohemond V. Some Bohemond III have the scarcer knight head right from early in the majority of Bohemond III, some could even be from the minority of the prince while Raynald de Chatillon was prince-regent. A similar situation is with the deniers tournois of the 3 main mints of Frankish Greece, also very accessible and offered in large quantities at any given time. They are not all the same thing and I am certain that some collectors go after them searching for particularities that would indicate known issues of particular interest or new hypotheses regarding chronology and historical connections. Actually the sheer number of available coins begs the research for minute details such as the letter forms or whether the crescents that form the chainmail of the obverse knight are upwards or downwards. In a similar way this is how the Israeli researchers offered a rather solid chronology of the AMALRICVS deniers that starts with 1164/7 and goes up to c. 1220s.

The veiled spec is the epitome of elegant coin design

This veiled Laodike IV portrait: AE15 3.35g c. 175-2BC (Antiochos IV Epiphanes)

Isn't the Smyrna coin supposed to be a lyre/cithara upside down?

It's a denier of Bordeaux for Henry Plantagenet as King of England. Most Aquitanian coinage at this point is usually for Richard, Henry seems to be considerably scarcer.

Oh man I remember that horrible delivery fiasco. And what an interesting coin that was, even worn as it was, it looked great.

The pic was rather blurry but it wasn't cheap. Still a good buy.

It's a beautiful portrait but my favorite is still the veiled portrait.

Really happy with this latest Caesarea Cappadocia with an unlikely and rare military bust type for Elagabal: AE27mm 12.28g c. 219-20

Here is a clear rendition of the obverse legend (although worn) with the title of Autokrator very visible: Α Κ Μ ΑΥΡΗΛΙ ΑΛΕΞΑΝΔ -- and the radiate Helios in the countermark very well preserved. This coinage with this legend can only be after early January 222. And two bonuses: 1. another more regular Alexander as Caesar, earlier emission K Μ ΑΥΡΗΛIOC ΑΛƐΞΑΝΔPOC, obverse die-match with my coin #2 above: 2. An Elagabal with an interesting and scarce military bust, struck post the wedding of 219 with Julia Paula All three have the same GIC12i counter mark, radiate head of Helios r. inside circular punch mark, likely applied under Gordian III or later.

Some of those bags look like they could be actually storing a dead body.

Do you have any with cat paws?

I found this picture online recently: It's an "enhanced" image of the base of the Obelisk of Theodosius in Constantinopolis, captured in 1855 by James Robertson, rather well-known engraver, artist and photographer, involved in a lot of the cultural aspects of the Ottoman Empire's "opening up" to Britain around the time of the Crimean War, showing a glimpse of what it looked like being in the Ottoman capital as the Empire itself was breathing its last. The obelisk itself is not really visible, but what actually counts, the monument to the reign of Theodosius I is clear and haunting, almost alien in the context. Mr. Robertson had a definitive flair for the dramatic. Here's the very short timeline of the monument: - the actual obelisk was initially dedicated to Pharaoh Thutmosis III (1479-25BCE) in Karnak - in 356-7AD it is brought to Alexandria for Constantius II - in 390 it's raised on the spina of the Constantinopolitan Hippodrome and dedicated to Theodosius At that time, Theodosius was at the top of his game, master of the whole Empire -- the Hadrianopolis disaster in Thracia had been mitigated, Magnus Maximus in the West had been eliminated and Valentinian II was inconsequential. His own dynasty seemed in place and secure. An early coin from Antioch c. 380 shows him as the quintessential late Roman imperator et dominus, even though at that time he was still in the shadow of Gratian as a junior partner. Now back to the obelisk and its dedication in Constantinopolis. The inscription on the base is still complete in the picture although the last line is underground: DIFFICILIS QVONDAM DOMINIS PARERE SERENIS IVSSVS ET EXTINCTIS PALMAM PORTARE TYRANNIS OMNIA THEODOSIO CEDVNT SVBOLIQVE PERENNI TERDENIS SIC VICTVS EGO DOMITVSQVE DIEBVS IVDICE SVB PROCLO SVPERAS ELATVS AD AVRAS Might as well be: My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!

Tell you what it looks like to me: - the last two coins 'Smyrna phase 2' Temp 847 and the 1st issue Cyzicus are both Cyzicus issues - the type 847 in general is Smyrna, but on the coin you posted (FAC coin) the obverse is Cyzicus to my eyes, early SPQR series early 269 rather than Smyrna - the reverse die on the other hand is possibly Smyrna - which would make perfect sense if the operation moved from Smyrna to Cyzicus, such 'continuation' of older dies is to be expected - I don't think the two are obverse die-matches, if you check out the imaginary line from the tip of Claudius nose to the legend on the obverse on the SPQR coin the line would end mid S of CLAVDIVS while on the no mark coin just after the S, but they are certainly very close - a die sharing between SPQR and no mark would probably suggest what you mentioned above, the SPQR operation moved to Cyzicus while the no marking operation was undergoing there, so the 1st emission of Cyzicus could in theory be contemporary with the last SPQR coins struck at Smyrna, the physical moving of the operation, cutters paraphernalia, including used dies, and the first coins struck with SPQR at Cyzicus probably late winter-early spring 269 All in all that FAC coin is really interesting.

That would explain the rarity, not just the design. And with such a multitude of types being struck by the German mints, I wonder why the attribution to Mainz or Verdun. Does it show stilistic characteristics to those mints? And if Theophanou's coinage one would assume that it was tied to her personally rather than a local mint, no?

The presence of Theophanou and her entourage, court and artisans is a very elegant and likely explanation for this "Byzantine" German coinage. I also think that the coin is likely pre-1000 considering the style and flan. What does it measure/weigh?

This is a coinage from the first part of the 1270s probably. The denier tournois is introduced to the Frankokratia in the 1260s, with coinage imported from the Occitan and Provencal areas following the interdiction of the deniers tournois of Alphonse de France and Charles d'Anjou by Louis IX of France. This smaller title and lighter denier tournois was the blueprint for the Greek denier tournois, which was likely started by Guillaume II de Villehardouin around 1267, after the Viterbo treaty, when Guillaume entered the orbit of Charles d'Anjou in his push eastward. The Frankish coinage did in fact reach the Eastern Levant, up to the coast of Israel, Lebanon and Syria and even the Greek variations were used in the late and very late stages of the 'Crusader' principalities in the Holy Land and Syria. In fact the coinage started in 1267 (but with the bulk minting around 1270+) was back to France by the early 1300s to supplant the lack of good billon coinage during the debasement and inflation crisis that gave Philippe IV the moniker of 'roi faux monnayeur'. And not only that, but the coinage was so successful that it ended up being adopted by the Eastern Empire itself in the form of the 'tornesion' (after the reform of 1304 that re-introduced silver in the Byzantine monetary system) and the 'politikon' (the silver local Constantinopolitan denomination by mid 14th century). If we were to follow its other manifestations as 'monnaie noire' based on the tornesii of Giovanni II Orsini of Arta that were copied and used extensively throughout the Balkans, the Danube trade and the Bulgarian and Byzantine Black Sea on one hand and the tornesii of the Maona di Chio minted by the Genoese corporation for the Aegean trade, the career of this coinage goes well to the mid 16th century. That being said, if you want to actively collect these coins, there are many variations and many mints to be found, especially easy the 3 main Greek mints of Glarentza (CLARENTIA/CLARENCIA like your coin) for the Principality of Achaea, Thebes for the Duchy of Athens (you can read my numismatic synopsis of the denier tournois of the Duchy of Athens here) and Naupaktos/Lepanto for the Angevin Despotate of Epirus, a Latin breakaway realm carved from the Epirus of the Komnenodoukai. To follow all variations, you can check the library your father left you for Malloy's main work (ed.) - Coins of the Crusader States. Additionally I find the following works very helpful: - Tzamalis - Coins of the Frankish Occupation of Greece 1184-1566. - Baker - Coinage and Money in Medieval Greece 1200-1430 I for one love this part of European history that combines and mixes the West and the East in a complex and eclectic manner, bringing the feudal system and the expeditionary ethos of the Western barons and the Catholic Church to the centralized forms of power and the dynamic diplomacy and soft power of the Byzantine Empire during the Komnenodoukai of Epirus-Thessalonica and the Palaiologai. Medieval Greece is extremely complex and thanks to the extremely influential monetary move made by Guillaume de Villehardouin, numismatics plays a great role in understanding this story. Last but not least, the paperwork that your father saved makes this coin very interesting and desirable. You have there Malloy's notes and the publication of the catalog that gives your coin its pedigree. As a student of the Greek Frankokratia and of the denier tournois, I can say that I really appreciate seeing the coin with the documentation together. Hope you'll get some of the enjoyment your dad certainly got when collecting it (otherwise he wouldn't had kept it all together) from this coin. Here is a contemporary:

The nummii minimi of Anastasius c. 491-8, the last 'late Roman coinage' before the introduction of the M/K/I/E/B denominations. AE8mm 0.7g AE8mm 0.72g AE9mm 0.69g

Yes, he was still posting on CT every once in a while, some of my purchases were directly inspired by his "dear friends of ancient mythology" posts

I have been returning often, now that I am studying 'Greek Imperial' or 'provincials' to read 20 year old threads from Patricia Lawrence (slokind) and Jochen. Back then I was too young and immature to understand the precious knowledge and insights they were dropping.

jdholds (Jerome Holderman) from Forvm was probably the first person I ever bought an oversea coin from. And then or possibly simultaneously, there was Kevin Sands (Mayadigger on Forvm) who also had a commercial site in the early 2000s where he usually sold uncleaned coins. I would buy an assortment of a few coins from his green, cruddy, orange and 'Balkan' categories and he always used to add extra coins. I also remember the big controversy surrounding 'monneron' and his 'hoard' of Constantinian AE3s that where heavily dissected online and either condemned as fakes or accepted by others as very nice authentic coins. I also remember that back then a good siliqua was 50$ and lots of British siliquae clipped could be had for 20-30£ and shipping with Registered Royal Mail was probably the fastest in Europe, even faster than Deutsche Post.

Me: I'm gonna use this weekend to research some backlogs and add them to the database. Me this weekend:

Excellent coins and so fitting for a specialist collection. I find particular interest in the first one because it makes me wonder on the chronology of the Cyzicus imperial mint. The style and the flan look so different than what we see in the SPQR series moved from Smyrna. I wonder if there wasn't a very early phase at Cyzicus in early 269 that minted this coin and probably other reverse types, possibly with personnel from Europe. And afterwards, sometime later that year the minting operation from Smyrna moves to Cyzicus focusing on a few SPQR types that had been evolving from the very late Gallienus and very early Claudius II SPQR types. This is interesting because where would that leave the M - C coinage that was struck briefly also in 269 at Cyzicus "mid 269" cf. Estiot & Mairat. The pictures looks very cluttered at Cyzicus at its start as an Imperial mint, with 3 different coinages that seem to have continued for a few months until that 'mid 269' after which at least the M - C coinage stops and the no marking coinage seems to adopt the SPQR types. Here's an example of the M - C coinage that I haven't posted anywhere yet, with Claudius in an ornate cuirass and holding his spear over his right shoulder:

Baduila AE5mm 0.24g nummus

I bet nobody's interested in seeing some grotty Cherson 'maiorinae' for Theodosius II after seeing all these beauties.