I think we need our own 'Post an Old Coin and and an Old Tune' thread

[Roman Collector]

3 hours ago, JeandAcre said:

@Roman Collector, far as this thread needing some Cars, you get a hearty second from the house floor.  Not a band I've listened to much since vinyl days (when my big brother was into them --and they were on what used to be Top 40 radio), but just from here, that only emphasizes the point.  And here's one more.  ...How often have you done this to me already?  When you do, it's never not fun.  :<}

 

 

Duchy of Aquitaine.  Anonymous, frequently attributed to Eleanor of Aquitaine (sort of the Cleopatra of 12th-century Europe).  With the obverse legend (oops, reverse here), +DVCISIT; cf. L. 'ducissa;' duchess.  Duplessy 1025; 'sous [her father] Guillaume X.' 

Louis VII.  Denier of Bourges, well to the north, in the royal demesne.  Duplessy, Royales 134.  He gives no date range for the issue, but presumably, it was relatively late in the reign.

Henri I, Duke of Aquitaine, by marriage to Eleanor /Henry II, king of England 1154-1189.  Denier of Aquitaine (as king; obv. legend: 'hENRICVS REX.')  Duplessy, Feodales 1030.

The short version is that Eleanor was married first to Louis VII; after a less than amicable divorce, she married Henri I /II.. 

And, No, Louis VII and Henri /Henry I /II were Never the best of friends.  Mostly, they were in ongoing, armed rivalry over the poltiical fate of France.  Different story.  But even Henry fell out with EIeanor, despite their shared literacy; conspicous enough, even among ruling elite of the period.  Instead of divorcing her (he needed Aquitaine), he imprisoned her.  ...As a family, the Angevins were among the most dysfunctional dynasties of the period.

Doubting anyone has the time for the whole movie, least of all in this medium.  Here are some random excerpts.

 

I have loved The Cars since their eponymous debut album! Best Friend's Girl is a great song!!

[Roman Collector]

Hermes says, "Got the wings of heaven on my shoes; I'm a dancin' man and I just can't lose!"

 

Faustina II, AD 147-175/6.
Roman provincial Æ 26.3 mm, 9.32 g, 1 h.
Mysia, Cyzicus (group 2), AD 169-175.
Obv: ΦΑVϹΤEΙΝΑ ϹEΒΑϹΤΗ; draped bust of Faustina II, r.
Rev: ΚVΖΙΚΗΝΩΝ ΝЄOΚΟΡ; nude Hermes standing facing, head left, holding purse, caduceus and chlamys.
Refs: RPC IV.2 699 (temp); SNG Cop 115; Mionnet Suppl. 5, p. 225, 270.

[akeady]

I just read that Karl Wallinger has died.   One of the original Waterboys - playing keyboard here and later the main guy behind World Party.   The last one has Sinéad O'Connor on backing vocals.   I was introduced to World Party by some girls I met at a party in 1988 - I looked up one of them on Facebook tonight and she had posted the news of Karl's death just 25 minutes before 😞

I wasn't sure what coin to use, but maybe this is appropriate as WP had an album "Goodbye Jumbo"

Country:	Spain
Coin:	2011 10 Euro ESPANA 2011 10 EURO - Laureate head of Melqart with features of Hannibal left - Elephant walking right
Shape:	Round.
Mint:	Madrid (10,000)
Wt./Size/Axis:	27.00g / 33.0mm / 0h
Acquisition:	Real Casa de la Moneda Madrid 20-Sep-2012
Notes:	Nov 15, 12 - Reproduction of Hispano-Punic coin of Hannibal

ATB,
Aidan.

P.S. I just read that there's a numismatic link to Wallinger - his wife, Suzie Zamit, has designed coins for the UK, including the Darwin £2 and the reverses of some of the Britannia bullion coins.

I don't have any of them, but here's a link to a Numista page for one of them Britannia 1 ounce silver

Edited March 12 by akeady

[JeandAcre]

@akeady, huge thanks for one more of your valued contributions toward the expansion of (...well, anyway yours truly's) cultural horizons.

I'm needing the way that the people in Ireland who somehow managed to survive the famine, and stay home, went on to produce people like (just for a couple of genres in English --optional expletives could ensue) Yeats and Joyce.  Right, what these people  (fine, if you wanted, you could include Dylan Thomas, who grew up speaking Welsh) DID to and, more to the point, For the language really defies comment.  Wish I had the Gallic even to begin to characterize it.

...And then there's this commensurately, effortlessly literate content in the lyrics from this guy.  So far, I've only listened to "Is It Like Today?"  Which had to evoke this, from the near-collapse of the world as it was known in its own time.  (Right, all you've got going on there are the initial, catastrophic miliitary disasters of the Hundred Years' War and, Oops, the initial onset of the Black Death.  '...Nothing to see here, folks; move along....')

Philippe VI.  AR double parisis (2 deniers tournois) of Paris.  Third type (1346-1350), first issue (from 27 April 1346).
Obv.  [In two lines:]  FRA [/] nCO.  [Crown above (part of rim visible), extending into the outer border.]
PhILIPPVS [three dots, resembling the ‘ergo’ sign] REX (with the legend in the field: ‘PHILIPPVS REX FRANCO[RVM];’ Philippe, Roi de France).
Rev.  Croix fleurdelisee.
[Crown mintmark:]  (I)On [ETA .. DVP] I/EX  (‘MONETA DUPLEX;’ double coin).  
Duplessy (Royales) 269.

...Oh, No, Music.  Well, okay, poetry: here's my all-time favorite poem of Dylan Thomas.  An elegy to childhood, inexorably gathering momentum to a meditation on mortality.  (From the vinyl version I grew up with.  Yes, thank you, he read stuff on the BBC, including his own, when, may we say, he needed some pocket change.)

 

 

 

@

[Roman Collector]

The Grim Reaper has been making the rounds. 😞 First Karl Wallinger and now Eric Carmen of the Raspberries. Requiem in Pace to these two rockers. 

 

And here's Venus wanting to be with Mars in this aubade scene.

Faustina II, 147-175 CE.
Roman Æ as, 11.96 g, 25 mm, 6 h.
Rome, 170-175 CE.
Obv: FAVSTINA AVGVSTA, bare-headed and draped bust, right.
Rev: VENERI VICTRICI S C, Venus standing right, placing both hands on the arm of Mars, standing facing, head left, holding round shield in left hand.
Refs: RIC 1680; BMCRE 999-1001; Cohen 241; RCV 5305; MIR 42-7/10c.
Note: This is likely a parallel issue to one of Marcus Aurelius's MARS VICTOR issues of 171-174 CE. 

Edited March 12 by Roman Collector

[Phil Anthos]

Stiv Bators did an unheralded solo album in between The Dead Boys and The Lords of the New Church, and this song is from that album. Stiv was once quoted (tongue firmly in cheek) as saying he want to be "the Eric Carmen of punk". It's good to aspire, I guess.  🙄

Here's a 'memoriae damnatio' coin of Caligula (not mine), oddly with Germanicus scratched out.

[expat]

In 74/75, Vespasian erected a colossal statue of Apollo, begun under Nero, and he dedicated a stage of the theatre of Marcellus. He also began construction of the Colosseum, using funds from the spoils of the Jewish Temple after the Siege of Jerusalem.

 

[Roman Collector]

Time for some classic rock!

Speaking of Scorpions!

Julia Iotape, Queen of Commagene AD 38 - 72
AE diassarion, 23.4 mm, 13.64 g, 12 h
Syria, Commagene, Samosata mint
Obv: ΒΑΣΙΛΙΣΣΑ ΙΩΤΑΠΗ ΦΙΛΑ∆ΕΛΦΟΣ, diademed and draped bust of Iotape, right; countermark: anchor?
Rev: ΚΟΜΜΑΓ−ΗИΩИ, scorpion and inscription all within laurel wreath
Refs: Lindgren-Kovacs 1887; RPC I 3858; BMC Galatia p. 109, 4; Nercessian AC --; SNG Cop VII 5; similar to Sear GIC 5514 (which has lunate sigmas in the inscription).

[Roman Collector]

Well, how about some Billy Idol for Billy Idol's sake?!

 

Here's an old coin. I've had this one for decades. It's one of the first ancient coins I ever purchased, from a brick-and-mortar coin shop back in the 1980s, when "Rebel Yell" wasn't considered "classic rock."


Gallienus, AD 253-268.
Roman Billon Antoninianus, 4.40 g; 23.5 mm.
Samosata, AD 255-256.
Obv: IMP C P LIC GALLIENVS AVG, radiate and draped bust, right.
Rev: RESTITVT ORIENTIS, Tyche, left, presenting wreath to emperor, right, who holds spear in left.
Refs: RIC 448; RSC 902; Cohen 902; RCV 10341; Hunter p. xlvii; Göbl 1677m.

 

[Phil Anthos]

In celebration of Spring...

Athens, Attica

Eleusinian Festival Coinage 340-335 BC AE 16 (16mm, 3.65g) O: Triptolemos seated left in winged chariot drawn by two serpents, holding grain ear in right hand. R: Pig standing right on mystic staff; EΛEYΣI above, bucranium in ex. SNG Cop 415; Agora 38h; Sear 2586v The Sons of Dysaules The story of Triptolemus being charged with bringing agriculture to man has been well told. That of his brother Eubouleus perhaps less so. Eubouleus was a swineherd whose pigs were lost when the Earth gaped open to swallow up Persephone. Pigs were sacrificed during the Eleusinian Rites in a women’s mystery ritual known as the Thesmophoria. The piglets would be washed in the sea during the Procession and then brought back to the Sanctuary and ritually slaughtered. It is interesting to note that in ancient Greek religion pigs were thought to be able to absorb miasma from humans, making this an even more appropriate offering. "It is said, then, that when Demeter came to Argos she was received by Pelasgos into his home, and that Khrysanthis, knowing about the rape of Kore, related the story to her. Afterwards Trokhilos, the priest of the mysteries, fled, they say, from Argos because of the enmity of Agenor, came to Attika and married a woman of Eleusis, by whom he had two children Eubouleos and Triptolemos. That is the account given by the Argives." ~ Pausanias, Description of Greece 1. 14. 3

[JeandAcre]

Of course!  That's what we needed this whole time, some Stravinsky!  Very cool background, btw.

[expat]

A little bit of my childhood before linking music and coin.

My Paternal Grandparents lived in London and when retired moved to a tiny village in Suffolk, East Anglia. As they were now only 12 miles away, our Family could visit much more often. Two properties away was a decommissioned church which had been bought. For two years it was a constant hive of activity with builders, electricians and water board workers etc. Then the new owners moved in. It was no less than John Peel and his Family. He was responsible for showcasing new musical talent. His shows, including the Peel Sessions, helped bring bands such as The Undertones, The Smiths, Nirvana, Half Man Half Biscuit and The Fall to a wider audience. Aside from the big bands that made it, he also found space for the less popular – brilliant but obscure African guitarists and early jungle acts.

Me and my sister used to play with his children in their garden. There was a rope swing hanging from an apple tree we had loads of fun with. There is a picture of it in his autobiography, which he never got the chance to complete, his Wife finished the last quarter of the book on his behalf.

Enough reminiscing, one of the bands he gave a chance to was from Derry, N. Ireland. A punk band called the Undertones. Their lead singer was Feargal Sharkey who went on to have a successful solo career. He is now, along with being made an MBE, an environmental campaigner trying to bring awareness to the poor water conditions that plague a lot of the UK.

John Peel was quoted as saying this was his favourite ever song

And here is Caracalla with a coin purporting to acclaim the renovation  of the water supply,

Ref Caracalla AR Denarius, Rome 19 mm. 2,94 g.  
RIC 130a, RSC 97, BMC 280
Caracalla 196-198 AD. ANTONINVS PIVS AVG, laureate and draped bust right / INDVLGENTIA AVGG, IN CARTH below, Dea Caelestis (Cybele)  riding lion springing right over water gushing from rocks on left, holding thunderbolt & sceptre, and wearing ”City Wall” crown.

Edited March 20 by expat

[akeady]

The Microdisney documentary was shown on BBC4 last week and I managed to watch it using a VPN to the UK, logging into my BBC account and clicking a button saying I had a TV licence! (I do, but not a UK one!).

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001x9fs

Here's one from their second-last ever gig, the night before their Cork swansong.

Here's a coin that came recently - posthumous denarius of Faustina I.   I liked the toning and it was cheap 🙂

From the seller's description:

Diva Faustina I Denarius Rome circa 146-161, AR 17.00 mm., 2.92 g.
Draped bust r. Rev. Aeternitas (or Juno) standing l., raising hand and holding sceptre. C 26. RIC A.Pius 344.

Old cabinet tone and Good Very fine

From the collection of a Mentor.

ATB,
Aidan.

[JeandAcre]

6 hours ago, expat said:

A little bit of my childhood before linking music and coin.

My Paternal Grandparents lived in London and when retired moved to a tiny village in Suffolk, East Anglia. As they were now only 12 miles away, our Family could visit much more often. Two properties away was a decommissioned church which had been bought. For two years it was a constant hive of activity with builders, electricians and water board workers etc. Then the new owners moved in. It was no less than John Peel and his Family. He was responsible for showcasing new musical talent. His shows, including the Peel Sessions, helped bring bands such as The Undertones, The Smiths, Nirvana, Half Man Half Biscuit and The Fall to a wider audience. Aside from the big bands that made it, he also found space for the less popular – brilliant but obscure African guitarists and early jungle acts.

Me and my sister used to play with his children in their garden. There was a rope swing hanging from an apple tree we had loads of fun with. There is a picture of it in his autobiography, which he never got the chance to complete, his Wife finished the last quarter of the book on his behalf.

Enough reminiscing, one of the bands he gave a chance to was from Derry, N. Ireland. A punk band called the Undertones. Their lead singer was Feargal Sharkey who went on to have a successful solo career. He is now, along with being made an MBE, an environmental campaigner trying to bring awareness to the poor water conditions that plague a lot of the UK.

John Peel was quoted as saying this was his favourite ever song

And here is Caracalla with a coin purporting to acclaim the renovation  of the water supply,

Ref Caracalla AR Denarius, Rome 19 mm. 2,94 g.  
RIC 130a, RSC 97, BMC 280
Caracalla 196-198 AD. ANTONINVS PIVS AVG, laureate and draped bust right / INDVLGENTIA AVGG, IN CARTH below, Dea Caelestis (Cybele)  riding lion springing right over water gushing from rocks on left, holding thunderbolt & sceptre, and wearing ”City Wall” crown.

John Peel.  Just, never mind.  I can remember his show on the BBC back to when the localish NPR station would play it late at night.  ...And, Dang, I Know I've heard that song before.  ...What is it about the Irish doing such surreally lyrical Punk Rock?  Guess they just can't stop themselves, no matter what you call the genre.

[Roman Collector]

Here's an oldie! 

And here's an old coin I never could get right -- I still have no idea what city issued it. Elagabalus probably. Hermes holding a marsupium reverse. 

[JeandAcre]

(Spoiler: Well, Fine, I don't have a coin pic to go with this.   What I have that's even Francophone and of the same century runs to earlier Haitian coins, all bought before I had the wit to even save the dealers' .jpgs.)

Another loss to us, as of today, was the pianist Maurizio Pollini, the greatest interpreter of Chopin besides, well, maybe, Chopin.  When he won a major competion in 1960, at the age of 14, Arthur Rubinstein (remember him? hint: another pianist) said, 'he already plays Chopin better than any of us on the judges' panel.'

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VI_International_Chopin_Piano_Competition 

(Cf. also today (Sunday)'s notice on NPR.)

And, (euphemism alert:) Right, Fine, I couldn't find his album of Chopin (on vinyl, going back to the 1970's) that I grew up with.  

So instead, here's some Satie.  From someone else, who at least knows how to do Satie.

 

 

Edited March 25 by JeandAcre

[JeandAcre]

Then, oh well, this can happen, with advancing age.  Suddenly, I needed some gamelan. 

There are that many folks in the 'Non-Western' part of the forum (no less arbitrary, from here, than 'Roman' vs. 'Medieval' ...but we're all victims of the same, relentlessly (edit: x out "structural;" replace with "arbitrary") semantic limitations) who would have coins for this.  To say nothing of their commensurate erudition, numismatic and historical.

From here, all it took was some Grateful Dead.  Throw anything, as long as it's not too ripe.

 

 

Edited March 25 by JeandAcre

[JeandAcre]

...Well, it was like this.  Today I had my first cardiological 'stress test.'  And just like the chest x-ray that happened a week or two ago, the results surprised the Stuff out of me.  I'm doing better than I gave myself permission to anticipate.

And here's something from UK ebay that hasn't arrived yet --which, at this point, is likely to be the only way you see anything that hasn't already been been posted, at least in the old forum.

A fantastic, still recently posthumous Conder halfpenny of the Doctor, mentioned, along with a less common example, in Boswell's Life of Johnson.  (The Oxford 1-volume edition, with the obsessively comprehensive index, is highly recommended.  ...Right, the copy I still have is in paperback, and held together with lots of tape.)

Yes, as a member of the species, Johnson had his own faults.  Including the not-very-implicitly condescending letters (cf. esp. Boswell) that he sent to Francis Barber, bequeathed to him as a slave, by an acquaintance with (snort) property in the British West Indies, and summarily freed.  ...Even Boswell mentions several of Barber's Black friends showing up at Johnson's house in London, along with Johnson's joyful reports of Barber's various romantic exploits, conspicuously among young ladies of English extraction.  Barber continued as Johnson's de facto house servant, but also became his primary legatee.  Doubtless to the sustained shock of the executors of Johnson's will.  Thank you, there's some serious ambiguity going on here.

(Instant edit:)  ...Not to mention his sometimes apoplectic antipathy to slavery, along with other forms of colonial genocide, whether literal or cultural, extending to First Nations in North America, or Highland Scots.  And as someone who had spent most of his life in London, this is what he had to say about class --please read, classism.

"...But to his return to his Notions concerning the Poor, he really loved them, as nobody else does, with a Desire that they should be happy.  'What signifies?' says somebody [for instance, the author] giving money to common Beggars.  'They only lay it out in Gin or Tobacco.'  'And why should they not, 'says our Doctor.  'Why should everybody else find Pleasure necessary to their Existence and deny the poor every possible Avenue to it?  Gin & Tobacco are the only Pleasures within their Power; let them have the Enjoyments within their Reach without Reproach.'"

(Hester Thrale (/Piozzi); from diary extracts.  Dr. Johnson: Interviews and Recollections.  Ed. Norman Page.  Barnes & Noble, 1987.)

And here's what I need for that.  I'm not done thinking that this is the best album Cassandra Wilson ever did.

 

Edited March 27 by JeandAcre

[expat]

The reverse of the coin shows Moneta. In Roman mythology, Moneta (Latin Monēta) was a title given as an epithet of Juno, called Juno Moneta . The name is the source of numerous words in English and the Romance languages, including “money" and "mint".

[Phil Anthos]

Fate up against your will...

Heiropolis, Phrygia

2nd-3rd century BC Pseudo-autonomous AE Assarion (19mm, 3.92g) O: Bust of Hekate/Selene right on cresent. R: Winged Nemesis standing facing with head left, holding bridle and plucking chiton from breast; IEPAΠOΛITΩN. Scarce SNG Cop 419-20; BMC 19 ex GB Collection "O Selene, driver of the silver car! If thou art Hekate of many names, if in the night thou doest shake thy mystic torch in brandcarrying hand, come nightwanderer." ~ Apulius

Edited March 27 by Phil Anthos

[JeandAcre]

2 hours ago, expat said:

The reverse of the coin shows Moneta. In Roman mythology, Moneta (Latin Monēta) was a title given as an epithet of Juno, called Juno Moneta . The name is the source of numerous words in English and the Romance languages, including “money" and "mint".

@expat, it never once occurred to me that I'd like an ABBA song.  You did it again. If I had a hat, it would be in the air.

[Roman Collector]

Tonight's earworm is a golden oldie. Reminds me of awkward junior high school dances. Gotta love the saxophone, too! 

Dig that perm on Gino Vannelli! The closest I have to such flowing locks is on this portrait of Alexander the Great. 

 

Time of Severus Alexander, 231-235 CE.
Quasi-autonomous AE 25.1 mm, 11.60 g, 7 h.
Koinon of Macedon.
Obv: AΛЄΞANΔPOV, diademed head of Alexander the Great with flowing hair, right.
Rev: KOINON MAKЄΔONΩN NЄΩ, Alexander, his cloak fluttering behind him and raising right arm, galloping his horse, right.
Refs: AMNG III 388; cf. BMC Macedonia p.24, 120; cf. Lindgren II 1374.

 

 

[JeandAcre]

Thanks, @Roman Collector, for further expanding my horizons.  But this made me need the first studio version (after who knows how many in clubs?) of another Marvin Gaye song.  ...Nope, I have no coin that can hold a candle up to this.  If I did, the coin would burn down first.

 

 

[JeandAcre]

And, Oh No. Slap both my hands, but then there's this.

Reposted more than it ever warranted, given the typically sloppy strike.  But Berhard. Duke of Carinthia.  C. mid-13th c. 

Conspicuously with a shield and sword.  Inviting this, from the now classic album of The Roots, with the vocals of Black Thought.  His Own Bad Self.

 

Edited March 30 by JeandAcre
Just, 'both.'

[Phil Anthos]

"Get my Charlie Parker on..."

  😎