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

[expat]

One tenuous link is the name of the band is very similar to the Emperor. Second, the title of the song echoes his feelings about Hercules

Commodus, AR Denarius, 187-188 AD. M COMM ANT P FEL AVG BRIT, laureate head right / P M TR P XIII IMP VIII COS V P P, Hercules naked, standing front, holding patera and club. RSC 534; RIC 162. 17 mm, 2,91 g

[JeandAcre]

This is going to verge on oxymoron.  Right, a thoroughly secular ethnic Muslim, and an unapologetically observant Christian (starting with Corelli).  Sorry for that.  Well, sort of....

(Edit: Oh, No, the Coin.  Aksum /Axum, 5th c.  AE, gold inlay; one of the later ones to have consistently Greek legends.  Munro-Hay 76; Hahn 283-320.)

 

But Salman Rushdie's descriptions of his attack in upstate New York

(shorter, then longer version: 

https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-68739586 

https://www.npr.org/2024/04/16/1244847366/salman-rushdie-knife)

had to remind me of the avowed, crazy-off-his-meds racist from Indiana who 'wilded' me in the alley of my old apartment building.  What had to resonate, besides the blood (and, mercifully, the immediate shock) was the eyeball that he left dangling out of the (new edit: Woops,) right socket. 

Witness what happened to Salman Rushdie's.  ...You're welcome to infer what I ascribe this to, but at the ER, they were able to pop mine back in ...and it Still Works!

Right, my own experience elicited this, otherwise frankly weird response.  (Thank you, the Corelli.)  Meanwhile, though, I'm very grateful that, for one, neither of us sustained brain damage.  Salman Rushdie describes how his assailant didn't know what to do with a knife; mine didn't know how to kick someone's head in. (Edit:) Despite his Doc Martins.

 

 

Edited April 17 by JeandAcre

[Phil Anthos]

Dicky Betts, singer, guitarist and songwriter for (in their day) one of the premier American rock bands ever, died yesterday at 80. This song was written by Gregg Allman as a eulogy for his brother Duane, but it fits here too. RIP Dicky...

Ephesus, Ionia

390-320 BC
AR Diobol (10mm, 1.02g)
O: Bee with straight wings, within dotted border.
R: Confronted heads of two stags; EΦ above.
SNG Cop 242-43; SNG von Aulock 1835; SNG München 32; Sear 4375v; BMC Ionia 53, 53; 
ex Forvm Ancient Coins

The bee was sacred to the goddess Artemis, whose famous sanctuary at Ephesus was tended by Her priestesses, known collectively as Melissae, a word which translates as ‘bee’, or by some accounts ‘honey gatherer’. It is no surprise then that the coins of this city should feature the bee on their obverse.

 

 

[JeandAcre]

...Oooow.  One more.  That's one of my all-time favorite Allman Brothers tunes, too.  

...Terrific coin and brilliant tie-in.

[JeandAcre]

...Okay, @Phil Anthos, you did it.  I'm needing another track from the same album, with Betts doing the lead vocal.  First, a coin of no relevance at all.

Henry II, King of England 1154-1189.

AR penny of London, Cross-crosslet / ‘Tealby’ coinage, class A2 (c. 1158-1161).

Obv. Henry facing, crowned, holding a sceptre surmounted by a cross in his right hand. (His hand, and the jewelled left /right-hand edge of his cloak, extend to the lower part of the outer edge.)

[From 8 o’clock:] +h[EN]rI rE[X] ANG (‘HENRI REX ANG[LIE];’ Henry, King of England).

Rev. Cross; St. Andrew’s crosslets in each angle.

[From 11 o’clock:] +SWETM[AN ON L]VN (‘SWETMAN ON LVN[DE];’ the moneyer Swetman, in London.)

North 952 /2 (and p. 218, ‘Tealby Coinage: Mints and Moneyers’), Spink 1137.

Followed by 

 

 

[Phil Anthos]

One of my all time favorites, with him and the incredible Duane Allman trading guitar solos. Such a pretty song.

Edited April 18 by Phil Anthos

[JeandAcre]

Yes, Duane Allman.  A true genius.  (Anecdotally, he did session work  for, just for one, Aretha Franklin.)  For that minute, there were two guitarists in the band who were on that level.  

(Instant edit:) They both did slide like nobody's business.  ...Well, maybe John Lee Hooker.  After whom, I'm done.

Edited April 18 by JeandAcre

[Phil Anthos]

Also Otis Redding, Joe South, and on and on. And a real country-blues gem he did slide on called 'Gypsy' by Cowboy.

And of course 'Loan Me a Dime' by Boz Scaggs.

Edited April 18 by Phil Anthos

[JeandAcre]

...Iwound up needing some more John Lee Hooker.  A friend in my home town loaned me his copy of the LP (c. 1969), during his phase of recording with troops of hippies, as a kind of informal graduate seminar on how to play the blues.  Eventually, I had to graduate to CD.  The rest of them acquit themselves remarkably well, but you'll never have trouble telling when it's Hooker on guitar.  ...I love this reading for the comments he makes at the very end of the track.

First, my latest wire denga, this time from the first Romanov tsar, Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov, 1613-1645.  I've gotten all of mine from the same, exceptionally reliable source who lists US ebay.  I have to love how each of them have the emblemmatic flan for the series.  Never mind the St. George and the Dragon motif, and the surprisingly well struck legend.  Incomprehensible, but duly appreciated.

With this from his reference.

And, right, for no apparent reason, the John Lee Hooker.

 

 

 

 

 

[Phil Anthos]

I sold him a bag of weed once.  😎

[JeandAcre]

Sorry if this is TMI.  But when did that ever stop me?

Eventually, Smoking was one thing I knew I could quit, so I did.  It's been a long minute.  Knock on wood --and find soome real wood.

...Speaking of famous people and the herb, there was this one guy I ran into exactly once, at the downtown public transit hub, back to the '80's (when we were both smoking).  He Insisted that he'd been a member of the Oakland chapter of the Panthers, and that Huey Newton smoked a pound a day.  Etched in memory: "A Pound!  Of Reefer!  A Day!"  Granted, I'll never know how much of that he was making up.  But aside from the entertainment value, it was plausible enough on its face.  

[Phil Anthos]

I can't even imagine that's possible. He must be Snoop's hero.

[expat]

 

[AncientOne]

Nags Head in June for vacation!

 

 

Cilicia, Pompeiopolis. Pompey AE22. Time of Tiberius.

Obv: Head of Pompey, r.
Rev: ΠΟΜΠΗΙΟΠΟΛΙΤΩΝ; ϘϚ, Athena, seated l., holding Nike; in field several letters.
Year 96 = AD 30/1
RPC I, 4001

[Roman Collector]

Jazz and Sundays just go together. I stumbled upon this rather obscure piece sometime back perusing through one of the jazz Real Books, right next to "Satin Doll." I love it and can’t understand why it isn’t more widely played or known.

There's no thematic linkage between this piece and ancient numismatics that I can think of other than that it's pretty. So, I'm going with pretty. 

Philistis, wife of Hieron II.
Greek AR 5 litrae.
Syracuse 270-230 BCE, 4.46 gm, 18.1 mm.
Obv: Diademed and veiled head, l., palm branch behind.
Rev: ΒΑΣΙΛΙΣΣΑΣ ΦΙΛΙΣΤΙΔΟΣ, Nike driving biga to left, E in l. field.
Refs: SNG ANS 893; SNG III (Lockett) 1017; Forrer 196.

 

 

Edited April 21 by Roman Collector
I have OCD

[Phil Anthos]

col·lap·sar noun

1. an old star that has collapsed under its own gravity to form a white dwarf, neutron star, or black hole.

 

Taras, Calabria

333-331/30 BC (Period IV - Archidamos and the Third Lucanian War) AR Didrachm (20mm, 7.54g) Signed by the Kal... engraver.  O: Nude horseman right, wearing shield on left arm and holding two spears in left hand, preparing to thrust third spear held in right hand; |- behind, Δ before, ΚΑΛ and Δ below. R: Phalanthos astride dolphin right, holding crested helmet; stars flanking, ΤΑΡΑΣ to left, ΚΑΛ below. D'Andrea XXXII, 657; Vlasto 545; Cote 215; McGill II, 41; Evans IV, H3; HGC I, 794; HN Italy 896; SNG ANS 971; Sear 345 ex Monarch Beach Archidamos III reigned as King of Sparta from 360 BC until his death in 338. Summoned by the Tarentines to assist them in the first Lucanian war, he lead a mercenary army to Manduria in Calabria, where he fell in battle against the combined forces of the Messapians and Lucanians. The historian Diodorus suggests that the death of Archidamos and the massacre of his army was divine vengeance for his plundering of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi.   While Genesis was trying to decide if they were going to continue after the departure of Steve Hackett, Phil Collins started playing with anyone who would have him, and that was a lot. One of his side projects was Brand X, a sort of fusion band which I was fortunate enough to see three times. The star on this didrachm is one of a pair (the other off-flan) representing the Dioskouri.

[JeandAcre]

As usual, a better tie-in than I usually manage, @Phil Anthos.  And never having heard of the band, I have to wish Phil Collins had pursued this collaboration further.  From here, fittingly enough, it also evokes Holst.

[Phil Anthos]

They did 4 or 5 albums, maybe more, but Phil didn't usually tour with them. Fortunately the last time I saw them he was playing that tour.

And lest people forget just what an amazing drummer Phil Collins was ( a fact often buried by his pop stardom), here is Nuclear Burn...

 

[JeandAcre]

No one ever needed to doubt his profiiciency as a drummer.  My last, and most favorite album is Seconds Out; right, immediately following Hackett's departure.  As a live album, given that Collins was doing all the lead vocals, their mainstay for touring was Chester Thompson.  With a background including Frank Zappa and Weather Report (both of whom did their own versions of fusion), he was on the level they needed to sit in for Collins.  On one track, he was replaced by Bill Bruford.  Right, the first drummer for Yes, who proceeded to get into fusion-leaning stuff on his solo albums.

[expat]

The word ADVENTUS on coins in Roman times was almost exclusively used for Caesars, to celebrate the ceremony of welcoming a Caesar when he arrives at a city.

So, we will combine a coin with a song recognising celebration.

Volusian, AR Antoninianus, Antioch.. AD 251-253. 22 mm, 4,30 g
IMP C V AF GAL VEND VOLVSIANO AVG, radiate, draped, cuirassed bust right, three dots beneath bust / ADVENTVS AVG, Volusian on horseback, riding left, holding spear and raising right hand. RIC IV 224a; RSC 2a.

[robinjojo]

Scotland, James VI, Sword Ryal of 30 shillings, 1571.

Davenport 8467

30.4 grams

Although 258 years apart, here's a symphony composed by Mendelssohn during his visit to England, including Scotland in 1829.  

 

Edited April 22 by robinjojo

[JeandAcre]

With thanks to @expat (going back to April 14), I'm needing some more Commodores.  ...The coin.

Richard II (1377-1399).  Penny, York mint, local dies (and a 'typo' on the obverse).

Obv. +RICARDVS: REX: ANGILIE.  Rev.  EBO:RACI CIVITAS.  North 1330c; cf. Spink 1692.

All my examples of Henry VI were bought too long ago to have pics; this was the closest I could get ...to this imposing pile, Tattershall Castle.  Built by Ralph Cromwell (c. 1393 – 4 January 1456; no apparent relation) from the 1430's.  (From Wiki Commons:)

It's one of the earliest English 'castles' to be built entirely of brick.  Despite the imposing exterior, it's better described as a fortified manor house than a castle or even a 'tower house' (a transitional development, evoking earlier keeps, dating mainly to the 14th and 15th centuries).  Note the three ground-floor entrances.

It's even been described as "anticipating the development of the courtly 'prodigy' houses of the late Elizabethan and early Jacobean periods."  (https://www.gatehouse-gazetteer.info/English sites/1855.html)  

...My favorite version of this is the one from their live double-LP, 1977.  But that runs over nine minutes; I wasn't ready to inflict that on people.

 

 

Edited April 22 by JeandAcre

[Phil Anthos]

1 hour ago, JeandAcre said:

No one ever needed to doubt his profiiciency as a drummer.  My last, and most favorite album is Seconds Out; right, immediately following Hackett's departure.  As a live album, given that Collins was doing all the lead vocals, their mainstay for touring was Chester Thompson.  With a background including Frank Zappa and Weather Report (both of whom did their own versions of fusion), he was on the level they needed to sit in for Collins.  On one track, he was replaced by Bill Bruford.  Right, the first drummer for Yes, who proceeded to get into fusion-leaning stuff on his solo albums.

Yes, Bruford was there full-time live drummer for the first post-Gabriel tour (Trick of the Tail). And as much as I love him as a drummer (I saw him with Genesis, King Crimson, Yes and solo) I believe  Chester Thompson was a better fit.

And Phil did excellent work on Frida's first album too, playing, singing and producing. You might also get a kick out of the album he did with Cafe Jacques.

~ Peter 

 

Edited April 22 by Phil Anthos

[AncientOne]

 

 

 

 

Pisidia, Baris. Severus Alexander AE20.

Obv: AYT K M AY CE AΛEXANΔΡOC CE, laureate, draped and cuirassed bust right. Rev: BAΡHNΩN, Dionysos standing left, holding kantharos and thyrsos, panther at foot left. RPC VI, 5855 (temporary)

[Phil Anthos]

I've heard some interesting reconstructed Greek music, but these simple lyre pieces are a bit more soothing to the ear, imo...

Teos, Ionia

320-294 BC AR Diobol (10mm, 0.92g) Mentor magistrate. O: Griffin seated right, with left forepaw raised. R: Lyre; MENTΩP (magistrate) downward to right. Kinns 95; SNG Kayhan 611v; Imhoof 126A ex MRB Coins