Made in Spain 🇪🇸

[Spaniard]

I've been looking for a decent example of this type for a while now...

Spain, Obulco. Circa 150 BC. AE As (14.94 gm, 30mm).
Obv.: OBVLCO, female head right.CX behind. (Probably a goddess of the harvest)
Rev.: L.AIMIL / M.IVNI in two lines,the aediles (duumvirs); AID vertically to right. , between plow and grain ear (X above).

This legend corresponds to fifth issue ca. 100 B.C (García-Bellido y Blazquez, Diccionario de Cecas y pueblos Hispánicos, p. 293, 5ª A27). Also it is Alvarez Burgos 2 edic. Nº 837; and Vives (La Moneda Hispánica) nº 25 Obulco plate XCVI-6 (dated ca. 150 B.C.)...(Thanks Veton)

Please feel free to pile on your ancients minted in Spain, be it Roman , Iberic, Muslim....I'd love to see them all..

[Alegandron]

Roman As cut in Half to make a Semis... Or a Half-As...

RI Augustus 27 BCE-14CE AE As cut made into a Semis Spain Celsa Mint 29mm 5.0g Laureate Augustus - Bull RPC271 Cut in ancient times to make change

 

RR Anon AE Semis 211-206 BCE Saturn S Prow ROMA Sear 766 Craw 56-3 Spain Punic War

[Alegandron]

CELTIBERIA / Non-Roman Spain
 
OSCA Spain AR silver denarius 204-154 BC. Head r beard -N behind - Horseman spear, Iberian PMAN BOLSCAN Burgos 1501 Villaronga 3

 
Celtiberia, Secaisa
AE As, 25mm, 8.5g, 5h;
2nd to early-1st centuries BC.
Obv.: Male head right flanked by dolphins.
Rev.: Horseman galloping right holding spear // SECaISA in Iberian script.
Reference: SNG Copenhagen 363ff

[Alegandron]

CARTHAGE SPAIN


Carthage Iberia 
218-208 BCE 
AE 13 
1/4 Calco 
Barcid Military Mint - 2nd Punic War 
Tanit 
Helmet

[Roman Collector]

Fabricado en españa!

Spanish Imitative Issue.
Roman Republican Æ semis, 5.70 g, 20.1 mm, 4 h.
Uncertain mint, 1st century BC.
Obv: Laureate head of Saturn, right; S (mark of value) behind.
Rev: Prow, right; S above; ROMA below.
Refs: ACIP 2659; Burgos R44.

Calligula AD 37-41
Roman provincial Æ 28 mm, 11.17 gm
Carthago Nova, Spain, AD 37-38
Obv: C. CAESAR AVG. GERMANIC. IMP. P.M. TR.P. COS., laureate head of Caligula, r.
Rev: CN. ATEL. FLAC. CN. POM. FLAC. II. VIR. Q.V.I.N.C., head of Salus (some attribute to Caesonia, wife of Calligula) r., SAL AVG across field
Refs: SGI 419; Heiss 272, 35; Cohen 247, 1; RPC 1, 185; SNG Cop 503.
 

[Spaniard]

Lovely additions!🥰

Hopefully this will become a rich and informative thread.....It's an area that I think the majority of ancient collectors have at least one, probably more, examples in their collections?

@Alegandron It's interesting why these coins were cut?

I live approximately 2 hours drive away from  the ancient Roman town/ruins of Celsa, another amazing place!..I live about 10 mins from the roman city of Dertosa and beginning to realise just how much the culture of Rome effected this area,,,There are so many sites to see within a 2 hour radius!
Here's some background...
Initially being an Iberian settlement named "Kelse" of the Llergetes tribe, the settlement became Romanised around 44 BC by the then Roman governor of Hispania Citerior Marcus Emillius Lepidus. The town was named "Colonia Celsa Lepida". Governor Lepidus enjoyed his new found Oasis for some 8 years until in 36 BC he was removed and exiled by Caesar's successor Augustus. The towns name was then changed to "Colonia Vitrix Iulla Celsa" and flourished as a strategic communication point, whilst also trading, using the river to supply and receive goods from the Roman towns of Dertosa and Tarraco on the coast. Celsa fell into decline in the first few years of Emperor Nero's reign probably due to a larger and more vibrant city up river controlling more trade its name was "Caesaraugusta" modern day Zaragoza.

Here's my coin showing those lovely Spanish depictions of Augustus, not that lifelike but you can make it out!
Spain, Kelse-Celsa. Augustus. 27 BC-14 AD. AE Unit (10.98 gm, 28mm). Velilla de Ebro (Zaragoza) mint.
Obv.: IMP. CAESAR. DIVI. F. AVGVSTVS. COS. XII, laureate head right.
Rev.: CN. DOMIT. C. POMPEI. II. VIR. C. V I. CEL, bull standing right. Abh. 811. VF.

[Alegandron]

20 minutes ago, Spaniard said:

@Alegandron It's interesting why these coins were cut?

Change / Cambio...

I mean, why pay a full As when it is only worth a Semis?

(Half an As = Semis)

 

Edited June 12, 2022 by Alegandron

[Steve]

Nice!! ... those are sweet examples, coin-fellas

Here were a couple of my cool Spanish examples ...  

Cheers

olé

 

SPAIN, AE AS CASTULO (LINARES, JAÉN) - Below

CRESCENT CASTELE SERIES. SPHINX

180 BC 

Diameter: 27 mm

Weight: 15,77 gm

Obverse: Bust diademed right, crescent before

Reverse: sphinx right, star before. In exergue legend Iberian Castele

Refernce: FAB 702

Other: Very attractive, nice green patina

Ex-stevex6

 

SPAIN, Celsa. Augustus. Æ As (below)

L. Baggius and Mn. Flavius Festus, duoviri

27 BC-AD 14

Diameter: 28 mm

Weight: 11.40 grams

Obverse: Laureate head right

Reverse: Bull standing right, head facing

Reference: ACIP 3164c; RPC I 273

Other: 1h … Good Fine, brown patina with tan high points

Ex-stevex6 … Ex Archer M. Huntington Collection

Edited June 12, 2022 by Steve

[Severus Alexander]

I've always thought that type was super cool!  Coingrats!

Some things not yet in the thread:

Quarter shekel minted in Carthago Nova, some say the portrait is Hannibal:

A little later, AE unit, either at the very end of the Punic occupation or issued by the Romans immediately after.  Again, "some say" this depicts Scipio:

According to Crawford, this coin (C. Postumius, c. 74 BCE, Cr. 394/1a) was issued to pay Pompey's soldiers when he was taking on Sertorius in Spain:

A Spanish imitation semis, c. 50-10 BCE:

And a Civil War issue by Galba, Tarraco mint:

Since you asked for Islamic too, here's 'Abd al-Rahman III (912-961), the Umayyad in Al Andalus who proclaimed a separate caliphate:

 

 

[Alwin]

CNAEUS POMPEY, As
Spain, 46-45 B.C.
S 1386 - Cr 471/1 - RPC 486
Laureate head of Janus . I above
Prow of galley right . CN.MAG (IMP)

 

[UkrainiiVityaz]

Please do not laugh, this poor bugger coin very nearly was condemned for an eternity to a miserable landfill:

 

 I had gone to my credit union to cash out coins that were leftover from coin roll hunting.  I always check the trash can next to the coin machine because I have found older coins, even silver and tokens in the trash!  About a year ago I found this lump of metal in the trash can - along with several rotted out zinc cents.

It is from a Roman colony of "Carmo" in Spain, ca. 100 BC and has the head of a male on the obverse and the legend CARMO and two sheafs of wheat.

 

 

 

[JeandAcre]

Terrific OP and thread, @Spaniard.  You inspired me to rediscover the pics of some Almoravid qirats /quirates.  Several years ago, I had a run of good luck finding these, mainly on Spanish ebay and Todocolleccion.  Then, silly me, I pasted them onto a document, and junked the original .jpgs.  So the pics themselves won't be a lot to write home about.  But here they are, with the original commentary.

‘Ali Ibn Yusuf, Murabitid (/Almoravid) Amir (/Emir) A. H. 500-537 /c. 1106-1142 C. E.  AR qirat (Sp. quirate), no mint or date given.  Possibly minted in Iberia, but likelier in one of several mints in the Murabitid dominions in northwestern Africa.  (See Album, as cited immediately below; maps in the main discussion of Alfonso VII, following.)  Issued without a named heir, hence c. 500-522 A. H. /c. 1106-1128 C. E.
Obv.  Legend in three lines (Arabic):  There is no God except God; Muhammad is the messenger of God.  (The Kalimah; the first Pillar of Islam.)
Rev.  Legend in three lines (Arabic):  Commander (/Amir) of the Muslims and conqueror in the name of the faith, 'Ali bin (/Ibn) Yusuf.
Album 467 (cf. prefatory discussion of the Murabitid series, esp. regarding mints; also 466, for the chronology, relative to the presence and absence of named heirs; all page 38);  Hazard 915, Vives 1686.  See also the pages for Almoravid silver coins on the websites of the Maskukat Collection (http://islamiccoins.ancients.info/spain/almoravid.htm), for general type, and transliteration and translation of the legends; and the Tonegawa Collection of Andalusian coins (http://www.andalustonegawa.50g.com/almoravids_silver.htm) for this issue, with references to printed sources other than Album and, um, proper orientation of both sides of the coin, for the Arabically challenged.  

‘Ali Ibn Yusuf, Murabitid (/Almoravid) Amir A. H. 500-537 /1106-1142 C. E. AR qirat, no mint or date given. Issued without a named heir, hence c. 500-522 A. H. /c. 1106-1128 C. E.

Obv. Legend in four lines (Arabic): There is no God except God; Muhammad is the messenger of God. (The Kalimah; the first Pillar of Islam.)

Rev. Legend in three lines (Arabic): Commander (/Amir) of the Muslims and conqueror in the name of the faith, 'Ali bin (/Ibn) Yusuf.

Album 467 (cf. 466 for the chronology); Hazard 927, Vives 1701. See also the website of the Tonegawa Collection (http://www.andalustonegawa.50g.com/almoravids_silver.htm) for this issue.

'Ali bin Yusuf, Murabitid (/Almoravid) Amir A. H. 500-537 /1106-1142 C. E. AR qirat, issued (in part) in the name of his heir, Sir; hence A. H. 522-533 /c. 1128-1139 C. E.

Obv. Legend in four lines (Arabic): There is no God except God; Muhammad is the messenger of God. (The Kalimah; the first Pillar of Islam.)

Rev. In four lines (Arabic): Ali [/] Amir al-Muminin [/] wa al-Amir Sir (Ali, commander (/Amir) of the faithful, and the Amir Sir).

Album 467 (cf. 466 for the chronology); Hazard 976, Vives 1768. See also the Tonegawa Collection for an example of this type: http://www.andalustonegawa.50g.com/almoravids_silver.htm. I am indebted to the American numismatist Alan Deshazo for the translation of both legends, and transliteration of the reverse.

'Ali bin Yusuf, Murabitid (/Almoravid) Amir A. H. 500-537 (1106-1142 A. C. E.). AR qirat, issued (in part) in the name of his heir (and eventual successor), Tashufin, hence A. H. 533-537 /c. 1139-1142 C. E.

Obv. Legend in five lines (Arabic): There is no God except God; Muhammad is the messenger of God (the Kalimah; the first Pillar of Islam); the Amir /commander Tashufin.

Rev. Legend in four lines:

امير
المسلمين
و ناصر الدين
علي بن يوسف

(Arabic: "Commander /Amir

"[/] of the Muslims

"[/] and conqueror in the name of the Faith

"[/] 'Ali bin Yusuf.")

Album 467 (see also 466 for the chronology); Canto Garcia 2401 var.; Mitchiner WOI 387ff; Hazard 1002; Vives 1827. See also the Maskukat website (http://islamiccoins.ancients.info/spain/almoravid.htm), especially for transliterations and translations of the legends.

Thanks again for the inspiration!

Edited June 12, 2022 by JeandAcre
Changing 'ACE' to 'CE.'

[Spaniard]

@UkrainiiVityaz..Interesting as the portrait faces Left?

[zumbly]

Here's an ex @Steve that also needs to be on this thread, from the Spanish party island of Ibiza. 

 

IBERIA (Islands off), Ebusus
AE Quarter Unit. 3.33g, 17.3mm.
Circa 2nd century BC. ACIP 719; SNG BM Spain 318-21.
O: Squatting Kabeiros (Bes?) holding club and serpent.
R: Bull butting left.
Ex stevex6 Collection

[Alegandron]

This is believed to be a portrait of Scipio in his younger years after he captured Carthago Nova. This is BEFORE he was Africanus, an honor bestowed AFTER he defeated Hannibal at the Battle of Zama in 202 BCE. If this is a true portrait, this would be the first living Roman on a coin. It was minted far from Rome.

Carthago Nova, Spain
SCIPIO
Roman Occupation
209-206 BCE
Sear Vol2 6575 R

Edited June 13, 2022 by Alegandron

[Spaniard]

Some really sweet coins shown..

Living here on the Mediterranean coast halfway between Barcelona and Velencia, I've realised just how fortunate I am to be surrounded by so many ancient sites,  ruins,  or otherwise still functioning ancient towns and cities. This includes local Iberic tribes, Greek settlers and of course the Roman take over. Large and small settlements are abound and surprisingly all within a few hours drive.

This coin was minted in Empuries a place me and my family visited being about 3 1/2  hours north.

Empuries...Around the 6th century BC, Greek traders from Phocaea, modern day Foca in Turkey, founded the first settlement at Palaiapolis, modern day Sant Marti d' Empuries here in Spain. Some years later,  due to increased commercial activity with the local indigenous people the Iberian Indiketes tribe the Greeks created the new sector of the city the "Neapolis" the colony was called Emporion which in Greek means market. The city thrived and in 218 BC at the start of the second Punic War a Roman army headed by Gnaeus Cornelius Scipio landed at the port of Empuries with the aim of blocking land access to the Carthaginian troops and so started the Romanisation of the Iberian Penninsula. In 195 BC Marcus Porcius Cato set up a military camp at Empuries this being the embryo of the new Roman city. In the times of the Emperor Augustus the Greek and Roman sectors became one both physically and legally under the name "Municipium Emporiae" which gradually lost its importance as a trade route due to the expansion of other Roman cities such as Gerunda (Girona), Barcelona (Barcelona) and Tarraco (Tarragona),  and by the end of the 3rd century AD the whole of the Roman city  and the Neaapolis were abandoned. The diagram below shows just how big the Roman city was in comparison to the Greek Neapolis. It also shows one of my coins from Phocaea, a favourite with a nice griffin reverse.

Here's the coin....

Iberia. Indigets. Emporia Æ AS...27.88mm/10.05grams..27-25 BC..
Obverse:Head of the goddess Pallas Athena wearing a Corinthian helmet with the visor raised and a large plume.
Reverse: Pegasos flying right, laurel crown above rump; EMPO below.
Villaronga, ACIP 1098 - R6
Ex Archer M Huntington Collection (HSA 1001.1.10234).

 

 

Edited June 17, 2022 by Spaniard

[Spaniard]

Spain - Castulo, Cazlona (Jaen), Ae Semis - 19 mm / 3.45 gr.
Ob...Beardless male head right, often referred to as the  "Pinocchio type", diademed with letter Ka before.

Rev...Bull standing right, L crescent above; on exergue line city name..'CaSTeLE'.

Castulo is now modern-day Linares located in the province of Jaén. Castulo played a large part of the Roman conquest of Spain. It was here in 213 BC that the Carthaginian commander, Hasdrubal Barca, decimated Roman soldiers with his army of 40,000. In a turn of events however, through the pressure of the Roman general Scipio Africanus, the people of Castulo betrayed the Carthaginians and became a Roman occupied territory.

[ValiantKnight]

Sisebut, Visigothic Kingdom
AV tremissis
Obv: + SISEBVTVS REX, bust facing
Rev: + TOLETO PIVS, bust facing
Mint: Toledo
Date: 612-621 AD
Ref: Miles 183a

Al-Hakam I, Emirate of Cordoba
AR dirham
Obv: (center, in Arabic) "There is no God but Allah. He has no equal"
(in margins, in Arabic) “In the name of Allah. this Dirham was struck in al-Andalus in the year six and ninety and one-hundred ” (AH 196)
Rev: (center, in Arabic) "Allah is One God. The eternal and indivisible, who has not begotten, and has not been begotten and never is there His equal"
(in margins, in Arabic) “Muhammad is the messenger of Allah. He sent him with guidance and the true religion to reveal it to all religions even if the polytheists abhor it”
Mint: Cordoba (al-Andalus)
Date: 811-812 AD
Ref: Album 340



Abd-al-Rahman III, Caliphate of Cordoba
AR dirham
Obv: (center, in Arabic) "There is no God but Allah. He has no equal"
(in margins, in Arabic) “In the name of Allah. this Dirham was struck in al-Andalus in the year two and thirty and three-hundred ” (AH 332)
Rev: (center, in Arabic) "The Imam / al-Nasir Li-Din / Allah Abd al-Rahman / Commander of the Faithful / Qasim"
(in margins, in Arabic) “Muhammad is the messenger of Allah. He sent him with guidance and the true religion to reveal it to all religions even if the polytheists abhor it”
Mint: Cordoba (al-Andalus)
Date: 943-944 AD
Ref: Album 350



Abd-al-Rahman III, Caliphate of Cordoba
AR dirham
Obv: (center, in Arabic) "There is no God but Allah. He has no equal"
(in margins, in Arabic) “In the name of Allah. this Dirham was struck in al-Andalus in the year five and thirty and three-hundred ” (AH 335)
Rev: (center, in Arabic) "The Imam / al-Nasir Li-Din / Allah Abd al-Rahman / Commander of the Faithful / Qasim"
(in margins, in Arabic) “Muhammad is the messenger of Allah. He sent him with guidance and the true religion to reveal it to all religions even if the polytheists abhor it”
Mint: Cordoba (al-Andalus)
Date: 946-947 AD
Ref: Album 350.5

[LONGINUS]

On 6/12/2022 at 12:04 PM, Spaniard said:

...female head right...

Please feel free to pile on your ancients minted in Spain, be it Roman , Iberic, Muslim....I'd love to see them all..

I‘ve seen her before on one of my favorite coins.

Great post @Spaniard ⭐⭐⭐ !

 

Edited June 20, 2022 by LONGINUS

[Spaniard]

@ValiantKnight...Wow what a beautiful Tremissis and the AR Dirhams are a very interesting series apparently good value for money, an area I 'will' look into...Thanks for posting and reminding me 😉

@LONGINUS...Sweet looking twin and difficult to find with a full crescent!

 

Here's a neat Augustus..

 

Bilbilis. Augustus period. Unit. 27 BC - 14 AD. Calatayud (Zaragoza). (Abh-278). (Acip-3020).

Ob: AVGVSTVS. DIV. (F. PATER. PATRIAE). around laureate head of Augustus right. Rev.: II.VIR within laurel wreath, MVN. AVGVSTA. BILBILIS. M. SEMP. TIBERI. L. LICI. VARO around. 

[John Conduitt]

I have only one ancient that I believe to be Spanish.

Magnus Maximus Barbarous AE2, 383-388

Spain imitating Lugdunum. Bronze, 22mm, 4.39g. Pearl-diademed, draped and cuirassed bust right; D N MIG MA-MVS P F AVG. Emperor standing left, raising kneeling female; REPARATIO M AVGG (restoration of Maximus, instead of the usual REPARATIO REIPVB, restoration of the Republic) (cf RIC IX, 32). Struck in coastal Spain in the 380s because of a coin shortage and possibly used during Visigothic rule in Barcino (Barcelona) around 415.

[DonnaML]

I also have only one ancient coin minted in Spain:

Tiberius, AE As, 14-37 AD, Hispania Tarraconensis, Turiaso Mint [now Tarazona, Zaragoza, Aragon, Spain], M. Pont. Marsus and C. Mari. Vegetus, duoviri. Obv. Laureate head right, TI CAESAR AVG F IMP PONT M / Rev. Bull standing right, head facing, M PONT MARSO; MVN TVR in field above bull, C MARI VEGETO below, II VIR in right field [ligate letters underlined]. RPC [Roman Provincial Coinage] Vol. I 418 (1992); RPC I Online at https://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/1/418; ACIP 3291a [Villaronga, L. & J. Benages, Ancient Coinage of the Iberian Peninsula: Greek / Punic / Iberian / Roman, Societat Catalana D 'Estudis Numismatics, Institut D 'Estudis Catalans (Barcelona, 2011)]; FAB 2450 [Alvarez-Burgos, F., La Moneda Hispanica desde sus origines hasta el Siglo V (Madrid, 2008)]; SNG Copenhagen 606 [Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum, Copenhagen, The Royal Collection of Coins and Medals, Danish National Museum, Part 43, Spain-Gaul (Copenhagen 1979), Parts 40-43 reprinted as one volume, 1994]. 28 mm., 11.98 g. Purchased from Tom Vossen, Netherlands, May 2021; ex. Aureo & Calico, Auction 364, 21 April 2021, Lot 1202. *

 

* Turiaso was "a municipium of Hispania Tarraconensis, now Tarazona, situated on a small river that runs into the Ebro, to the south of Tudela." https://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=Turiaso (quoting Stevenson's Dictionary of Roman Coins (1880)). See also https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/term/x51280 ("Located in the hinterland of NE Spain close to the Ebro river valley, c. 60km north of the ancient site of Bilbilis Augusta, the Iberian settlement named Turiasu later became an important Roman city called Turiaso. Under Visigothic rule it was called Tirasona and is now called Tarazona").

Tarazona is now in Aragon in the north of Spain. Under the Roman Empire, it was part of Hispania Tarraconensis, the largest of the three provinces in Roman Spain, along with Hispania Baetica and Lusitania. Under the Republic, before Augustus's reorganization in 27 BCE, Turiaso was part of Hispania Citerior (Nearer Iberia, i.e., closer to Rome, as compared to Hispania Ulterior).

For a discussion of Turiaso's coinage, see the section entitled "Regio Turiasonensis Turiaso," in Sir George Francis Hill, "Notes on the ancient coinage of Hispania citerior" (Numismatic Notes and Monographs, American Numismatic Society 1931) at http://numismatics.org/digitallibrary/ark:/53695/nnan86651. The article includes, among other things, a list of all the names of magistrates (duoviri) found on the coins of Augustus and Tiberius minted in Turiaso, and notes that "G. Marius Vegetus [named on my coin] appears both as aedile and as duumvir. Under Augustus, both asses and semisses were struck by duoviri, and the aediles do not seem to have issued coins. Under Tiberius, as usual, the duoviri strike the asses, the aediles the semisses; but who was responsible for the sestertii or dupondii does not appear."

As for the bull on the reverse, Kevin Butcher notes at p. 62 of Roman Provincial Coins, supra, that "A standing bull, probably connected with anniversaries commemorating the foundation of the various colonies, occurs at Caesaraugustus, Celsa, Calagurris, Cascantum, Ercavica, Graccurris, Turiaso, and Clunia." Oxen pulling a plow were certainly a common symbol of the foundation of colonies on Roman coins, so such an interpretation is not surprising, even though a plow is nowhere in sight! See Jones, John Melville, A Dictionary of Ancient Roman Coins (Seaby 1990) at pp. 121-122 (entry for “Founder”), explaining that the Romans “inherited a custom from the Etruscans of defining the boundaries of a new city by marking them with a plough,” so that certain coins showing plowing can be interpreted as a reference to the founding of colonies.