2023 has been a year with many ups and downs - and a surprisingly good year for coins. Although I did add several Roman Republican...

My primary collection centers on the lifetime of Sulla and his reign as consul and dictator in Rome. Today's coin of interest falls in...

Having failed to capture or kill Mithridates of Pontus, Lucullus lost credibility with the Senate and his troops. He was replaced by...

My coin of interest today is one of few coins, that I have, issued in the name of a reigning Queen (βασίλισσα). The AE coin also appears...

This week's post assembles relevant coins from Macedonia with answers to a quiz. Kings of Macedon, Alexander III 'the Great' (336-323...

Livy in mentions Phalanna in his account of the Third Macedonian War against the Romans (171–168 BC). After four days attacking and...

Tyre is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. One of the best known episodes in Tyrian history is the resistance...

While the history is for me usually the draw, a first impression of the portrait and provenance are the reason that I now own this coin....

A couple of years ago I posted a set of Roman republican denarii showing the 12 Olympians . The twelve Olympians were the major deities...

Perhaps it is not surprising in these notes pages that Lais of Corinth attracted my interest because of the reverse of an ancient coin....

Boeotia provides an early example of representative and federated democracy. "Ancient democracies and federations of states" is a theme...

An event during Alexander the Great's conquest of the Achaemenid Empire is potentially depicted on the reverse of my coin today, with a...

In response to several requests, today's post provides an entry point to other notes on this site. There are many coins that a collector...

Muscle cuirass Lanuvium c. 475 BC This coin weighs in at 0.49g, about half weight of the last small coin that I posted and about the...

Although countermarked Byzantine coins are not usually something I seek out, I couldn't resist this one. It was described in the auction...

"Good things come in small packages" - this is certainly the thought I have today with this 0.56 gram coin. Although unusual for Greek...

These pages are literally my "Notes"- and this one is not much more than a few thoughts jotted down to pick up at another time. I have...

Compared with a Roman republican denariius, my latest coin seems impressively large and three dimensional. This is not a Macedonian tetradrachm with a portrait of Philip II, father of Alexander "The Great". However, it is not far off, the Greek writing on the back well done and the portrait not unfaithful to the original. So similar that there is one very close sold in 2017 from Numismatik Naumann as: Philip II (359-336 BC) . Tetradrachm. Amphipolis. Le Rider pl. 47, 23; SNG

A 1/5th tetradrachm? this is not a coin I had noticed before this one. A 2.55g coin of Philip III, son of Philip II of Macedon,...

My collecting focus has been the Roman Republic and especially the time period around the career of Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix . I have...