Today's post wanders into the middle ages during the time of the crusades. The crusades were a series of wars between Christians and Muslims to gain control of holy sites in Jerusalem that both groups considered sacred. Eight major expeditions took place between 1096 and 1291. These coins that I am trying to make sense of and sharing today are all silver dirhams (a.k.a. dirhems) from the 13th century. These are not coins that I collect, but I have accumulated a few. The crusa

"The site of the Cilician city known during the period of the Roman Empire as Caesarea, Caesarea by Anazarbus, or Anazarbus , is some 28...

In the COVID-19 pandemic world, it is a bit too easy to imagine the plagues of ancient Rome. Plagues are often referenced in ancient literature and we can see calls to the gods for deliverance in ancient coins. When plague threatened Rome, the state turned to Apollo, and today's coins tell that story. The Emperor Trebonianus Gallus was Emperor from June 251-August 253, during a time when Rome was enduring a pandemic. "Pandemic" is a 17th century term from Greek: pan (all) de

J. M. W. Turner, Dido Building Carthage, oil on canvas, 1815, Public Domain image. It seems clear that Augustus was good at marketing:...

The coins of interest today are not Roman republican. They are from a time period that that has interested me from my first coin: a worn...

‘With these beans I throw I redeem me and mine.’ -Ovid, Fasti Book V, Lemuria Flora von Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz by Thomé, Otto Wilhelm, 1903 If you keep asking, "what evidence is there to support this?", and follow the trail of references, researching an ancient coin leads you to interesting connections, related and unrelated to the coin. With today’s coin, I didn’t expect to end up with goats, fava beans and biscotti. Events of the Time Let’s start with some

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...

In his introduction to “The Roman Republic”, Michael Crawford writes: “Some parts of the story may perhaps seem unduly dramatic; I can...

ADDENDUM 8/2024: I am sorry to share that the small 1/4 Drachm coin shown here has been called out as a modern fake, while I don't have more specific reference to share, I trust the source of the assessment and I am updating this entry to make sure no one is mislead by the images of this deceptive fake. White tailed eagle fishing , image used under license from Shutterstock In an post not long ago, I shared a Litra from Akragas . This is another entry under the heading of "

Lex Titia, passed by the senate on November, 27 43 BCE, formed the "2nd Triumvirate", and granted broad authority to Mark Antony, Lepidus...

The newest addition to my collection is tied to Alexander the Great at a turbulent time near the end of his life or shortly after his...

This note will start with a drachm from Cappadocia, a key point of conflict between the Roman republic and the Kingdom of Pontus. There...

My coin of interest today is a mysterious AE from the late first century with no shortage of competing views on whose portrait appears on...

The history of the Roman Republic has no shortage of dramatic figures and events, and yet the story of Cato the Younger (Cato Minor)...

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

Ann Johnson writes about the challenges of differentiating provincial coinage of Caracalla and Elagabalus: Johnston, A. (1982). Caracalla...

My denarius of interest today was issued by a relative of Lucius Cornelius Sulla. The relationship between this moneyer and the dictator,...

The struggle for power was intense in the years after the death of Alexander III the Great, as the diadochi, his generals and successors,...

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