At the end of the reign of Rabbel II, King of Nabatea (78-106 AD), in 106 AD, Trajan annexed his kingdom and created the Roman province...

There is no better illustration of the cursus honorem, the political career ladder in the Roman republic, than a coin from a moneyer who...

I have been slowly adding Cistophoric tetradrachms from various cities in Asia minor, and today was looking back at one of my first posts...

It is a new year, 2022! Appropriately, today's post opens with new beginnings and Aeneas arriving from Troy to the shores of Italy and...

After wandering a bit into medieval Islamic coins and the Mongol khans of the 13th and 14th century, I inevitably return to 1st century...

The Parthians are mostly known from the writings of their Greek and Roman enemies - not the writers you would trust to document Parthian society and achievements objectively. Even the Sasanians who succeeded them in the East in the 3rd century AD preferred to emphasize their ties to the Achaemenids rather than the Parthians who were a bit too Greek. Arsakes began the empire and his dynasty in the mid 3rd Century BC leading the Parni and capturing the neighboring region o

Today's post shares more coins than usual. All of these coins are linked to the Mongol khans. Perhaps the best known Mongol leader is...

Public Domain Image published by Chez le citoyen Mirys in Paris, 1799 This coin interested me for several reasons : the link to the time...

Public Domain Image, etching "Aurora" by Guido Reni 1886 In 1637, Francescus Junius published "De Pictvra Vetervm Libri Tres" (Of Ancient...

While one can spend thousands of dollars on a popular, beautiful ancient coin, you can also get an interesting coin for under $5. LRB is...

Next week is Thanksgiving, and I am looking forward to the family gathering and a return to Thanksgiving traditions that we missed last...

This week I am adding an extra "Note" commemorating 3 years of "Notes on Ancient Coins" and post number 160. The photos celebrate the...

"Paul replied, “I am standing before the judgment seat of Caesar, where I ought to be tried. I have done nothing wrong to the Jews, as...

“There are many rats depicted on ancient coins, this one has an actual rat.” - Frank Robinson, ancient coin dealer, in one of his online auction listings My latest denarius completes a two rat set from the Roman republic. As these coins were being minted, the conditions for Sulla’s rise to power were taking shape. Micipsa, King of Numidia, had died in 118 BC leaving two sons, Hiempsal and Adherbal, and his brother’s son, Jugurtha, to rule Numidia. Jugurtha soon had Hiempsal k

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 Vicia faba, the fava bean, from Thomé, 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. E