With this post, I return to the Roman Republic, with a coin from Lucius Cornelius Sulla. This denarius is from Sulla's dictatorship, November 82 BC to December 81 BC. Crawford adds a possibility that this coin may have been issued in celebration of the restoration of the republic when Sulla abdicated the dictatorship. I wander a bit far from Rome with the supporting coins in this post. Q. Fabius Maximus , Sullan Restoration Issue, AR Denarius (17mm, 4.00 g), struck circa 82-8

Recently I've been wandering from ancient into medieval coins and this one takes me far away from the Roman republic. When I originally...

In 2002 a tetradrachm was found with an obverse die of Seleucid King Antiochus VII and a reverse die shared with a tetradrachm of...

Roman Thermae at Hamat Gader, under Israeli control a few kilometers from the Jordanian border. These Springs were restored and reopened...

Modern coin collectors often seek mint state perfection. "NGC defines a Mint State or Proof 70 (PF-70) coin as having no post-production...

This coin honors a relative of the moneyer who was responsible for voting reforms. 63 BC was an eventful year with many familiar names: Lucullus and ally of Sulla and key general in the Third Mithridatic War, holds a triumph and retires. Pompey the Great is conquering in the East and will earn a third triumph in Rome after his return, in 61 AD. Marcus Tullius Cicero , foils the Cataline conspiracy , and is elected consul. Julius Caesar , the one of the Ides of March fame, i

The central figures in Raphael's fresco, "The School of Athens" are Plato and Aristotle. With gestures that reflect their body of work,...

My coin for today is an unusual tetradrachm of Parthia, from a few years after the end of the Roman republic and the beginning of the...

Elephants must have looked like mythical monsters to the Romans when they first encountered them in battles against King Pyrrhus of...

With an Antoninianus of Probus with Salus reverse I have completed a set of 6 coins with a hidden message. I first learned of this...

“The cistophorus, with its writhing serpents and over-elaborate ornamentation, is perhaps the ugliest coin in the Greek series....

Some of the most used reference books for ancient coins are not new. For Roman republican coins, RRC was published by Crawford in 1974 –...

One does not have to look far to see signs in Nîmes, France of the city's origins as a Roman colony. The crocodile chained to the palm...

This year I have explored the coins of Asia Minor or the Anatolian peninsula. Anatolia was named by the Greeks, anatolḗ means “sunrise"...

Bust of Cleopatra VII The mailman brought an interesting tetradrachm that highlights the detailed inspection that can be required to differentiate between ancient coins. Looking at this coin there are a few possibilities for exactly who issued this coin. One possibility: a coin of the last Pharaoh of Egypt the 17-year old Ptolemy Caesar or Ptolemy XV. Ptolemaic Kings of Egypt, joint rule of Cleopatra VII and Ptolemy XV (aka Caesarion), 37-30 BC, AR Tetradrachm, Alexandria min

In 1237 CE, Ḡīāṯ-al-Dīn Kayḵosrow II became sultan when his father, Kayqubad I (1219-1237 CE), died. He would reign until his death in...

This year I have explored the coins of Asia Minor or the Anatolian peninsula. Anatolia from Greek Ἀνατολή , meaning "The East" is the region east of Greece and Asia Minor roughly synonymous. I use both terms loosely and as synonyms. For me the experience has been both rewarding and also reminded me often of the comment of Francesco Gnecchi from a book published by Spink 1903, referring to those new to ancient coins: "Among a hundred individuals who begin to collect one can co

Cornelia, mother of the Gracchi , by Joseph-Benoît Suvée (1795, Louvre), Public Domain image from the wikipedia. Cornelia was the...

While it is possible that one more coin might show up this year, it seems unlikely that I will displace any of the coins listed below, so...

This large Antiochus III Seleucid bronze, called "Denomination A" in SC (Houghton & Lorber) appears to be very rare and the best example of this type (SC 1060). The M control mark is unlisted/unknown until now for this coin and the reverse monogram is associated with a longtime Antioch magistrate who was transferred to Asia Minor c. 203 BC [S.C. Part 1 Vol 1] . Antiochos III Megas (“Antiochos the Great”), was a Seleukid King, born in the period c. 243 - 241 BC, he reigned 2