Image: Emperor Probus, Abraham Bogaert, De Roomsche Monarchy , 1697 Today's coin of interest is a coin of Emperor Probus from AD 280. I...

Walters Art Gallery, Twelve Gods Relief, 1st Century BC - 1st Century AD (Public Domain Image) The twelve Olympians were the major...

Understanding ancient coins can sometimes get very contentious as those studying the coins disagree. One such battle arose over the coins...

Patriarch Nicholas Mystikos baptizes Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus from a 12th or 13th century illuminated manuscript known as the...

"Nile water had always played an important role in the cults of Sarapis-Osiris and Isis. Both he and Isis were believed to summon...

This is the first coin that I have with full obverse bust of Vulcan. I admit, that "dancing chicken" was not the intent of the moneyer,...

The drachms of Cappadocia are the subject of today's post. I have three drachms of Ariarathes IX dated to regnal years A, B, and Δ. Their portraits could hardly be more different: a boy-king, a heavier head from a different hand, and two years later the unmistakable features of Mithridates VI. Read in isolation the coins seem inconsistent; read against Otto Mørkholm’s reconstruction of Cappadocia’s coinage they narrate a single political arc. Die-links, hoard evidence, and

Image of Ceres giving her chariot to Triptolemus published in Les Metamorphoses d'Ouide,1621 With this coin, I am getting back to Roman...

I've always had difficulty passing up a Salus reverse (Goddess of Health) , and even more so in this year of COVID-19. This coin is from...

[photo by Diliff used under CC BY-SA license] The Julio-Claudian dynasty began with the end of civil war and Octavian becoming the...

Base of a funerary kouros, Athens 510-500 BC, with wrestlers – National Archaeological Museum Greece There are coins from Nicaea,...

This year continues to add more coins of Asia Minor than Roman republic to my collection. Today a coin from Phrygia, Laodikeia - also...

Public Domain: Painting by John William Waterhouse (1847-1917) Elpis (ἐλπίς) with a flower in hand is depicted on this Alexandrian...

I tend to shy away from discussion of the price of ancient coins - while the price is relevant, even primary, in defining which coins I...

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

"Whenever you desire to cheer yourself, think upon the merits of those who are alive with you; the energy of one, for instance, the...

Democracy is fragile. The Roman Republic became an autocratic empire when loyalty to individuals became more important than the rule of...

No, not that "Dating" I realize my title may be a bit ambiguous, this thread has nothing to do with Caracalla's love life, or Plautilla...

Aristotle lived on Mytilene during the period in which these coins were minted. The dates are variously reported, somewhere between...

During the time of Trajan in Roman Britain, AD 97-103, this is what an invitation to a birthday party looked like. From Vindolanda, a...