The Most Beautiful Greek Coins Ever Made: Kimon’s Decadrachms

In its upcoming auction, Numismatica Genevensis will be presenting two specimens of the most beautiful coins of Greek numismatics – or even of all time, actually. These coins are two Syracusan decadrachms by Kimon, featuring an almost portrait-like image of Arethusa on the reverse.

The Last Coins of Independent Syracuse

The second part of Künker’s Spring Auction Sales is dedicated to antiquity: This article presents three specimens that are among the last coins that were issued by independent Syracuse while the Romans besieged the city and Archimedes built his defense machines.

Pixodaros – Satrap of Caria

CNG’s Triton XXIV will be held on 19 and 20 January 2021 as a live online sale. One of the pieces offered in this auction is an extremely rare tetradrachm of Pixodarus, who almost became the father-in-law of Alexander the Great. We tell his story.

The Paradox of Thucydides. What Antiquity Teaches Us About Covid-19

We should all read Thucydides says historian Marek Węcowski. Because the Greek historiographer described meticulously the social consequences of an epidemic in his own time. Thus we may anticipate the most urgent tasks to tackle after Covid-19.

The Most Expensive Greek Coin

We cannot do CoinsWeekly Coin Records without acknowledging the most expensive Greek coin! The famous piece sold for more 2 million Swiss francs.

Human Faces Part 6: The 30 Pieces of Silver

Why is it that for centuries – or rather thousands of years – the head has served as the motif for the side of a coin? And why has this changed in the last 200 years? In this part we will talk about the coins Judas received handing over Jesus.

Human Faces Part 7: Alexander the Great

Why is it that for centuries – or rather thousands of years – the head has served as the motif for the side of a coin? And why has this changed in the last 200 years? In this part of the series all is about Alexander the Great.

Human Faces Part 3: The Nymph of the Spring Arethusa

For centuries the nymph Arethusa had been the beautiful face of the city of Syracuse. Here you will get information why she figured on the Syracusan coins.

Human Faces Part 1: The Father of the Gods, Zeus, in Olympia

Why is it that for centuries – or rather thousands of years – the head has served as the motif for the side of a coin? And why has this changed in the last 200 years? Ursula Kampmann poses these questions in her book ‘MenschenGesichter,’” from which the texts for our new series are taken.

How to detect forgeries

Part 3: Electrotypes
The last two parts on news from the forgery front have dealt with fakes that have been produced by newly cut dies and with cast fakes. This part is dedicated to a third kind of fakes: the electrotypes.
You will surely recognize …