Gallienus and the East
On February 15, 2018, Münzen & Medaillen GmbH offers an impressive series of coins of Gallienus stemming from the Markus Weder collection. Claire Franklin-Werz is telling the story of their historical background.
Heracles the snake-strangler
Herakles strangling the snakes, this subject occurs on the coins of some very important harbor towns of Asia Minor at the same time. This article will explain what’s behind it…
Jersey – the Treasure Island of Celtic Coins
Jersey Post has just issued stamps featuring six iron age coins from a hoard found at Le Catillon, Jersey, in 1957. Celtic coin expert Chris Rudd reveals how it comes that Jersey may truly be called Treasure Island of iron age coins…
The ‘Modest Aphrodite’ from Nysa-Scythopolis (Beth Shean) and Ptolemais (Akko)
A comparison between a statue of Aphrodite found at Beth Shean and a coin type from the mint of Ptolemais reminds us of the realistic nature of statues appearing on city coins.
The Punic Goddess
On Friday, March 13, 2015, Künker auctions off a Siculo-Punic coin with an enigmatic depiction: on the obverse we see a beautiful woman with a Phrygian cap. Is it Dido? Is it Tanit? Or is it perhaps a completely different goddess?
Greek mercenaries in Persian service
In auction 304, the Osnabrück auction house Künker offers a series of early Persian coins showing portraits of kings and satraps, including four of the enigmatic tetradrachms of Athenian type with small portraits or Aramaic lettering. They are likely to have been produced under Persian orders for paying Greek mercenaries.
A donative of Constantine the Great
This impressive piece belongs to a small series of silver medallions celebrating the vicennalia of Constantine II, the eldest surviving son of Constantine the Great, in 336.
Drachm, Dirham, Crown and Pound
Our sponsor, the MoneyMuseum in Zurich, will soon issue a second, revised edition of its booklet on money and currencies in history. We present the new text here on the Internet…
Alexander of Abonuteichos – a lesson from Asia Minor about gullibility in the 2nd cent. A. D.
You are one of those people who believe than there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy? Well, you are in accordance with a deep-seated tradition and can appeal to the fact that already in antiquity there were people who thought the same as you. ..
Human Faces Part 2: Athena and Athens
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.
