Tag Archive for: General

Human Faces Part 21: Where is God?

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? This section of the series ‘Human Faces’ tackles the question whether the commandment ‘Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image’ applies to coins as well.

The meaning of the symbols on the euro banknotes

On the euro banknotes various symbols are printed that contain important information. We give an overview of the symbols which might be of interest to coin collectors and dealers.

Recovering Precious Metal: from Grandma’s old silver knife to the new coin blank

Allgemeine is one of the biggest refineries for precious metal in Europe. It has opened its doors to CoinsWeekly. We were allowed to watch the process of transforming silver and gold scrap to pure precious metal blanks. Please join us on this fascinating tour.

Manual to identify Roman coins

England’s Portable Antiquities Scheme is the most successful program on coin finds world-wide. No other country has won so many supporters to …

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 …

In the emperor’s service – the legions

Do you sometimes dream of visiting the epoch when Roman legions dominated the world, in the same way as the time traveller of H. G. Wells? Of course it is impossible, but modern re-enactment gives you quite a good idea of what the soldiers once accomplished.

Shipping and superstition in antiquity

Sailors faced many dangers. But the superstitious people found a way to deal with that, and many deities and animals assisted the humans on the sea. A coin from Kyzikos tells of all this, a coin minted on the visit of Emperor Marcus Aurelius.

Dionysus – The God of Ecstasy

Coffee or champagne? Apollo or Dionysus? During the 19th century, Dionysus was depicted as the god of rapture, the embodiment of our subconscious. But how did the Greeks see their god? We will delve into this question by analyzing several of the coins sold in the upcoming 335th Hess Divo AG Auction, which will take place on December 6, 2018.

German oaks and national sentiments

It is rather unspectacular what can be seen on German 1, 2 and 5 Cent coins: a simple oak branch – boring, one might say. However, the oak symbol is very old and closely connected with Germany, its national identity and its democracy for nearly 300 years…

A fan of Alexander the Great

Many Roman politicians adored the conquerer of the world, Alexander the Great. The emperor Caracalla was no exception…