Tag Archive for: Greece

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 Four Coins Jesus Knew

It is very human to look for physical testimonies as proof for events and persons we care about. Therefore, numismatists have been connecting the life of Jesus with coins for centuries. The University of Calgary continues this tradition with a new exhibition.

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 …

80,000 Euros for a work of two Sicilian die cutters

For an impressive amount of money some extraordinary Greek coins were auctioned at Gorny & Mosch’s, Giessener Münzhandlung on October 10. One of them is a remarkable tetradrachm from Syracuse whose story you will read here…