KOTCT Members Forum

So it is requested so it shall be........Merlin's exact words. Welcome to the newest board!

(http://yulbrynner.net/images/Yul%20Brynner/Yul_Brynner.jpg)

"So it is written, so shall it be!"
- Yul Brynner playing Ramses II in The Ten Commandments (1956)

Good - now there is an Ancient & Medieval place here!

In honor of the cheesy Egyptian reference, here are some Egyptian coins:

Ptolemy II Silver Tetradrachm:
(http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa310/Polymath_Numismatics/Egypt%20-%20Ancient/PtolemyIIARTetradrachmSvornos366_Me.jpg)

Ptolemy II Small Bronze:
(http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa310/Polymath_Numismatics/Egypt%20-%20Ancient/PtolemyII_Med.jpg)

2005 Cleopatra VII 50 Piastres:
(http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa310/Polymath_Numismatics/Egypt%20-%20Modern/2005_Cleopatra_50_Piastres1_Med.jpg)

2007 Tutankhamun 1 Pound:
(http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa310/Polymath_Numismatics/Egypt%20-%20Modern/2007_King_Tut_Egypt_Pound_Med1.jpg)

OK, Ok, the last 2 really aren't ancient - they are modern coins with ancient themes (a category all by itself) but I think they are pretty cool  8)

If these cause sufficient drooling, I'll post my 2 real Cleopatra VII silver tetradrachms and my 'whopper' AE40 bronze. ;D

Thats great, Thanks Merlin.

I dont know much about this topic, so i'll be waiting for your posts.

So just how old does a coin have to be, to be classified as ancient?

I am all eyes  :o   ;)  :D

Generally speaking, modern world coins begin in the year 1600 (an arbitrary Krause Publication thing I think but I don't know for sure).

Coins made between 1492 to 1599 are generally considered Renaissance / Reformation era which was really the beginning of the modern era.

So I'd say anything made prior to 1492 is ancient broadly speaking.

Byzantine & Medieval coins are generally treated as a later era subset of ancient coins.

The oldest ancient coins are ones generally struck out of oblong lumps of naturally occurring electrum from parts of Greece that date back to the 7th century B.C.

The most widely collected are probably Late Roman Bronzes in uncleaned condition. You buy them in large lots on eBay and clean them yourself. It's a very cheap way to start collecting ancients. You can buy them for less than $1 each but you get what you pay for.

Collecting Roman silver & billon (debased silver) denarii and antoninianii of common emperors like Hadrian, Septimius Severus, Gordianus III & Philip the Arab is an inexpensive place to start for collecting ancient silver.

A common misconception is that any coin pre-dating 1900 is ancient. I often get unsolicited emails from people with coins they inherited from a grandparent like Morgan silver dollars from the 1800s who want to know what their "ancient coin is worth" and I tell them I don't deal much in 'modern' U.S. coins and you can just see their head spinning in disbelief.

Hope that answers your question.  :)

I am all eyes  :o   ;)  :D
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I need to make some scans. BTW, I saw that bust of Cleopatra some years back at the Chicago Field Museum when they had the Cleopatra exhibit there. My father and I took my eldest daughter there 8 yrs ago on her 7th birthday just as he had taken me there in the 1970s (don't recall the exact year) to see the King Tut exhibit when I was a kid. It was a great exhibit, we bought a few replica coins and a book about Cleopatra for her on the way out which she read over and over until she broke the binding.

Earlier this year, my Pastor friend and I saw the Dead Sea Scrolls in Milwaukee and they had quite a few coins as part of the exhibit. I started to give my pastor friend a detailed explanation of the coins and a small crowd gathered and finally a woman asked if I was a tour guide. I said no and my minister friend slapped me on the back and said "I bet you get that a lot in these places!" and laughed and we moved on after I answered a few questions.


Look for the scans later today.

I prefer my Cleopatra to the 50 piasters  :D
It was a gift from an American friend since they were struck by the Franklin Mint and staid in Merica

(http://www.knightsofthecointable.com/kotctgallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=3536&g2_serialNumber=1)

I am more into silver than gold

I like this one  ;)

(http://www.coincommunity.org/gallery/albums/userpics/10385/cleopatra__5_pounds_silver.jpg)

The division of history into "ancient", "mediaeval" and "modern" was largely an invention of Renaissance historians. They declared themselves to be "modern" and considered everything before their time to be "mediaeval". The "ancient" age was held to have ended with the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 AD. It has very little practical meaning in non-European contexts, but is still often applied there by Western collectors. China, for instance, never really had a "dark age" in the same sense that Europe did.

Personally, I use the following definitions for my coin collection.

"Ancient" is anything from the invention of coinage up to 500 AD. It's a convenient break for us numismatists because in 498 AD the "Eastern Roman" emperor Anastasius I reformed the coinage, effectively beginning the "Byzantine series". Thus, everything "Roman" is ancient, everything "Byzantine" is mediaeval.

The end of the mediaeval period is somewhat arbitrarily set at 1450 AD. Some historians and collectors try to tie the beginning of the "modern" period to a specific historical event or marker, such as 1453 (the fall of Constantinople and the end of Byzantine Empire), 1492 (Columbus discovering new world), 1517 (the start of the Protestant Reformation), 1518 (introduction of the thaler coin) or 1601 (beginning of Krause catalogues).

I've met collectors who think everything struck after 1600 is "modern junk". ;) ;D

Thanks for the explanation guys.
Looks like I don't have any ancients.

I'll have to post a few of my ancients when I get some time. I don't have anything special. But I kinda like the ancients.

I have a few ancients but lack the knowledge to actively pursue them. But NOW we have someone to turn to!!!  I can see my collection expanding again!!! ;)

 ;D  :D  :o  ::) The only 'Ancient' in my house is me! ;)  :D  ;D  :o  ::)

I guess I REALLY do love ancients then!!! I have soooooo many sweethearts in OZ! ;)

My kids said I was Ancient and I told them no, I was only medieval and my wife said she knew that was wrong becouse she knows that I'm full evil.  ;D  ;D 

Seriously though really good info. Keep it up.

I love the background information on ancient and medieval coins...but, I absolutely love PYW's gold and Egs silver proofs.

'Old' topic I know but just took the coins out for their next rinse. After another  6months in olive oil
Some detail is beginning to show on a few. others are showing no improvement.

the coin on the bottom is the control coin. they were all in this shape when I got them.
Back into fresh olive oil to start year 4...

(http://www.mycoins.us/forum/Auctions/JUNE2010/P1010891.JPG)

Nice set of rocks you have there Nohope  ;D ;D

If these coins are not "expensive" you might try electroysis
My friend the retired coindealer does that and half came out superb the other half was
ruined by pitting . I think he got to impatient and used too much current
You have however to change the bath every few hours to keep the electrolytes up .

I only plated iron with bronze at the university and that was in a sodium cyanate bath with
a liter poison duh under an extraction hood.

Sorry Empler, your missing a "T"  ;D

Joe, have you been forgetting to take your medication. LOL

Here you can have mine....S

teve  :) :) :)