Silver Coins

‘Time destroys all things’. Though Simon lost the contest, Simon did win lasting fame in that today it is the most sought after of coins being the King of British Coins as the $1804 is the King to the American collectors. Simon's shows his unique style and creativity.

The "Petition Crown" has three faces The obverse, the reverse and the edge of the coin

Mahabharata is one of the two great Sanskrit epics of Ancient India, the other being Ramayana. The Mahabharata translates as ‘The Great Tale of the Bharata Dynasty’ and is the longest poem ever written being 4 times the length of Ramayana and 10 times the length of the two ancient Greek poems Iliad and Odyssey combined, composed by Homer. The The Mahabharata is an epic legendary narrative of the Kurukṣhetra War between the Kauravas and the Pāṇḍavas. ‘Bhagwad Gita’ is an important component of the Mahabharata. It is believed the Kurukshetra War occurred between 1200 – 800 BC, with some holding the view it occurred much earlier ca 3000 BC or even earlier, while some historians and archaeologists argue this conflict occurred in 1000 BC.

One of the fallouts of the Kurukshetra War was the political re-organization in India and the emergence of 16 Big States (Solasa Mahajanapadasa) few centuries later, of which Magadha became the most prominent and dominant by the time of Buddha ca 600 BC. It was also the time when the economy transitioned from predominantly barter and proto-money to coined money system.

This is the story of India’s first money of how coinage evolved in India from the time of the Mahabharata to the Mahajanapadas.

Prior to c. 500 CE, gold, silver, and copper coins of a dynastic model (bearing clear reference to issuing authority and regal or religious art), circulated widely throughout North India. During the following “early medieval” period up to about 1000 CE, gold coins all but disappeared.
Silver coins became debased in content and anonymous or abbreviated in message. Copper coins were replaced by cowrie shells.The nature, form, and quality of coinage changed, but it did not diminish in quantity.

The discovery of twelve denarii found individually between 1985 and 1991 at New Fordey Farm, Barway, Soham in Cambridgeshire complements finds of aurei and denarrii at the same location reported in 1958, 1979, 1981 and 1984. The presence of associated pottery sherds, and progressively decreasing wear from oldest to youngest coin, identify this as a disturbed hoard of at least 451 coins (the total found to date) with a closing date of AD 180 in the reign of Commodus (AD 180–92). This paper describes the most recent finds and places them in the context of the earlier reports and what is known of Roman activity in the immediate vicinity, before considering possible reasons for their deposition.

In this paper we will present in incomplete form one of the most interesting coin-hoards found in the territories near the Gulf of Burgas.
The treasure was discovered accidentally in the rural lands of the Kamenar village (Pomorie Municipality, Burgas Region), 6 km far from the Black sea shore.
The Kamenar coin-hoard consists of 4 gold and 35 silver coins. Four
gold pieces are Ottoman and belong to sultans Suleiman I (1520 – 1566) (1 coin) and Murad III (1574 – 1595) (3 coins). All of the remaining coins are foreign silver coins. The first of them is reichstaler of the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II (1619 – 1637), struck in 1623 in the mint of Graz. Dutch lion-talers are seven. They were struck in the provinces of West Friesland, Friesland, Utrecht, Gelderland and Overijssel. Spanish coins are 14 (13 pieces of eight and a coin of 4 reals). Polish coins are 11 and all of them have a value of 3 grosses. The last two coins are Transylvanian 3 gross pieces.

In Pomorie were found several coin-hoards, buried in the end of the 16th and early 17th century, and numerous single coin finds. These coins are now scattered in several museums (in Burgas, Pomorie etc.).
The treasures we comment are five:
• Treasure Pomorie I: 38 Ottoman silver coins.
• Treasure Pomorie II: 9 European silver coins (8 thalers and one halfthaler).
• Paleokastro Treasure: 605 silver coins (552 Ottoman and 53 European).
• Rudnik Treasure: 61 European silver coins.
• Kamenar Treasure: 4 gold and 35 silver Ottoman and European coins.
In these coin-hoards are total 752 coins. Most of the treasures were hidden in early 17th century, probably related to Cossack’s raids
along the coast of the Bay of Burgas.
In all these coin-hoards there are coins of several metals – 4 gold, and 748 silver coins. The most of coins are Ottoman – 594 (4 gold, 590 silver) coins. The most of ottoman coins are from the Sultan Ibrahim I
(1640 – 1648) – 318 silver coins. The rest of the countries, presented in these treasures are: Rzecz Pospolita (62 coins), Spain (28 coins), Holy Roman Empire (23 coins), The Netherlands (20 coins), France (7 coins),
Ducky of Lorraine (7 coins), Republic of Ragusa (5 coins), Ducky of Brandenburg (2 coins), Principality of Transylvania (2 coins).

A New Late Viking-age Hoard from Poland: Coins and Gold Jewellery as Evidence for the History of Central Europe. Preliminary Presentation
In the late autumn of 2020, a group of archaeologists from the city of Kalisz, Poland, undertook some research in the village of Słuszków (woj. wielkopolskie / PL). It was here in 1935 that one of the greatest hoards dating back to the beginning of the 12th century (»Słuszków 1«) had been discovered. The aim of the expedition was only to establish the position of this find, but in the course of a metal detector survey, something unexpected happened – the discovery of another hoard (»Słuszków 2«).
The first hoard, which had been divided among people in the village, was initially large. It could have contained up to 20,000 coins and probably more silver ornaments than the number that have survived from this find. It is estimated that the original deposit weighed 15 kg, so it would be the largest known hoard from the turn of the 11th and 12th centuries from Poland. The second deposit from Słuszków consists of 6,500 items, most of them coins, mainly Saxon and Polish cross deniers, and several dozen different European coins, as well as flat silver ingots, pieces of lead and four gold finger-rings.
The latter items are the first finds of this type in Viking-age Polish hoards. On one finger-ring there is a Cyrillic inscription suggesting the origin of the ring from the Kiev Principality. The three other rings were possibly produced according to Byzantine-Carolingian tradition in Germany in the Ottonian or Salian Periods.
Two large groups of cross deniers found in this deposit were previously known almost exclusively from the Słuszków 1 hoard. They were minted at the turn of the 11th and 12th centuries, probably in the mint in Kalisz or in its vicinity. Their issue is hypothetically attributed to the Polish ruler Zbigniew († 1111?). Also noteworthy is a fragment of an official coin of Duke Władysław Herman († 1102), showing his name and image, minted in Cracow after 1080. Other notable finds are examples of very rare large deniers issued by Palatine Sieciech († ca. 1110). These coins are the first private issues of bullion coins in Poland by a known and recognized magnate. Among the several dozen foreign coins, it seems that the most recent one is a denier of King Ladislaus I the Saint of Hungary († 1095), minted at the earliest in the 1080s. In the case of the two hoards from Słuszków, the concealment of such a large amount of precious metal items can probably be associated with some violent event, such as the war between two royal brothers, Zbigniew and Bolesław. The paper is a preliminary presentation of this new hoard and its contents.

Der Fund umfasst 21 Großsilbermünzen, davon 16 Taler- und 5 Halbtalernominale. Die Schlussmünze, ein Halbtaler der Stadt Basel, trägt die Jahreszahl 1640 und datiert die Verbergungszeit des Fundes in die letzten Jahre des Dreißigjährigen Kriegs. Der Großteil der Prägungen kommt von Ständen des Heiligen Römischen Reichs Deutscher Nation sowie aus Italien. Jeweils ein Gepräge stammt aus der Eidgenossenschaft sowie aus dem Fürstentum Siebenbürgen. Die Münzen des Schatzfunds sind generell ausgesprochen gut erhalten und weisen kaum Abnutzungsspuren auf.
Die Vergleichsfunde der Region und der Verbergungszeitraum zeigen, dass der Fund von Pyhra sowohl zeitlich und geographisch als auch in Hinblick auf seine Zusammensetzung ein charakteristisches Beispiel für die niederösterreichische Fundlandschaft der Mitte des 17. Jahrhunderts darstellt. Seine Verbergung könnte somit im Zusammenhang mit der letzten Phase des Dreißigjährigen Krieges und den kriegerischen Ereignissen rund um den sogenannten Schwedeneinfall 1645/1646 stattgefunden haben.

A common issue in non-destructive surface analysis of historical silver coins is depletion of Cu from the near-surface areas, which in turn results in higher Ag content at a coin’s surface. This paper reports a non-destructive analytical strategy using µXRF for identification of Ag and Cu surface enrichments and depletions by comparing peak intensity ratios of Ag Kα/Ag Lα, Cu Kα/Ag Kα and Cu Lα/Ag Lα for coins and Ag-Cu standards of similar composition. Our characterization of coins from different contexts and chronologies shows that a multi-standard approach provides the most reliable identification of surface enrichment of Ag and depletion of Cu. Coins possessing Ag surface enrichment were further analysed with LA-ICP-MS to determine any differences in trace element composition between the cores and surface of the coins. We show that the near-surface regions of these coins are enriched in Au and depleted in Co, Ni, As, and Pt relative to their cores. These systematics allow for a more robust assessment of the degree of silver coin surface alteration critically important in measuring the original composition of historical silver coins.

The Sicilian poleis made some of the brightest examples of the art of engraving dies. Akragas at the end of the V century B.C. mints silver and golden coins: its decadrachms and tetradrachms, with their four-horses chariot and the two eagles, are a beautiful expression of engravers’ expertise in coin art. As regards the silver issues we have a contribution by Charles Seltman, published in 1948, which proposed an interpretation of coin types and a chronology of the decadrachms and tetradrachms. In my master degree dissertation (2010) I proposed an update of Seltaman’s paper, collecting and analyzing 87 specimens. Seltman had access to only 42 coins to identify combinations and dies. As he did, to observe the pieces I also used photographic reproductions, gathered by Sylloge, collections and online auctions. This method – which is not exempt from further revisions and improvements – led me to produce new data that allow to think in a different way to this issue and its chronology and use.

The results of the observations and studying of long years by the author of the coins minted in Ancient Thrace and found over the territory of to-day's Bulgaria are submitted in a summarized form in the present study. On the basis of new numismatic materials found and of the region of their provenance are presented results of the study of anepigraphic coins with images of silenus and nymph and the more rarely encountered coins with images of centaurs and nymphs minted in the second half of 6th century BC and at the beginning of 5th century BC spread mainly in lands far from the southern coast of Ancient Thrace. Great attention is paid to the coins of the type „silenus embracing a nymph – concave square consisting of sectors of four small squares“ which are mentioned as coins of the type „silenus and nymph“, a type having dominated in the monetary circulation over the territories inhabited by the Odryssians , i. e. in the south-western part of the early Odryssian Kingdom. According to most of the research workers these coins were minted in Thasos or other Greek towns on the Thracian coast although only several dozens of such coins had been found over the territory of to-day's Greece. Only two denominations of the same are mentioned in their studies, namely staters and drachmas, and at present these researchers accept that all three of them are staters. Silver coins of the type „silenus and nymph“ of two lower denominations unknown at the time of the first publications of the author and bronze coins of the type „silenus and nymph“ of two denominations also unknown until that time as well as information about several thousands of coins of the type „silenus and nymph“ , all of them found in the interior of Thrace are published in the author's studies. On the basis of their concentrated provenance from the lands inhabited by the Odryssians along the upper and middle courses of the rivers Maritza and Toundzha, their minting for a long time by the early Odryssian kings and their use as a main local type of silver coins in the south-western part of the territory of the early Odryssian Kingdom the author expresses more than 25 important arguments for the belonging of the coins of the type „silenus and nymph“ to the early Thracian tribal minting, most probably the Odryssian minting and certainly to the minting of the early Odryssian kings (first publications: Топалов, 1998, 93-162; Topalov, 2003, 99-178 and recently Топалов, 2011; Topalov, 2012; Топалов, 2014, 43-261 and specifically 217-261).
Coins of the type „dancing silenus and nymph/silenus chasing a nymph – concave square divided into four triangles by two diagonals“ and „centaur embracing a nymph“ – concave square consisting of sectors of four small squares“ minted in the same period of time are commented in details in the study. On the basis of the comparison between the main images of coins minted by the Greek towns on the Thracian coast and the coins with images of silenuses and nymphs and centaurs and nymphs and of important arguments adduced conclusions are drawn that the coins with these main images belong to the early Thracian tribal coinage and not to the early Greek urban coinage. We point out only one of the arguments, namely that out of the nine types of coins with images of silenuses and nymphs and centaurs and nymphs six bear the names of different Thracian tribes and three are anepigraphic ones and that coins with such images bearing names of Greek towns of the Thracian coast are not known although such towns had adopted the practice, since the beginning of 5th century BC, to add on the coins the name of their issuers to the main images of them. Two out of these three types of anepigraphic coins are still considered, without sufficient grounds, as minted by Greek towns of the Thracian coast.

E-Book - 01. Checklist - British India Coinage.
Denomination
1/12 Anna
1/2 Pice
One Quarter  Anna
1 Pice
Half Anna
1 Anna
2 Annas
1/4 Rupee
4 Annas
8 Annas
Half Rupee
One Rupee
East India Company
Victoria Queen
Victoria Empress
Edward King VII
George V
George VI
Imperial Crown

Two Prague groschen of Charles IV found in Borová near Polička (Svitavy district). On September 25, 2016, M. Olšan discovered two Prague groschen of Charles IV (1346-1378) via private metal detecting activities in the forest belonging to the cadastral area of Borová near Polička. The coins very likely date to the end of the reign of the mentioned ruler, i.e. to the period of 1376-1378.

L’ hebdomadaire Le Monde illustré, qui alterne textes et illustrations une page sur deux,  a fait savoir le 19 mai 1877 qu’il existait à Rosas en Espagne un denier de Judas vestige d’une chapelle de monastère du XIe siècle. Outre la pièce d’argent s’y trouvait un certificat écrit relatant sa  préservation en 1795  lors de la prise de Rosas par l’armée de la Première République française et sa translation le 8 juin 1798 vers la nouvelle église du centre de la ville. Suivre le denier de Rosas permet de découvrir ce qui manque aux guides touristiques.

In this study, 27 Achaemenid coins, 62 Parthian coins, 66 Sassanid coins, have been analyzed. The Achaemenid coins as well as 20 Parthian coins belong to the National Museum of Iran and the other 42 Parthian coins are kept in Tamashagah-e Pool Museum. Sasanid coins belong to private collectors. Using PIXE analysis, the element concentrations of the coins were measured. By using statistical analysis on the concentration of the elements, the samples were analyzed using factor analysis method. Statistical analysis shows that the coins belonging to the Achaemenid and Sassanid periods can be identified and separated based on the changes of Cu/Ag, Pb/Ag and Au/Ag ratios. In particular the relative change in Cu/Ag ratio in the Achaemenid period is very low, whereas it is high for the Parthian Coins.

"X-Ray Analysis of Ancient Coins from Thessaly." Nomismatika Chronika, No. 10, p. 11-24, 1991.
Authors: Lucy Weier-Krystallis, M. Pilakouta, A. Karydas, and Eleftheria Mantzouka.

"Forty-three Thessalian silver coins of the fifth and fourth century B.C were examined by XRF at N.C.S.R “Demokritos”, in December 1990. Seven groups (types) of coins were tested. The general objective was to determine if any groups and/ or mints demonstrated homogeneous traits concerning metal composition which would suggest a common ore source. Specifically, there were two groups the metal composition of which could arguably be different from the others. The Larissa Persian standard obols in Group I could be struck from metal imported from Asia at the time of Xerxes’ invasion. The unknown fractions from group 7, although thought of as Thessalian, could well be from the coast of Asia Minor. Each group consisted of 5, 6, or in one case, 9 coins and a composite description is given for each of the seven groups. Dating is based on a consensus of scholarly opinions and is expressed in parts of centuries rather than absolute numbers. Finally a 4-letter code is assigned to each group to facilitate graph interpretation."