Top Coin Types (Mixed)

1 Justinian Follis, --very big byzantine coin (especially years 12-15)

JUSTINIAN I. 527-565 AD. Æ Follis (38mm 23g). Constantinople mint, 5th officina. Dated RY 13 (539/540 AD). D N IVSTINIANVS P P AVG, helmeted and cuirassed facing bust, holding globus cruciger and shield; cross in right field / Large M; cross above, date across field; E/CON. DOC I 38e; SB 163.

A Byzantine cup coin

Alexius I Comnenus. 1081-1118. BI Aspron Trachy (26mm) Constantinople mint. Struck 1092/3-1118. Christ Pantokrator enthroned facing / Crowned facing bust of Alexius, holding cruciform scepter and globus cruciger. DOC 25b; CLBC 2.3.3; SB 1918.

I'll post a few more later..

Kushan empire
Vima Takha (Soter Megas)
@100 AD
AE Tetradrachm.
Gobl 762






Nezak Hun
Napti Malka
AR Drachm
@520 AD
S type 222




Malik of Kurzuwan
1221 AD
Mongol Siege coin
AE Jital
Album 1971

i'll try to avoid stuff others have posted as well. I do dig me some byzantines, but there are plenty to choose from.

how about some nabateans?



Nabatean Kingdom, Aretas IV, 9 BC-40 AD
O:Aretas, palm left, H right. R:Shuquailat, Aramaic legend, 16 mm, 2.7g, SNG ANS 1435

or china?


Wang Mang, Hou Quan
7-23 AD, 23 mm, 23 mm, 3.6g


so many cool "others"...



Mauryan Empire, Ashoka the Great, 272-232 BC
GH 589, 15 x 13 mm, 3.3g

I'm sure AN will lay down some serious "others".

Wow I've never even heard of the Mauryan empire... that is one crazy cool coin! Can you give me some more info about that? I'm very interested.

Thanks Bob! These are some really cool coins.

Here are all of my entries:

1. Ancient Chinese Ban Liang

This is the first unified coinage of China, originally initiated by the state of Qin around 350 BC. It became China's principal coinage when the Qin Dynasty was founded over a unified China in 221 BC. There are seemingly infinite varieties of this very pouplar type (and I have about 200 different myself), rangning in weight (<0.1g - 16+g), size (4mm - 40mm+), caligraphy styles, extra characters and marks, fabrics, rims or lack thereof, thickness, etc. Roger Doo wrote a fairly comprehensive catalogue of just Ban Liangs and it has nearly 6,000 entries. And that still doesn't cover them all!

The two pictured are my smallest and second-largest at 5mm, 0.1g and 35mm and 10.9g, respectively. My largest is 37mm and 8.9g.



2. Wang Mang value 1000 Spade ca 10-14 AD

This coin was a part of the Han Dynasty usurper's revolutionary monetary reform. His idea was to create fiduciary coinage at values ranging from 1-1000 cash of nearly similar size, with the logic being that trading for large and small purchases would be easy to do with few, very portable coins. Sound like today's paper money system? However, unlike today, the people under Wang Mang rejected the coinage as they didn't trust the coins to hold their stated values. In retaliation, Wang Mang forced the circulation of his coinage by threatening to imprison and/or enslave the families of those who used old and traditional monetary forms.





3. The first round coin of China, round coins with a round hole

This issue is among the earliest-issued round coins of China, being initially cast from around 400BC-350BC. Several individuals have theories based on why the Chinese began casting round coins after centuries of casting Spade and Knife coins, but the most likely are that the round coins are based on the spinning wheel (an important productive tool) or jade rings (which symbolized eternal life). They always had the name of the town where the coins were cast and/or the coin's weight denomination. The coin pictured is by far the most common variety (from the town of Yuan) and is the only one readily available for under $300.

Wow. Looks like my options are being taken by some very nice coins. I especially appreciate the link to the Indian coinage site, since my only reference for that is Mitchener - very dated. Thanks BobL.

My first item is the Persian siglos, which to me is a must have for a silver coin from the early period of coinage. Plentiful and inexpensive these date back to the Achaemenids of the mid-6th to 4th centuries BC. The kneeling archer with drawn bow type (right) has been dated back to the reign of Darius I around 520 BC.




A general collection of ancients really out to have an example of Roman Provincial coinage. I selected one from my collection of gate reverses, but the obverse bears portraits of Macrinus and Diadumenion. The latter is hard to come by in Roman Imperial coinage, but much more affordable in Provincial. And the unusual gate on this reverse is magnificent as gates go.



My third "miscellaneous" type is an Alexandrian tetradrachm of Claudius, with his wife Messalina on reverse holding her children. These tetradrachms are a special class of Roman provincial that belong in any collection of ancients.



Since the Alex tet was used once in the Roman section, I am going to display an early type of Indian coinage as a backup.

This is a silver scyphate satamana (Mitchener), or according to more recent scholarship a 5-shana(Raijor), from the earliest Indian coinage dating back to about the time of the Achaemenids in the Ancient Near East.



And for good measure, as long as we are mentioning scyphates, I thought I would show a Byzantine scyphate in a rather good state of preservation. Of course, arnoldoe beat me to it so this is like another vote for a popular miscellaneous coin type.




I was going to run a mint state Sassanian drachm, to go with the sigloi, but -- too late.