Fun For History Buffs: "When This Coin Was Made..."

Thanks, I had to look up where Guernsey was and found a map printed in 1899! It's in the English Channel next to Jersey. I would venture to guess that's where we get those breed of cows.

Excellent post, spruett001.

I absolutely love that post Finn. Thank you very much. This topic meets my needs for meditation for the day.
This time in history is of great importance to me personally.

I was hoping that this would have gotten here in time for the anniversary, but oh well:

Titus, as Augustus 79-81
IMP TITVS CAES VESPASIAN AVG PM - Laureate head right
TR P VIIII IMP XIIII COS VII Radiate figure (Sol?) standing on rostral column, holding spear.
Rome mint, July-September(?) 79
RIC 10




On August 24, 79 AD...



Mount Vesuvius began its eruption at about 1 PM on August 24 over the sleepy resort villas at Pompeii and Herculaneum. The eruption took about 20 hours in total, finally ceasing on August 26, 79 with the entire countryside under several feet of ash and pumice. Due to the relatively slow nature of the eruption, many inhabitants were able to evacuate, although casualties still numbered in the thousands. Titus was heavily involved in rescue operations, although few survivors were to be found due to at least two pyroclatic flows which had levelled buildings and heated many areas to several hundred degrees.

The only surviving first hand account was that of the historian and naturalist Pliny the Younger, who was 17 at the time and studying under the tutelage of his uncle Pliny the Elder. Pliny the Elder was in command of a small fleet of the Roman navy at the time, and set out at once to give aid and evacuate those in the path of the volcano. However, due to a strong wind, his ships became stranded. After spending much of the night trying to rally survivors, Pliny collapsed and died, possibly the effect of noxious gas either triggering an asthma episode or heart attack. His companions were able to march to safety, and were able to return to recover his body.

Across the bay in Misenium, Pliny the Younger was soon in the path of falling ash, and gives a haunting account while attempting to flee with his mother:








Of the cities destroyed, Pompeii was unique in that it received several feet of ash before the pyroclastic flows arrived, killing all survivors in a split second in temperatures exceeding 500 degrees F. The victims then fell into the thick ash and were completely buried. As they decomposed, they left an imprint in the ash, showing their exact posture right down to facial expression when they died. During excavations, these voids were filled with plaster, or more recently resin, allowing archaeologists to preserve their final moment. Herculaneum was hit more directly and sooner, leaving only skeletons:



In addition to the victims, the eruption preserved the single best snapshot of 1st century Roman life, as well as some of the only Roman paintings and fully furnished building interiors:




In the aftermath, Titus personally travelled to the countryside to organize and oversee the relief efforts. Many of the dead owned valuable estates but had no heirs, and Titus ordered those estates sold and the proceeds used to assist the survivors with relocating. There were however persistent rumors that Titus was being punished by the Jewish god for his actions in sacking and destroying the Second Temple.

The Colosseum would not be opened for several months after this coin was made.

Some interesting notes on how this coin is dated.

The reverse of this coin lists out all of the titles that Titus had earned; in the early Empire (and really until the rise of Diocletian) the Emperor was called Princeps, or "First Citizen". Augustus established the office of Emperor as a single person holding the traditionally most powerful positions in the Republic, and legally Rome never stopped being a republic. The titles on this coin are

TR P VIIII - 9th award of the Tribunicia Potestas, Tribunician Power. The holder of this title could introduce or approve legislation affecting the Plebians, or free non-aristocrats. Generally granted once per year by the Senate.
IMP XIIII - 14th Imperial Acclamatio, a title bestowed by the Army upon their leader, usually after a triumph. Only the imperial family could hold this title; for a military leader to accept it would be to become a usurper.
COS VII - 7th Consulship - An office shared annually by two people at the head of the Senate.

The timeline of these titles is variously known either explicitly (records exist detailing the how and why of the title was conferred) or implicitly, as in this case, we know Titus signed a letter using IMP XV that was dated to September of his first year, so this coin must precede that.

Fascinatingly, hard evidence found at Pompeii highlights an important error made by whomever transcribed Pliny's letter between 79 and the middle ages. One of the victims was carrying a purse stuffed with denarii, among which was a single denarius of Titus citing IMP XV. Coupled with evidence that the fall harvest had already taken place, the scholarly consensus is that Vesuvius erupted on either October 24 or November 23, 79. Some more reading here:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/gareth...ulaneum/amp/

When this coin was made:




This...



...was permanently moved from its home atop Independence Hall (formerly the Pennsylvania State House) for the first time in over 200 years. It was allowed to leave periodically for exhibition before but, always returned to its home.

It has since been moved again to the Liberty Bell Center in 2003.

The parts of the Liberty Bell story I find most interesting:

Isaac Norris, speaker of the Pennsylvania Provincial Assembly, gave orders to the colony's London agent, Robert Charles, to obtain a "good Bell of about two thousands pound weight". Charles dutifully ordered the bell from Thomas Lester of the London bellfounding firm of Lester and Pack (known subsequently as the Whitechapel Bell Foundry) for the sum of £150 13s 8d, (equivalent to £21,351.87 today) including freight to Philadelphia and insurance. It arrived in Philadelphia in August 1752. Norris wrote to Charles that the bell was in good order, but they had not yet sounded it, as they were building a clock for the State House's tower.

The bell was mounted on a stand to test the sound, and at the first strike of the clapper, the bell's rim cracked. The episode would be used to good account in later stories of the bell; in 1893, former President Benjamin Harrison, speaking as the bell passed through Indianapolis, stated, "This old bell was made in England, but it had to be re-cast in America before it was attuned to proclaim the right of self-government and the equal rights of men." Philadelphia authorities tried to return it by ship, but the master of the vessel which had brought it was unable to take it on board.

So, it was recast...twice:

Two local founders, John Pass and John Stow, offered to recast the bell. Though they were inexperienced in bell casting, Pass had headed the Mount Holly Iron Foundry in neighboring New Jersey and came from Malta, which had a tradition of bell casting. Stow, on the other hand, was only four years out of his apprenticeship as a brass founder. At Stow's foundry on Second Street, the bell was broken into small pieces, melted down, and cast into a new bell. The two founders decided that the metal was too brittle, and augmented the bell metal by about ten percent, using copper. The bell was ready in March 1753, and Norris reported that the lettering (which included the founders' names and the year) was even clearer on the new bell than on the old.

City officials scheduled a public celebration with free food and drink for the testing of the recast bell. When the bell was struck, it did not break, but the sound produced was described by one hearer as like two coal scuttles being banged together. Mocked by the crowd, Pass and Stow hastily took the bell away and again recast it. When the fruit of the two founders' renewed efforts was brought forth in June 1753, the sound was deemed satisfactory, though Norris indicated that he did not personally like it. The bell was hung in the steeple of the State House the same month.

The Case of the Improper Alloy Mix:

The reason for the difficulties with the bell is not certain. The Whitechapel Foundry, still in business today, takes the position that the bell was either damaged in transit or was broken by an inexperienced bell ringer, who incautiously sent the clapper flying against the rim, rather than the body of the bell.

In 1975, the Winterthur Museum conducted an analysis of the metal in the bell, and concluded that "a series of errors made in the construction, reconstruction, and second reconstruction of the Bell resulted in a brittle bell that barely missed being broken up for scrap". The Museum found a considerably higher level of tin in the Liberty Bell than in other Whitechapel bells of that era, and suggested that Whitechapel made an error in the alloy, perhaps by using scraps with a high level of tin to begin the melt instead of the usual pure copper.

The analysis found that, on the second recasting, instead of adding pure tin to the bell metal, Pass and Stow added cheap pewter with a high lead content, and incompletely mixed the new metal into the mold. The result was "an extremely brittle alloy which not only caused the Bell to fail in service but made it easy for early souvenir collectors to knock off substantial trophies from the rim".

FBL Sights Set Too High?

As well you shouldn't. The real deal doesn't qualify.

Thanks for giving this thread a little pick-me-up! I had started a post a while ago, but lost my train of thought and didn't pick it up again. Been meaning to post this one though:

Macedon, Alexander III "The Great"
336-323 BC
AE Chalkous (1/48 drachm)
Youthful head of Apollo right
Free horse galloping right, ALEXANDROU above, monogram below



While Alexander's silver coins (mostly drachms and tetradrachms) are among the most studied coins in existence, his bronzes are less well understood, as they were made locally for mundane purchases, not soldiers' payroll. They are also host to a much more diverse series of imagery.

Although not firmly attested, the "free horse" is likely a homage to the story of how Alexander tamed his famous war steed, Bucephalus:





(Schommer, late 1800s)


That narrative by Plutarch is probably mostly fictional, but the horse himself is very well attested, and was Alexander's favorite charger for his campaigns. The name Bucephalus literally means "Bull-head" and is said to refer to a branding mark carried by the horse, although some accounts remark on his enormous head, which leads me to believe that he is the subject of this coin, rather than a generic horse.

Bucephalus died in battle against the armies of the Indian king Porus in May 326 BC, in what today is Pakistan. Alexander founded the city of Bucephala at the site, and pressed on with his campaign before being forced to turn back by his troops. Alexander regrouped in Babylon and was planning to resume his campaign when he died suddenly of illness in 323 BC.

As for the coin itself, most bronzes are believed to be lifetime issues, contrasting with the silver issues (especially tetradrachms) that continued in the same style for more than 150 years. Until Alexander's death, it was considered taboo for a monarch to place his image on a coin. The image of Apollo here further attests a lifetime issue.as for the timing of its minting, not much can be said with certainty. It could have been made while Bucephalus was alive, or it could have been a commemorative after his death. If this is indeed a depiction of Bucephalus, that makes it the oldest surviving depiction of that horse, who would feature a prominent role in Seleucid numismatics as well as classical art.

Great Britain 1834 shilling of King William IV:



Around the time this coin was minted, in The Royal Mint at Tower Hill in the East End of London, a fire broke out in the West of London that was going to have huge consequences for the UK and would ultimately result in London obtaining its most recognizable landmark.

In 1834 the British Houses of Parliament were a rambling series of buildings that had originally been the Royal Palace of Westminster. The House of Commons met in a former chapel, and the Lords in a building called the White Chamber. On October 16, 1834, some old accounts records (which were traditionally kept by cutting notches on wooden sticks) were being burned, and a chimney caught fire. Within a short time the fire spread to the Houses of Lords and Commons, and by the next morning, the old Palace of Westminster was a smoking ruin:



The decision was taken to replace the ruined palace by a purpose-built Parliamentary building, in the Gothic Revival style. Two architects were appointed: the Protestant Charles Barry worked largely on the exterior, while the Catholic Augustus Welby Pugin, a great enthusiast for Gothic architecture, was employed on the interior. Construction of the new Houses of Parliament started in 1837, and the building was finished in 1859 when the Clock Tower was completed.



Many visitors to London assume that the Clock Tower, or the clock itself, is called Big Ben, but strictly speaking this name belongs to the great bell inside the tower that chimes the hours. The tower is 320 feet high and the four clock faces are 22 feet 6 inches in diameter. The hour hands are 9 feet and the minute hands 14 feet long. The bell itself weighs almost 14 tons.

After operating continuously since May 31, 1859, the clock was stopped at 12 noon on August 21 this year for renovation and essential maintenance.

CCF members may be interested to know that old pennies (weighing one-third of an ounce) are used as weights to adjust the clock's mechanism if it is running slightly too fast or too slow. I don't know if there are any rare dates among them!

If an accidental fire had not broken out in 1834, Breat Britain may never have acquired one of its greatest cultural icons!