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 Replies: 9 / Views: 3,315 |
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New Member
United States
19 Posts |
I have a few 1/4 oz Gold Eagles and one does not have a traditional date. Instead it reads "MCMXC" What year was it stamped and what does that mean?
Thanks for any help.
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Pillar of the Community
 Canada
5391 Posts |
1990 quarter ounce eagle. Roman numerals were used
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Moderator
United States
56855 Posts |
 to CCF. John1  |
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
5238 Posts |
MCMXC means 1990 in standard. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3467 Posts |
Roman numerals were used to represent the date.
M=1000
C=100
X=10
M (1000) + CM (1000-100) + XC (100-10) = 1990
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Moderator
United States
187446 Posts |
to the Community! Your post was moved to the appropriate forum for the proper attention.  |
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Valued Member
299 Posts |
I've always liked Roman Numerals but don't quite get why "1990" wouldn't have read "MXM" (1000 + <10 before another 1000>). I like that there is no zero in this system.
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
5238 Posts |
@freddo, for reasons only the ancient Romans understood, their system did not allow for XM to represent 1000-10. The system was very cumbersome for arithmetic, which was why an abacus was used for such purposes.
The story of the invention of the number zero is quite fascinating. I believe that it first started in India.
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Valued Member
United States
115 Posts |
Just in case you weren't aware, the original St. Gauden's Double Eagle design used Roman Numerals for the date, and this was carried over with the early dates of the Gold Eagles.
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Moderator
Australia
16805 Posts |
Original "Roman numerals", the ones actually used by the Romans and by Europeans generally up until the introduction of "Arabic numbers" in the 1400s, did not have a standardized system for subtractive digits, and additive digits were the norm. "1990" would have been written as "MDCCCCLXXXX". Subtractives make doing mathematics using ORman munerals even more complicated than normally so, and would only have been used if there was some restriction to the amount of space available, for which again there was no uniform standard. As an example of a non-standard double-subtractive, I own an ancient Roman coin where the Year 28 is recorded as "XXIIX". It was clearly modified or copied from a die of Year 27 (XXVII), purely for conservation of space.
Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis
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Replies: 9 / Views: 3,315 |
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Posted 11/05/2019 05:06 am
