Some Ancients

Yes.

Egypt is in Africa (though it was not thought of as part of Africa in ancient times). Egypt under the ancient Pharaohs issued very few coins (and these are very scarce and valuable) but Egyptian coinage issued after the conquest of Alexander the Great, and into Roman and Byzantine times, is relatively cheap and plentiful. I have numerous examples.

The ancient superpower of Carthage is also in Africa; it was situated in what is now Tunisia. I have a couple of Carthaginian bronzes.

There's one African city I don't have, but it's on my wantlist: Cyrene, in what is now Libya. This Greek colony was the source of the now-extinct silphium plant: a species of celery which not only tasted delicious but had powerful medicinal qualities, it was harvested to extinction in Roman times. The silphium plant features on many of the coins from this city.

All of the places mentioned so far are from the northern Mediterannean fringe of Africa. The only truly "native African" ancient coinage comes from the Axumite Empire, located in what is now Ethiopia. The coinage of most Axumite kings is quite scarce, but a couple of the kings are common. Hoards of Axumite coins often turn up in southern India, demonstrating that ancient seafarers maintained a thriving trade route across the Indian Ocean. I have a silver quinarius of King Ousanas, circa 320 AD.

There's a very old thread I posted just after I purchased my Axumite coin, with pics, here.

Heres another 2.


Left coin would be another Constantine I with sol reverse(correct me if I'm wrong).From what you said,would this one date 307-309 and if so what is the p for between the s and f,or am I just reading it wrong?
So that being said,all I really need to know is the mint mark on that one,unless I've I.Dd it wrong.Whats a good site for referencing mint marks?
I'm loving the info you are sharing here Sap,it's a shame I only have 3 more to i.d,although I have a few more soaking but they will be bathing for awhile yet.cheers mate.

Thanks mate,thats a handy bit of info.Sadly these are the last of them untill I've cleaned up the others,but looking at some of them,I rekon I'll be an expert by the time they are cleaned.




I linked this on a few weeks ago,i think I've got it I.D'd,but I'd like to hear someone elses interpretation,




Thanks a ton,you've been a great help,now my mates will be able to look at the coin and the info.I've got one mate who loves holding my ancient coins,I'm planning on getting him a few to clean up,hopefully give him the taste

Cheers Harry,
It's my favorite ancient that I have in my collection.I'll have to check out Amazon for a copy of that book I think.

Anytime mate It's not a problem,I like the coins from his brother Geta,but then again Trajan,Vespasian,Nerva (Love the nose)and the list goes on,I have some nice Trajan Sestertius,Dupondis and As (the As is extra fine and very nice) also some very rare coins not listed in any article written to date (all brought from Roman Ancient coins)as well as a coin from a roman mobil mint it's a cast coin of Germanicus and I believe it's very Rare.
All in All about a 1000 coins +,in reality I stopped counting about a 1000 coins .
Regards Harry

Yes mate hundreds these were from Augustus to Constans,stuffed a few up to start with some nice one's at that,then took my time and taught my self how to leave the patina on them this took years.
If you go back through the threads in this section you will see some of them,I've stopped collecting them now as I have other collecting interests and can't spare the time to clean though I still look at the collection from time to time,one day I'll get a round to it and start up collecting again but that will be some time down the track.
thanks for your interest Agosos .
regards Harry.
Oh just as a matter of interest be careful as there are a lot of fakes out there and this is one.