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Posted 03/19/2014 3:15 pm
Great post! Collecting both ancient and modern, I too pull the old and worn out of circulation and give them a place in my collection. For me, coins are touchstones to history. They are windows to a past my imagination can explore. Finding a coin I know little about and then reading about the associated history is one of the great joys of the hobby.
For example, I never knew what silphium was until I started researching the coins of the city of Cyrene in Cyrenaica (in modern Libya). The silphium species described by Pliny the Elder was a highly valued plant that only grew in Cyrenaica. It had many medical applications, was used as a seasoning for food, perfume was made from it, etc. Potions made from it were supposedly a very effective birth control (the seed pod shown on coins of Cyrene looks like our modern heart symbol). This plant gave wealth and prosperity to the city of Cyrene, but eventual mismanagement and exploitation caused its decline. The last known stalk was supposedly sent to the emperor Nero. Is it really gone? I don't know, but it is a fascinating piece of history at first advertised, and now memorialized on coin.
Cheers!
Cyrenaica, Cyrene. 308-277 BC. AR Didrachm. BMC 245.
OBV: Head of Carneius r.
REV: Silphium plant.
For example, I never knew what silphium was until I started researching the coins of the city of Cyrene in Cyrenaica (in modern Libya). The silphium species described by Pliny the Elder was a highly valued plant that only grew in Cyrenaica. It had many medical applications, was used as a seasoning for food, perfume was made from it, etc. Potions made from it were supposedly a very effective birth control (the seed pod shown on coins of Cyrene looks like our modern heart symbol). This plant gave wealth and prosperity to the city of Cyrene, but eventual mismanagement and exploitation caused its decline. The last known stalk was supposedly sent to the emperor Nero. Is it really gone? I don't know, but it is a fascinating piece of history at first advertised, and now memorialized on coin.
Cheers!
Cyrenaica, Cyrene. 308-277 BC. AR Didrachm. BMC 245.
OBV: Head of Carneius r.
REV: Silphium plant.
