| Author |
 Replies: 7 / Views: 1,754 |
|
|
Pillar of the Community
Australia
3831 Posts |
I'm curious - coins have been minted for more than a couple of millennium but somewhere along the line, dates have been added.
What is the first coin that had an year on it so that it could be identified for many years down the road?
|
|
|
|
Pillar of the Community
3772 Posts |
Coins have been dated in many eras, commonly the era started from the foundation of a city, the foundation of a dynasty or very commonly the start of the reign of a ruler. The latter are usually just referred to as regnal year or similar. Together with other records one can establish which specific year is indicated. Two examples where the regnal year is still used today is the Vatican and Japan.
Currently the oldest dated coin I own is from the Year 176 of the era of the Seleucid Empire, this year works out to have started in the year 137 BC of our standard reckoning - and yes, there are older ones.
Let me add three points:
1. some coins where dated with a 'frozen year' for a long time, eg the coins of a specific ruler all being dated with the commencement of his reign.
2. some coins have been restruck or recoined in later years, eg I have a coin from the Italian city of Lucca dated 1790 which was recoined in 1835 and also many modern French and Turkish gold coins have been restruck in later years.
3. nowadays coins are often struck in advance for release in the next year or even more, eg before Britain converted to decimal currency (in 1971) they released mint-sets in 1968 with some of the coins dated 1971
Edited by Medieval
10/06/2014 07:02 am
|
|
Moderator
 Australia
16866 Posts |
Two common calendar types employed on the earliest dated ancient coins are the "regnal year" calendars counting the years since the king/emperor (or his ancestor) assumed power and the "city era" calendars, dating from the mythical or not-so-mythical founding or refounding of the city which issuing the coin. Neither were widely employed until well into the Hellenistic era, though I believe the Regnal Year concept is slightly older, at least as far as usage on coins is concerned. It appears to be the Egyptians that started it, in the regions of Phoenicia that they controlled; some silver coins of Ptolemy II and Ptolemy III bear characters that are best interpreted as dates, either direct regnal year or according to a calendar where Year 1 was the beginning of reign of the dynastic founder, Ptolemy I in 311 BC. The earliest date recorded in Sear is Year kappa-epsilon (25), translating to 261/260 BC. While it seems to me to be always dubious to assign numerical values to standalone letters, especially when initials and monongrams of ambiguous meaning abound in the series, Wildwinds also gives some dated coins from this ruler that are even older; Year eta (8, 276/275 BC) is even attributed on some bronzes. These are the oldest dates that I can find reference to. 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
|
|
Valued Member
United States
220 Posts |
This question has long been on my mind as well, except that I have always wondered what the earliest date printed on a coin that used our standard reckoning was. The "Anno Domini" years were established back in the 6th century, but not used everywhere until much later. The earliest date I have seen is from the 1400's. I have a coin with the date of 1477 in Roman numerals (identified for me using this forum).
|
|
Moderator
Australia
16866 Posts |
For earliest dates using the AD calendar, see the discussion in this thread. The answer to thryan9's question, as stated in that thread, is AD 1234. 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
|
|
Valued Member
Norway
148 Posts |
Denmark has a coin from 1234 That's dated.
|
|
Pillar of the Community
United States
4692 Posts |
Do you think my coin dated 232 BC might be a fake?  |
|
Pillar of the Community
Russian Federation
5178 Posts |
IIRC, the city of Zancle (modern Messina) issued the first dated coins, in 490s BC, but the era on these was a fairly brief one following the capture of the city, and ended with its recapture a few years later. No idea which coin era was the first to last for at least a decade; apparently there are some in the 4th century BC - not sure about 5th though  Just in case anyone is wondering, somewhat on the opposite end of the spectrum, the largest numerical date printed in Arabic numerals likely belongs to the South Korean coins dated 4294 (1961 in our calendar). Discounting the Arabic numeral restriction, the ongoing Israeli coinage probably wins if full dates are needed (they've just passed the year 5774), and Russian kopeks dated 7207 (1699) seem to win otherwise; both countries used (different) alphabetic-based numbering systems (vaguely similar, and distantly related, to the one used for Ptolemaic dates). Edited by january1may
10/06/2014 2:15 pm
|
| |
Replies: 7 / Views: 1,754 |
|
Posted 10/06/2014 09:19 am
