Ancient Gold Coins

It has been a while since I've made a video entirely dedicated to ancient gold coins. These are the pinnacle of what numismatic art has to offer. The best die engravers were assigned to sculpt gold coin dies, quality control at the mint was much better, the softness of gold meant these coins were easy to strike, resulting on very well made pieces, and the fact these were so important stores of value meant they generally did not circulate a whole lot, so most ancient gold coins have come to our days with barely anywhere looking nearly as good as the day they left the mint. Today we have a wonderful selection of Egyptian, Roman and Greek coins, so let's have some fun with them. And quickly before we start, this video has been kindly sponsored by CNG, Classical Numismatic Group. The coins featured today will be auctioned on their Triton 27 auction, taking place on January 9th and 10th, 2024. We're talking about one of the most important auctions on the international numismatic market, and frankly, I feel honored CNG picked me to talk about such a major sale. They also have online auctions happening on a weekly basis, so there's always something new and exciting. Make sure to visit them at cngcoins.com or at their Facebook page, Classical Numismatic Group, and have a look at what they currently have for offer. And we start with a Greek coin, a gold 100 litra piece, dated between 405 and 367 BC, from the city of Syracuse. Greek gold is actually quite uncommon, especially during the classical period, before the 4th, 3rd century BC, gold was mostly struck as emergency issues, as a complement to silver, which was the metal of choice of money, so that is precisely what we have here, an emergency issue. This coin was issued under Dionysus I, one of the many tyrants that ruled ancient Syracuse. During his reign, Dionysus was in constant war with Carthage, well and pretty much everyone around him, and that kind of belligerent behavior demanded large quantities of gold to complement the normal silver issues to pay for all his troops. This particular coin has some remarkable provenance, and can be traced back to a hoard in 1914, the Mammaneli hoard, found at the outskirts of Syracuse, making this piece even more interesting, as we know exactly where it came from. Most Greek cities located in what is today modern southern Italy were famous for the high quality art on their coins, and Syracuse is the most famous of these cities, issuing gorgeous coins of all metals, even the small bronze coins had some wonderful art in them. On the obverse of this piece we can see a portrait of the nymph Arethusa, one of the patron deities of the city. I like how this portrait gives us a small insight on some pieces of clothing and jewelry that were typical for women of the time. Arethusa's long hair is held in place by a little piece of fabric, you can see in the back of her head, called a sacos. We can even see that it was decorated with little star-like designs, like a little texture on the fabric. She also wears quite a big earring and a pearl necklace. Around her bust we read Syracusion, meaning from the Syracusans, and behind her neck we have the signature of Ewinitos, the dye engraver who made the dye for this coin. On the reverse we have the mythological hero Heracles, fully naked, fighting the Nemean Lion in one of his labors. They are so deeply entangled in that fight that I had to add some colors to the drawing so you can distinguish one from the other. Heracles used the skin of the lion as an impenetrable armor in his other labors. Interestingly, the story tells us that Heracles first used his club to stun the Nemean Lion before actually skinning the animal, but here he just decided to leave the weapon aside and wrestle the animal, like a good Greek hero would We then had to Egypt. Egypt is a numismatic oddity. Its civilization was around since the early Bronze Age, and for thousands of years it was this very complex, robust economy, being one of the very few organized states that managed to survive the Great Bronze Age Collapse. Yet, it did not adopt trade using coins until very, very late in its history, with only a couple of last native pharaohs striking their own coins. This piece is attributed to the years 361-343 BC, during the reign of Nectanebo II from the 30th dynasty and the very last native pharaoh. In fact, these weren't made for circulation in Egypt. Nectanebo did not plan on introducing coinage in his territory. These were made to pay mercenaries, Greek mercenaries, to defend Egypt against a Persian invasion. That's a coin with some impressive provenance as well, going back to auctions as far as 1955. I'm going to start with the reverse, because that's what makes this coin really remarkable. Here we have two hieroglyphs. One of them is a collar, and the other is a windpipe with a heart at its tip. These are translated to the words Nebel and Nefer, meaning gold and good, so a statement of high purity metal. These staters are the only coins known up to this day to be struck using just hieroglyphical letters, so we could argue this is the one and only coin truly native to Egypt. And on the obverse we have a prancing horse. This is likely a design choice more catered towards showing something familiar to the Greeks that would receive this coin. Horses have always been very popular motif in Greek coins, so for any soldier that would be receiving this coin, they would certainly not have a single clue of what was on the reverse, but the obverse would certainly be something recognizable, and since money is very conservative, it's a good idea to pick a design that a recipient is going to see and recognize. Let us stay in Egypt for our next coin. The widespread use of coinage in this region only started when it was conquered by the Greeks, under Alexander the Great. After his sudden death, one of his generals, Ptolemy, took control of Egypt and established there one of the most stable and long-lasting Hellenistic kingdoms, enduring for nearly 300 years. Egypt did not have a lot of silver. What it had in abundance was gold, due to its easy access to the gold that came from Central Africa. This abundance of metal led to this nation striking some of the most remarkable gold coins in antiquity. What we have here is a Mnaion, a 100 drachma gold piece, weighing nearly one ounce of gold. Struck between 219 and 217 BC at the capital city of Alexandria by Ptolemy IV, this coin celebrates the deification of his father, Ptolemy III. Here we see the pharaoh in his new divine form. The spikes you see on his head are a radiant crown, an analogy to the sun god. He also wears an aegis, a mythological protective cloak which Zeus would bestow to those he deemed worthy of wearing it into battle, making the wearer invincible. He also holds the trident of Poseidon over his shoulder, the symbol of naval power. Ptolemy III fought many wars, in particular a very successful campaign against Egypt's archenemy, the Seleucids, and under him, Egypt reinforced its position as one of the main Hellenistic kingdoms. On the reverse, we have the cornucopia, the magic horn of abundance. At its top, where fruits and grain magically appear, we once more see the sun rays of the sun god. Notice the two strips of fabric from the royal headband, showing it was tightly tied to cornucopia. This was a subtle but direct indication that this abundance, the abundance of Egypt represented here by the cornucopia, was directly linked to the well-being of the line of Ptolemy. Around their legends, we read Ptolemaio Basileus, or King Ptolemy. The sheer size and weight of such a coin commands incredible respect. It's one hell of an experience to hold a Naiheion. This particular example was once in the collection of the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, so a coin with a provenance to an actual museum, quite cool. Now, let's get into the Roman world, and we start with the Roman Republic. Gold was rarely struck during the Republican period, just like the Greek coin we saw before. It was mostly used on emergencies and exceptional situations that require extra money to be issued, and that was the kind of scenario we had when this coin was made. This is an Aureus, struck in 82 BC under Lucius Cornelius Sulla. Sulla was one of those characters with a mixed legacy. He was a very accomplished general with a very long and successful career, yet he saw absolutely no issues with marching on Rome and bossing over the senate he sworn to After defeating Mithridates of Pontus, he returned to Italy to find himself declared enemy of the state. With a big army by his side and lots of plunder, he just marched on Italy and mercilessly purged his opposition. Sulla paid for his troops with all of that money he had gathered in his campaigns, and he had a military mint that moved with him that accompanied his army and struck coins to the soldiers on the march. This Aureus was one of these coins, and must have been the kind of coin used to pay for officers and generals, as common soldiers would probably have received only silver coins. On the obverse, we have the Helmeted bust of Roma, the incarnation of the city of Rome, a very common design on Republican coins. We can also see the name of the Proquestor, the magistrate responsible for the finances of Sulla's army, and the issuer of this coin, Lucius Manlius Torquatus. The reverse of this coin is fascinating. We have a chariot being pulled by four horses, this is called a quadriga, and that's another very common design on Republican coins, but this one has a bit of a twist. Typically, the chariot is being driven by some sort of deity, Jupiter is the most common, but here we have Sulla himself. This is a scene of his triumph when he marched on Rome. Such an interesting message, he is giving himself a near divine status, something that would be done in later centuries during the imperial period. He is also being crowned by a winged victory, we can see her at the top of the design, flying towards Sulla with a little laurel crown, so definitely some supernatural attributes being given to Sulla here. Overall, a very authoritarian design, I mean, he is nearly being equated to a god. In any case, at the bottom part of the design we have Sulla's name, Lucius Sulla Imperator, imperator meaning commander, someone who had the right of dispensing justice, and someone who had the power of life and death, and Sulla definitely chose death a bunch of times. And finally, let's look at the Roman imperial coin. Here we have an aureus, and as we can see, there's a child emperor here. This is Caracalla, the son of Emperor Septimius Severus. This aureus was struck in 201 AD, when Caracalla was just 13 years old. His father took control of the empire by force after a brutal civil war, and one of the very first things you do to strengthen your rule as a new emperor was to establish your own dynasty and show the people you had heirs. That's how young Caracalla got to co-emperor with his dad so early in his life. Sadly, he would grow to be as ruthless as his father, but without his political savviness, leading Caracalla to an early, very violent demise. On the obverse of this wonderful coin, we have the young Caracalla, with the laurel crown on his head, showing he was an emperor in his own right, at least in theory, and a paludamentum, the imperial cloak over a cuirass. The legends show his regnal name, Antoninus Pius Augustus, and the official positions he still occupied, pontifex and tribunicia potestate for the fourth year. His father, the one truly in charge, didn't give much attention to the senate at Rome and forced them to assign these important positions to Caracalla, although of course he didn't do any work at such a young age. Now, the obverse was great, but the reverse of this coin is what truly makes it shine. Here is a dual portrait of Septimius Severus and his wife, Caracalla's mom, Julia Domna. Septimius wears the radiant crown, symbolizing the sun, while Julia has a crescent under her, connecting her to Luna, the moon goddess. Truly a portrait that gave the imperial couple this divine air. The legends, Concordia Eternae, translate to something akin to the eternal concord, to the never-ending balance. In fact, Septimius and Julia were very shrewd politicians. He knew how to maintain the troops, their main allies, happy, and Julia, on the other hand, was very socially active around the Roman elite, surrounding herself with poets and intellectuals, gathering support for her husband, and she even accompanied him on campaigns, gaining the favor of the troops. Caracalla sadly wouldn't live up to the expectations of his parents. Now, how about that selection of coins, huh? It's not every day that I get the chance of showing such interesting pieces. Once more, thank you very much to CNG for sponsoring this video. Make sure to keep an eye for their Triton 27 auction, hammering on the 9th and 10th of January 2024. They will also be at the New York International Numismatic Convention, held in the Intercontinental New York Barclay Hotel. It is one of the most important numismatic events on the planet and well worth a visit if you have a chance. Now, I want to hear from you. Have you got an ancient gold coin? Let us know in the comment section down below. I hope you enjoyed this episode. Leave a like and consider subscribing if you did. Happy collecting and I'll see you soon.