Museum Quality: Part 2

Continuing the March Metropolitan Museum of Art trip I just have a couple of numismatic related items that came to my attention. Aside from my small examples The Met has dozens more ancient coins and coin jewelery. Plus they have some Augustus Saint-Gaudens sculptures and statues. Saint-Gaudens was a famous artist who made many coin design in the 1930s.

Gold aurei coins of the first twelve Caesars mounted in a 19th century bracelet. Inspired by the 2nd century writer Suctonius who write biographies of the first twelve Caesars some made this bracelet out of real ancient coins.

Featured are on the first bracelet are Julius Caesar, Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero. While on the second bracelet are Galba, Otho, Vitellius, Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian.

Here are some random ancient coins.

Royal Badges - Official coins and medals of various kingdoms.

Silver tetradrachm with the head of Adriadne on one side (not pictured)
and the labyrinth in Knossos.
From Gortyn, Crete, 2nd century B.C.

Silver tetradrachm
with the head of Athena on one side
and the owl in wreath.
From Athens, 135-134 B.C.
I love the owl design because it reminds me of the movie Clash of the Titans.

Ptolemy III coins from Thebes hoard 246-222 B.C.

Most likely from the same hoard as the previous image.The Egyptian section is very dark and no flash photography or video is allowed so I could not get a good image.

One thing with Egyptian coins were there thickness. They look like chocolate candies, Peppermint Patties to be exact.

I recommend visiting The Met but give yourself time the place is large and most of the coins are in corners and dead spots.

I took hundreds of pictures from armors to paintings to statues to fully recreated rooms but this one was one of my favorites.


The stained-glass dome was part of Manhattan home circa 1904 and possibly made by Tiffany Studios. Something about it was just very appealing. Sure it has nothing to do with coins or currency but everyone can enjoy its simple beauty.

Museum Quality: Part 1

Do you have old coin and want to know its value? Leave a comment/question and I will do my best to find out the price and history for you.

My lack of updates are a sign of a lack of finds. I was trying to steer all my college work to coin related items I was even going to make a coin sorter but I was out voted. So while at a recent art course in The Metropolitan Museum Of Art I took a side trip to find historical coins.

In numismatics ancient coins are not my strong point. I never got into them since they aren't found in change (normally) and the nice ones are expensive.

A collection of Visigoth coins meant to mimic Byzantine coins (images of Byzantine coins were too blurry to post) eventually they took on a style of there own.

Top to bottom, left to right...
Type/Country: Justinian & Maurice Tiberius Tremissis / Constantinople
Year: 527-602
Mintage: Unknown
Metal: Gold
Value: Hundreds(museum pieces often carry an unknown premium)

Type/Country: Imitating Valentinian Solidus / Toulouse, France
Year: 450-460
Mintage: Unknown
Metal: Gold
Value: Hundreds(museum pieces often carry an unknown premium)

Type/Country: Imitating Justinian Solidus / ?
Year: Mid-500s
Mintage: Unknown
Metal: Gold
Value: Hundreds(museum pieces often carry an unknown premium)

Type/Country: Imitating Imperial Tremissis / ?
Year: Mid-500s
Mintage: Unknown
Metal: Gold
Value: Hundreds(museum pieces often carry an unknown premium)

Type/Country: King Reccared Tremissis / Mérida, Spain
Year: 586-601
Mintage: Unknown
Metal: Gold
Value: Hundreds(museum pieces often carry an unknown premium)



Fake coins have always been all the rage especially in Egypt around 308-320. Real coins were pressed in clay then the after they dried you have these terracotta molds. Next coins were cast with molten/soften metal of equal or lower quality. Not all forgeries were intended to scam instead it was for the lack of circulating money throughout the Roman empire.


The case was full of coins but the reflection and my camera skills made shooting difficult. The coins were in a corner next to the elevator showing a complete lack of respect.


Type/Country: Augustus/Capricorn Silver Cistophorus / Ephesus (Turkey)
Year: 25 B.C.
Mintage: Unknown
Metal: Silver
Value: Hundreds(museum pieces often carry an unknown premium)

I'll show a few more at a later date and maybe do a little more research on what I saw and the museum experience altogether. I will post some more images on my other blog as soon as possible.

Do you have old coin and want to know its value? Leave a comment/question and I will do my best to find out the price and history for you.

A Slice of Sicilian

Do you have a coin and want to know how much it's worth? Leave a comment/question and I will do my best to find out the price and history for you.

I got this coin and it's my first non-English ancient coin, thanks Kiefer. Here is a quick scan because my photo skills gets worse each day.


Here are two better images by the original owner.

The top image is of a cross pattée with pellets at end of each serif and the edge has written, +•SICILIE•.

The bottom image is of the letter M and the edge has written, +•AyNFR’REX.


I'm not that familiar with coins that are 750 years old but I've been trying. I got a Spinks book for my English coins but nothing for this Sicilian type. I know that it's about 16mm and 0.61 grams.

This is a Mandfredi type because Manfred was crowned the ruler of the kingdom of Sicily on August 11, 1258 and died in battle on February 26, 1266.

Here's the stats...
Type/Country: Denaro/Sicily
Year: 1256-1266, Messina Mint
Mintages: Not known
Metal: Taris 16 & 1/3 carats, Billon Denari, and Oboli 1/48 fine(2.08 Silver)
Value: $15.00 at least that is what the tag says

I had to do quite a bit of searching Coin Directory to find this information.

Do you have a coin and want to know how much it's worth? Leave a comment/question and I will do my best to find out the price and history for you.

Roman Nero?

I appreciate when people ask about coins but I'm clueless on ancients. I couldn't tell a Greek from a Roman even less over the phone by description alone. I referred him to Hobby Blog he will definitely find there or through one of his many established links on old coins. I did a Google search on HobbyBlog for Roman Nero and found in the top of his list what my friend may have been describing but without the coin in front of me I can't be sure.

Well I say good luck to him he just wants to know if it is a real one and I can't even answer that. I should be fed lions, the shame.

I did see on Hobby Blog a 1963D U.S. dime here.
Here's the stats for that dime....
Year: 1963D
Metal: 90% silver 10% copper
Mintage: 421,476,530
Value: EF-40 $2.00 (EF=extra fine, detail on hair and torch plain to see)

Do you have a coin new or old and want to know its value? Leave a comment/question and I will do my best to find out the price and history for you.Comments are always accepted on this blog as well as phone calls from Eddie while he's working and complaining it's the humidity that make's NY uncomfortable, duh. Keep cool.