Ancient Classical Coins: Beauty and Diversity

Over the years Clio Ancient Art has sold a great many ancient coins.

While our focus has always been ancient artifacts and art of the Roman, Greek, Byzantine, Cypriot, Egyptian, Near Eastern civilizations, ancient coins are always popular with our customers.

In this Blog entry, which is admittedly as much for pure visual pleasure as for educational value, we offer a very small sample of images of coins we’ve sold in the past couple of years, including Greek, Roman Republic, Roman Imperial and Byzantine coins in silver and bronze, and a few from related cultures.

It may surprise some readers to learn that many ancient coins like those shown here may be purchased for under $100 or even under $50.

To view our current selection of ancient coins go to: http://www.clioancientart.com/catalog/c18_p1.html

 Greek Cities, Kallatis, Silver Octobol, 3rd Century BC

Kingdom of Macedon, Bronze of Philip II, 356-339 BC

                             Roman Republic Silver Denarius of M. Lucillius Rufusus, 101 BC

 Roman Empire, Silver Denarius of Vespasian

 Roman Empire, Silver Denarius of Julia Doman

 

Roman Empire, Silver Denarius of Severus Alexander, AD 222-235

Roman Empire, Silver Antoninianus of Gallienus

Constantine I (The Great) AE3, AD 307-337 

Judean Kingdom Bronze Pruttah of Alexander Jannaeus

Byzantine Empire, bronze Follis of Justinian I

  

 Parthian Kingdom, Silver Drachm of Orodes I, AD 80-90

A Common Question: How Do I Know it’s “Real”?

We are quite frequently asked by aspiring private collectors as well as experienced antiquities owners and even museums how to determine if an object they own is a genuine antiquity or if it is a fake, forgery or reproduction. Our Identification and Authentication Services page addresses this question: http://www.clioancientart.com/id23.html

Sadly, this is Typical

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/articles/488535/20130710/lavezzi-pompeii-statue-bust-naples-psg.htm
Sadly, this incident, while widely reported because it involves a prominent European football star, illustrates many flaws in Italian cultural patrimony laws. These laws are often enforced unevenly, with the powerful and influential escaping prosecution. They tend to focus on punishment alone as a solution to the problem of looting or unauthorized ownership of antiquities, rather than following a more rational model that would encourage reporting of finds by the public with financial incentives. And these laws are based solely on outdated nationalistic, emotional arguments that all Roman antiquities, for example, must belong to the modern Italian state, which of course has very little relationship to the vast majority of ancient Roman artifacts. In the case of Pompeii and many other Italian archaeological sites, the near total neglect of these sites, in terms of the Italian government’s overall financial resources, is a disgrace, given the sheer scale of tourism these sites generate. Perhaps I’ll engage in a more detailed examination of these issues using this blog in the near future.

Late Roman Rod Formed Glass Vase Amulets

Among the more intriguing and beautiful glass antiquities available on our website are three examples of vase amulets dating from the later Roman era. These come in a variety of forms and colors, and first appear in the archaeological record around the mid-3rd Century AD (or CE, if one prefers). Production seems to have begun in the broader Syria / Palestine area, though examples have been found over a very wide area, including western Europe. It is thought that as they spread beyond their initial point of manufacture they were copied by glass artisans elsewhere.

The purpose or symbolism of these objects remains obscure. It has been suggested that their appearance and diffusion is somehow directly connected to the spread of Christianity but there is very little evidence to support this.

These remarkable objects were created by bead makers, not glass blowers. Their structure is basically that of a short tubular bead, closed at one end, tooled to create a neck or mouth, and enhanced with a tiny loop handle and either trailed and marvered  decoration in a contrasting color or a contrasting latticework applied to the body. the first example shown below is an example of the latticework type, while the second and third examples illustrate the trailed decoration.

Links to these objects on our site and “clickable” images -

http://www.clioancientart.com/catalog/i375.html

 

http://www.clioancientart.com/catalog/i376.html

  

http://www.clioancientart.com/catalog/i377.html

For further reading on this class of objects we recommend:

* E. Marianne Stern, Roman, Byzantine, and Early Medieval Glass, 10 BCE – 700 CE, Ernesto Wolf Collection, Osfildern-Ruit, 2001,

* Maud Spaer, Ed., Ancient Glass in the Israel Museum, Beads and Other Small Objects, Israel Museum, Jerusalem, 2001.

A Few Thoughts About Ancient Coins on Our Website

Although Clio Ancient Art deals primarily in antiquities and ancient art - bronze sculptures and utilitarian objects, glass vessels & objects, ceramic vessels, oil lamps, even textiles - we do try to carry a variety of ancient coins.

Our selection of ancient coins is, admittedly, rather atypical. While many ancient coin dealers focus on strictly "Classical" coins, that is, Greek and Roman coins, we try to offer both these and a wide variety of coins influenced in some way by classical antiquity. These include coins from the Byzantine Empire, the Islamic world, the Indian subcontinent, the European Middle Ages and cultures tangential to the broader Greco-Roman world.

Here are a few samples of both Classical and other ancient and Medieval coins on our website; enjoy  --

*  Roman Empire, Bronze Follis of Maximinus II, AD 310-311: http://www.clioancientart.com/catalog/i275.html

* Roman Provincial, Bronze 4.5 Assaria of Gordion III & Tranquillina: http://www.clioancientart.com/catalog/i427.html

*  Himyarite Kingdom. Amdin Bayyan. Silver Hemiobol. circa AD 100: http://www.clioancientart.com/catalog/i266.html

*  Islamic, Samanid Dynasty, Bronze Fals of Mansur I, AD 961-976: http://www.clioancientart.com/catalog/i425.html

*  India, Western Satraps, Silver Drachm of Rudrasimha II, AD 305-313: http://www.clioancientart.com/catalog/i424.html

A Great Resource: Our Books & Publications Page includes framed & unframed antique prints dealing with antiquity, out of print and hard to find antiquities research journals, antiquarian books, antiquities auction catalogs and much more...

A Great Resource: Our Books & Publications Page includes framed & unframed antique prints dealing with antiquity, out of print and hard to find antiquities research journals, antiquarian books, antiquities auction catalogs and much more...

http://www.clioancientart.com/catalog/c25_p1.html

Tiny, Rare and Noteworthy: A Group of Byzantine Buttons on Our Website

Overlooked by collectors and museums visiting our website to acquire higher profile antiquities, such as Greek vases, Egyptian burial items or Roman sculptures, is a group of 3 tiny buttons in various materials, dating to the middle Byzantine era. These are exceptionally rare and deserve to be highlighted here. Link: http://www.clioancientart.com/catalog/i205.html

The history of buttons is rather hazy, with button-like objects of uncertain use appearing in the archaeological record as far back as 2000 BCE. The first functional buttons, appearing in the Roman Imperial age, were limited in their use to elite members of society and were intended as much for decoration as practicality. But with the infusion of migratory cultures from the Eurasian steppe into Western Europe and the Balkans at the end of Antiquity and during the early Middle Ages, functional buttons became widespread. There is conjecture that the use of buttons in place of other fasteners (brooches and pins) resulted as much from colder climate conditions beginning around the same time as the fall of the western provinces Roman Empire, as much as from new cultural influences. In any case, Byzantine society adopted the use of buttons quickly.

The 3 buttons in our group are each made from different materials: bone, rock crystal and what appears to be steatite (soap stone). The simple steatite example is relatively common, with other examples in a variety of common stones known from excavations. By contrast, the bone example is quite elaborately worked with multiple fields of decoration involving both incision and infilling the incised decoration with a resistant material, possibly pitch. Very similar examples have been found in Byzantine layers at Corinth. This belonged to an elite individual whose clothing must certainly have reflected their status. Although its function is obvious, the small rock crystal example may be unique; we have not yet found documentation of another excavated and dated example in rock crystal, which was highly valued. Such a button would also have come from the garments of a high status individual.

Tiny as these objects are, they do offer just a glimpse into Byzantine society in its middle phase, the 9th to 13th Centuries. Their survival is, as with so many antiquities, a minor miracle.

To see more Byzantine antiquities on our website, visit these pages:
http://www.clioancientart.com/catalog/c26_p1.html   and   http://www.clioancientart.com/catalog/c21_p1.html