Author: Baldwins

This delightful Celtic gold stater was issued by the Catuvellauni Tribe around 80 – 50 BC.  Its elaborate design, in keeping with the majority of early British gold coins, is derived from the gold staters struck by Philip II of Macedon over 200 years earlier.  

They were a warring tribe, adding the lands of the nearby Trinovantes to their domain sometime around the turn of the millennium.  

Depicted is a celticised horse, surrounded by pellets.  The horse, (along with the boar and the wolf) was culturally significant in Iron Age society, and appears on a variety of Celtic coins.  This rare issue is unlisted by most Iron Age coin indexes, and only appears in Ancient British Coins.

 Catuvellauni. AV Stater 6.6gm., c.80-50 BC. Sinuous horse right, small pellet rosette and larger pellets above. Pellet below, triquetra in front. Rev: Wreath motif with cloak and crescents. (ABC 2424; VA – ).  Good Very Fine. Extremely Rare.  £2500

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On this example, Christ is portrayed essentially as many would imagine today – bearded and with long, flowing hair.  He is shown raising his right hand in benediction, and holding the Book of Gospels in his left.  Behind him, the Christian Cross stands.

On the obverse of the coin, the emperor Constantine VIII is depicted wearing full and elaborate imperial regalia, and holding a cross-topped labarum.  

Constantine VIII (1025-1028)AV Histamenon 4.42gm., Constantinople. Bust of Christ facing, with cross nimbus, holding the book of gospels in left hand and raising right hand in benediction, +IhS XIS REX REGNANTIhM.Rev: Bust of Constantine VIII facing, wearing crown, collar piece and loros, and holding akakia in left hand and cross-topped labarum in his right, +CωnSTAnTIn bASILEuS ROM. (DOC 1; SB 1815).  Good Very Fine.           £1,150 

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Weighing roughly 4.6 grams, the solidus became a popular gold coin, struck en-masse across the empire, at mints from London to Antioch.  The solidus, and its 1/3 denomination, the tremissis, became the standard gold coinages for centuries to come.  The Byzantine Empire used the solidus as its primary gold coin until the 9th century, and the tremissis, popular in the West, became the model for coin series struck by the Merovingians in Gaul, and, eventually, the Saxon Gold Thrymsa or Shilling.  

We have seven solidi and one tremissis from the Late Roman and Byzantine periods, all surviving in at least extremely fine condition, and many with most of their original mint lustre surviving.

Constantius II (337-361) AV Solidus 4.6gm., Nicomedia 340-350. Diademed and draped bust of emperor facing right, FL IVL CONSTAN-TIVS PERP AVG. Rev: Helmeted Roma seated to left and Constantinople to right of shield inscribed VOT XX MVLT XXX, Constantinople resting on prow of ship, GLORIA – REI – PVBLICAE, SMNT in exergue. (RIC 33). Extremely Fine, some remaining lustre in protected areas of the field.         £4,100

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  Trajan was present during the disaster, and rushed to the relative safety of the city’s hippodrome, where he waited for several days.  This spectacular issue of AD 114-5, depicts Trajan (left) standing beneath a much larger Jupiter (left) whom holds his arm out, protecting the emperor.  The coin is likely to have been struck to celebrate divine intervention from Jupiter, who kept Trajan safe during the earthquake and tsunami which claimed the lives of so many civilians.

Trajan (98-117) AV Aureus 7.19gm., Rome 114/115. Laureate, cuirassed and draped bust right, IMP CAES NER TRAIANO OPTIMO AVG GER DAC.  Rev: Jupiter standing left, naked except for cloak draped from shoulders, holding sceptre in left hand, and thunderbolt in right, protecting Trajan, togate, standing to lower left, holding laurel branch in right hand,  P M TR P COS VI P P SPQR.  (RIC 336 var. (bust not cuirassed); Woytek 512f; Strack 229; Calicó 1065; BMCRE 533; BN 814-6 var. (pellets in rev. legend); Biaggi 515).  Extremely Fine, very high relief.                             £28,000

Ex NAC 2016; Ex Raunch 2010

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Early Greek coinage, which had its origins on the coast of Asia Minor, had been produced from the alloy electrum, but was abandoned by most city-states when silver became the preferred metal for the majority of coinage. Some city-states did however continue to produce coinage in electrum and the issues of Kyzikos are perhaps the most famous and spectacular of these.

Kyzikos was a rich trading city-state, due to its location between the Aegean and the Black Sea. Its coinage of electrum staters, a clear expression of its wealth, were produced between about 550-350 B.C. The coins always possess an impressive obverse type, the reverses bearing a quadripartite incuse square, and the flans are invariably thick and, at times, exist in a variety of shapes.

Mysia, Kyzikos. EL Stater 16.01gm., c.500-450 BC.  Naked male kneeling left, tunny fish in each hand. Rev:  Quatrapartite incuse square. (Von Fritze 70; Baston 1478) Very Fine.       £6,750

With the UK General Election looming, it’s an excellent opportunity to look back on democracy in history.  It might be a surprise that the Romans embraced a democracy of sorts.  It had restrictions, and only a small fraction of people living under Roman control could actually vote, but during the Roman Republic, citizens of Rome had the opportunity to cast their vote for various administrative positions in government.

From 509 BC, with the overthrow of the Roman Kingdom, Rome was ruled as a Republic. But it wasn’t until the 3^rd Century BC that the civilisation rose to become dominant power in the Mediterranean. The Senate was made up of the most powerful people in the Roman world, and oversaw military campaigns and political structure. Citizens could vote for officials in up to 44 public offices.  But public voting didn’t offer the people a chance for a true choice. 

Candidates for office were selected by the Senate, and were voted for by various different assemblies of citizens, stratified by social class. There were two candidates for each governmental position, such as Consuls, Quaestors, Censors and Tribunes, and voting was essentially a first-past-the-post system, one we still embrace in Britain today, during our General Elections. 

In the early years, candidates were actually banned from speaking or even appearing in public.The Senate claimed that candidates should be voted on the merit of their arguments and policies, rather than through rhetoric, public appearance and personality.

A remarkable coin depicts the Roman democratic process in action – possibly as a means of legitimising its ‘success’.  The silver denarius, struck by the moneyer Publius Licinius Nerva in around 113 BC, shows three figures.  The figure, on the left, is picking a ballot paper from the attendant standing in the centre, the man on the right is depositing his ballot into the cista (ballot box).  The detail is such that the ballots themselves are depicted by small pellets.  The coin is a textbook example of how the Roman democratic system was supposed to work.  It is popular with academics and collectors alike.

Unlike today, democracy in the Roman Republic was very much controlled by the select few who held seats in the Senate.  They essentially held all of the power, having been born into wealthy patriarchal families.  Most inhabitants of the Roman world were not allowed to vote, including women, slaves, and the lowest ranking Roman citizens.  It was a democracy of sorts, but a very loaded one. 

The Romans lost what little democracy they had, with the advent of the Roman Empire, and its first emperor, Augustus Caesar (27BC – 14AD). Augustus claimed voting was too rigged by the Senate. His solution? To abolish voting altogether.     

Finally, the brand new £1 coin is in circulation.  Whether you think it’s a twelve-sided, bimetallic monstrosity, or a curious breath of fresh air; it has certainly made an impact in the media and in our wallets.  With everybody talking about the new coin and its unique security features, the history of counterfeiting, particularly in Britain, came to mind.  For as long as there have been coins, there have been counterfeits.  They are a nightmare for the state, which throughout history has sought to punish those responsible for polluting their currency, but they continue to be the scourge of modern money.

The earliest coins, struck in modern day Turkey, were minted in precious electrum, a naturally occurring alloy of gold and silver.  As soon as they started to circulate, it only took a handful of cunning individuals to realise that if they were to create base-metal copies of the valuable coins, they could coat them in the precious metal, trade them, and end up far better off – as long as the recipient didn’t notice.  While early counterfeits are scarce (likely because the coins were strictly weighed) they show the eagerness of the individual to ‘do over’ their fellow citizen and make a quick buck.

As production of coinage exploded across the ancient world, so did counterfeits; most notably imitating the coinages of Attica.  Athenian ‘Owl’ Tetradrachms are perhaps the most famous coins of the ancient world and were some of the most faked.   To counter this, traders would often chop into the coins with a chisel, to check for silver throughout.  As a result, most tetradrachms of Athens suffer from these test cuts (often, heartbreakingly, struck straight through the portrait of Athena), which tend to devalue the coin.

But back to Britain.  Whilst rummaging through stock a few weeks ago, eight unusual objects emerged.  These small, round pieces of clay were imprinted with Roman coins from the 4th Century AD, and were used in the production of counterfeits.  Britain was part of the Roman Empire from AD 43 until around AD 410, and coins flowed to province, making them a prime target for counterfeiting. Iron Age Britons had a habit of faking their own gold ‘staters’, and forging would continue into the Roman period.

During the 1^st and 2^nd centuries AD, aside from large quantities of imitation copper asses of the emperor Claudius made immediately after the invasion of Britain (which are considered to have been struck for necessity rather than to deceive anyone), counterfeiting seems to have been relatively rare.  By the time of the Severan rulers and the 3^rd Century, however, large quantities of coin moulds begin to appear, as well as an increase in counterfeit coins – mainly higher value silver denominations.

Coin moulds are discs of fired clay, with coins pressed between them.  Once dry, the coins were removed, and when stacked, one on top of the other, formed a row of moulds.  These quick, simple and cheap coin moulds removed the need for time-consuming die-engraving, and allowed multiple coins to be cast at once.  After the molten base metal had cooled, the coins could be removed, dressed, coated in silver and spent, and the moulds perhaps reused.  This method seems to have been effective across the empire, with large quantities of coin moulds found in Switzerland, Rome, and Britain. With a denarius being roughly a day’s wage for a soldier during this period, it certainly made economic sense to counterfeit using such cheap and simple methods.

Thousands of coin moulds have been discovered in the South-West of England, specifically the Somerset Levels, where large numbers of Severan-dated moulds have been discovered in areas of salt production. Brunning suggests the flatness of the levels would have made the evidence of illegal counterfeiting easy to hide, with potential visitors visible for miles.  The Shapwick Hoard of 9262 Roman silver denarii, discovered in 1998, contained several cast and plated forgeries which are believed to have come from the same moulds found nearby.  Punishments for forgery in the ancient world were strict and this was likely a risky business, but one perhaps overlooked to an extent.  Hundreds of coin moulds have been discovered in the ditch around Roman London, the seat of provincial government, where it is hard to imagine forging being discrete.

By the late 3^rd Century, so called ‘barbarous’ coins were common in Britain.  These were often struck using engraved dies and were very crude.  It is thought these were produced, as the Claudian copies were 300 years earlier, as a response to a lack of money in the economy.  Thus, these are not considered ‘counterfeits’ as such.  With such poor craftsmanship, they are unlikely to have fooled anyone, and may actually have helped the economy of Roman Britain flourish in the fourth Century AD, a time when more Roman villas were thrown up than ever before.  Coin moulds, however, did see use in the early decades of the 4^th Century, as can be seen by the examples I’ve shown here.

In the present, coin moulds rarely emerge on the market.  This is probably because they are not made of metal, thus rarely found by metal detectorists.  They remain a fascinating insight into forging in the ancient world, and demonstrate just how easily it could be done.

This is merely scratching the surface of faking in Roman Britain.  Along with engraving, transfer dies and metal moulds, clay coin moulds were just another weapon in the ancient counterfeiter’s arsenal.  Today, it is thought that one in thirty £1 coins is counterfeit. Hopefully, the new coin will change this frightening statistic, but the counterfeiters will try their hardest.  The question is, will the cost of forging the new £1 coin, with all its advanced security features, make counterfeiting unprofitable?  We can hope, but only time will tell.

The 35th annual Token Congress was held this weekend at the Hilton Hotel in Northampton.

Delegates travelled from all over the world to contribute to a fantastic weekend celebrating all things token. Over 100 token enthusiasts attended this year’s event, engaging in three days of lectures, auctions, dealing, and beer….

Delegates gathering at the start of the three-day event….

The lectures were given on some fascinating token-related subjects, such as the Lusitania tokens by Goetz, and a wonderful ressurrection of the old 18th Century Sentimental Magazine and a study of the Regency Medals that were given away by the publication in the 1790’s.

Throughout the weekend, the passion and the dedication of the attendees shines through, especially when you consider the sheer volume of research that the speakers accumulate to engage their audience. Many of the talks were fascinating studies of singular items that uncovered reams of historical facts and figures, with histories traced back to origin and beyond (in some cases right to the other side of the world).

‘To celebrate the end of a life’: not as funereal as you might think, but rather Andrew Wager’s fascinating lecture on the historical significance of engraved coins and love tokens. Other highlights included Gary Oddie’s amazingly comprehensive research into a certain Gilbert Gilpin; and David Young’s study of Dorset Tickets and Passes, taking us on a beautiful tour of 18th Century Dorset (which is never a bad thing in any time period).

As well as the series of lectures, there is also a focus on the social side of token collecting. With all delegates obviously sharing a mutual interest, there is never a dull moment around the hotel, as people swap stories, research and plans.

There is also an auction held on the Friday evening, a magnificent gala dinner on the Saturday, and a bourse, where some of the most respected and foremost token specialists from around the globe have tables.

Deals, deals and more deals – some of the premier token dealers in the world display their wares….

As always, what stands out most from the weekend is the commaraderie of the delegates. Newcomers are welcomed with open arms and brought into a world that might seem at first glance to be extremely niche, but is as intellectually fascinating as any area of numismatics.

And this year, Baldwin’s were proud to sponsor the beer, which turned out to be a little bit too much for one delegate in particular…..

!!!!!

All token enthusiasts are welcome, and if you’re interested in attending next years event, to be held at the Hilton Hotel in Warwick 6th-8th October 2017. you can get more information on the Token Corresponding Society’s website: http://thetokensociety.org.uk/

Or you can email the organiser directly – contact Dave Smith on daveksmith@blueyonder.co.uk