Coinage played a central role in the history of the Athenian naval empire of the fifth century BC. It made possible the rise of the empire itself, which was financed through tribute in coinage collected annually from the empire's approximately 200 cities. The empire's downfall was brought about by the wealth in Persian coinage that financed its enemies. This book surveys and illustrates, with nearly 200 examples, the extraordinary variety of silver and gold coinages that were employed in the history of the period, minted by cities within the empire and by those cities and rulers that came into contact with it. It also examines how coins supplement the literary sources and even attest to developments in the monetary history of the period that would otherwise be unknown. This is an accessible introduction to both the history of the Athenian empire and to the use of coins as evidence.

Coin collectors and enthusiasts have long been familiar with the story of two boys who unearthed a fortune in gold coins while playing in a Baltimore basement in 1934. But the rest of the story trailed off to a few odd details. One of the boys died young, the other ran into trouble with the law. No one seemed to know more.

A lifelong coin collector, Leonard Augsburger was determined to uncover the rest of the story. What happened to the kids? The gold? Who buried it in the first place?

Meticulously researched, "Treasure in the Cellar" delves into the lives of the boys and their families, recreates the hours at the police station after the boys reported what they found, and describes months of courtroom drama as descendents of several former property owners came forward, each claiming the fortune for themselves.

This is a price-guide reference book containing up-to-date values, and lots of historical information on all campaign medals and related items awarded to British and their colonial and local allies from 1793 to 1902. Every significant campaign is covered, including details of the various clasps awarded. The images of medals and maps are full colour, and are often full page sized.

This comprehensive catalogue, which has been worked on by the authors over several years, covers all known Sikh Copper, Silver and Gold Mohurs, including much unpublished material, with photographs of each; coins of the Cis-Sutlej States, with photographs of all Sikh states (Patiala, Nabha, Khaital) plus additional details on MalerKotla; medals issued to Sikhs from the 1840s to 1947; and Sikh Temple Tokens, Medallions and Commemorative Coins issued since the 1800s. It is the most up-to-date and authoritative book on the subject, and an essential addition to the library of any collector interested in this fascinating area of coinage.

Julia Augusta examines the socio-political impact of coin images of Augustus's wife, Livia, within the broader context of her image in other visual media and reveals the detailed visual language that was developed for the promotion of Livia as the predominant female in the Roman imperial family. The book provides the most comprehensive examination of all extant coins of Livia to date, and provides one of the first studies on the images on Roman coins as gender-infused designs, which created a visual dialogue regarding Livia's power and gender-roles in relation to those of male members of the imperial family. While the appearance of Roman women on coins was not entirely revolutionary, having roughly coincided with the introduction of images of powerful Roman statesmen to coins in the late 40s BCE, the degree to which Livia came to be commemorated on coins in the provinces and in Rome was unprecedented. This volume provides unique insights into the impact of these representations of Livia, both on coins and in other visual media. Julia Augusta: Images of Rome's First Empress on the Coins of the Roman Empire will be of great interest to students of women and imperial imagery in the Roman Empire, as well as the importance of visual representation and Roman imperial ideology.

This publication may be of especial interest for American readers in that, perhaps for the first time, the complex power and political relationships existing in Central Europe at the beginning of the early modern period, which led to the emergence of the dollar, are clearly explained.?It goes on to explain the relationships that existed between the different thaler currencies that were involved in the development of the European currency systems right up to modern times and explains the reasons why the term "dollar" was used in the late 18th Century, at the time of the founding of the United States of America.This book offers a very specific perspective on the common historical roots of the contemporary Euro-American civilization and contains significant new information not only for historians concerned with economic and political history, but that is also of importance for numismatists and collectors.?The text is illustrated by 84 color photographs of coins and paper currency.

This study of the Visigothic kingdom's monetary system in southern Gaul and Hispania from the fifth century through the Muslim invasion of Spain fills a major gap in the scholarship of late antiquity. Examining all aspects of the making of currency, it sets minting in relation to questions of state, monarchical power, administration and apparatus, motives for money production, and economy. In the context of the later Roman Empire and its successor states in the West, the minting and currency of the Visigoths reveal shared patterns as well as originality. The analysis brings both economic life and the needs of the state into sharper focus, with significant implications for the study of an essential element in daily life and government. This study combines an appreciation for the surprising level of sophistication in the Visigothic minting system with an accessible approach to a subject which can seem complex and abstruse.

Originally published in 1950, this book provides an account of the relationship between important 'anniversary years' and the creation of Roman Imperial coins and medallions. The anniversaries are connected to occurrences such as 'the births and deaths of Augustus and other leading persons; the various events that contributed to the inauguration of the imperial regime (Actium, the 'restoration of the republic', etc); and the foundation or dedication of temples and altars'. The text was written by the renowned British classicist and numismatist Michael Grant (1914-2004). Numerous illustrative figures are included and detailed notes are incorporated throughout. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in numismatics and Roman history.

The Roman monetary system was highly complex. It involved official Roman coins in both silver and bronze, which some provinces produced while others imported them from mints in Rome and elsewhere, as well as, in the East, a range of civic coinages. This is a comprehensive study of the workings of the system in the Eastern provinces from the Augustan period to the third century AD, when the Roman Empire suffered a monetary and economic crisis. The Eastern provinces exemplify the full complexity of the system, but comparisons are made with evidence from the Western provinces as well as with appropriate case studies from other historical times and places. The book will be essential for all Roman historians and numismatists and of interest to a broader range of historians of economics and finance.

Examines the styles and contexts of portrait statues produced during one of the most dynamic eras of Western art, the early Hellenistic age. Often seen as the beginning of the Western tradition in portraiture, this historical period is here subjected to a rigorous interdisciplinary analysis. Using a variety of methodologies from a wide range of fields - anthropology, numismatics, epigraphy, archaeology, history, and literary criticism - an international team of experts investigates the problems of origins, patronage, setting, and meanings that have consistently marked this fascinating body of ancient material culture.

This groundbreaking study of coinage in early medieval England is the first to take account of the very significant additions to the corpus of southern English coins discovered in recent years and to situate this evidence within the wider historical context of Anglo-Saxon England and its continental neighbours. Its nine chapters integrate historical and numismatic research to explore who made early medieval coinage, who used it and why. The currency emerges as a significant resource accessible across society and, through analysis of its production, circulation and use, the author shows that control over coinage could be a major asset. This control was guided as much by ideology as by economics and embraced several levels of power, from kings down to individual craftsmen. Thematic in approach, this innovative book offers an engaging, wide-ranging account of Anglo-Saxon coinage as a unique and revealing gauge for the interaction of society, economy and government.

A key figure in the history of Benares (Varanasi), James Prinsep (1799 1840) was instrumental in expanding Western knowledge of Indian civilisation. After briefly studying under Pugin, he became an assay master in Calcutta in 1819, and soon moved to Benares. His talents were many, and within a few years he had completed a detailed map of the city, designed a new mint, engineered a system to improve sanitation and begun studying the inscriptions and coins that helped him to decipher two ancient scripts and to establish the dates of Indian dynasties. Collected in 1858 and edited by the numismatist Edward Thomas (1813 86), these essays are generously illustrated, often in Prinsep's hand, and display the enormous breadth of his knowledge. Volume 1 includes a short biography by his brother, along with articles on coins, relics and archaeological discoveries.

A key figure in the history of Benares (Varanasi), James Prinsep (1799 1840) was instrumental in expanding Western knowledge of Indian civilisation. After briefly studying under Pugin, he became an assay master in Calcutta in 1819, and soon moved to Benares. His talents were many, and within a few years he had completed a detailed map of the city, designed a new mint, engineered a system to improve sanitation and begun studying the inscriptions and coins that helped him to decipher two ancient scripts and to establish the dates of Indian dynasties. Collected in 1858 and edited by the numismatist Edward Thomas (1813 86), these essays are generously illustrated, often in Prinsep's hand, and display the enormous breadth of his knowledge. Volume 2 includes essays on coins and philology, with the extensive tables and lists of historical weights and measures, and explanations of Indian chronology.

For an august and important institution of the realm, whose activities concern every citizen so constantly and continuously, is it not surprising how little every citizen knows of the London Mint in detail? In this 1953 book its story up until the 1950s is told with unimpeachable authority by Sir John Craig, former Deputy Master and Comptroller of the Royal Mint and Engraver of the King's Seals. Any reader may follow the chronology of the Mint, from the many crude workshops of the early days to the central, nationally recognised organisation with statutory safeguards that it has become. Here they may read of those who influenced the growth and policy of the Mint, watch the development of monetary theory, as well as the changes in technical processes of coin making, and the gradual evolution of statutory control. The whole work is illustrated from the archives of the Mint.

The first two chapters provide a resume of how the coinage of the central Roman state changed, developed and stumbled. In Britain most coins in museums and collections come from hoards (coins deposited in a group) or from coins found singly during excavation or walking over fields. These two classes are very different and are examined separately. The author then looks at how coins were used in Roman Britain, and finally explains the differences between Britain and the rest of the Roman Empire. Despite the need for quantitative as well as well as qualitative analysis, Richard Reece has - for the benefit of those who are understandably put off by reams of statistics - banished all numbers and numerical methods to a single short Appendix. The result is a book sparkling with Dr Reece's characteristically incisive insights that can be appreciated by anyone interested in Britain's past.

Henry T. Prinsep (1792-1878) was the son of a prominent East India Company servant, and like his father, Prinsep also spent much of his life in the East. He left Britain for Calcutta in 1809, at the age of seventeen, and stayed in India, working in a variety of roles, until his retirement in 1843. His brother James also lived in India and was a prominent scholar. Upon the latter's death in 1840, Prinsep found himself in possession of his brother's coin collection and a notebook, which became the basis of this work, published in 1844. Prinsep explains that the coins - which have inscriptions in both Greek and unknown languages - are valuable evidence of Alexander the Great's famous expedition to the east in the fourth century BCE. Prinsep also includes extensive illustrations of the coins, offering a fascinating view of an important archaeological discovery.

This volume of Medieval European Coinage deals with the coinage of south Italy, Sicily and Sardinia between the mid-tenth century, when Part I ended, and the reign of Ferdinand the Catholic, on the threshold of the modern era. It thus covers very different coinages of the immediate pre-Norman period and those of the Norman, Hohenstaufen, Angevin and Aragonese dynasties, which in turn ruled part or the whole of the Mezzogiorno. The complex background to the history of this region makes its coinages among the most interesting of medieval Europe. They have rarely been studied together or in a single volume, and the work, which makes extensive use of written evidence and coin finds, will take its place as the standard work of reference for the foreseeable future.

In October 2015, metal detectorist James Mather discovered an important Viking hoard near Watlington in South Oxfordshire. The hoard dates from the end of the 870s, a key moment in the struggle between Anglo-Saxons and Vikings for control of southern England. The Watlington hoard is a significant new source of information on that struggle, throwing new light not only on the conflict between Anglo-Saxon and Viking, but also on the changing relationship between the two great Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of Mercia and Wessex. This was to lead to the formation of a single united kingdom of England only a few years later. The hoard contains a mixture of Anglo-Saxon coins and Viking silver, and is in many ways a typical Viking hoard. However, its significance comes from the fact that it contains so many examples of previously rare coins belonging to Alfred the Great, king of Wessex (871-99) and his less well-known contemporary Ceolwulf II of Mercia (874-c.879). These coins provide a clearer understanding of the relationship between Alfred and Ceolwulf, and perhaps also of how the once great kingdom of Mercia came to be absorbed into the emerging kingdom of England by Alfred and his successors. A major fundraising campaign is being planned by the Ashmolean to secure this collection for the museum.

Coins are one of the most abundant sources for our study of the past, yet their value as historical evidence is relatively neglected because of a general lack of knowledge of numismatic techniques. This volume of essays, offered by a circle of friends, colleagues and pupils working in Britain, Europe and North America, is intended to pay tribute to Philip Grierson's unique contribution to the study of numismatic method. A medievalist by training, through his wide-ranging interests in coins and coinage Grierson has commanded the respect of historians and numismatists of all periods for the originality and good sense of his prolific scholarship. More than any other living scholar, he has been responsible for making available an understanding of numismatic expertise to specialist and non-specialist audiences.

Examines the styles and contexts of portrait statues produced during one of the most dynamic eras of Western art, the early Hellenistic age. Often seen as the beginning of the Western tradition in portraiture, this historical period is here subjected to a rigorous interdisciplinary analysis. Using a variety of methodologies from a wide range of fields - anthropology, numismatics, epigraphy, archaeology, history, and literary criticism - an international team of experts investigates the problems of origins, patronage, setting, and meanings that have consistently marked this fascinating body of ancient material culture.

This, the first volume of Medieval European Coinage, surveys the coinage of Western Europe from the fall of the Roman Empire in the West in the fifth century to the emergence of recognizable 'national' political units in the tenth. It starts with the Vandals, Visigoths, Burgundians and other Germanic invaders of the Empire, whose coins were modelled on contemporary issues of the Western or Eastern emperors. The coinage of the Franks is followed from early Merovingian times through to the establishment and subsequent fragmentation of the Carolingian empire. Italy is represented by the coinages of the Ostrogoths, Lombards, Carolingians and popes down to the Ottoman conquest in the mid-tenth century. The coinage of the Anglo-Saxons is traced from the introduction of minting in the early seventh century to the emergence of a united kingdom during the first half of the tenth century, including the aberrant coinages of Northumbria and the Anglo-Viking coinages of the Danelaw.