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Ancient Coins Are What I Collect

by Michael E. Marotta, 4 Jun 1994

Like most libertarians, I have always held on to some silver and gold in preference to other forms of saving. After a while, one Kennedy half looks pretty much like the next. Just two years ago, my daughter worked as a page at a state coin show. Dropping her off and picking her up, I walked around the bourse room. It was all very nice and all, with American 19th Century Liberties being far lovelier than most others . . . until I sat down to a tray of ancients.

Today, I have a Whitman for Mercuries that lacks only the 1916-D to be complete. Many of the entries have been upgraded to Fine and above. I have some Hard Times Tokens, 19th century world bronzes featuring Liberty, political silver bars, phone cards, Barber Dimes, and a lot more of this and that. However, my formal answer to what I collect is: Ancients. Greeks. Archaic to Hellenistic, from 650 to 38 BC: From the rise of Croesus to the fall of Cleopatra. Here is what I have and why:

Miletus; 1/12 stater; 6thC; SGCV 3532(var); SNG vonA 2080
1.1 grams; ex: Wolf; VF/VF; BMC14.185,14(var); $50
Obv: Lion head right. Rev: Ornate star.

Thales (640-550).

Father of geometry and philosophy. Monopolized olive presses with forward contract to prove the value in philosophy. Thales is credited with five geometric proofs. He showed that a straight line has 180 degrees. He proved that when two lines intersect, the vertical angles are equal. It is said that he sacrificed an ox when he realized how to prove that the angles subtended by the diameter of a circle at any point on the circumference is a right angle. Perhaps he predicted a solar eclipse in 585.

Anaximander (611-545).

Wrote a treatise on the gnomon. Did not find need for a unique causal element; embraced the infinite as the ultimate.

Klazomenai; diobol; late 6th; SGCV 3503
1.1 grams; ex: Marx; Fine; SNG vonA 1983,84,85; $85
Obv: Forehalf of winged boar right. Rev: Incuse sqaure with K.

Anaxagoras (500-428).

The last of the Ionians. Invited to Athens by Pericles, he was exiled for teaching that the sun is a hot stone, larger than the Peloponnesus and very far away. Posited Mind (nous) as the primal cause. Died in Lampsacus.

Akragas; didrachma; 510-472; SGCV 709; SNG Oxford
8.28 grams; ex: Roseblum; aXF; SNG Cambridge; $199
Obv: Eagle standing, wings closed. Rev: Crab's left claw raised.

Empedocles (490-430).

Suggested Fire-Air-Water-Earth combined by Love and Hate into compounds. Regarded as a healer and seer. Ardent democrat. Verse on flow of blood (frag 100 ex Aristotle) shows that he experimented with the klypshydra to prove that Air has substance.

Abdera; obol; 500-480; SGCV 1342; May 57
0.48 grams; ex: Davis; Fine; Seltman XVI,12(s); $75
Obv: Griffin left, right claw raised. Rev: M-shaped incuse.
(Obol for Asiatic drachma; 3/4 obol for Attic drachma)

Demokritos (460-370).

Posited that matter is composed of atoms.

Samos; diobol; 470-460; SGCV 4631; Barron XVI 15b
0.87 grams; ex: Philips; Fine; SNG vonA 8025; $75
Obv: Panther head left. Rev: Ram's head right; SA; olive.

Aristarchos (310-250).

Measured the distances to the sun and moon at the lunar first quarter. According to Archimedes in The Sand Reckoner, Aristarchos put the Sun at the center of the universe with the planets around it, the moon orbiting Earth, and the stars fixed in an encompassing sphere.

Syracuse; obol; 474-450; SGCV 929; Alfoeldi 136
0.65 grams; ex: Clark; Fine; $65
Obv: Artemis/Arethusa right; hair tied up; necklace. Rev: octopus or cuttlefish with 7 arms.
(Usually cataloged as a litra [Sear Freeman Winter 1994: A 42], the earlier date and octopus speak for the tag "obol.")

Archimedes (287-212).

Perhaps the greatest mind of the Hellenic world. Proved countless theorems about spheres and cylinders. Taught at Alexandria. Never placed much value in his mechanical inventions. Discovered how to assay alloys by specific gravity. Grave marked with cylinder and sphere rediscovered by Cicero and then lost again.

Athens; tetradrachma; 430-420; SGCV 2526;
17.12 grams; ex: Bakker; gVF; Athent. Sear 70EC/GC/CR/CN; $495
Obv: Athena right in crested helmet with three olive leaves; earring and pearl necklace. Rev: Owl, moon, olive sprig; AOE.

Athens

was a mecca for Hippocrates of Chios and Hippocrates of Cos, Anaximander, Aristotle, et. al, and home to Socrates, Meton, et al. Attic Greek was the basis for the Koine spoken throughout the Eukumenion. Athens typified the best and worst of Hellenism.

Alexandria; tetradrachma; 254; SGCV 7773(var)
13.50 grams; ex: Bakker; gF/F(crk); SNG Cambr. 1196(var); $125
Obv: Ptolemy I right. Rev: Eagle standing left on bolt; OLEMAIOY SOTE; Club of Herakles; TYP mintmark left of eagle; /\B year mark above star right of eagle; M-like monogram under eagle.

Alexandria's Library

drew the greatest minds of the Hellenic age. Archimedes, Euclid, and Eratosthenes, were mathematicians. We believe that we know how to speak ancient Greek because the librarian Aristophanes of Byzantion invented diacritical marks. New works at the Library peaked under Ptolemy III before 200. When Gaius Julius Caesar visited Cleopatra VII, the Library held at least 500,000 volumes and perhaps 1 million.

Cyrene; AE 23; c.250; SGCV 6363; BMC 10
10 grams; ex: Kern; VF/F+; AncNumisAfriq 108/109; $85
Obv: Zeus Ammon. Rev: Silphium; K-O/I-N/O-N.

Eratosthenes (275-194).

Traveled to Athens. Invited in 235 by Ptolemais III Euergetes to be the Librarian. He measured the circumference of the Earth by comparing shadows on the first day of Summer and coined the word "philology". His improved map of the world placed Alexandria and Rhodes on the Prime Meridian.

Rhodos/Paraia; hemidrachma; c. 250; SGCV 5090
2.11 grams; ex: Rath; aF/aF; SNG von A 2864/65/66; $48
Obv: Helios front; eagle right cheek. Rev: Rose; grape; monograms.

Hipparchus (160-???).

Measured the precession of the equinox in 129. Also computed the elements of orbit for the Sun and Moon.

Rhodes served as an intellectual focal point, rivaling Alexandria and Pergamon. From the time it threw off interventions and well after its commercial and political decline in Roman times, Rhodes was host to the finest thinkers in many fields. The Antikythera Computer is attributed to Geminos of Rhodes at c75 BC.

Michael E. Marotta

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