Ancient silver coin
Do You happen to know how much in American dollars was paid for a small silver coin collection of the Roman Empire at Sotheby’s?
More than four thousand years ago people did not have the slightest idea about money. Their exchange of handicraft things for cattle, grain, fells was known as a barter. Later precious metals, mostly gold and silver, were accepted as the way of payment. They were expensive and therefore wholesales demanded just a small quantity of precious metals. It gave way to appearance of weight money - bullions and rings of heft.
The first silver coins appeared in Lydia, Asia Minor, in the 7th century B.C. The coin resembled small silver ill-shaped flat cake. But the main feature was the mark of the issuing city on the coin as the guarantee of its weight.
The first Greek silver drachma and obol were coined in the 7th century B.C. The early coins had no inscriptions on them, the imprint on one side and the name of the city on the other were added later.
The first silver mint was founded in Ancient Rome in the middle of 3rd century B.C. The main silver coin was denarius with a smaller coin - sestertius - being the fourth part of it. There was an image of a Roman god on one side of the coin, the other side had galloping hoarsemen on it. Later on Rome Emperors’ faces were minted on coins.
Ancient silver coins have great artistic as well as historic value. They are evidence of economic, political and cultural development of nations. Every ancient silver coin is a rarity. We cherish them by keeping in art and history museums and private collections.
Back to our question, the collection of Julius Caesar denarii cost about 800 United States dollars on May 27, 1999 in sales at Sotheby’s.
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Hi!
I wish one day I will have one of those in my collection. I am not into ancient coin yet. Nice story on this my friend.
See you around.