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I am a Greek-American and have been a numismatist for 53 years. My oldest coin is a beautifully struck and well preserved Athenian Owl Tetradrachm issued sometime between 490-404 BC. It is certified Ch. AU in a NGC holder. I just acquired it in 2023. This acquisition fulfilled a long standing desire to buy a nice specimen when I was able to afford a very high quality example. It is the star of my collection.

@whybob1930

4 ай бұрын

Aren't coins illegal in Greece?

Thank you for your video. Regarding 4:29, the gold content in Electrum from ancient Lydia varied considerably. Eventually the Gold Parting Process was invented which could separate Gold & Silver from Electrum and enabled Gold coins and Silver coins to be minted separately. The Electrum separation process was known as Salt Cementation whereby Electrum was combined with salt, urine and brick dust (or pulverized pottery shards), sealed in a crucible and heated. Pure Gold would remain in the crucible along with Silver Chloride which would later be purified into Silver. To convert Silver Chloride into Silver, mix the Silver Chloride into an aqueous solution with some Lye and then some Sugar. Then pure silver powder will precipitate to the bottom of the container. Thereafter melt the silver powder into bullion. Silver coins could then be minted from silver bullion.

Nice, I am getting a Miletos hekte soon, with the striated obverse symbolizing the river the electrum was found in. Very interesting and great video! :D

Your videos have really guided my entry into numismatics, thank you!

@ClassicalNumismatics

2 жыл бұрын

Awesome! I hope to keep helping beginner numismatists

I like to imagine the bumpy surface is to add grip. They’re so small and smooth they must have been dropping them all the time!

It’s amazing that these have survived to the modern day. Really a great piece of history!

@ClassicalNumismatics

2 жыл бұрын

Over two and a half Millenia, its breathtaking!

Thank you for this upload

Excellent video Leo. I am convinced that the very first coins were privately minted; in which case it must have been the jewellers the very first to mint coins. They had the knowledge, technology (precision scales) and the interest to produce them; later the State (king, city, etc.) took over the invention, just as it happened with paper-money.

@ClassicalNumismatics

2 жыл бұрын

This is a very solid argument I can actually see myself getting behind of. The coins of Phanes, the privately minted silver bent bars from India, all of these very early apparently private endeavours on coinage make a very strong case.

@Numischannel

2 жыл бұрын

@@ClassicalNumismatics Indeed and if you look at the very early electrum coins, there are too many different types, probably representing the personal badges of the issuer; it's very unlikely that at such an early stage of developement there were so many cities coining electrum coins. Most likely all those very early coins were minted all in Lydia by private entrepreneurs.

Very interesting! I am actually surprised why older civilizations didnt get to invent coinage sooner, such as the egyptians.

@aristosancients3685

2 жыл бұрын

Egypt had a top down economy centered on cereal production

Love your series!

Cool topic! Thanks for sharing :)

@ClassicalNumismatics

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks for watching!

Your videos are some of the best ! Appreciate you sharing your knowledge with us 🤜🏻🤛🏼 Cheers!

@ClassicalNumismatics

2 жыл бұрын

Keep tuned, there is more to come. Cheers!

1:20 hystorian: you are the worst mesopotamian copper merchant that i hear of Ea Sparrow Nasir: but you still heard of me

@ClassicalNumismatics

9 ай бұрын

"There is no such thing as bad publicity"

It’s incredible how these coins chronicle our history as a species

@ClassicalNumismatics

2 жыл бұрын

Coins are as "human" as the individual who put his art on the coin die.

My oldest coin is a trajan denarius, been thinking of splurging and buying an Athenian owl tetradrachm to take the new oldest coin spot.

ty Im a master student at preserving material heritage and this helps a lot in my work where I study ancient coins, i searched for phenician coins and this was on the top of the list and its a great background info

Incredibly well structured and rich information. A very good video that deserves attention.

@ClassicalNumismatics

Жыл бұрын

Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it

Nice! My oldest coin is a 1923 peace dollar. It’s worn almost smooth. My Dad told me his uncle would always carry a “pocket silver”. No way for me varify it’s the same one his uncle had. Idea: 💡Can you do a YT post about this old tradition of a “pocket silver”? It might be interesting. Thanks. ✌🏻❤️🇺🇸🥈

@Raycheetah

2 жыл бұрын

You can still get "cull" (in a condition which disqualifies them for numismatic grading, such as having been cleaned) Peace Dollars quite affordably. A most beautiful coin! =^[.]^=

My oldest piece is an Olbian dolphin cica 500BC. I have some Celtic "ring money", but the date is unknown and can be widley varied and whether it is proto money at all is still being debated.

Very interesting video. My oldest coins are my Athenian Owl, my Alexander III Lifetime Issue Tet and my Lysimachos Tet, in that order.

My earliest coin is a Lydian silver lion/bull piece. I don't know if it is a Stater or a division thereof. I don't know either if it is Lydian or early Persian, but I watched your "detect fakes" video and believe it is genuine. Thank you for this video. I already knew what you said in it, but you expressed it very clearly and very well.

Great coin, very cool Kanye. My oldest (and only) coin is a bronze AS of Domitian and I got it because of your videos so thank you very much x keep the vids coming!

@ClassicalNumismatics

2 жыл бұрын

Awesome to know Im helping people start out their ancients collections!

I wish there were more of these and they were cheaper. My oldest is probably a Carradice Type 3 Persian Siglos. Or a fractional piece from Miletos with a lion and an incuse. With coins that old there is a lot of overlap making it hard to say which is older.

1:40 Just imagine that one dumbass customer leaves a bad review on your business and after 3700 years people still can see it.

@ClassicalNumismatics

5 ай бұрын

Loool!

The initial coins like this hecte are described as "typeless" (blanks) with a complex or simple punch incuse on the reverse. Then later likely came the "striated" type coin, which Joe Linzalone (wrote 'ELECTRUM and The Invention of Coinage') reports as the first true coins with an obverse type. The pebble or pelleted trite is presented in vol 1 page 240 #78 of M. Mitchiner's book 'Ancient Trade and Early Coinage' (for reference).

Told In Stone made me sub here or I don’t get my barley ration. Subbed

@ClassicalNumismatics

2 жыл бұрын

He's the best! Your supply of subsidised grain is guaranteed!

Oldest? An Olbian (Greek) bronze Dolphin, 5th-4th Century BCE. Also, I never realized what the "punch" mark on the Lydian issues was for; in fact, it serves the same function as Chinese "chop" marks, used by merchants accepting coins to verify their legitimacy (very important in a culture rife with counterfeits of everything of value). =^[.]^=

@ClassicalNumismatics

2 жыл бұрын

Indeed! The Persian Siglos and Daric, which were based on the early Lydian staters, often show tons of chopmarks and bankers marks as evidence they circulated quite a lot around the middle east and the eastern mediterranean.

I just bought myself a blank 1/12th stater from Ionia!!!!! Definitely the oldest coin I own now in my collection. What a piece of history. ❤

@ClassicalNumismatics

4 ай бұрын

Lovely! I want to add a silver Croesid to my collection, the first western silver coins

👍

The oldest coins I have are romans and some coins from Afghanistan of the greeks after Alexander the Great death. I have to study the later ones to see to who they belonged (different kings) and try to date them (I bought them when I worked in India).

My oldest coin is a bronze piece from the area of Phalanna in Thessaly - mid 4th century BC.

Damn imagine being so bad at PR that you still get called out almost 4000 years later! Great video once again! :P My oldest one is a silver diobol from Macedonia around 5th century BC!

@ClassicalNumismatics

2 жыл бұрын

He kept his complaint letters all tucked away in one of his rooms, I actually think the man enjoyed it!

My oldest coin is a 4th Century BC Gorgon Hemidrachm from Mysia (Parium)

My oldest (if a "coin") would be a Chinese Warring States arrowhead from as early as 476 BC (through to 221 BC). I've seen comments that these were used as "money" but do you know if there are any references to back that up please? (EG my main Chinese reference - Cast Chinese Coins by David Hartill mentions cowrie shells and ant-nose money, then knife and spade money - no mention of arrowheads used in trade)

Great Video no coins but a WW1Bronze 1918 Death Placque that has an image of Britannia and the name of my great Uncle Albert Redmile. Cheers

My earliest coin (probably) is an Indian punchmarked bent bar weighing 11.3gr and I also have the fraction 1/8 of 1.4gr. Indus Civilisation, ca 500 BC. Fascinating proto-coins and little-known in the west!

My oldest is an Amorican stater from around 80 BC

My oldest coin is an Obol from Miletus, late 6th-5th Centuries BC

@ClassicalNumismatics

2 жыл бұрын

So is mine! The little Lion with a star on the reverse, right?

@mrsmith8578

2 жыл бұрын

@@ClassicalNumismatics Yes! It's a nice coin

Oldest coin is a silver drachm of Alexander the Great

My oldest was minted in the Late 6th or Early 5th Century BC

@ClassicalNumismatics

2 жыл бұрын

Great!

Question so would people come to the state with there nuggets and ask them to convert it to standardized gold nugget or were they issued somehow?

@ClassicalNumismatics

Ай бұрын

Correct! You could bring foreign money, or bullion in bars, go to the local mint, pay a small fee, and get your precious metal coined.

My oldest coin is a buffalo nickel. The date has been worn off, so I assume it's somewhere between 1913 to 1938.

How does one differentiate under whom Croesied Staters were stuck under? Croesus vs Cyrus II? Thanks to anyone who can educate.

@luisrodriguez6005

Жыл бұрын

My understanding is that Coesus coins were essentially all about the lion and lion/bull staters and fractions including down t the 1/48th (possibly 1/96th). Cyrus the Great changed coinage to the daric stater showing the warrior king primarily.

The oldest piece in my collection is an 1896 (P) BU Morgan dollar

This is a coin that I have in my collection, unfortunately it cost a lot.

My oldest is an Aegina silver Turtle Stater 5th century BC

@ClassicalNumismatics

2 жыл бұрын

The Aegina turtle is one of the most iconic pieces of Greek numismatics. Congratulations, you owe an absolute gem of a coin!

@siisjwj7647

Жыл бұрын

👑👑👑👑 gem

I believed china probably had coins well before us in the western and Middle East

Fuh oldest coin only about the reign of hadrian

Prussian Coin from 1893

I think china had gold silver copper coins

@ClassicalNumismatics

10 ай бұрын

China had coins of all of these metals, but for most of its history it had predominantly copper/bronze coins. Some of the earliest designs are serious contenders for the title of "oldest coin"

@rogersheddy6414

9 ай бұрын

​@ClassicalNumismatics If you read the book The Immobile Empire, you will see that the Chinese culture has been very big on copying things from other cultures. Although they did originate quite a few things.... I'm kind of guessing they might have been copying the coins, too.... 😅

I have a Taras, mintend in Taranto. I think 2 sec. b.C. Moreover, the coin was surely a fake of the time.

@Rom.Aug-476d.c.

5 ай бұрын

È un nomos "fourrèe" 😊 È comunque interessante, ha un valore storico...

gulp

I still have my first 3 and four quarters. I tried to spend them on a soda but they came back!

I only have one coin but its from around 210 BC

@ClassicalNumismatics

Жыл бұрын

Thats still pretty darn old. Which one is it?

What about the early Indian punch-marked coins? I believe they are contenders as well.

@ClassicalNumismatics

8 ай бұрын

As well as the Chinese cowry shell bronze immitations and "spade money". Its an interesting topic I'll discuss in a future video

Yo mama so old this was her allowance

I need to show you some amazing coinage

😢 to sad 😞!

@saeedgulaid1395

Жыл бұрын

❤

State or Monarchy? Monarch's Army backed standard with violence

@ClassicalNumismatics

9 ай бұрын

A monarchy is nothing but a type of State. All states are backed by violence. The only real difference is that some are more explicit than others.

Will you contact me

@NoahJJCoolClips

Жыл бұрын

no

I'm a helper so my first payment was 3 and 4 coins after I asked how I did you couldn't figure out what gender I was cuz I technically have both I'm a male so I get paid more because it's hard to re-stitch The phallic. Four coins from the first civilization that I was a part of plus interest means I'm at least 10 mil a day that's being really really generous pay up. Psychic escort service. I also do rent a friend something totally different I just sit there and look pretty watch TV movies TV shows basically everything a friend should do if you don't have any.