to mark the Royal Jubilee here are some Royal Medallions courtesy of Charles 

www.charlesriley.co.uk

 

special announcement for April 1st 

Archaeologists have discovered a hoard of countermarks which are not with the coins. This is unusual as countermarks are usually on coins. It is believed that these were either trial strikes, the ancient countermarker could not obtain host coins to stamp, or simply the person missed the coin when stamping.

 

In ancient times coins were sometimes countermarked for use by Legions or to refer to a new emperor. In these cases where only the countermark is left and not the coin – probably the ancient coin maker ran out of coins.

 

 

 

The theme this month was travelling mints. (Not travel sweets)

An army on the march would need vast quantities of coin and the technology for minting coins was quite portable. Roman armies may have had mobile mints. Some coins are common in some areas where there was campaigning for example this coin featuring Britannia.

Roman Denarius issued by T. Carisius (46BCE) showing the moneyer's die, anvil, hammer and tongs

By Classical Numismatic Group, Inc. http://www.cngcoins.com, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=524450

 

This bronze as (top coin) , dated to AD 155, was common in Britain but rare in other parts of the Roman Empire. It may well have formed part of a special shipment of coin to the island or produced at a travelling mint.

© The Trustees of the British Museum

Happy New Year  

The theme for the meeting was “one of a kind” which refers to the things in your collection which do not fit with anything. These could coins you got to begin a new series of collecting or simply you saw something interesting or unusual.

These are some random coins and medallions which were acquired for the interest 

Obscure collecting themes :-

Card counter (chevalier or esquire),

Birmingham Cathedral bazaar 6d. 1920s

Israeli telephone token

Oxford balloon token

Sheffield coal check

Souvenir of bombardment of Scarborough 1914 

Centenary of Bournemouth 1910