History written,
not just minted
Collector guides, emperor profiles, coin histories, and everything you need to go deeper into the ancient world.
Why don’t Roman coins have dates? Most Roman imperial coins do not show a calendar year because Roman dating relied on consuls, imperial reigns, and changing...
What does FEL TEMP REPARATIO mean? The famous Late Roman coin legend is conventionally translated as “the restoration of happy times” or “happy times restore...
What was a moneyer in ancient Rome? Roman Republican moneyers, the tresviri monetales, were junior magistrates connected with coin production whose names oft...
Explore the silver staters, or nomoi, of Tarentum: the horseman, Taras riding a dolphin, the city's Spartan foundation, its equestrian and maritime identity,...
Metapontum made an ear of barley its civic signature for centuries. Learn why this Greek city of southern Italy chose the grain emblem, how its famous incuse...
Kroton placed Apollo’s sacred tripod on its silver staters for more than two centuries. Learn how the city’s incuse coinage worked, why the tripod symbolized...
Julius Caesar’s portrait denarii of 44 BC changed Roman political imagery. Learn how Buca, Mettius, Sepullius Macer, and Cossutius Maridianus portrayed Caesa...
What do Roman coin reverse types mean? The reverse of a Roman coin can identify gods and personifications, celebrate victories, advertise imperial virtues, c...
Where were Roman coins minted? Rome operated a network of imperial mints from Londinium and Trier to Antioch, Alexandria, and Constantinople. Learn what a mi...
What do IMP, AVG, TR P, COS, and DN mean on Roman coins? Roman coin legends compress imperial titles, offices, honors, and military victories into abbreviati...
Lucius Verus ruled beside Marcus Aurelius from AD 161 to 169 and oversaw Rome's major eastern war against Parthia. Learn about the capture of Ctesiphon, the ...
Before Alexander the Great conquered Persia, his father Philip II transformed Macedonia into the dominant power of Greece and issued one of antiquity's most ...
Alexander the Great tetradrachms pair Herakles in a lion skin with Zeus seated holding an eagle and scepter. Learn how to distinguish lifetime and posthumous...
What is a Leontini tetradrachm? This celebrated silver coin of Classical Sicily pairs Apollo with a roaring lion, barley grains, and the civic name of Leonti...
The Katane tetradrachms of late fifth-century Sicily are masterpieces of ancient Greek coin art. Explore the facing head of Apollo, dynamic quadriga, signatu...
A hemidrachm was an ancient Greek silver coin worth half a drachm, or three obols under the Attic standard. Learn its typical weight, where hemidrachms were ...
A diobol was an ancient Greek coin worth two obols, or one-third of a drachm under the Attic standard. Learn its typical silver weight, where diobols circula...
A dekadrachm was a high-value ancient Greek denomination worth ten drachms. Under the Attic standard, examples are typically around 42 to 43 grams of silver,...
The Syracuse dekadrachms of Kimon and Euainetos rank among the most celebrated works of ancient coin art. Learn their connection to Classical Syracuse, the a...
The Pantikapaion gold stater, struck around 340–325 BC in the Bosporan Kingdom, is famous for its dramatic three-quarter-facing head usually identified as Pa...
The Akragas dekadrachm is one of Classical Sicily’s most elaborate silver coins, combining a racing quadriga, civic crab, eagle and serpent, and two eagles o...
The Naxos tetradrachm, generally dated to around 460 BC, pairs a mature ivy-crowned Dionysos with the vividly observed crouching Silenos. Explore Naxos in Gr...
What is a Roman follis? A collector’s guide to the large silvered bronze coin introduced in Diocletian’s reforms around AD 294—its size, silvering, GENIO POP...
What is a Roman dupondius? Worth two asses, the dupondius was usually struck in yellow orichalcum and often shows a radiate imperial portrait. Learn how it f...
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