March 2005
Next club meeting Monday 24th April 2005.
Meetings are held at the Abbey Baptist Church ,Abbey Square, commencing at 7.00 p.m.
March meeting.
Last month the visiting speaker Mr John Roberts- Lewis delivered a talk on the medallions of the SS Great Britain. In addition the talk also covered much detail on the ship itself and the people responsible for the construction and operation.
At the beginning the speaker explained the majority of medallions followed the same style, a picture of the ship on one side and salient statistics on the other.
The SS Great Britain was the first steam driven iron ship in the world. She weighed in at 1500 tons ( huge for the times) and was 322 feet in length. She was also the first ship to be powered by a screw propeller driven by triangular configured steam engines of 1000 HP.
Following the launch in 1843 by the Prince Consort and some sea trials, the ship went on to have quite a chequered career. She was originally built for the transatlantic crossing, part of Brunel's vision that with the Great Western Railway there was a direct link between London and America. However, passenger numbers were disappointing, partly due to an ill informed prophet of doom who procrastinated that a ship of such length would break its back. Then in 1848 the ship ran aground and so did the owners. However, this was just at the time of the Australian gold rush and following a refit and modification the new owners had her on the Australia run. The ship subsequently made many trips to the antipodes, bringing back gold dust on the return journey until the Sydney mint was set up. In between trips she was on military duty and carried soldiers to the Crimea and Bombay (mutiny). Her final owners used her for carrying coal to San Francisco. On one such trip she floundered in the Falklands where after serving as a floating hold she was finally abandoned.
As a major historical relic she was rescued by a team of engineers, thanks to substantial backing from a financier, and bought back home to the dock in which she was originally built. Ironically, her re-entry into Bristol was delayed because the dock was due to be demolished to create a new tourist attraction. Thankfully sense prevailed and Bristol dock is now a thriving tourist attraction with the great ship as the star. For those who have not seen her, the restoration completed so far is little short of miraculous.
With regard to the medallions Mr Robert-Lewis first spoke about two small tokens, possibly used as entry passes for visiting the ship when in dock during in the mid 1840's. The larger of the two was probably for adults and the smaller for children. The next medallions displayed and discussed were two commemoratives, one for the trip to the Thames and the other for voyage undertaken by Victoria and Albert. As said before the style of the medallions followed the same pattern with a picture of the ship on one side and statistics on the other. The speaker also covered the `return to England' commemoratives issued by the Royal Mint and Texaco.
During the talk Mr Robert-Lewis also spoke about the chief engineer, the great I K Brunel and members of the construction committee, including one Mr Guppy, a descendant of the issuer of Bristol tokens,
Our thanks go to Mr Robert-Lewis for an unusual talk
Spring social
The Spring Social will be a skittles evening at the Red Lion pub, Theale on Saturday 9th April. We intend to start gathering around 7pm for an 8pm kick off.
The price is £12 per head (£24 per couple) including a buffet. Will those members wishing to attend please ensure they sign up and pay the monies to the treasurer or another committee member at the April meeting.
Speakers
We still need suggestions for next years speaker programme. What are you interested in? Please let us, the committee, know at the next meeting. Remember you all have a contribution to make towards the successful running of your club.
Future Events.
Rather thin next month.
Past Events
The evening 30 years ago was devoted to a members evening and club coin fair.
In 1985 Mr. Matthews from the ALdershot Medal and Military Society gave a talk on researching stories for the medals on display.
Ten years later our own Michael Broome gave a well illustrated talk on Maria Theresa Thalers, a rerun of a talk first delivered 20 years earlier.
Numismatic Interlude
Continuing the theme to republish articles from the past here is the next offering.
Meeting held on 7th October, 1968.
THE COINAGE OF KNOSSOS AND THE MINOTAUR LEGEND SPEAKER - MR. P. A . CLAYTON
Crete is a beautiful island rich in legends and it is one legend,that of Theseus and the Minotaur, that leads to Knossos and its coinage of a later date. Crete, situated at the sea-crossroads of three continents, European Greece, North Africa and Asia, was obviously in a position to pick up elements from all these spheres in her culture. Yet her history was one of isolated interests , each city- divided from each other by mountains being supremely independent even striking their own coins. Little is known of the early history of the Crete cities although the city of Knossos was known to have struck coins.
The legend briefly describes how Theseus with the assistance of Ariadne, the daughter of King Minos, slew the Minotaur, a bull-headed monster, by entering the famous labyrinth, the hiding place of the monster. The main elements of the legend, its location at Knossos in Crete and the Labyrinth, are what concern us in examining the coinage of Knossos . Firstly, however, it is necessary to stress the difficulty of the arrangement of the coins in chronological order owing to the strange and variant styles that are found on Cretan coinage as a whole. It is possible to see three stages at times of the one type. But some indication of sequence is given by the Cretan habit of overstriking their types on coins of other parts of the Greek world: Thus the coins may be allocated to six main periods:-
|
I |
circa 500-431BC |
III |
circa 300-200 BC |
V |
circa 67-29 BC |
|
II |
circa 431-300 BC |
IV |
circa 200-67 BC |
VI |
Imperial Coinage |
To come to the examination of the coins of Knossos we find that very, few coins are known from Period I. The essential elements of the legend, the Minotauxr and the labyrinth, appear on the obverse and reverse of a silver stater. The remaining two characters of the legend, King Minos and probably Ariadne, appear on the obverse and reverse of a unique stater of c 350 BC in the Berlin museum.
The head of Demeter, or possibly her daughter Persephone, occurs frequently in period II as the obverse type. The Labyrinth appears as the reverse type of the meander/swastika variety. A very barbarous variety of this stater exists alongside it, similarly in silver, but Demeter (or Persephone) is virtually unrecognisable. Sometimes a counter mark is found on these pieces such as the Egyptian "ankh" sign.
Towards the middle of the 4th century some very nice pieces occur still with the Demeter/Persephone obverse but the Minotaur reappears on the reverse with a meander Labyrinth pattern. Another reverse type shows a bearded figure seated left, holding a patera in his extended right hand and leaning on a tall sceptre - Minos or Zeus?
Bronze coins were now becoming increasingly popular but their style and execution varies considerably. The head of Apollo is a very popular obverse type. The reverse is sometimes a female head, Zeus with the beginning of the name Knossos, or such devices as a star. On one bronze coin the Labyrinth appears on both the obverse and reverse. Some very fine silver staters were struck c 350 - 300 BC with the bust of the goddess Hera on the obverse shown wearing a stephonos (an upright band encircling the head) with floral ornaments, ear-rings and a necklace. The reverse shows a square Labyrinth and the name of Knossos. The appearance of Hera on the coins of Knossos is explained by the legend that it was near the city that her marriage to Zeus took place. The silver drachms of the period show both the heads of Hera and Apollo as obverse types! There is the usual Labyrinth reverse except for one coin with the obverse head of Apollo and on the reverse is shown a young male figure seated left on a Labyrinth. This most likely would be identified as Theseus. The bronze coins are rather 'poor and carry the heads of Hera, Apollo or Carneius as obverse types with a square Labyrinth as reverse.
Numismatic evidence exists that in 220 BC the people of Knossos and Gortyna concluded an alliance together. There are bronze coins of Knossos with obverse distinctive types of the Square Labyrinth with reverses, the equally distinctive types of Gortyna - Europa seated on a bull. There can be little doubt that these coins commemorate this alliance.
In 196 or 166 BC (opinions vary) a new denomination appears in the Greek world and later is copied at certain Cretan cities; particularly at Knossos - the New Style Silver Attic tetradrachm. The obverse bears the head of Pallas Athene right and the reverse has the familiar owl on an amphora all within a laurel wreath; but there is an addition to the right of the owl, a square Labyrinth and the name of Knossos. Between about 116 and 67 BC when Crete fell to the Romans two very fine Attic tetradrachms of the spread variety are known. One variety has the head of Apollo facing left and the word POLCHOS in Greek characters, which may be a magistrate's name or possibly an epithet of Apollo, POLIOUCHOS: The other tetradrachm has a bearded male head right, Zeus or possibly Minos, as the obverse and a square labyrinth on the reverse. A silver drachm of the same period has obverse a bust of Zeus Ammon facing left and a square Labyrinth on the reverse.
It is to the late second century BC that the large bronze coins of Knossos belong. Invariably they have a bearded head of Zeus or Minos, as the obverse and the square Labyrinth reverse: Magistrates'names often occur particularly on these coins with an eagle with spread wings an a thunderbolt as the reverse type. The smaller bronze issues show the head of Artemis on the obverse with a quiver with strap and a magistrate's name on the reverse. One exception has a reverse type of a winged caduceus and the name of Knossos.
In 67 BC Rome conquered Crete and a bronze coin that may be associated with this period has the head of Zeus on the obverse with the Square Labyrinth reverse, but below the Labyrinth is an elephant's head. This is the device of Q. Caecillus Metallus and the coin must have been struck between 67-66 BC when Metallus was busy reorganising the island as a Roman province. As a Roman Colonia Knossos issued the typical bronze colonial type with a plough on the obverse but she still retained her distinctive Labyrinth on the reverse. Marc Antony and Augustus issued bronze coins at Knossos with the names of the Duumviri. Antony appears as the senior with his head on the obverse and a crude Labyrinth behind it; Augustus bareheaded is the reverse type. Augustus then struck alone with his bare head right and a rather more respectable square Labyrinth on the reverse with the names of Duumviri. One last "Labyrinth" coin was issued at Knossos, an unpublished bronze with the bare head of Augustus left and a caduceus behind it and a circular Labyrinth on the reverse.
Imperial coins were issued from Crete but the numismatic record of the past glories of Minoan Knossos and its Labyrinth, albeit only vaguely remembered, had faded quietly away.