Next club meeting Monday 3rd June 2019.

·       Subject -  Annual General Meeting and Display Competition

Monday 1st July 2019.

 

The club's AGM and Annual display Competition for the Michael Broome Cup is the meeting where the officer's report the status of the club and the membership voice their concerns/ideas. It is also the time where the club committee is elected for the forthcoming year. It is also time to renew your membership.

 

As last year, with this newsletter is a single Committee Report with contributions from all the officers and the financial balance sheet (appended at the end of this newsletter). We will not be repeating the content verbatim at the meeting. After the formalities, the agenda points that the Committee requires membership feedback will be discussed. Then there will be the opportunity for members to raise any issues, so please take time to read the report and gather your thoughts prior to the meeting. The election of officers will follow.

 

If you are willing to stand for election to the Committee please contact the chairman (tel 01276 65663) or the secretary at the number at the top of this newsletter.

 

The second part of the evening will be devoted to the annual display competition, with the winner being awarded the Michael Broome Memorial Trophy for 1 year. Please bear in mind that all the displays should be treated respectfully, these are members own pieces and all should be handled carefully. The competition is open to all members and can cover any topic connected to numismatics. So to all members, please have a go and enter a display.

 

Because the formalities of the AGM now take very little time, there WILL be some time available at the end of the meeting for dealing but ONLY AFTER the Display Competition has finished. Dealers can put their coins out but should COVER THEM till the competition has completed. Note that Displays have priority over the use of tables.

 

Meetings are held at the Abbey Baptist Church, Abbey Square, commencing at 7.00 p.m.

 

May Meeting

This was a talk by Richard Noble entitled AD 69 (The Romans). Richard’s talk spanned just 28 years but, in that time, seven Roman Emperors died:- two suicides, three assassinations, one from fever and one from ‘old age’. We are fortunate to have both literary sources and coin evidence to allow us to piece together the power struggles that led to five of the deaths.

 

The last of the Julio-Claudians, Nero had ruled from AD54 but in AD68 his extravagance and vanity alienated him from most provincial governors and the army, leading to a rebellion by Vindex in Gaul. Although this was put down, his praetorian guard deserted him and, in despair, he committed suicide. In the uncertainty, Galba, the experienced governor of Terraconensis (Spain), had been elevated to Emperor by his legion in June AD68. The Senate agreed and he went to Rome.

 

Galba found the State coffers almost empty and introduced strict controls over the economy; this was very unpopular with the praetorian guard and when the Legions of Lower Germany proclaimed Vitellius as Augustus, the Praetorian Prefect, Otho, organised a conspiracy and Galba was assassinated in the Forum in January AD69.

 

Otho was supportive of Vitellius and hope to succeed him, but when it became clear that Vitellius intended to appoint his general Calpurnius Piso as successor, he proclaimed himself Emperor, executing Piso. Otho’s rule lasted 100 days - until he was defeated in battle by Vitellius’ Legions in Northern Italy and committed suicide.

 

Vitellius was a glutton and enjoyed a lavish lifestyle. He had a reputation for borrowing money and executing his creditors. However, at the time of Galba’s murder, Vespasian, who was an experienced general (he had commanded the Second Legion during the invasion of Britain back in AD43, and was now quelling the Jewish uprising) was proclaimed Emperor by the Legions in Alexandra in July AD69 and made his way, via the Balkans, to Rome. Vitellius was defeated at the Battle of Cremona and Vespasian reached Rome in AD70.

 

He immediately set about repairing the damage caused by the civil wars and was regarded as a fair and industrious ruler until his death in June AD79. In this time, he rebuilt the Temple of Jupiter, which had been burned down during the rioting, and started the construction of the Coliseum in Rome (the Flavian amphitheatre). He was succeeded by his eldest son Titus, who ruled well until his early death from a fever in AD81.

 

His younger son, Domitian, had been kept out of public affairs by Vespasian. In his early days he had shown promise. However, he became very unpopular with the Senatorial nobility and this led to numerous plots and conspiracies. Domitian, who was suspicious by nature, reacted with a reign of terror, which led in AD96 to his assassination by a palace plot involving, among others, the Praetorian Prefect and his wife, Domitia.

 

Overall, the fighting was done by some of the 30 Legions (about 150,000 soldiers) created by Augustus. Outside Rome, the Empire’s population of about 5 million was largely unaffected. Domitian was succeeded by the veteran Nerva and the Empire was then ruled by a series of gifted men – Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius until AD180.

 

Future Events.

·         London Coin Fair at Holiday Inn, Bloomsbury 1st June

·         Midland Coin Fair – National Motorcycle Museum 9th June

 

Past Events

·         10 years ago David Powell spoke on The Evolution of the English Coinage from the End of the Civil War

·         20 years ago in May 1999 Alistair McKay ran the Numismatic Brains Trust

·         40 years ago was a Member’s Evening and coin fair

Club Secretary.