October 7th 2013
Next club meeting Monday 4th November 2013.
Meetings are held
at the Abbey Baptist Church, Abbey Square, commencing at 7.00 p.m.
NOTICES
- CHRISTMAS MEAL will be held at the Shire Horse in Maidenhead (as last year) on 30th
November at 19:00. The cost will be £25 to include three courses and wine
on the table. Menu attached. Please let me know at the November meeting if
you are able to attend plus ones definitely
welcome!
- Please continue thinking about Short Talks for
January, and Auction lots for March!
October Talk
Tony Holmes scheduled talk of The Knights of
Malta had already been presented to the club recently, and as such Tony kindly
gave another of his talked entitled Remarkable Inscriptions.
Tony opened his talk with a selection of ancient coins including a Roman
coin which has the inscription Rome is Eternal the old adage was
that Rome would last 1000 years, but towards the end of that period, the
populace became slightly uneasy, and hence the word Eternal was issued on the
coinage to ease the minds!
We also saw a Parthian Drachm where the legend changes very little
through the years, but the central archer is used to distinguish types; a
Cilician Armenian coin celebrating the coronation of Levon
I the image here shows the king being crowned with a Byzantine crown which
was sent by the Emperor Alexios III who hope to
retain some of his influence over the Armenian territory; and finally a fal of Queen Rusudan af Georgia, who modestly described herself as The Queen
of Kings and Queens, Glory of Kingdom and Religion!
Moving into the Middle Ages, we were shown a
Sicilian coin of Ferdinand I whose legend read I have contended for a
legitimate coronation being a bastard he had sought and been granted
Papal approval for his right of succession. Next was a coin of Philip the Fair
of Burgundy whos legend read Money of the
Archduke of Burgundy and Count of Flanders just two of the many titles
that he held!
Moving to the Far East, we were shown two Cash coins one Chinese, the
other Korean. The Chinese coin carries the inscription Valuable coin of
Brilliant Reason. This may sound rather odd, except that Brilliant Reason
was the Emperors Throne name it was forbidden to speak his real name. The
Korean coin was struck by the military training camps central government
could not afford to pay departmental staff and as such the departments struck
their own coinage. This coin carried a single character legend, being the 15th
letter of the Korean alphabet this correlated with it being struck in mint
number 15!
Finally, there as a sole English coin a groat
of Mary I carrying the inscription Veritas
Temporis Filia or
Truth, the Daughter of Time her personal motto.
Below is a bit more detail on some of the Roman coins shown, supplied to
me by Peter Hall.
One coin mentioned in the
talk had a reverse FEL TEMP REPARATIO. Sometimes
translated as the good times are back,
these coins are very common in Britain and generally inexpensive. Conceived as
a return to billon and base metal issue, the larger coin
included a small amount of silver and the half and third were copper/
base metal.
Bearing
in mind the legend, the most common reverse for the larger coins is a Roman
soldier (possible the emperor) about to spear a fallen barbarian horseman. The
small coin is a phoenix standing on a pyre. A dozen mints around the ancient
world issued the coins for emperors Constans, Constantius II and Magnentius,
and Caesars Gallus and Julian II. Interestingly, although mints were tightly
controlled, regional aspects were included in the field and in the costume/ hat
of the barbarian.
Billion coin with base metal half and third
However,
a large number of the billon coins were melted for their silver and cast as
copies. These copies are also very common in Britain.
Other
reverses include depictions of the emperor dragging a barbarian from his hut
beneath a tree and victory (the emperor) standing on a prow.
Despite the variety of
reverses the spearing barbarian (right) remained the most popular
Club
Secretary.