The One That Got Away: The Trials and Tribulations of Building an Ancient Coin Exhibit
Virtually every collector has experienced “the one that got away”.
This usually involves a coin from your Wish List that someone else snapped up. Sometimes because they saw it first and grabbed it before you could. Sometimes because they snuck in a last-second overbid at an online auction. And sometimes just because they were willing to pay more for the coin than you thought was reasonable or affordable.
But some of us have experienced the greater tragedy of having that Wish List coin IN HAND, only to have it slip away.
England on March 18, 978 after the murder of his half-brother
Edward, known as
Edward the Martyr. The
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle says of the murder of King Edward that “No worse deed than this was ever done by the English nation since they first sought the land of Britain.”
There is no evidence that Æthelred – who was about 12 years old at the time – had anything to do with the murder, but it was a miserable start to a miserable reign that lasted almost 38 miserable years. Æthelred’s reign is little more than a long litany of
Viking invasions.
After his death, Æthelred became known as “
The Coins That Killed Caesar
The year 45 BCE ended with
Gaius Julius Caesar being the most powerful man in the most powerful country in the world. He had defeated all of his enemies and rivals and had reconciled (or so he thought) any who still survived. The
Roman Senate had appointed him
Dictator three times–most recently in 46 BCE for a term of 10 years (under the Roman Republic, a Dictator was not supposed to hold power for more than six months)–and they had awarded him an unprecedented four triumphs for his military victories (he awarded himself a fifth for his victory over the conservative forces of
The Tetradrachms of Athens (and Athena)
Athena purchased the naming rights to the town now known as
Athens. Coins had not yet been invented so Athena could not pay cash for the naming rights, but she did have something valuable to offer instead: she gave the Athenians the olive tree, which has been associated with Athena and Athens ever since.
The Athenians struck their first coins circa 560 BCE. These are known today as
Wappenmünzen (“badge coins”), due to
Seltman’s (1924) theory – now rejected – that the designs on the coins represented the heraldic badges of important Athenians. Over the span of about 40 years, the Athenians minted several series of Wappenmünzen using 14 different designs. The first Athenian tetradrachms appeared around 515 BCE as part of the last series of Wappenmünzen, using the last of the 14 designs.