What I collect

More than a year since my last blog post - sorry, folks!

So, maybe time for a different style of post - what do we collect and why?   In the last few years, I've collected mainly Roman Republican coins, but I have plenty of other collecting areas.

One long-term interest is in ancient Greek coins of the Classical era - the coins of the city states, which bear the emblems of their cities - the owls of Athens, mentioned in an earlier post, turtles of Aegina, Pegasus on the coins of Corinth and so on.   The numismatic art of some of the late fifth/early fourth century BC Sicilian coins remains unequalled and I have been lucky enough to pick up a few fairly worn specimens.

Other collecting interests are more transitory, but just as rewarding - here's one.

In the summer of 2007, I spent a few days in Girona, in Spain's Catalunya region and while driving one day spotted a sign "Ruinas".   It turned out to be the remains of the Greek (and later Roman) town of Emporion - Empúries.

It was an idyllic summer day by the sea -

Asclepius statue, Emporion

Emporion ruins by the sea

Floor mosaic, Emporion

Forum, Emporion

As a coin collector, the obvious question for me was "Did Emporion mint coins?".   Indeed it did - the Greek city was a major trading centre and minted drachms and fractions, which were later copied by other Iberian cities in the area.   The on-site museum had some modern reproductions on sale, but I wanted something original and it took me about 3 years to get what I wanted :)

In 2009, at the Real Casa de la Moneda shop in Madrid Airport (I don't think the mint has a shop there any more), I found this modern €10 coin, part of a series "Joyas Numismaticas" which reuses ancient and mediaeval Spanish coin designs on modern commemorative coins.

Modern Spanish €10 coin reproducing drachm of Emporion

This coin reproduces a drachm of Emporion with the head of Arethusa on the obverse with three dolphins around and Pegasus on the reverse.   In common with many of the ancient drachms of Emporion, the head of Pegasus is formed by Chrysaor - in Greek mythology Chrysaor was the brother of Pegasus.

This was a start, but I wanted some ancient coins.   I contacted a Spanish dealer and, by chance, on his desk he had half a drachm:

Cut drachm of Emporion

This was a drachm of Emporion from sometime before 250 BC, but was obviously cut in ancient times to circulate as a half drachm.   I got this in July 2009.

Emporion Hemitrietartermorion

Next, in October 2009, on eBay from the same seller I got this fraction - a tiny 0.15g 7.5mm hemitritetartermorion.   This is quite a scarce little coin.

Emporion drachms and their contemporary copies are fairly common in Spanish auctions and finally in December 2010 I got one:

Emporion Drachm

This was struck from fairly worn dies (especially the reverse) and the reverse is somewhat off-centre, so there's room for improvement.

Books on ancient coins are a close second in interest to the coins themselves - to properly catalogue these, I bought Alvarez-Burgos - "La Moneda Hispánica, desde sus orígenes hasta el siglo V" and, recently, a Forni reprint of Alois Heiss's 1870 work "Description générale des monnaies antiques de l'Espagne".

So - a chance encounter with some ruins and a very pleasant day wandering through them has resulted in the purchase of four coins and two books.   Maybe someday I'll get a stunning drachm, but for now the 2010 purchase is OK.