Greetings, everyone! Join us for the coin show with Skip and Avi first thing on Wednesday, September 2nd from midnight to 1:00am. We will have several coin jewelry items to showcase. And on the blog, ancient coin jewelry designer David Levine shares more fascinating information about the history behind the coins in his designs--some of which you'll see on the show tonight! David writes:
Here I am at the Ancient Roman Theatre in Aspendos (today
southern Turkey). Even though it was
built 1900 years ago it still stands
eight stories high and is used in the summers for magnificent concerts. It is considered one of the largest and best
preserved theaters of the ancient world.
What I like to say when I show someone a coin from a place
like this is, “Can you imagine that someone was sitting in these seats 1900
years ago with this coin, that you are holding, in their pocket?” Well for anyone to have had this coin in
their pocket, they would have had to be a coin collector since the coin below
was actually minted in this city 450 years before the theater was built.
At the time of the modern Olympics we all expect to see
advertisements for “official” Olympic Medallions (and some not so official)
honoring this year’s Olympic athletes. But did you ever think you would see
(or own) a coin that was minted by a city 2,350 years ago to honor their
Olympic athletes?
Wrestling was one of the main events at the ancient athletic
games, held every 4 years in Olympia. Though the prize for the winners was a
simple olive branch wreath, the Olympians of that time were honored much the
same way that our athletes are honored today.
The obverse of the coin features two naked wrestlers (all ancient
Olympic athletes competed naked). The reverse of the coin shows a slinger
getting ready to release his sling. Many
Greek cities of the ancient world chose as a symbol of their city some object
that sounded like the name of the city. In this case, Sphendone
is Greek for Sling and it sounds
like Aspendos.
Above you can see a building that existed at the time these
coins were minted. In fact, this was a public building and may have held the
public mint. It may not look very big here, but if you look carefully, you can
see me standing by the building (hint: look right above the second “s” in
Aspendos). That gives you a better idea
what a magnificent building this must have been.
The photo below gives you a good idea of the
size of this structure. It held 10,000 spectators and the elaborate wall on the
right was decorated with hundreds of stone sculptures. The acoustics are
unbelievable. When we went up to the acropolis above the theater we could hear
one woman singing from the stage to her friends and it was as if she had a complete sound
system. Actually, I thought it must be a choir practicing for a
concert when I heard the singing from 150 yards away. So I went over to the
edge of the theater to look down.
I know what you must be thinking, it doesn’t look that big
from here. Well, look closely. There are people down there. Each one of those
doors in the back wall is over two stories high. It’s a place I’ll never forget. If you're one of the lucky ones to be able to own jewelry featuring a coin from this era, I hope these photos have added to your appreciation of it.
To learn more about the most ancient of bronze coins, I take you to Maroneia in north-eastern Greece, almost on the Turkish border. The main reason I wanted to go to Maroneia was that I had
purchased a nice size group of bronze coins that were the oldest bronze coins
in the world and I wanted to visit the town where they were minted.
This was a very long and fascinating trip. We landed in
Athens and worked our way north through Greece, stopping in Corinth, on our way to ancient Macedonia to visit all the sights where
Alexander the Great grew up. (If you've been reading this blog, you have already seen some of the photos we took
there).
Maroneia was a thriving town 2400 years ago when this
amphitheater was used. The theater was small by ancient standards, seating
about 2500 people, but built in the typical form in the side of a hill looking
out to the sea. The problem was that the site was closed to visitors when we
got there. Did I travel all the way to the northern corner of Greece to find
the site closed???
Well fortunately I found a hole under the fence and I carefully slid under it being very careful not to damage any antiquities. Imagine my surprise when I discovered
that some of the seats were engraved with the names of the people who had
bought season tickets.
I later learned this was common practice in ancient
Greece and my favorite photos of ancient theaters are always the names cut into
the seats.
Now you can go to visit lots of museums in Greece and Turkey and
you might find a bronze coin in one or two of them that is as old as the coin
you are looking at, but you won’t find one that is older than this one.
Bunch of grapes from the reverse Prancing horse from the obverse
The obverse of the coin features a horse. This was a common
symbol on ancient coins because horses were such an important part of life at
that time. Horses were used for working in the fields, going into battle, and
for transportation. Horse racing was one of the ancient Olympic events.The reverse of the coin has the name of the
town around a square with grape leaves the center. Many of the first coins of
the world had a square on the reverse.
When I visited the museum there I found
these same symbols carved in stone decorations that had been in the town at the
same time these coins were minted.
Tune in or view us live online from midnight to 1:00am and see all of the beautiful and interesting offerings in coin jewelry on Jewelry Television and JTV.com.
