A leaden aside....

Lead has been utilized for a variety of purposes throughout history; coins being an example of the more sedate usages.

Mainly, Lead has been used in human warfare as well as in everyday products in the recent past that have contributed to needlessly killing and poisoning many generations of humanity.

The examples provided below, span two millenia and are objects utilized in different kinds of warfare, the first from a battle in Spain c. BCE 45 and the second from the American Civil War 1861-1865.

Roman Glans, c. BCE 45, likely from the Battle of Munda

39 x 15 mm, 37.85 g (views of all sides)

American Civil War 1861-1865, dropped 58 caliber Minie ball likely Confederate manufacture (Georgia?), conical cavity. 22mm long, 12 mm wide, 6 mm deep cavity and 26.43 g., MM 380 type, TT 165v, weapon rifle musket. paper cartridge, muzzle load, percussion cap ignition.

before use:

after use:

previous flipped over. 26.27 g

HAWAI'I/Kalakaua I 1874-1891

AR 10 c (2.43 g) KM #3 (mintage: 250,000) 

O: KALAKAUA I KING OF HAWAII/1883, hd r.

R: UA MAU KE EA O KA AINA I KA PONO/ONE DIME/UMI KENETA, crown above denomination inside wreath.

Note: (from Wikipedia) "Ua Mau ke Ea o ka ʻĀina i ka Pono is a well-known Hawaiian phrase which was adopted as the motto of the state of Hawaii. It is commonly translated as "The life of the land is perpetuated in righteousness".

The motto is also utilized by the Hawaiian sovereignty movement having been the motto of the Kingdom of Hawaii before it's overthrow by American business interests in 1893. The motto appears to be the one constant connecting Hawaii past and present.

Nu'uanu Petroglyph of human figure and dog near Kapena Falls, Oahu, HI

A Hiker Found an Extremely Rare Gold Coin almost 2,000 Years Old

NOTE: not a gold "denarius" as the expert denotes, but an aureus, RCV 3338 (RIC 820, BMCRE 699) minted in Rome CE 107 and valued by Sear in 2002 in EF at $16,500

OCRE reference with photo,

The newly found example is much nicer than the example illustrated in OCRE that resides in the BM

France/ 17th Century Jeton

Louis XIV CE 1643-1715 (no date) minted in Lorraine

AE Jeton; 28mm, 6.56g, 6h.

F. 12542

O: LVD XIIII D G FR ET NAV REX, King on horse to left. 
R: HOC SYDERE + LILIA FLORENT, crowned coat of arms surrounded by double collar

ISLAMIC/Lu’lu’id/Badr ad-Din Lu’lu’ بدر الدين لؤلؤ CE 1233-1258

AE Fals, 26mm, 8.74gm, 8h, Al-Jazirah mint AH 649/CE 1251-1252 (mint and date not legible)

SS 70

Album 1875 (RR)

O: Kalima, name and titles of the 'Abbasid caliph al-Mustansir; in margin, mint and date formula.

R: kalima continued, name and titles of Lu'lu' 

ISLAMIC/Ghorid; Mu'izz ad-Din Muhammad b. Sam AH 567-602/CE 1171-1206

AR Dirham 29 mm, 4.57 g, Ghazna mint AH 597-599/CE 1200-1202

citing Ghiyath ad-Din, square in circle type, struck from 97-98% silver

Album 1771 (S)

Zeno.ru #164641 (this coin)

From NY TIMES 9 January 2016---‘Broken System’ Allows ISIS to Profit From Looted Antiquities

"SHUMEN, Bulgaria — Acting on a tip, the police raided four homes in eastern Bulgaria, looking for contraband that regularly traverses this country on the way to markets in Western Europe and America. In one rusting shed behind an apartment block here, they found a cache of looted antiquities: 19 classical statues and fragments of marble or limestone.

Among them was a square tablet depicting a procession. If genuine, its style would make it neither Roman nor Greek, like the rest, but even older, dating back nearly 5,000 years. Its appearance suggested it came from the ancient Sumerian city of Lagash, in what is today southern Iraq."

Follow the link below for the remainder of the article:

‘Broken System’ Allows ISIS to Profit From Looted Antiquities

ROME/Caracalla CE 198-217

AR Denarius , Rome mint, CE 212 , 3.65g 19mm

OBS: laureate bust right, ANTONINVS PIVS AVG BRIT

REV: Serapis wearing polos, raising hand and holding scepter.,

PM TRP XV COS III PP

VM 59/1(VB1), RIC 194

In CE 212, Caracalla issued his "Constitutio Antoniniana" granting Roman citizenship to all free inhabitants of the Roman Empire. Roman historian Cassius Dio (d. CE 235)  was a contemporary to the events of 212 and wrote in his history the following (78:9):

 Now this great admirer of Alexander, Antoninus, was fond of spending money upon the soldiers, great numbers of whom he kept in attendance upon him, alleging one excuse after another and one war after another; but he made it his business to strip, despoil, and grind down all the rest of mankind, and the senators by no means least. In the first place, there were the gold crowns that he was repeatedly demanding, on the constant pretext that he had conquered some enemy or other; and I am not referring, either, to the actual manufacture of the crowns — for what does that amount to? — but to the vast amount of money constantly being given  under that name by the cities for the customary "crowning", as it is called, of the emperors. Then there were the provisions that we were required to furnish in great quantities on all occasions, and this without receiving any remuneration and sometimes actually at additional cost to ourselves all of which supplies he either bestowed upon the soldiers or else peddled out; and there were the gifts which he demanded from the wealthy citizens and from the various communities; 4 and the taxes, but the new ones which he promulgated and the ten per cent tax that he instituted in place of the five per cent tax applying to the emancipation of slaves, to bequests, and to all legacies; for he abolished the right of succession and exemption from taxes which had been granted in such cases to those who were closely related to the deceased. This was the reason why he made all the people in his empire Roman citizens; nominally he was honouring them, but his real purpose was to increase his revenues by this means, inasmuch as aliens did not have to pay most of these taxes. But apart from all these burdens, we were also compelled to build at our own expense all sorts of houses for him whenever he set out from Rome, and costly lodgings in the middle of even the very shortest journeys; yet he not only never lived in them, but in some cases was not destined even to see them. Moreover, we constructed amphitheatres and race-courses wherever he spent the winter or expected to spend it, all without receiving any contribution from him; and they were all promptly demolished, the sole reason  for their being built in the first place being, apparently, that we might become impoverished. 

(http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/78*.html, accessed 01-08-16)

Mary Beard in her recent book "SPQR" seems to differ with the explanation of Dio's that it was for the purposes of taxation that the Constitutio was proclaimed and citizenship was extended to all. She writes that citizenship did not need to be extended in order for taxes to be increased. Nevertheless, the grant of citizenship to all of the free populace of the Empire was an extraordinary development and this coin is one of those that dates from that year.  On the other hand I like this piece because it mentions Britain as one of his titles and has a portrait that appears to have had a frozen grimace for 1,800 years as if he smelled some malodorous scent at the time of striking.  Perhaps he's smelling what became of his reputation despite his extention of citizenship to all. 

ISLAMIC/'Abbasid Governors of Tabaristan; ‘Umar ibn al-‘Ala عمر ابن العلاء CE 771-782

AR Hemidrachm, 24 mm, 2.15 g, 3h, Tabaristan mint PYE 129/AH 164/CE 780/1

Album 56

Malek 80

O: stylized bust of Khushro II, with Arabic inscription in front عمر, ("’Umar"), Pahlavi inscription to left "may his glory increase" and in margins "excellent" and "good".

R: Fire altar with two attendants Pahlavi date to left and mint name TPRWSTAN to right.

"Collecting Coins and the Conflict in Syria"

A version of the article published in the ANS magazine 2015:4, pp. 7-13 by 
Ute Wartenburg Kagan.

Interesting article with some constructive suggestions for getting answers to where your coins come from. 

Time for "don't ask/don't tell" in the collector/dealer relationship to end. 

Collecting Coins and the Conflict in Syria by Ute Wartenburg Kagan

Greece/Seleucid/Interregnum, posthumous issue of Antiochus IV, BCE 146/5

AR Drachm, 17 mm, 3.98 g, 12h, Antioch mint c. BCE 146/5

SC 1886c

HSC 745 (R1-2)

Mørkholm, NC 1960, 9

O: diad hd of Antiochus IV r.

R: BAΣIΛEΩΣ on right ANTIOXOY [E]ΠIΦANOYΣ in two lines on left, in ex. Θ

Apollo std l on omphalos, holding arrow, and grounded bow.

 

JUDEA/Herodian/Agrippa II אגריפס השני CE 49/50-94/95

מטבע של אגריפס המציג את דיוקנו של אספסיאנוס

AE 26 mm, 19.48 g, 12h, Caesarea Panias mint, Yr 29=CE 77/78

Hendin 6322 (2022) listed R

Meshorer 172

RPC II 2288
SNG VI: 285

O: AYTOK[------]ICAPI CEBATΩ (celator error missing “C” between A & T).

Laureate bust of Vespasian r.

R: ETOY KΘ BA/AΓPIΠΠA across fields in two lines. Tyche-Demeter stands l wearing kalathos, holding grain ears in r. hand and cornucopia in l. 

Ex: Patrick H.C. Tan Collection

Ex: CNG 363 portion of lot 550 (11/11/2015)

France; Coinage of Daniel Dupuis 1849-1899, 10 centimes

An example of the lovely bronze coinage of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century from France designed by the artist Daniel Dupuis (1849-1899).  

1917, 10 centimes, 10g/30mm, NMM, KM #843 (minted from 1898-1921)

mintage in 1917 was 11,914,000

O: Liberty head r

R: allegory of the Republic protecting her child.

                                        

(portrait of Dupuis c. 1881)

Wikipedia biography of Daniel Dupuis

ISLAMIC; Timurid Iran, Shah Rukh 1405-1447

AR Tanka, 4.94 g, 22 mm, 7h, Amol (Mazandaran) mint, ND

O: Shahada

R: Duriba/Amol in central circle surrounded by As-Sultan al-'azim Shah Rukh [----]

Great Britain; Hanover; George IV 1820-1830

AR Six Pence, 2.75 g, 19 mm, 6h. dated: 1825

S. 3814

BULGARIA; Second Empire; Ivan Alexander Иван Александър and Michael Asen Михаил Асен CE 1331-1355; Two Examples

AR Grosch, 1.12 g, 19 mm, 6h.

AR Grosch, 1.65 g, 20 mm, 6 h

Both can be described as follows:

O: figure of Jesus stg facing before seat, arms raised, IC XC and monograms across field.

R: Ivan and Michael stg facing each holding cruciform scepter and holding between them a staff topped with a banner. monograms across the field, stars flanking base of the staff.

CHINA/Tang Dynasty 唐朝 CE 618-907

Kai Yuan; 4 g, 24 mm, middle period c. CE 718-732

H. 14u

old label affixed by original collector with "traditional" Chinese character reading "Tang"

O: KAI/YUAN/TONG/BAO (the inaugural currency)

R: crescent above the hole.

Ex: Stephen Album who advised that this came from the "Chang Collection" that was collected between 1916 and 1930.

Greece/Seleucid; Cleopatra Thea & Antiochus VIII BCE 125-121

AE 19 mm, 7.61g, Antioch mint, dated SE 191=BCE 122/1

SC 2263.4b

O: Radiate, diademed hd of Antiochus VIII r., one diadem end waving behind the other falling forward over shoulder, dotted border.

R: ΒΑΣΙΛΙΣΣΗΣ ΚΛΕΟΠΑΤΡΑΣ in two lines on r. ΚΑΙ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΑΝΤΙΟΧΟΥ in three lines on l., owl standing facing on fallen amphora.

Date in ex on left, A۹ Ρ (SE 191), aphlaston in ex on right

Ex: Dan Clark Auction, April 1984 lot 237