The presentation went off last week - 2 classes Thursday and 2 Friday. It was a challenge as far as putting something meaningful in 1 class period (Thursday classes were 90 minutes; Friday was early release and the classes were 60 minutes). I tried highlighting different things I find interesting in hopes of creating future collectors. The first class was a little non responsive. The teacher said being first period they usually didn't interact well. We made one change after that class which I think
enhanced the presentation. As I talked about some aspect we passed that coin(s) around as opposed to waiting until the speech was over before allowing them to hold the coins. For me it was very fulfilling even if I don't really know that much.
I started out with how the coins were made stressing dies hand made and hammering done by hand resulting in all
ancient coins are unique in their own way (centering, wear of die, non perfect circular coins, etc.) CNG's current
auction had some
counterfeit dies up for sale so we looked at some of those. We passed around two antoninianii of
Phillip I having the same reference. I pointed out differences in serifs, the different lengths of the ribbon behind
his head, the placement of the
scales held by
Aequitas on the rev relative to the
inscription, and the
die axis of the coins 1 being 12 and the other 6. We compared these to 2 US quarters.
I showed a very generalized diagram of the different
types on ancients.
Then passed around a series of
Alexander the Great coins (
Hercules /
Zeus) of Tetradram, drachma, hemidrachma,
obol, and a couple bronzes of different sizes. This was followed some
Mysia Kyzikos fraction ARs. I
had 5 different
denominations all with
boar and tunny
fish on
obverse and lion on the
reverse (a
diobol down to a tetartemorion). The purpose was to show that
diameter didn't necessarily match
denomination but
weight was what mattered (there were a couple wide and thin vs smaller
diameter and thicker coins). I passed around 6 different
AEs from
Pantikapaion all with different reverses, more for fun than anything else. To justify these coins I just pointed out the inscriptions were similar to today's texting.
The next
part of the presentation was showing how to distinguish various coins: Staters from Anaktorion &
Corinth, Drachmas from
Ephesus & Arados, an
Athens tetradram vs an Arabian copy.
I moved on to
Roman coins. The first thing I showed was the different
denominations of the Republic and the significance of the
Roman numerals and the number of pellets to identify value. I quickly pointed out distinctions between
biga,
triga, &
quadriga (no coins passed around here). We then showed the different creatures pulling chariots (I didn't have every creature to pass around but did pass examples of what I did have available).
Domitian served as the example of how precise some coins can be dated (I
had a dozen different
inscription to pass around). From there I talked a little about the devaluation of
Roman coins and pointed out differences between: an as and a
dupondius; a
denarius and an
antoninianus to include both male and female obverses and the progression of how the silver eventually became a bronze coin. They got to see several coins of Gallienus's zoo. I explained about the
Nemausus coins of
France and why they depicted
Egyptian events and the breaking of coins for change.
This is a Catholic school so I would be slacking in my duties if I didn't end the presentation with coins mentioned in the Bible after which the teacher allowed them to get up and view the entire display which also included a few reference books.
I would like to thank those who provided suggestions for this presentation.
