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Author Topic: Plausible explanation for the controversial Sponsian coin.  (Read 947 times)

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Offline gallienus1

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Plausible explanation for the controversial Sponsian coin.
« on: December 31, 2022, 06:44:00 pm »
The British ancient historian Guy De La Bedoyere has a plausible explanation for the gold Sponsian coin found with two other gold coins of similar style. They are ancient Indian copies of Roman coin types that made their way back to Europe.

His video is here-

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISdm8Prx2gU


Offline Molinari

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Re: Plausible explanation for the controversial Sponsian coin.
« Reply #1 on: December 31, 2022, 06:58:52 pm »
I think Rasiel Suarez suggested something similar early on. 

Offline Dominic T

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Re: Plausible explanation for the controversial Sponsian coin.
« Reply #2 on: January 01, 2023, 08:26:29 am »
On another forum, there was a discussion about the possibility that the coins could be ukrainians gold imitations. Dirk Faltin showed interesting specimens from the online corpus.
DT
http://barbarous-imitations.narod.ru/index/346_365/0-409

Offline gallienus1

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Re: Plausible explanation for the controversial Sponsian coin.
« Reply #3 on: January 03, 2023, 06:28:28 am »
Thanks Molinari and Dominic T

I must confess I had no knowledge of ancient Ukrainians making gold imitations of Roman coins, let alone how extensive they appear to be. It seems to stand to reason
that the Bosporan Kingdom, which is well known to have very important ties to Rome, might have needed imitations of the Roman coinage. I imagine as coins from the imperial mints failed to make it through to the Kingdom due to attacks from Goths and Alans from the 3rd cent AD onward, something recognizable as a reliable gold coin might be needed to keep some form of trade going.

Consider the example below from the site from the link Dominic T posted.






Offline gallienus1

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Re: Plausible explanation for the controversial Sponsian coin.
« Reply #4 on: January 19, 2023, 07:33:37 pm »

Guy De La Bedoyere has another YouTube on Sponsian. This time pointing out that the gold coin may have been found in a very large hoard of indeterminate date described by John Evelyn in his Numismata of 1697. The belief at the time was that the coins were possibly a few hundred years old, but probably not ancient.

See-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMGYcDOmxDw


Offline Molinari

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Re: Plausible explanation for the controversial Sponsian coin.
« Reply #5 on: January 19, 2023, 08:16:42 pm »
I received a proposal for Koinon that will address the argument concerning the encrustations, which to my mind is the crux of the matter. 

Offline quadrans

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Re: Plausible explanation for the controversial Sponsian coin.
« Reply #6 on: January 22, 2023, 02:27:58 pm »
On another forum, there was a discussion about the possibility that the coins could be ukrainians gold imitations. Dirk Faltin showed interesting specimens from the online corpus.
DT
http://barbarous-imitations.narod.ru/index/346_365/0-409

Hi all,

This type of coins as the web-page shows sometimes so called Not “Ukranians”
but “Scytians” or “Sarmatians” origin …

but they where found in this region and also some East European region …
All the Best :), Joe
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