A treasure-hunter could be in line for a small fortune after unearthing two rare coins that shed light on a little-known rebel Roman emperor.

Derrick Fretwell’s finds, which date back to AD286 and the reign of Carausius, have been hailed “priceless” by experts at the British Museum. Mr Fretwell, 57, was digging in a field near Ashbourne, Derbys, when he uncovered the coins, which are at least 90 per cent gold.

The machinery sales manager said yesterday: “I’ll be intrigued to find out what they are worth, although to me their worth is their rarity value.”

The discovery of these two gold coins sheds light on a little known ‘British’ Emperor.

Gold coins of Carausius are extremely rare, until now only 23 being in existence. The last example found was in 1975 in Hampshire and it is quite possible that we will have to wait for over 30 years before another one sees the light of day. (more…)

After reading a recent post by Nathan Elkins on the American Numismatic Society discussion list, I had serious concerns that I might be suffering from a severe case of delusion or dementia. Mr. Elkins proposes to orchestrate a panel of archaeologists to discuss “Contextual Numismatics” at the 2009 AIA meeting.

Granted, I have only been a professional numismatist for 41 years, but I rather thought that I might have heard most of the terminology used in the field. So, I hopped over to that repository of all human knowledge, Google, and searched for the term—hoping to bring myself up to speed. Ouch, not a single hit.

Just to make sure my browser was working, I searched for something everyone has heard of “Ilkhanid Coins”. Bingo, 648 links. Ok, one more “Russian wire money”, 489 more links. Contextual Numismatics? — Zip. This, I thought, ought to be a lively discussion panel. Perhaps I was unfair to search a general resource for an academic term. So, back to the browser I went and pulled up the American Numismatic Society web site. Searching for “contextual numismatics” I found zero documents. Finally, I tried the Archaeological Institute of America web site: “Your search yielded 0 results.”

The term is apparently unknown to anyone but Mr. Elkins. It should be interesting to see how the discussion goes when the subject is undefined and unknown. (more…)

A METAL detecting enthusiast has unearthed a Roman coin thought to be one of the oldest ever found in Wales.

Retired butcher Roy Page, 69, of Coedpoeth, found the detailed 2,000-year-old coin on a farm near St Asaph when he went on a search there with the Mold-based Historical Search Society.

Roy handed the tiny silver coin to the Portable Antiquities Scheme, who identified it as dating from the second century BC.

It is believed to have been brought over some time after the Roman invasion of Britain in 43 AD, or during earlier visits in the first century BC.

Roy, who has been metal detecting for five years, said: “The person who held the coin was probably a Roman.

“When he told me I nearly fainted, I was over the moon. I was told by an expert in our group that it could be
the oldest coin found in Wales. Read Full Story

PRINCETON, N.J. – Alan Stahl has a lot of change on his hands – and not the kind you can cash in at any bank.
The curator of Princeton University’s numismatic collection is in charge of protecting and displaying tens of thousands of coins, tokens, medals and pieces of paper money.
“The funny thing is, I’ve never owned a personal coin collection,” said Stahl, 60.

The 150-year-old collection started as an assemblage of plaster casts of ancient Greek and Roman coins. Stahl estimates it now contains about 80,000 items.

New acquisitions in the past year have made the collection even more diverse: a donation of 2,000 ancient Chinese coins and the purchase of more than 800 medieval Greek coins, bought for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

About a dozen university students each spend a few hours a week cataloging the coins. So far, the collection’s online system has more than 3,000 coins listed, about 1,000 coins entered in each year.

“At this rate, we’ll be done in 50 years,” Stahl said. For the students, cataloging the coins is an education in itself.

Read Full Story By CHRIS NEWMARKER in The Nashua Telegraph

This world-class collection of Ancient and World coins will be auctioned by Ira and Larry Goldberg on May 24-28, 2008 at the Crowne Plaza Beverly Hills and on Ebay Live.

Catalogues prices will be $15 US each, $30 International, or $40 US, $60 Int. for the entire set of 3. Catalogues: Ancient Coins, European Coins, and New World Coins (including Africa, Asia, and Oceana). Tentative date for catalogue availability is April 1, 2008. Call 1-800-978-2646 to place your order. (Subscriptions will include this catalogue.)

Because of the intense worldwide interest in this collection, we strongly suggest you make your hotel arrangements and bidding arrangements as soon as possible.

The Millennia Collection is now a featured gallery on the NGC website. Click here to view the gallery.

This gallery presents just a small sampling of the variety and extraordinary rarities that are included. Many predictions suggest that when the Millennia Collection sells, it will become the most valuable collection of world coins ever sold.

Selected examples from the collection formed the raison d’etre for Whitman’s recent award winning Money of the World: Coins That Made History, a gorgeous, full-color coffee table book co-edited by Ira and Larry Goldberg. The National Literary Guild awarded “Best World Coin Book” for 2007. This book presents coins as objects of purpose and importance, as well as having a fascinating history attached to them. The entire Millennia Collection far exceeds the hundred or so coins presented within this book, however; it is with nearly a century’s worth of cumulative collecting effort and skill that this astonishing array of over a thousand numismatic treasures have come to light.