Euthydemus Ic. 260 BC – 200/195 BC) was a Greco-Bactrian king and founder of the Euthydemid dynasty. He is thought to have originally been a satrap of Sogdia, who usurped power from Diodotus II in 224 BC. Literary sources, notably Polybius, record how he and his son Demetrius resisted an invasion by the Seleucid king Antiochus III from 209 to 206 BC. Euthydemus expanded the Bactrian territory into Sogdia, constructed several fortresses, including the Derbent Wall in the Iron Gate, and issued a very substantial coinage.
Hammered coinage is the most common form of coins produced since the invention of coins in the first millennium BC until the early modern period of c. the 15th–17th centuries, contrasting to the cast coinage and the later developed milled coinage.
In numismatics, the term milled coinage is used to describe coins which are produced by some form of machine, rather than by manually hammering coin blanks between two dies or casting coins from dies.
Mint-made errors occur when coins are made incorrectly at the mint, including anything that happens to the coin up until the completion of the minting process. Mint error coins can be the result of deterioration of the minting equipment, accidents or malfunctions during the minting process, or interventions by mint personnel. Coins are inspected during production and errors are typically caught. However, some are inadvertently released into circulation. Modern production methods eliminate many errors and automated counters are effective at removing error coins. Damage occurring later may sometime resemble true mint errors. Error coins may be of value to collectors depending on the rarity and condition. Some coin collectors specialize in error coins.
A mint is an industrial facility which manufactures coins that can be used as currency.
The two-cent piece was produced by the Mint of the United States for circulation from 1864 to 1872 and for collectors in 1873. Designed by James B. Longacre, there were decreasing mintages each year, as other minor coins such as the nickel proved more popular. It was abolished by the Mint Act of 1873.
The solidus or nomisma was a highly pure gold coin issued in the Late Roman Empire and Byzantine Empire. The early 4th century saw the solidus introduced in mintage as a successor to the aureus, which was permanently replaced thereafter by the new coin, whose weight of about 4.5 grams remained relatively constant for seven centuries. In the Byzantine Empire, the solidus, or nomisma, remained a highly pure gold coin until the 11th century, when several Byzantine emperors began to strike the coin with less and less gold. The nomisma was finally abolished by Alexius I in 1092, who replaced it with the hyperpyron, which also came to be known as a "bezant". The Byzantine solidus also inspired the originally slightly less pure dinar issued by the Muslim Caliphate. In Western Europe, the solidus was the main gold coin of commerce from late Roman times to Pepin the Short's currency reform in the 750s, which introduced the silver-based pound/shilling/penny system.
The Flowing Hair dollar was the first dollar coin issued by the United States federal government. The coin was minted in 1794 and 1795; its size and weight were based on the Spanish dollar, which was popular in trade throughout the Americas.
This glossary of numismatics is a list of definitions of terms and concepts relevant to numismatics and coin collecting, as well as sub-fields and related disciplines, with concise explanations for the beginner or professional.
Wigmund was a medieval Archbishop of York, who was consecrated in 837 and died in 854.
The venezolano was the currency of Venezuela between 1872 and 1879. It was divided into 100 centavos, although the names céntimo and centésimo were also used. Venezolano was also the name of two currencies planned in 1854 and 1865.
The real was the currency of Peru until 1863. Sixteen silver reales equalled one gold escudo. The silver coin of 8 reales was also known as the peso.
The history of the English penny can be traced back to the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of the 7th century: to the small, thick silver coins known to contemporaries as pæningas or denarii, though now often referred to as sceattas by numismatists. Broader, thinner pennies inscribed with the name of the king were introduced to Southern England in the middle of the 8th century. Coins of this format remained the foundation of the English currency until the 14th century.
The National Mint of Bolivia or the Mint of Potosí is a mint located in the city of Potosí in Bolivia. It is from this mint that most of the silver shipped through the Spanish Main came.
This is an outline of Uruguay's monetary history. For the present currency of Uruguay, see Uruguayan peso.
This article provides an outline of the currency of Spanish America from Spanish colonization in the 15th century until Spanish American independencies in the 19th. This great realm was divided into the Viceroyalty of New Spain, which came to include all Spanish territory north of Panama, the West Indies, Venezuela, and the Philippines, and the Viceroyalty of Peru, which included Panama and all Spanish territory in South America except Venezuela. The monetary system of Spanish America, originally identical to that of Spain, soon diverged and took on a distinctive character of its own, which it passed on to the independent nations that followed after.
Currency in Colombia denotes the ingots, coins, and banknotes that have been used in Colombia since 1622. It was in that year, under a licence purchased from King Philip III of Spain, that Alonso Turrillo de Yebra established a mint at Santa Fe de Bogotá and a branch mint at Cartagena de las Indias, where gold cobs were produced as part of Colombia's first currency. Silver milled coins date from 1627. In 1831, Gran Colombia dissolved into Venezuela and New Granada. In 1836, in New Granada, new monetary laws were passed, to standardise the money produced in the country. From 1861 to 1862, due to financial instability, the United States of New Granada accepted British currency, the name of the country becoming the United States of Colombia in 1862. In 1880, Colombia pegged the peso to the gold standard due to the falling price of silver. In 1886, the paper peso was introduced. In 1931, Colombia abandoned the gold standard and switched to the current form of the peso.
The Coins of the Venezuelan venezolano circulated between 1874 and 1897. On June 11, 1873, the government ordered subsidiary silver coins of 5, 10, 20, and 50 centésimos de venezolano from Paris. An order for gold coins was placed on September 16, 1874, originally for pieces of 1, 5, 10, and 20 venezolanos, the 20-venezolano gold piece to be called the Bolívar. This order was subsequently altered to a silver 1 venezolano and a gold 5 venezolanos. The dies for the coins produced in Paris were engraved by Albert Désiré Barre, chief engraver of the Paris Mint (1855–1878).
The Castaing machine is a device used to add lettering and decoration to the edge of a coin. Such lettering was necessitated by counterfeiting and edge clipping, which was a common problem resulting from the uneven and irregular hammered coinage. When Aubin Olivier introduced milled coinage to France, he also developed a method of marking the edges with lettering which would make it possible to detect if metal had been shaved from the edge. This method involved using a collar, into which the metal flowed from the pressure of the press. This technique was slower and more costly than later methods. France abandoned milled coinage in favour of hammering in 1585.
The history of ancient Iberian coinage begins as early as the fifth century BC, but widespread minting and circulation in the Iberian peninsula did not begin until late in the third century, during the Second Punic War. Civic coinages - emissions made by individual cities at their own volition - continued under the first two and a half centuries of Roman control until ending in the mid-first century AD. Some non-civic coins were minted on behalf of Roman emperors during this period and continued to be minted after the cessation of the civic coinages. After the cessation of the civic coinages, these Imperial coins were the only coins minted in Iberia until the coins of the Suebi and Visigoths.
