By SAFE® Collecting Supplies ……
Here at SAFE® Collecting Supplies we cover ample news and history about American coinage, but there’s a rich culture of currency extending beyond and before the good ol’ U.S.A. With that said, let’s delve into the world of international coin currency.
Namely, we’ll tell three fascinating international historical coin stories.
Read on to learn more and then navigate to our massive inventory of coin collecting supplies. We’re certain you’ll find something to adequately house your world coins!
Pounds and Their Directional Switches
As you probably know, the pound sterling is the currency to which the United Kingdom subscribes, and it has just as rich of a history as the culture that it belongs to. In more recent news, the pound has stirred up quite a bit of controversy, as July’s Brexit referendum caused the pound’s value to fall to its lowest level in many years.
But let’s take a step backward, all the way to 1653, when a long-lived trend began. Of course, we mean the tradition of pounds always featuring current monarchs’ heads.
The tradition began with Oliver Cromwell (1653-58) whose profile bust faces left. Subsequent monarchs switch the direction toward which they face. For example, after Cromwell along came Charles II, whose profile bust faces right, followed by James II, who faces left again. Today’s pound coins feature the current ruling monarch, Her Majesty the Queen Elizabeth II. She faces right.
Archaic Grecian Stater Coins
Some of history’s earliest coin systems came out of Archaic Greece. Most notably, “Stater” coins began to appear in certain parts of the civilization during the 8th century BCE. The example shown above is one of the earliest surviving silver stater coins, depicting an image of Pegasus.
By later on in the epoch, the Greeks had morphed the coins to look something more like this gold stater featuring the Bactrian king Eucratides:
The Romans, Juno Moneta, Mints and Money
Who better to follow the Greeks than their greatest admirers, the Romans? Their affinity for coins were no exception to their generally obsession with all things Greek.
The Romans minted coins by the 4th century BCE, and heavily influenced the rest of Europe to follow suit. As a matter of fact, the word “mint” itself comes from the practice of manufacturing silver coins at the temple of Juno Moneta in Rome; also where we get the word money.
After that, Juno Moneta became the official symbol for money, and temples dedicated to her became de facto mints, and were scattered throughout the empire.
We’re not saying that we’ll send the Roman Army or the Queen’s Guard after you if you don’t take a look, but if you do possess any valuable ancient coins, it would certainly be in your best interest to scan our inventory of quality coin supplies.
Happy collecting!
