Ancient coin jewelry by Robert Beauford
These are some of the items I make with ancient coins, along with a few comments. To support my work, you can visit our Etsy shop at: https://www.etsy.com/shop/GrindstoneMountain
Classical numismatics is the study of ancient history through the lens of coins. It is something that I've devoted a huge amount of time and passion to throughout my professional career, and one of the things I most enjoy. The work I do with ancient coins is probably the single thing for which my shop is best known, and over the last couple of days, I've been adding some of my ancient coin jewelry to the online store. This coin really struck me today when I was moving it to the online shop. It was struck 1,800 years ago, during the reign of Maximinus the First, between 235 and 238 AD, and depicts Providentia. I've always thought of Providentia as a minor Roman Goddess, one of a sort of minor pantheon of figures that were occasionally given lip service in ancient pagan celebrations. But I was wrong. I've consistently underestimated this figure. Providentia personified foresight and preparedness. To the ancient Romans, she was not a mythical figure, but a real entity of the most pragmatic sort. She lived in the actions and thoughts of people who devoted themself to wisdom. The foresight they were referring to here was not a metaphysical or esoteric sort of vision or prediction. She literally represented the ability to foresee the future based on your rational understanding of the past and your perception of the world around you in the present, to understand what was going to happen, and to take coherent action in advance to prepare for it. We know this because she was paired as a cardinal virtue with memoria (memory) and intelligentia (understanding). There were no funny little stories about her foibles or misadventures the way there were with some of the more famous deities. They considered forethought and preparedness far to serious for this. Instead, both the goddess and the absolutely practical idea that she represented were considered core components of leadership and success. She was, according to Cicero, the very foundation of Wisdom, rendered divine not by cultural tradition but by her fundamental importance in living a healthy, virtuous, and successful life. To the Romans, planning was divine. I think there could be no better reminder for our age. I deeply appreciate all of you that have supported my new online shop so far. There are no words that can really convey just how much it helps or how deeply I am moved by your patronage. Thank you.
There's a corny old joke about someone finding an old coin and saying "Look! It's over 2000 years old!" The 2nd person says "How do you know that?" And the first person says "Well, look! It says it right there! '50 BC'" But there really are coins with dates on them going back several hundred years before our calendar starts. Here's a fun example from the original 'Metropolis,' the city of Antioch. This is an early example of a dated coin. It is inscribed ΓKΣ, 3+20+200, or the year 223 by the ancient Macedonian calendar. That translates to 90 to 89 BC by our modern calendar, since our years don't start and stop at the same time as theirs did. They were counting upwards from our year 312 BC (BCE), and started their year in October, their (Moon'th of) Dios, or 'Moon of Zeus.' Both the head on the front of the coin and the seated figure on the back of the coin depict Zeus, the King of their pantheon of Gods. The date is on the back of the coin, below Zeus' throne. The city of Antioch is, of course, also remembered for the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch, an important relic of the Siege of Antioch during the First Crusade. (Monty Python, Holy Grail reference.)
Here's another cool coin. This one is a 1,900 year old Roman silver denarius. It was minted in 97 AD, under the emperor Nerva, near the height of the Roman Empire. This coin was a customary day's wage, worth about $60 in purchasing power. In its time, it was the standard daily pay of an ordinary soldier of the legion or of a skilled laborer or crafts-person. The reverse side of the coin is the cool part. It shows a set of religious implements used in pagan Roman rituals. From left to right, these are the simpulum, aspergillum, jug, and lituus. The simpulum was a long handled ladle used to drink or pour out wine or other liquids as an offering. (The practice has largely died out, but think of someone pouring out a 'toast to the gods' in contemporary fiction. This is a cultural derivative of the practice.) Sometimes the wine or oil was poured onto an animal (anointing) that would later be sacrificed (which often amounted to the animal being barbecued and eaten - with some ceremony). Simpler rituals used a cup (grail / chalice) or bowl (patera) for the same purpose. Next is the aspergillum. The aspergillum was a brush on the end of a stick, used to sprinkle people with perfumed water or some other version of holy water. The horsehair aspergillum and other versions of sprinklers were borrowed forward into Christianity, along with the tradition of sprinkling holy water, almost completely unmodified from classical Roman paganism. Aspergillum are still used in some sects, and some orthodox versions even still use horsehair brushes! Also, this is where we get the word for the vegetable asparagus, because they look like little paint brushes. Next is a jug. It's not that fancy. It held the oil, wine, milk, or whatever liquid was to be offered. And finally, on the right, is the lituus. This object also still exists, borrowed forward into Christian symbolism. To see one, Google image search the word 'crosier.' A crosier is a lituus. But the ancient function of the lituus has completely disappeared from modern culture, and a 'crosier' is now just a symbolic religious staff. In ancient Roman times, it was held out by a particular type of pagan priest, an auger, who used it to define an area of the sky in which they observed the direction of the flight of birds. From the details of what happened within this observed space, they provided guidance in military and other major decisions. Auger means 'teller,' or 'one who tells.' We know quite a bit about this ancient divining and fortune telling tradition from two existing early Roman texts, the Commentarii Augurales and the Libri Augurales.
Here's something you don't see very often. This is an ancient bronze coin minted in the North African Kingdom of Numidia. It was minted between 203 and 118 BC under King Massinissa or his son, Micipsa. This is one of the only ancient coins to depict an ethnically African black leader. (Egypt only started minting coins after it was conquered by Ptolemaic Greeks, and Carthage largely depicted gods, goddesses, and commercial or military symbols on their coins.) Numidia was an ancient North African kingdom that controlled much of the southern Mediterranean shore and inland regions west of Carthage's largest cities, in much of the vast region that now spans from Libya to Tunisia. Though the Numidian Civilization was a major Mediterranean power, they are not often mentioned in history books. Their significance is, however, pronounced. During the reigns of Massinissa and Micipsa, they were strong allies with Rome, and were known as the 'Breadbasket of Rome' for their agricultural output. It is a solidly established historical fact that if the Numidians had not sided with Rome against the Carthaginians in the 2nd Punic War, Carthage would have defeated Rome instead of the other way around, and all of subsequent world history would be radically different. Numidia was famous for its horse breeding and horsemanship. The military capability of Numidian cavalry strongly influenced the development of cavalry in the Roman Army, and Numidian mercenaries played a direct role in a number of major historical military engagements as well. The word Nomad derives from the Numidian culture's name, partially in reference to their flexibility and proficiency as a horse culture. Though the Numidian civilization was tribally and linguistically diverse, the Berber people of modern North Africa comprise one of the major known descendant populations. In the post-Roman to modern era the economic power of Numidian and remnant Carthaginian civilization, as well as the economic potency of Egypt, declined as both the size and aridity of the Sahara desert increased steadily over the centuries, erasing towns, rivers, and entire agricultural regions
I make several different types of jewelry with ancient coins. It's one of my favorite things to do. I was an archaeologist before I was a jeweler, and I get very, very nerdy about the history. I've been working with them for 25 years, and I'm still just stunned and grateful to be able to hold something this old in my hands.
This coin was minted under Ptolemaeus, son of Menneus, in a small Greek kingdom called Chalcis, in what is now Lebanon, between 85 and 45 BC. This image, from the back of this coin is the Dioskuri, twin half-brothers in Greek mythology named Castor and Pollux. Greek mythology described the brothers as having the same mother, Leda, but different fathers. Castor was the son of Leda's husband, a Spartan king named Tyndareus, and Pollux was the son of the God, Zeus, who seduced Leda by turning himself into a swan... hey, it's Greek mythology so, um.... Anyway, she laid two eggs afterwards. Zeus later transformed the brothers into the stars, Castor and Pollux, which we have come to know as the twin stars of the astrological constellation, Gemini. Gemini is the Latin word for twins, and that's where we get the zodiac sign.
I made this pendant with a 1,700 year old original ancient Roman bronze coin minted during the reign of Diocletian, from 284 to 305 AD. This specific example was more precisely minted between the year 302 and 303 AD. Diocletian is shown on the front of the coin, facing to the right. The back of the coin shows a standing male figure, the 'Genius of Rome's People,' pouring out an offering from a patera (a bowl used in making an offering) and holding a cornucopia (a symbol of abundance). The 'Genius' figure was a traditional stylized personification of the greatness of the human spirit or potential. By its use on this coin, the emperor was suggesting that Rome's population was particularly fantastic, and venerating their collective 'spirit.' The cornucopia and patera (offering bowl) further suggest that the wealth of the Roman people derived from their personal greatness of spirit and from their piety towards the traditional Roman gods and goddesses. The figure is naked and anatomically correct. Diocletian ruled just after the end of the 'economic crisis of the third century,' a sort of prolonged and particularly severe 'Great Depression' in the empire that accompanied a long string of civil wars. The people has suffered tremendously in preceding decades, and a little pumping up of their ego and encouragement of pride in their collective and unified identity might not have been misplaced. Diocletian had brought an end to the economic crisis and civil wars through a somewhat selfless attitude towards rule, some real administrative and military talent, and more dedication to the task of improving the empire than had been shown by a leader in easily 50 years. He was a competent ruler and is one of the most significant figures in the western history of economics, having re-stabilized the Roman Empire to such an extent that he halted its absolute collapse and built enough stability to hold it together for another 150 years, but his legacy is very mixed. Diocletian blamed Rome's economic challenges on a lack of piety towards the Roman gods by the newly popular 'cult' of Christianity that had been spreading in Rome, and enacted the 'Great Persecution' in 303, the year this coin was minted. The 'Great Persecution' was the last and largest persecution of the Christian religion in the Roman Empire, a time of unparalleled violence and legal exclusion towards the sect. It was reversed by edicts issued in 311 and 313, the second of which was Constantine the Great's famous Edict of Milan. Within 20 years of these edicts, Christianity was a legally recognized and equal religion within the Empire. Within 30 years, it was the dominant religion. Within 80 years, it was the only legal religion in Rome, and the same legal and physical persecutions that had been brought to bear against Christians were brought to bear against the empire's older religious institutions, nearly completely annihilating them within decades under the same arguments that Diocletian had used - ironically, that impiety towards the (new) traditional god by the now-minority pagan sects had resulted in economic and military problems. As Mark Twain once said, "History doesn't repeat itself, but it often rhymes."
Another fun coin I posted to my online store at https://www.etsy.com/shop/MuseEureka This one was minted 2,300 year ago, in ancient Egypt, by the guy that built the famous Library at Alexandria. It was minted under the rule of Ptolemy II, between 285 BC and 246 BC. Ptolemy II was the son of Ptolemy I who was a friend, bodyguard, and commander under Alexander the Great. Ptolemy I inherited (took control of) Egypt upon the death of Alexander the Great, retaining a great deal of wealth and military power from Alexander's empire. He invested enormous sums in public improvements and city and national infrastructure in Egypt, establishing the Ptolemaic Dynasty, the last great dynasty of ancient Egypt, which lasted from 305 BC to 30 BC. Ptolemy II was very much like his father, continuing the public improvements and construction. He particularly concentrated on the development and promotion of arts and sciences in the new city of Alexandria, continued and completed the construction of the Museum and Library of Alexandria, which became the single most important center of learning in the ancient west for the next 300 years, and remained moderately significant for nearly 400 more years even after it was partially burned by the Romans. The front of the coin shows the king of the ancient Greek gods, Zeus, and the reverse shows the Ptolemaic Eagle holding a bundle of Zeus' thunderbolts. After years of wondering and sporadically looking it up, I still have no idea how we wound up with what seems to me to be a clear derivative of the Ptolemaic Eagle as our customary way of representing our national bird. (Y'all see the resemblance, right? It's not just me?) The nearest I can figure, an early American artist must have been interested in ancient art. Egyptian bronze coin of Ptolemy II Philadelphos, Alexandria Egypt Mint, 285-246 BC, obverse: Zeus / reverse: Eagle with Thunderbolts, reverse inscribed PTOLEMAIOY BASILEOS 'Ptolemy the King'.
I've listed several examples of one of my favorite jewelry designs on the new Etsy site over the last couple of days. I make these with a type of 2,200 year old Celtic artifact called 'Celtic Ring Money' in archaeological literature. The name is an old misnomer left over from the early days of European Archaeology. We now know that these bronze rings were never actually used as money during the Druid ruled La Tene era of Celtic history, but rather show use-wear consistent with a variety of everyday life functions, from horse tack to finger rings, shoe ties, or clothing attachments. Some piece of lost Celtic culture, however, results in them being frequently found in small piles or hoards. More recent cultural analogs and better understood pieces of ancient Celtic archaeology suggest that they likely left these small rings at particular locations in the same way we toss coins in a wishing well, and possibly as a direct precursor to our left over tradition. The ancient artifact in the piece is the bronze ring around the outside of the pendant. I set the artifacts around stones that are either just attractive or are symbolically significant in the jewelry design. The one that I've shown here is set with a fairly gorgeous triplet opal mined at Spencer, Idaho.
"Do not despise the study of mere words, or be careless of rhetoric, or fail to read poetry, (...) let this be your task, the base, the foundation, the roof." "Before we love, we must know, and before we can know, we must test by experience." "Some men have a passion for horses, others for birds, others again, for wild beasts; but I, from childhood, have been penetrated by a passionate longing to acquire books." - Julian the Apostate, last pagan emperor of ancient Rome, 360-363 AD.
I thought this was awesome. I was just doing some (never ending) coin research on this 3rd century (205 AD) Roman silver denarius, when I discovered that the little rectangular object held by the figure on the back was a Roman hand abacus, the world's first portable calculator! The figure is Liberalitas, a sort of demi-deity, and the ancient Roman personification of prosperity and generosity. She is holding a cornucopia in her other arm. The fact that one of her two attributes is a calculator suggests a certain reverence for maths and numeracy. The coin was minted under the famous tyrant, Caracalla, who is most remembered (maybe fairly - maybe not) for theft of public funds, massacring people he didn't like, and mismanagement.