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COIN (NEW CONCEPTS)
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Wile E. Coyote


In: Arizona
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Mick Harper wrote:
We should note that Alfred's sensible policy was then partly ignored or abandoned by future rulers such as Aethelred II who preferred to pay the Vikings rather than his own soldiers, to keep the peace

I object to this kind of editorialising.


OK, but I don't want to waste time debating things that did not happen. Folks can go to multiple sources for battles and Dark Age history. I have posted multiple times that these Dark Age battles are imaginary, so logically "Aethelred" is not going to pay the so called Vikings to stay away.

The so called Anglo Saxon Wiks are, I believe, part of the answer.

An emporium (plural: emporia) was one of the trading settlements that emerged in Northwestern Europe in the 6th to the 7th centuries and persisted into the 9th century. Also known in English as wics, they were characterised by their peripheral locations, usually on the shore at the edge of a kingdom, their lack of infrastructure (containing no churches) and their short-lived nature. By 1000, the emporia had been replaced by the revival of European towns. Examples include Dorestad, Quentovic, Gipeswic, Hamwic, and Lundenwic (for which see Anglo-Saxon London) at the North Sea, as well as Haithabu, Jumne and Truso on the Baltic Sea. Their role in the economic history of Western Europe remains debated. Their most famous exponent has been the British archaeologist Richard Hodges


Not that I believe in the Anglo Saxons.
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Mick Harper
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All the more reason.
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Mick Harper
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Ancient Mleiha And Its Connections To Iron Age Civilizations


Dr. Sabah Aboud Jasim, Director-General of Sharjah Archaeology Authority, noted that the coin hoard was discovered by a local archaeological team in February 2021 https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/mleiha-0015732

Let's have some over-egged find site provenance
The researchers happened upon a pottery jar

Now look, archaeological teams do not 'happen upon' things. I know, I'm indulging in stylistic pedanticism, but it's their stylistic pedanticism. That's all I'm saying. People say things in order not to say other things without drawing attention to the other thing, that's all I'm saying.

which at first looked like every other clay vessel of its type but this one weighed in at 9 kilograms (18.4 pounds), revealing it contained seriously heavy metal.

Now look, when you 'happen upon' a clay vessel in an archaeological dig, it's either broken or intact. This one was intact. Intact is a very big deal. That means you have to spend a lot of time digging around it. A lot of time. A lot of people. A lot of photographs. A lot of context. A whole lot of everything. Hope they've got 'em all!

It was a relatively normal ancient clay jar, until the team of United Arab Emirates (UAE) archaeologists weighed it. There was only one thing that could possibly have weighed 9 kilograms (19.8 pounds): metal treasure!

All right, already.

The jar and its silver coin hoard, dated to 300 BC, were found in the ancient town of Mleiha in the Emirate of Sharjah, which is the third largest emirate in the UAE with land on both the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. Mleiha was an ancient center of trade and economics that influenced events across the Arabian Peninsula, and as far away as Persia and Mesopotamia.

Okay we got the picture. Then as now. You were on the map then, you'd like to be on the map now. So what was it? Drum roll.
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Hatty
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In: Berkshire
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Mleiha is a UNESCO-nominated World Heritage Site due to "the most complete evidence of human settlement and community from the post-Iron Age era in the UAE". The town may be ancient but the Archaeological/eco-tourism Centre was only opened in 2016.

Venture deep into the deserts of Sharjah and uncover the secrets of the region’s ancient Bedouin culture through intriguing information, exhilarating recreational activities and breath-taking natural landscapes. Discover something unique every time with our ongoing excavation programme, which ensures there’s always a new treasure waiting to be unearthed.

This new visitor attraction in the Emirate of Sharjah blends history, nature and culture with exceptional quality and warm hospitality to create a unique leisure experience in a spectacular natural setting.

Meliha is a story that’s still being told so come and discover the undiscovered
.
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Mick Harper
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Sharjah24 recently announced that researchers at the Sharjah Archaeology Authority discovered...

As Hatty says, we're dealing with state-sponsored something or other. Nothing wrong with that but I draw your attention to another pedanticism. Researchers are not normally archaeologists and nor vice versa. Sure, either can be both, it's just they're not normally described that way because researchers discover stuff in archives, archaeologists discover stuff in the ground.

... a 2,300-year-old jar filled with ancient silver coins. Minted and in circulation in Mleiha from approximately the 3rd century BC, this collection is extra special because many of these ancient coins were “inspired by the coins of Alexander and his Seleucid successors".

More pedanticisms, I'm afraid. I really don't like that “inspired by the coins of Alexander and his Seleucid successors". Especially as it's in quotes. Whose? Because
1. Since the Seleucids dominated the whole area in the third century, why not use Seleucid coins?
2. If you're worried about acceptability of your own coins, why not mint copies of Seleucid coins?
3. If you're worried about the Seleucids objecting, then don't. Mint your own.
4. But for heaven's sake don't mint coins that will have the Seleucids objecting and everyone else saying, "What do you call these? I'll take the real thing, if you don't mind."
5. When reporting the whole thing don't drag a famous name (Alexander) into it. He died in the fourth century so a bit irrelevant. Unless you're just gilding the lily. Though not in this case, it's all silver.
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Hatty
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According to Wiki article on the archaeological centre at Mleiha, the coins have Aramaic lettering

Mleiha is strongly linked to the Ancient Near Eastern city of Ed-Dur on the UAE's west coast.[10] Macedonian-style coinage unearthed at Ed-Dur dates back to Alexander the Great.[11] Hundreds of coins were found both there and at Mleiha featuring a head of Heracles and a seated Zeus on the obverse, and bearing the name of Abi'el in Aramaic. These coins match moulds found at Mleiha which, together with finds of slag at the site,[12] suggests the existence of a metallurgical centre.

Coin hoards have been dug up in various trading centres that didn't have an accompanying metalworking industry. There is no mention of silver in the records though 'contemporary' may be a somewhat loose term

Contemporary Greek manuscripts have given the exports from Ed-Dur as 'pearls, purple dye, clothing, wine, gold and slaves, and a great quantity of dates'

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mleiha_Archaeological_Centre
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Mick Harper
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"Generally speaking, coins from single finds are dubious but exciting; coins from hoards are authentic but dull." M J Harper Missing Persons p 305

This find appears to be definitely on the dull side

The coins were all classed as tetradrachm, an Ancient Greek silver coin type that was in wide circulation all over the Mediterranean from about 510 BC to 38 BC.

Except this caught my eye. Perhaps Wiley might explain

Of the total 409 coins, 387 were single-sided mold coins, while 22 were double-sided mold coins.

So the poor old Sharjah Archaeological Authority will have to come up with a new angle to keep its funding for another year

Dr. Sabah Aboud Jasim said that while researching the coins in the Mleiha hoard it was discovered that some coin designs were like others found in the Arabian Gulf region. However, while individual coins can be compared with earlier similar discoveries, as a whole, this hoard is considered to be “more extensive” than any others found in the region, said Aboud Jasim.

And, further to our quest to erase Alexander the Great from history

Macedonian-style coinage unearthed at Ed-Dur dates back to Alexander the Great. Hundreds of coins were found both there and at Mleiha featuring a head of Heracles and a seated Zeus on the obverse, and bearing the name of Abi'el in Aramaic.

But not Alexander then. How shy-making for him.
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Wile E. Coyote


In: Arizona
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I am lost, I have tended to think of coin molds as a cheap way of producing fakes ie you create a 2 molds out of clay by firing the clay with a coin pressed in each. Once done you remove the coins and hey pesto by joining together you have a simple mold to cast cheap reproductions of more valuable coins in a cheap metal. You can then paint over the top with silver, to create the impression of a valuable coin.

So not much help from me.
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Wile E. Coyote


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Mick Harper wrote:
And, further to our quest to erase Alexander the Great from history.

I don't think you will find even a secondary source for Alexander III.

The accounts go back to Callisthenes, who is supposed to have followed Alexander on his travels.

https://www.livius.org/articles/person/callisthenes-of-olynthus/

When so much of Alexander turned out to be romance/legendary, they had to invent pseudo-Callisthenes to preserve the integrity of the "source."

http://www.attalus.org/info/alexander.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Romance
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Wile E. Coyote


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Ever ask yourself the question why are so few ancient pre-Roman Greek coins found in Britain?

Funny people the Celts. When tribes of south-east England began minting their own coins about 125 BC, they took as their inspiration the gold stater of Philip II of Macedon (359-336 BC) with the head of Apollo on the obverse, and a charioteer in a two-horse chariot on the reverse. The current idea is that Celtic copies were introduced into south-east England through trade by the Belgic tribes of northern Gaul around 125 BC.

Wiley is going for a more simple explanation.
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Mick Harper
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You mean simpler than a two-hundred year-old coin from the other end of Europe of a bloke you've never heard of? You never will.
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Wile E. Coyote


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wiki wrote:
Celtic coinage was minted by the Celts from the late 4th century BC to the mid 1st century AD. Celtic coins were influenced by trade with and the supply of mercenaries to the Greeks, and initially copied Greek designs, especially Macedonian coins from the time of Philip II of Macedon and his son, Alexander the Great. [1][2][3] Thus Greek motifs and even letters can be found on various Celtic coins, especially those of southern France.[4]

Horace wrote:
conquered Greece took captive her conqueror


Celtic coins = Greco Roman Coins.
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Wile E. Coyote


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Just before the first of the "Viking" raids on England, the Saxons began to mint a new type of coin the so called English penny, some believe named after the little known king called Penda. Others believe that the penny, is named from the "pans" into which the molten metal for making coins was poured. Either way the word "penny" bears a remarkable resemblance linguistically to the German "pfennig".


Looks like "Fine" as in to pay a fine, the penny currency arose as a system of fines/pennies on a scale /schilling...... a farthing is a further fine. Scales of justice. So Penda =Ponder Offa=Offer.
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Mick Harper
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Dunno quite why but I thought this would be your alley, Wiley. I'll reproduce it in its entirety since it's quite short. In three parts.

------------------------

The Ancient Roots of the British Imperial System of Measurement
Roland A. Boucher, Retired Yale University alumni

Just as the Metric System swept the world in the last 200 years so did the British Imperial System 500 years ago. This is not a new phenomenon. New systems of measure have been introduced to the world many times in the last 5000 years of recorded history. It was not unusual for a new Sumerian Standard to travel to England in the West and Japan in the East. I have found one example where one Middle East standard reached the Americas, there may be many others.

Three standards were in use in England at the time of the Magna Carta. These standards were coherent and precisely reproducible just as the metric system is today. In 1600 Queen Elizabeth 1 created the British Imperial System using one of these ancient systems to create standards of length and volume, and a second to create the standards of weight. The British Navy slogan A pinta pound the world around would no longer be true, yet it was still taught in New England grammar schools 350 years later. A pint had been a pound for over 5000 years except for an ancient metric system where the liter (Sila) was 2 pounds.

The British incorporated the lengths and volumes from the Ancient Sumerian Lunar Standard of Lagash in their new British Imperial Standard but chose the French wool pound dating back through the Etruscans to the Sumerian third geodetic foot of Lagash for their standard of weight.
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Mick Harper
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A brief note to the adherents of the Metric system

We understand the impatience of some fans of the Metric system to do away with the British Imperial System. However, it would be tragic mistake to lose the history of the 5000 years that these and other ancient systems of measure served the world.

The system of measurement that gave us the pound built the great pyramid at Giza and gave us a measure of the polar circumference of the Earth, accurate to better than 100 km out of 40,000 km almost 5000 years ago. This Ancient measure that gave us the foot is the oldest Sumerian measure and may be much older than the 5000 years. Please think of these things before you decide to bury the past.

THE FOOT AND THE LUNAR STANDARD OF LAGASH

One of the earliest Sumerian standards of measurement was the Lunar Standard of Lagash which may have been much older than the city itself. It is indicated in a statue of Guda, the governor of Lagash circa 2175.It appears that Gudea's Foot traveled to Europe where it became the Anglo-Saxon foot of 335.28 millimeters.

This four-gure match in dimension is unlikely to have been the result of chance. It then traveled to England, where the furlong of 600 Anglo-Saxon feet was used to establish all land boundaries. Later the British Imperial Foot would be dened as 1/660 Anglo Saxon furlongs from which all British linear measures were derived.

The Lunar Standard Step (yard) was based on the length of a pendulum adjusted to produce 60 swings in the time it took the Moon to travel one Lunar diameter in the night sky. Its length was divided into 60 ngers and into both a 20 nger foot, and a 30 nger cubit. The exact length of the Step and its derivatives can be obtained from three of Dr. Powell’s calibrated weights, several statues of Guda with a tablet of measures on his lap, and a magnicent silver vase whose volume was 1/8 cubic foot.

The length of that foot was 336.25 mm which over 5000 years morphed into the Anglo Saxon foot.
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