Inside The Celatof"ID ... Vol. 22, No.9 The ~ tor. September 2008 Consecutive Issue No. 255 Incorporating Roman Coinf alld CII {wre FEATURES Publisher/Editor Kerry K. WcUerstrom [email protected] 6 Observations on the Madonna Denars of Matthias Corvinus of Hungary-Part I Associate Editors by Steven H. Kaplan Robert L. Black Michael R. Mehalick 20 A Cosmic Journey on a Roman Coin Page 6 by Robert S. Mcivor For Back Issues Fn:m The Roman Empire's Resurrection of 1987 to May 1999 contact: 38 Wayne Sayles Alexander the Great [email protected] by Brian Geeslin Art: Parnell Nelson DEPARTMENTS Maps & Graphic Art: Page 20 Kenny Grady 2 Editor's Note - Coming Next Month 4 Letters to the Editor P.O. Box 10607 Lancaster, PA 17605 32 People in the News TeUFax: 717-656-8557 f,lrofilrs in .flUlnisn1fltirs For FedEx & UPS deliveries: Kerry K. Wetterstrom 33 Art and the Market 87 Apricot Ave Leola, PA 17540-1788 About the cover: A 35 Book News- Corpus of the Nomismata from common Hungarian de­ www.celator.com Anastasius /I to John I in Constantinople, 713-976 nar issued by King Mat­ The Celator (ISSN #1048-0986) th ias Corvinus in 1488· is an independent journal pub­ 36 Coming Events lished on the first day of each 1489. The Hungarian month at 87 Apricot Ave. Leola, 41 ANTIQ1lITIES by DavidUebert coat of arms, with a PA 17540-1788.11 is cirCU lated in­ raven in the central es­ ternationally through subscrip­ tions and special distributions. 42 ([oins of tbr ;EliiJ (r by David Hendin cutcheon (Matthias' Subscription rales, payable in family arms), is on the U.S. funds. are $36 per year (Pe­ 44 The Internet Connection obverse, and a crowned riodical rate) within the United Slates; $45 to Canada; $75 per by Kevin Barry & Zachary "Beast" Beasley and nimbate Madonna year to all other addresses (ISAL). holding the infant Jesus Advertising and copy deadline is 45 C;:hrough the Cooking gla.ss the first WOrkday of each month for is on the reverse. Photo the follOWing month's issue. Unso· by Wayne G. Sayles courtesy of Fritz Rudolf liciled aroc!es and news releases Klinker MOnzenhand­ are welcome. however publication Cartoon cannol be guaranteed. Unless ex­ 46 lung, Auction 130, lot pressly stated, The Celalorneither 2908, October 9"', 2007. endorses nor is responsible lor the 47 Professional Directory contents of advertisements. letters­ to·the-editor, feature articles. regu· 52 On the Road - The Celator"s Show & Club Schedule lar columns and press releases in The Ceiatoroffice will its pages, including any opinions stated therein, and the accuracy 01 54 Club & Society Directory be closed from Aug. any data provided by its oonlliOO­ 29th-Sept. 1'\ Sept. tors. Periodical postage paid 55 Classifieds -Index of Display Advertisers rd (USPS #006077) Lancaster. PA 19~ and Oct. 3 • 17603 and addilional offioos. Check the "On the Copyright © 2008, Paradigm Road' section for fur­ Numismatics & Publishing, Inc. ther deta'fis. Office hours are.... hormally Postmaster: please send address changes to: Noon t6 6PM ES'. PO. Box 10607 Please keep irvniiid Lancaster, PA 17605-0607 that this is-a 6ne-per­ son business when FOUNDED 1987 BY you're trying to reach WAYNE G. SAYLES me. Thank you! EDITOR'S " COMING NEXT ~ MONTH NOTE ~~ . IN THE CELATOR® [ did attend the Observations on the Madonna recent ANA con­ Del1ars of Matthias Corvi/1us vent ion in Balti ­ more.1 swear! If you were looking for of Hlll1gary-Part II me, and d id not find me, even after by Steven H. Kaplan having me paged, please accept my The Caesar apologies. Between my judging duties, Sydney Noe would be Erik Goldstein Julius the N urnisrnatic Theater presentllliollS, himself. Many of you may remember 'Elephant' Denarius: and a one-day seminar that [ attended him from when he worked for Dr. Arnic Saslow and was a fami liar face at coin What is the Symbolism? on the Friday of the convention, Illy by James A Hauck time on the bourse floor was more lim­ shows during the 1990s. ited than usual. It was a whirlwind of Another friend of mine. Ray Will­ Dionysos Unmasked on activity, and one of the more enjoy­ iams. the president of the Colonial able ANA conventions \hal J have par­ Coin Collectors Club. is fond of tell­ Neapolitan Nomoi ticipated in . ing me. "Colonial U.S. coins are the by Joseph Wihnyk I decided 10 treal myself by sign­ ancients of America." Now, I only ing up for Erik Goldstein's (Curator need to convince every collector of AND COMING SOON of Numismatics at Colon ial Williams­ U.S. Colonial coinage that they need burg) one-day seminar on the "Numis­ to subscribe to The Cc!aror so that they Observatiolls on the Madonna matics of Colonial America." Having can truly enjoy their hobby! OC/1ars of Mntthias Coroinus offered a similar one-day course on III "Ancient Greek and Roman Coins:' I ******* ** ofHI1l1ganj-Part know what a challenge it is to lry \0 by Steven H Kaplan cover a large amount of material in a Bascd on thc lime 1 did spcnd Oil thc bourse floor at Baltimorc. the an­ Faces of Empire - Part Xl- very short period of time. Erik did a fantastic job by being wel l orgamzed cient coin market is still very active. Hellenistic Beauty to Tetrar­ It rcmains a challenge for the U.S. and prepared. At the end of the day, cliic/Col'lstantinian Brutality collector and dealer to buy as the weak he had all of his students racing off to by Cornelius Venneule the bourse floor in search of some of U.S. dollar is sending many a coin the intriguing coins he had tal ked back to the other side of the Atlantic. The Birth of jesus Viewed but the astute person can find some about during hi s seminar. Through Coins J have been aware for some time bargains if they search long enough. By Richard Plant now of the collecting overlap between One collcctor. a friend of mine from Lancaster. found some silver obols of e<lrly Colonial American and ancient Sorting Out Those Pan Liang coi ns. Erik's class reinforced the many Massalia (Gaul. see Sear 72 in Greek by Ted Puis, MD. similarities there arc between these Cuills and Their Values ) for $35 each. J. two collecting specialti es. From the The dealer had five left in stock, and The Athenian Emergel1CtJ Issue methods of manufacture to how the my fri end snapped up four of them. They were nice VFs, fairly well cen­ coins arc rescarchcd and catalogued of the Pelo{XJl1nesian War tered, and worth every cent of the pur­ today. both of these branches of nu­ by Sam Spiegel mismatics have much to offer for the chase price. even if they are a hoard coin. The dealer that sold the coins, Scott Laos collec(Qr. Of course. 1 am not the first Byzantine 101-Part 4 to realize thi s, as one only has to look from North Bend. Washington (a good by Prue Fitts at some of the numismatic authors of friend and fellow ANA exhibit judge). even di scounted the coins from his tick­ all the past to sec the obvious connection. The Temple eled price of $45 each. Scott had a table A prime example would be Sydney MOUI1t Gerizim in the ·· Budget"' section of the ANA Noe, a prominent curator and research­ by Mar v in Tameanko er at the American Numismatic Society bourse floor, and he certainly did have during the first part of the 20,h century. quite a few hargains when I perused his Greek Numbers on Coins- Part stock. Buried all of the way at the hack Ancient coin collectors arc familiar with 1, The First Dated Coins and his many references on ancient coinage, of the exhibit hall. many collectors went including The Coinage of MelapOIHI/IJI, straight to this part of the show. and J Alphabetic Numbers can cet1ainly see why. Bargain hunting but he also authored the definitive stud­ by Edward E. Cohen ies on the early si lver coinages of Mas­ isjust one 01 the many aspects that make sachusetts. A modern-day parallel to attending a coin show fun! 'lhe Cel.{ltM is ",v""d dM tI"d dedicated to the coi" dle-e>t? zavezs 06 a>ttiquit¥ I1Ihose att 7emai>t s tiS pOl1leztul a>td appeali>t? toda¥ as l>t thelt 0111" time, 2 The Celator Ponterio & Associates, Inc. is now accepting consignments for this important Public Auction to be held in conjunction with the New York International Numismatic Convention th th January 9 _10 , 2009 th Consignment deadline: October 6 , 2008 For more information, please contact our office. PONTERIO & ASSOCIATES 1818 Robinson Ave., San Diego, CA 92103 800-854-2888 or 619-299-0400 P.N.G. #308 Fax 619-299-6952; E-mail: [email protected] www.ponterio.com Licensed Auction Company #968 NUI8U Richard H. Ponterio - President L.M 01216.1 September 2008 3 Author Appreciates Letter becomes in Latin an f, so that for in­ stance Greek "thymos" is cognate with I was very impressed with Edward Latin "fumus.") Cohen's letter in the July issue about my So 100 with "coin," I've even seen 5i?ette/,j article "A Roman Moneyer." He obviously accounts that purport to derive "coin" has a great depth of knowledge about from the Latin "coinquinare" ('to befoul, Roman denarii. Upon reading my arti­ infect, pollute'), but again similar sounds cle, Mr.