Thursday, December 28, 2023

Dates on ancient coins

NUMISMATICS: Dates on Ancient Coins (Mike Markowitz, Coin Week).
DATES[1] ARE SO universal on modern coins that it may come as a shock to learn that most ancient coins provide no indication of when they were minted. The “Common Era” (or “AD”, Anno Domini) dating system used in our world to designate years did not come into general use on European coins until the 16th century[2]. A wide variety of dating systems were used by different cultures in the ancient world to keep track of years, and in some cases, these appear on coins.

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Examples follow, including coins of Cleopatra, Tyre, and Pontinus Pilate.

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