Ilike worn coins. They have a lot goingfor them which you do not get withpristine uncirculated examples. Actually,as far as I am concerned, the more wornthe better, as long as there are enoughfeatures visible to be able to identify thecoin. With very worn coins it can be a lotof fun trying to identify them, and oncesuccessful it is very satisfying. If a coincannot be identified it is just a lump ofmetal, a dead thing of no interest toanybody, and if it is of base metal it isof no value whatsoever. But once iden-

tified it comes alive and has a story to tell.Upmarket coin dealers and collectors

will hate me for saying it, but cheap worncoins can give as much pleasure as ex-pensive high-grade examples, probablymore. To support my argument I havechosen five coins from my collection andcompared them with high-grade exam-ples that were sold at auctions for manytimes the cost of the worn coins. A basicpremise of my argument, however, is thatthe collector needs to have a good imag-ination and be a romantic at heart.

The first coin (Figures 1 and 2) is abronze prutah minted at Jerusalem in29 AD. We know it was minted in 29 ADbecause the Greek inscription on theobverse means ‘of Tiberius Caesar, year16’ and this number is the number ofyears since Tiberius became the Romanemperor in 14 AD, and at that timepeople counted inclusively, i.e. 14 plus16 equals 29. The head of Tiberius doesnot occur on coins minted in Jerusalembecause the Jewish Law did not allowthe Jews to make images of humanbeings or animals (Deuteronomy 4:16).Therefore Pontius Pilate, who was theRoman governor of Judaea from 26 to36 AD, used a symbol that referred to theemperor. Tiberius was also the Romanhigh priest and the ladle on the obverseof the coin was an implement used by himto make sacrifices to the gods in Rome.On the reverse the Greek inscriptionmeans ‘Julia Caesar’. She was the motherof Tiberius and was also known as Livia.The three ears of grain on the reverseprobably refer to her representing thegoddess Demeter, known to the Romansas Ceres, the grain goddess.The coin in Figure 1 is so worn that

the ladle and ears of grain appear likeshadows and only part of the inscriptionis visible. It must have been in circulationfor at least 20 years. The coin in Figure2 is graded gVF and cost six times thecoin in Figure 1, but soon after it wasminted it went out of circulation. We donot know why it went out of circulation:perhaps it was lost or put aside and for-gotten. But we have a pretty good ideawhat happened to the coin in Figure 1.It was handled by all sorts of people inJerusalem at that time, and it was a veryspecial time. In 30 AD, when the coinwas about a year old, Jesus was crucifiedoutside the walls of Jerusalem. The foun-dational events of Christianity wereoccurring, and in these extraordinary

Detail of a painting by the abstract artist Bruce Black entitled ‘A Memory’. (Wikimedia Commons)

Figure 1 – Prutah of Pontius Pilate. Hendin 1341.

Figure 2 – Prutah of Pontius Pilate. gVF. (Roma Numismatics, Electronic Auction 52, Lot 463)

situations the coin was most likely pres-ent. It might have been in the purse ofsomeone in the crowd shouting out toPontius Pilate to crucify Jesus (Mark15:13,14). This scene is illustrated inFigure 3. There is a good chance that inthe following days the coin was withsomeone who saw three wooden crosseson a hill outside Jerusalem and wondered

why there were dead bodies hanging ononly two of the crosses. He or she wouldsoon have heard the claim that Jesuswas alive again. The second coin (Figures 4 and 5) is a

bronze coin minted in 31 AD at Antioch,

the administrative centre of the Romanprovince of Syria. Tiberius appears on theobverse and the letters SC on the reverseprobably stand for Senatus Consulto,meaning ‘by decree of the senate’. Itreminded people that they were in the

Figure 3 – ‘Christ before Pilate’ by Mihály Munkácsy, 1881. (Wikimedia Commons)

Figure 4 – Bronze coin of Tiberius. RPC I 4273.

Figure 5 – Bronze coin of Tiberius. VF. (Classical Numismatic Group, Electronic Auction 180, Lot 102)

Figure 6 – Bronze coin of Claudius. Sear 1862.

Roman Empire and under Romancontrol. The coin in Figure 4 is fairly worn and

would have been in circulation for atleast 20 years. The coin in Figure 5 isgraded VF with the qualification that ithas a slightly rough surface, but it is ob-vious that it must have gone out of cir-culation soon after being minted. Sowhat is special about the worn coin in

Figure 4? Because a large proportion ofthe population of Antioch was Jewish,in the 20 years following Jesus’s cruci-fixion there would have been much ex-citement among them caused by theevents that occurred in Jerusalem, andthe coin would have been handled bypeople caught up in that excitement.The followers of Jesus were first calledChristians in Antioch (Acts 11:26) and

they were influential in spreading thegospel throughout the Roman Empire.In 47 AD Saint Paul set out on his firstmissionary journey from Antioch. Thatthere was excitement everywhere isconfirmed by the action of the emperorClaudius who expelled the Jews fromRome in 49 AD because of disturbancescaused by the Christians (Acts 18:2). The third coin (Figures 6 and 7) is a

bronze coin of Claudius minted at Romein 42 AD. The example in Figure 6 isvery worn and just the outline of thegoddess Minerva is discernible on thereverse, but it is enough to identify thecoin. Collectors who have similar worncoins just have to consult a catalogue orgo on the Internet to see what a high-grade example looks like, but the sig-nificance of this coin is that it wouldprobably have been involved in the up-heaval occurring in Rome in the yearsleading up to the expulsion of the Jewsby Claudius in 49 AD. The coin in Figure7, however, is an EF example and itwould have gone out of circulation soonafter being minted. Although it cost 20times the coin in Figure 6 it was handledby only a few people and had no life at all.The next coin (Figures 8 and 9) is a

denarius of Nero minted at Rome in 64AD. On the reverse there is an image ofthe colossal bronze statue of Nero thatstood outside the main entrance to thepalace he was building in Rome. He wearsa radiate crown indicating that herepresents the sun-god Sol. The Greeksculptor, Zenodoros, constructed thestatue between 64 and 68 AD and there-fore the image on the coin predates theactual statue. When Vespasian becameemperor in 69 AD he replaced Nero’shead on the statue with one of Sol. Theemperor Hadrian moved the statue to

Figure 7 – Bronze coin of Claudius. EF. (Numismatica Ars Classica NAC AG, Auction 25, Lot 374)

Figure 8 – Denarius of Nero. Sear 1927.

Figure 9 – Denarius of Nero. EF. (A. Tkalec AG, May 2006 Auction, Lot 133)

be close to the great amphitheatre thatVespasian had built, and the buildingcame to be called the Colosseum afterthe statue. The denarius in Figure 8 is low grade

although Nero’s profile is strangely quiteclear. The denarius in Figure 9 is of thehighest grade and cost 50 times the coinin Figure 8. So, regardless of financialconsiderations, why would anyone preferthe coin in Figure 8? Firstly, it is pre-ferred because it circulated during animportant time in Roman history where-as the expensive coin did not circulateat all. In 64 AD the Great Fire of Romeoccurred and much of the centre of thecity was destroyed. Nero blamed theChristians and according to Tacitus, ahistorian writing in the early 2nd cen-tury, “Their deaths were made farcical.Dressed in wild animals’ skins, they weretorn to pieces by dogs, or crucified, ormade into torches to be ignited after darkas substitutes for daylight. Nero provided

his gardens for the spectacle.” In apainting by Henryk Siemiradzki wesee the human torches being made readyin the gardens of the imperial palace.(Figure 10)Secondly, a close inspection of the worn

coin in Figure 8 reveals that there issome black sooty material just aboveNero’s head. Apparently the materialcovered most of the coin but was scrapedoff except where it adhered to Nero’shair. This means that the coin might havebeen in the fire. Thirdly, in modern times there has been

a change in artistic taste away from aphotographic representation of the sub-ject towards impressionistic and abstractart. The images in Figure 9 are like high-resolution photographs, but in Figure 8they suggest a different dimension: Nero’sface seems to be coming out of a worldof chaos, grime and horror. The obverse ofthe worn coin brings to mind the terribleevents witnessed by or experienced by the

people through whose hands the coincirculated. The last coin (Figures 11 and 12) is a

brass sestertius issued by the emperorCommodus at Rome in 189 AD. On thereverse Commodus (on the left) holdshands with a senator who is representingthe Roman Senate, and the coin is cele-brating the award to Commodus of the

Figure 10 – detail from ‘Nero’s Torches’ by Henryk Siemiradzki, 1876. (Wikimedia Commons)

Figure 11 – Sestertius of Commodus. Sear 5774.

Figure 12 – Sestertius of Commodus. EF.(Numismatica Ars Classica NAC AG, Auction98, Lot 1227)

title ‘Pater Senatus’ (Father of the Senate)by the Senate. Commodus holds ascroll in his left hand because he wasleft handed.The coin in Figure 11 is very worn and

would have circulated during the lastyears of Commodus’s reign and for along time afterwards. The coin in Figure12 cost 88 times more, but it is pristineand did not circulate at all. For manypeople who handled the worn coin itwould have been an anxious time becauseCommodus was mentally unstable. Ac-cording to Chris Scarre, the author of

Chronicle of the Roman Emperors, “Hewent down in history as a positive mon-ster, a megalomaniac who thought him-self a god, had the months renamed inhis honour, and delighted in nothingbetter than playing the gladiator in frontof the assembled Roman populace.” In apainting by Edwin Howland Blashfieldwe see Commodus the gladiator leavingthe arena in Rome. (Figure 13) On the coin in Figure 11 the reddish

colour and the blackness around Com-modus’s head reflect the dark mood ofhis final years. The scene on the reverse

is not as it seems: the senators were ter-rified and by awarding the title, Father ofthe Senate, to Commodus they were try-ing to ingratiate themselves with himand prevent being executed.There were frequent attempts to kill

Commodus and in 192 AD he was stran-gled by an athlete hired to assassinatehim. There is no need to pay huge sums of

money to enjoy ancient coins. When seenthrough discerning eyes, worn coins havea lot going for them.

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Figure 13 – Detail of the painting ‘The Emperor Commodus leaving the Arena at the head of the Gladiators’ by Edwin Howland Blashfield, 1848-1936. (Wikimedia Commons)