I think we need our own 'Post an Old Coin and and an Old Tune' thread

[JeandAcre]

Here's a coin that just got paid for.  Dealer's pics, again; I don't have the software even to upload the first side, after rotating it on Googledocs.

 

My very first example of Heinrich der Löwe, Duke of Saxony 1142-1195.  A pfennig of Bardowick, in northern Saxony, nearly due south of the Jutland peninsula, inland from and to either side of the North and Baltic Seas.  15 mm, but managing to include the legend, "+HENR(I)CV DV[X]" on what I would assume was the obverse.  On the other side, there's a very stylized church facade.  I'm thinking that it should be rotated 45 degrees to the right.  ...The online listings I've seen, citing German references which are familiar solely on a last-name basis, have decidedly minor legend variants. 

Along with various Anglo-Norman earls and French counts around the same time, Heinrich matched wits and forces with reigning monarchs.  Except, instead of Angevin or Capetian ones, Heinrich tangled with, Oops, Friedrich Barbarossa and his Staufen successor, Heinrich VI, ultimately biting off more than he could chew. 

A little background.  Heinrich, having inherited the duchies of Saxony and Bavaria, along with eastern holdings which became the duchy of Austria, was easily the most powerful German magnate of his time.  In 1168, he married Matilda, a daughter of the Angevin king Henry II, and a namesake of Henry's mother, the Empress Matilda.  She had been widowed to the last Salian emperor of Germany, Heinrich V.     

(Heinrich's marriage, from the Gospels he commissioned.  Henry II is to the right.  Besides the happy couple, I can't help you with the other actors --unless 'REGINA MATHILDA' really is her namesake's grandmother.  Cf. the less than adequate Wiki article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gospels_of_Henry_the_Lion.)

Nonetheless, he began his reign as a loyal supporter of Friedrich.  But after he sat out Friedrich's final, unsuccessful invasion of Lombardy in 1174, Friedrich retaliated on an imperial scale, outlawing him, confiscating his lands, and invading Saxony to emphasize the point.  Heinrich spent the early 1180s in exile in Normandy, with his in-laws.

Once Friedrich left for the Third Crusade in 1189, Heinrich took the opportunity to invade Saxony, capturing Bardowick and, in vengeance for the town's desertion of him, razing it to the ground, except for its churches.  Despite the circumstances, it's tempting to suppose that the coin in question may date from that interval, when Heinrich was reasserting his ducal rights, rather than from earlier, happier times.  ...In the 1190's, he was decisively defeated by Friedrich's son, Heinrich VI, and spent his last days peacefully, in a husk of his former domain. 

At the moment, this calls for a track that, after too long, is reminding me of how good it is.  Sorry; very disparate vibes; I'm not good enough to figure out any relation between the two.  Other than that, hmm, maybe the contrast in vibage is what's called for, as a kind of antidote.

 

 

Edited December 6, 2023 by JeandAcre

[expat]

 

GALLIENUS Antoninianus. 259-260 Lugdunum mint.
 GALLIENVS (dot) P (dot) F (dot) AVG, radiate, cuirassed bust right / DEO MARTI, distyle temple with Mars standing left within, left hand holding inverse spear and resting right hand on shield. RIC 10 var (dots in legend). Goebl 889g. Elmer 85; RSC 149; Cohen 615. Sear5 10195.  2,2 g - 21 mm

[Phil Anthos]

Wow expat, that was going to be my next association. 'Mars The Bringer of War' with this coin...

Messana (under the Mamertini)

288-278 BC AE Tetras (16mm, 2.93g) O: Laureate head of Ares right. R: Bull butting right; MAMEPTINΩN in ex., spear head below. HGC 2, 878; Calciati 8; Sarstrom 62; Mini' 11; Sear 1138v (bull left) Rare ex M&R Coins "Even brave sailors fear rock-caved Charybdis, Who drinks the waves, vomits them out again, And Skylla with her barking dogs around her Churning the waves that circle Sicily" ~ Ovid ~ Peter

Edited December 6, 2023 by Phil Anthos
Forgot to post the coin.

[expat]

5 minutes ago, Phil Anthos said:

Wow expat, that was going to be my next association. 'Mars The Bringer of War' with this coin...

Messana (under the Mamertini)

288-278 BC AE Tetras (16mm, 2.93g) O: Laureate head of Ares right. R: Bull butting right; MAMEPTINΩN in ex., spear head below. HGC 2, 878; Calciati 8; Sarstrom 62; Mini' 11; Sear 1138v (bull left) Rare ex M&R Coins "Even brave sailors fear rock-caved Charybdis, Who drinks the waves, vomits them out again, And Skylla with her barking dogs around her Churning the waves that circle Sicily" ~ Ovid ~ Peter

Great musical minds think alike, LOL. I am sure you will come up with something else, displaying your usual good taste.

[Phil Anthos]

I forgot to post the coin anyway so I'll just piggyback on yours. Great choice btw.

~ Peter 

[Phil Anthos]

Ahhh, Alex Harvey... the greatest rock legend nobody knows. Prior to his unique career facing The Sensational Alex Harvey Band he had a big soul review in Scotland in the 60s, although they never reached the heights of SAHB. However I just found this very strange and obscure piece from that period which might have been made to post here, and who else but Hadrian to match it with. Dig...

Hadrian / Salus

119-138 AD Orichalcum Dupondius (25mm, 13.39g) O: Radiate bust right, slightly draped; IMP CAESAR TRAIANVS HADRIANUS AVG PM TR P COS III. R: Salus standing left, foot on globe, holding patera and rudder; SALVS PVBLICA, S-C. RIC 604a / Cohen 1358 / van Meter 110 / BMC 1237 ex Francis J. Rath   ~ Peter

[Roman Collector]

In the mood for Cole Porter now!

Lysimachos's wife, Arsinoe II, was the daughter of Ptolemy I and Berenice. Lysimachos divorced Amastris to marry her and then bequeathed to her all the territories that had belonged to Amastris! She then brought about the murder of her stepson, Agathocles, the elder son of Lysimachus by his first marriage, to secure the succession for her own children! Now that's what you call misbehaving!! 

In her honor, Lysimachos renamed the city of Ephesus to Arsinoeia! This was struck there. 

Arsinoe II, wife of Lysimachus, born c. 316 BCE.
Greek Æ 15.5 mm, 4.16 g, 12 h.
Ionia, Ephesos (as Arsinoeia), c. 290-281 BCE.
Obv: Head of Arsinoe, r., veiled.
Rev: Stag kneeling l., head r.; ΑΡ-ΣΙ flanking stag's neck; magistrate's name ΜΕΛΑΙΝΕΥΣ before; Astragalus in upper r. field.
Refs: BMC 14.56, 72 var. (magistrate); SNG Cop 258-59 var. (magistrate); Forrer 14.

[JeandAcre]

On 11/30/2023 at 8:48 AM, Phil Anthos said:

No coin this time, I just wanted to mark the sad passing of Shane McGowan, the brilliant but much troubled singer and song writer for the Irish band The Pogues. So to start off the season here is what I consider one of the greatest Christmas songs ever...

RIP Shane.

Thanks again, @Phil Anthos, for this one.  It's become my favorite Christmas song.  Well, at least pre-Christmas, leading up to my tradition of doing karaoke with bits of The Messiah. (All in a vocal range which, frankly, has seen better days.)

What I need the most from this, from the video, is how, after flinging their respective kitchen sinks at eachother, the protagonists end up slow dancing.  To quote Dickens, 'God bless us, every one.'

[robinjojo]

Armenia, Tigranes II "The Great", tetradrachm, 95-56 BC.

Bedoukian (CAA) 40

15.8 grams

 

This  is a lezginka dance, part of Khachaturian's Gayane Suite.  This dance has it roots in the Caucasus Mountains of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia.  So, please feel free to stand up and take a few whirls! 

 

 

[JeandAcre]

Wow, @robinjojo, I had no idea Khachaturian had been recorded conducting his own music.  This is great.

...Now I'm wishing they'd even invented piano rolls in time for Chopin.

Edited December 15, 2023 by JeandAcre

[Phil Anthos]

An interesting interpretation of The Odyssey...

Smyrna, Ionia

75-50 BC AE21 (21mm, 7.33g) O: Laureate head of Apollo right, within laurel wreath. R: Homer seated left, holding scroll and staff; ΣΜYΡΝΑΙΩΝ to right. SNG Cop 1207; Mionnet 921; Weber 6138; SNG Tuebingen 3180; BMC 116; Sear 4571v (wreath) ex Jack H. Beymer "Whoever obeys the gods, to him they particularly listen." ~ Homer (The Iliad) ~ Peter

Edited December 17, 2023 by Phil Anthos

[Roman Collector]

Faustina II, 147-175 CE.
Roman Æ as or dupondius, 8.55 g, 23.6 mm, 1 h.
Rome, about June 152 - Autumn 154 CE.
Obv: FAVSTINA AVG PII AVG FIL, bare-headed and draped bust, right (Beckmann type 2 hairstyle).
Rev: IVNO, Juno standing facing, head left, holding patera and scepter.
Refs: RIC 1398; BMCRE 2188; Cohen 124; RCV 4726; Strack 1319.

[expat]

ROMAN EMPIRE, Geta, as Caesar. AR Denarius.. Rome, AD 200-202. 21mm, 3.34gr. P SEPT GETA CAES PONT, bare-headed, draped and cuirassed bust right / SECVRIT IMPERII, Securitas seated left, holding globe in right hand. RIC 20b, BMCRE 240-243, RSC 183a,  Cohen 183 - SEAR RCV II (2002), #7200, page 565

[Phil Anthos]

I don't have a triga, so this quadriga will have to serve...

M. Baebius Q.f. Tamphilus

137 BC AR Denarius (18mm, 3.92g) O: Helmeted head of Roma left; X beneath chin, TAMP[IL] behind. R: Apollo in quadriga right, holding bow and arrow; ROM[A] below, M BAEBI Q F in ex. Crawford 236-1 a-d,f; Sydenham 489; RSC Baebia 12; BMC Italy 935 ex Amphora Coins

Happy Yul!

 

[Magnus Maximus]

 

Magnus Maximus AR Siliqua, AD 383-388, Trier Mint

[robinjojo]

 

Syracuse, tetradrachm, Second Democracy, 460-406 BC.

17.3 grams

[expat]

Loose correlation between song and coin this time. Merry Xmas everyone.

"White Christmas" is an Irving Berlin song reminiscing about an old-fashioned Christmas setting. The song was written by Berlin for the 1942 musical film Holiday Inn. The composition won the Academy Award for Best Original Song at the 15th Academy Awards

in 274 AD, the Roman emperor Aurelian had declared 25 December the birthdate of Sol Invictus and Julius I may have thought that he could attract more converts to Christianity by allowing them to continue to celebrate on the same day.

[JeandAcre]

Wow, @robinjojo, a truly memorable convergence of music* with, Just Never Mind, a Syracusan tetradrachm, This freaking early!  Just, Forget it.

*Nope, Forget parentheses; time for a footnote.  It's starting to register that I need to get better acquainted with late -post-Romantic music, from Russia and elsewhere in the broader neighborhood.  Thanks to you (likely plural; you know who you are) for your help along these lines.)

And Yep, you have succeeded in persuading me (despite my best intentions) to do something, at least by way of bouncing off of the music.  

First, the coin remains the best thing to my name with anything equestrian.  Duchy of Brabant; Henri I (late 12th-early 13th c.)

 

And you get not one, but two instrumentals evoking a procession on horseback  My alltime favorite Scarlatti sonata, E Minor, Kirkpatrick 380.

 

And Debussy's 'Cortège,' Yep, Scored for piano four hands.  Played here by two very accomplished teenagers.  I need how the boy is unmistakably blushing.  Yep, I think they're both good kids.

 

(Major, Late-Breaking Edit:)  Regarding the reading of 'Cortège,' it's Just Landed on me that they're Both wearing wedding rings!  Dumb me!  ...Makes it almost better that the guy is still blushing.

Edited December 24, 2023 by JeandAcre

[robinjojo]

26 minutes ago, JeandAcre said:

Wow, @robinjojo, a truly memorable convergence of music* with, Just Never Mind, a Syracusan tetradrachm, This freaking early!  Just, Forget it.

*Nope, Forget parentheses; time for a footnote.  It's starting to register that I need to get better acquainted with late -post-Romantic music, from Russia and elsewhere in the broader neighborhood.  Thanks to you (likely plural; you know who you are) for your help along these lines.)

And Yep, you have succeeded in persuading me (despite my best intentions) to do something, at least by way of bouncing off of the music.  

First, the coin remains the best thing to my name with anything equestrian.  Duchy of Brabant; Henri I (late 12th-early 13th c.)

 

And you get not one, but two instrumentals evoking a procession on horseback  My alltime favorite Scarlatti sonata, E Minor, Kirkpatrick 380.

 

And Debussy's 'Cortège,' Yep, Scored for piano four hands.  Played here by two very accomplished teenagers.  I need how the boy is unmistakably blushing.  Yep, I think they're both good kids.

 

(Major, Late-Breaking Edit:)  Regarding the reading of 'Cortège,' it's Just Landed on me that they're Both wearing wedding rings!  Dumb me!  ...Makes it almost better that the guy is still blushing.

Thank you!

Those performances of the Scarlatti and Debussy pieces are wonderful!  It is so nice to hear the Scarlatti sonata performed with a harpsichord, as it was originally intended.  Nowadays most performances are the transcription for piano.

 

 

Edited December 24, 2023 by robinjojo

[JeandAcre]

@robinjojo, Thanks for the vote of confidence about harpsichords!  

Honestly, I really, truly, can't not appreciate people playing Bach and Scarlatti, et al., on piano; more than one of them have known how to take full advantage of the distinctive kinds of nuance that it allows.  (Apart from Barenboim, the usual suspects have to begin with Gould for Bach, and Horowitz for Scarlatti.)  But I've always, reflexively gravitated to readings on 'original instruments;' the more musicalogically informed --up to the level of mere pedantry; it's still music-- the better.  

Here's my reigning favorite from YouTube.  Thanks to Jordi Savall, whose ensemble includes at least one alumnus (...the harpsichordist) of the pioneering 'original instruments' guy, Gustav Leonhardt.  I really like how Savall Never loses sight of the fact that the Music comes First.  There's art, and then there are the footnotes you can write about it.

 

 

[Phil Anthos]

But we're they originally intended for harpsichord or virginal?

Serious question as I honestly do not know.

~ Peter 

[JeandAcre]

@Phil Anthos, that's a funly intelligent question!

The virginal is effectively an earlier, smaller ancestor of  le clavecin  the harpsichord.  The Wiki article en anglais has better documentation than most, and will give you the history in the menu, under 'Variants.'  --Right, under 'virginals,' an earlier, singular variation of the name.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harpsichord

Queen Elizabeth I was a famous proponent of the virginal (likely named after her), and there's a Ton of great extant English literature written for it, ranging from the later 16th to the earlier 17th centuries, some of it going back to members of her own court.  ...Regarding the composers, Wiki is not forthcoming (anyone surprised?), and it's been too long since I was listening to it.

But here's one favorite example.

 

...Yes, it's fun stuff.  But the later, full-scale harpsichord, often with multiple sets of strings, for different pitches, and two keyboards  --especially with the lower tunings that it began its life with-- was Really its Own Thing.  It was the kind of machine (or, like some Blues guitarists have said, 'box') that people like Bach and Couperin (who I like to think of as an early-18th-century soul-ancestor of Chopin) could get Amazing music from.

[panzerman]

I can post coins but not tunes/ not tech saavy as they say....

[Phil Anthos]

The harpsichord is a rounder sound I think, not quite as raw. The piano even moreso, which is why it still exists in so many parlors. 

In the 60s Baldwin made an electronic harpsichord which sounded pretty 'experimental' to be kind. My understanding is that 4 were made, one of which burned in a fire and two were scrapped for parts. The forth one was used by the Beatles on the song In My Life from Rubber Soul. This one ended up in a studio next to the one i was working at in the 70s and I got a chance to tinker on it once (I don't really play).

 

[robinjojo]

4 hours ago, JeandAcre said:

@robinjojo, Thanks for the vote of confidence about harpsichords!  

Honestly, I really, truly, can't not appreciate people playing Bach and Scarlatti, et al., on piano; more than one of them have known how to take full advantage of the distinctive kinds of nuance that it allows.  (Apart from Barenboim, the usual suspects have to begin with Gould for Bach, and Horowitz for Scarlatti.)  But I've always, reflexively gravitated to readings on 'original instruments;' the more musicalogically informed --up to the level of mere pedantry; it's still music-- the better.  

Here's my reigning favorite from YouTube.  Thanks to Jordi Savall, whose ensemble includes at least one alumnus (...the harpsichordist) of the pioneering 'original instruments' guy, Gustav Leonhardt.  I really like how Savall Never loses sight of the fact that the Music comes First.  There's art, and then there are the footnotes you can write about it.

 

 

Thanks!  I bookmarked the YouTube video.