ancient egyptian coins?

Altho i adore Roman. ancient Egyptian is where my heart is i love everything about it the gods the pyramids the wonder. which is why my favirote show off all times is stargate sg1.


i was wondering if there was any ancient egyptian coins that had pharoes or pyramids or symbols ect on them. or are thoes only on more modern coins.

i know theres roman eygptian coins. what kind of coin did the egyptians use?

 

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There are ancient coins that depict the Sphinx or stepped pyramids, these were not however produced in Egypt but were produced in Phoenicia in the 490s B.C. Coinage was a new thing during this time period having only been around in the world since around 600 B.C. If you are looking for coins older than this produced in Egypt then you are in for a disappointment. Some of the earliest coins produced in Egypt copied the Attic, Athenian Owl Tetradrachms. These were not likely used for local use but to pay mercenaries. Coins were produced in Egypt during the time of Alexander the Great and these were likely for local use. After the death of Alexander, Ptolemy I takes over as King of Egypt and there are a whole range of coins now produced specifically for use within Egypt. These do not however depict pyramids, earlier pharoes etc. and why would they? The Roman egyptian coinage that you refer to was intended to circulate within Egypt and this continued late into the Roman empire. There are Roman Egyptian coins that depict the Sphinx etc. but that is about all you are going to find.

Martin

 

for some reason i keep thinking rome is younger then it is and none of the ancient cultures were around each other. i wish there were coings from king tut ect

 

Coins didn't start to emerge until more than 700 years after King Tut and even then not in Egypt. Sorry for the disappointment.

 

The last native Pharoah Nectanebo (aka Nektanebo) II issued coins in bronze and gold. They are not cheap. The gold one is listed in Sear GC&V volume 2 page 577.
http://www.acsearch.info/record.html?id=369845
Bronzes are listed here but I have never seen one.
http://www.acsearch.info/search.html?search=similar:648373

 

You want a coin with Egyptian Pharoahs, Pyramids, and symbols?

Coming right up!



Egyptian Magic Coin

 

I have a coin not sure gold or bronze.
What is the value?
Age?

 

Coins were produced in China many centuries before they were in Lydia.

 

just a guess without pictures or description, maybe it is a US penny worth $.01?

 

If you want Egyptian, scarabs are plentiful and affordable. This one is a couple hundred years older than Tutankhamun's reign.

Hyksos Scarab
1650 to 1550 BC
Intact, once glazed, pierced for mounting.
Base engraved with a cut coiled cord pattern.
Steatite 10x15mm, 1.42g

 

Chinese produced "money", but "coins" not so much until after the Zhou dynasty

 

It's an old argument. What is 'money' and what is a 'coin'? Is money a coin, is a coin money? Are they synonymous? Separate concepts from one another? Outside Asia there is debate but within the answer is clear for them. I tend to agree that the early forms of money are also coins. After all, early Lydian coins are just largely formless lumps whereas in China the forms were highly refined.

 

i like it all, after i started collecting coins, my 1st ones being Greek, i went to the very beginnings of money and that took me all the way back to Chinese cowry shell. it's currency no matter what ya call it, but most peeps don't consider anything coins that isn't semi round and got sumpin stamped on it.

 

The Greek and Roman Egyptian coins are extremely interesting. Many large and nice coins were produced in Alexandria that are reasonably priced today that you may enjoy now.

 

Yep. Cowries are certainly the oldest form of money and have a long and widespread use, even into modern times. I might suggest that coins (well, metal anyway) began with the introduction of the bronze imitation cowrie. There is concrete evidence they (cowries overall) were used during the Shang Dynasty (though the date of this dynasty are disputed, traditionally 1,766 - 1,122 BC). It is impossible to determine their evolution but it would be safe to assume actual cowries as the first, followed by bone, clay, etc. then ultimately to bronze. While it may be debatable to say that the Chinese invented coins, they most certainly did invent money.

 

@maridvnvm answers well regarding the conundrum of Egyptian monies. I, too, was on the same search, but learned many of the comments that everyone are making. Great stuff. Here are a few of my collection that touches on the Egyptian, and earlier-than-Lydia first coinage:

Potential FIRST COINAGE OF EGYPT (as @dougsmit) comments:

Egypt Pharaoh Nektanebo II 361-343 BCE Ram Scales Weiser 1 - Butcher 11 uncertain no Syria

Be VERY careful to capture Scarabae for REPUTABLE sellers, and that have solid provenance...

EGYPTIAN ROYAL SCARABS:
(I believe that Scarabs are NOT money, rather more of a talisman for protection, jewelry, etc... but are historical markers in Egyptian History.)


Egypt Amenhotep III stone Scarab 1390-1352 BCE cartouch Neb Maat Ra 43.37g 45mm ex Gustave Mustake.JPG


Egypt Scarab Pamai Pamay 830 - 773 BC 8th Pharaoh of the 22nd Dynasty 960 - 766 BC High Priest of Ma'at


Egypt SCARAB Seti I ca 1291-1278 BCE 19th Dynasty ex Zuzim


Egypt SCARAB Thuthmosis III ca 1504-1450 BCE ex CNG ex Hendin


SPHINX SCARAB:
I got this for the "cool" factor, not the historical factor that the Royal Scarabae have...

Egypt SCARAB Middle Kingdom 2065-1650 BCE Scarabeaus Sphinx

Everyone loves this one more than my Royals, even though the Royals can be much more scarce and harder to find...


EARLY CHINESE COINAGE:


CHINA - ZHOU Dynasty, 1122-255 BC square foot spade 350-250 BC AN YANG - 3 lines rev bronze 31x52mm 7.45g H3.184 S13+


China Zhou -Chou- 1000-200 BCE Dynasty Bronze cowrie - VF - Rare


China Shang Dyn 1766-1154 BC Ant Nose Ge Liu Zhu 2.6g 19.5x11 very scarce H 1-10

 

Unfortunately, these are still marketed as being issued by the last native Egyptian Pharaoh, Nektanebo II, but current scholarship suggests they are from Syria, circa third century CE.

From CNG's archives:

Weiser’s attribution of this type to the Egyptian Pharaoh Nektanebo is primarily based on a loose typological similarity to an issue of gold coins that are Egyptian. While this attribution is still followed by some, more recent evidence has almost certainly shown this to be incorrect. All of these bronze coins seem to originate from sources outside of Egypt, particularly the northern Levant, which would not likely be in the circulation pattern of a 4th century BC bronze issue of Egypt (an argument that these may have been struck while Nektanebo was active in Syria during the Satrapal Revolt is completely implausible). Also, with the exception of the Athenian tetradrachm imitations that were likely struck in Egypt for external trade, there was no internal monetized economy that would be necessary to support such a bronze issue. In his book on the coins of Roman Syria, Butcher notes that the style of the leaping ram is very similar to 3rd century AD issues of Antioch, but also notes that it is a common type at Damaskos. Furthermore, Butcher notes that Newell had attributed two of these in the ANS to an uncertain mint in Commagene, although his rationale is unknown. Thus, Butcher attributes these to an uncertain mint in northern Syria in the 3rd century AD.

 

@Mattakari resurrected this thread asking about a coin without pictures. Mattakari - I'm sure people would love to help, but need a little more to go on.

 

That's interesting have you got any pics with dates?

 

Very interesting. Where can authentic, ancient cowry shells be bought, and how are they authenticated?

I mostly collect coins (the roundish, metal things with designs stamped on them, or cast into shapes), but I'm interested in all forms of money to an extent. In addition to cowry shells, I'd like to get ahold of some authentic Native American wampum and other types of money, but I don't really know where to buy them or how to authenticate what I've bought. Any tips?

Can you suggest any reputable sellers of scarabs? I'm quite interested in owning an artifact that's 3000+ years old, but lack of knowledge is stopping me. I know they are commonly faked and how to identify some of the fakes, but I'm still not all that comfortable with them in general.