The Coins of Alexander the Great. In order to understand the coinage of Alexander the
Great, it is necessary first to explain the ancient Greek world.
There were no specific nations and there was no specific country called Greece
in the ancient world. Greek-speaking people had settled all over
the Mediterranean. They established cities from Spain to the Black
Sea in southern Russia. Alexander became ruler of Macedonia in 336 BC after the murder of his father,
Philip II. Ancient Macedonia was situated in the northeastern area of modern
day Greece. Macedonia had grown strong under Philip II. continue...
 The Coins of Pontius Pilate. Pontius
Pilate was appointed governor of Judea
by the Roman Emperor Tiberius in 26 AD
and he held that position until his removal
in 36 AD. According to the Christian gospels,
Pilate presided over the trial of Jesus
Christ and found him not guilty of subversion.
However, pressured by a religious mob,
Pilate had Jesus crucified. Even though
Pilate's governorship lasted 10 years, he
only produced local coinage in Jerusalem
for a period of three years (29, 30, and
31 AD). What is remarkable about the coins
of Pontius Pilate is that the coins most likely cover the year of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Most biblical scholars accept that Jesus was born under Herod the Great. However, historical records show that Herod died in 4 BC. Rightly or wrongly, it is the monk Dionysus Exiguous (c. 470 – c. 544) who is credited and blamed for the error in the AD dating system. continue...
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 The Coins of Constantine the Great. Christianity
would never have attained its status as
the dominant religion of western civilization
had it not been for the reign of the Roman Emperor Constantine
the Great (306-337 AD). He was truly one
of the most extraordinary figures
of
history.
Constantine made bold
decisions that set the course of history
and catastrophic decisions that imperiled
his own family.
He gave birth to a new Roman Empire of
the East by founding Constantinople. Here
he sowed the seeds of the Byzantine Empire. He essentially adopted Christianity as the state religion after Rome
has persecuted Christians for 300 years. continue...
 The Coins of Herod. Herod I (40 BC - 4BC), or better known as Herod the Great, was a King of Judea but was completely beholding to the power of Rome. He came from a powerful and wealthy Idumaean family who had strong connections among the elite of Rome. Herod's father was the Roman governor for Judea and Herod received the position of governor of Galilee during his father's rule around 43 BC. After his father's death, Herod was forced to flee to Rome when a rival, Antigonos, took control of the Jerusalem with a foreign Parthian army in 40 BC. continue...
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Copyright of Coin Photographs. The
purpose of copyright in the United States
it to give legal protection to works that
are original and creative. Photographs
of coins, both modern and ancient, were
traditionally published in sale catalogs
and in numismatic books since the late
19th century. The advent of the computer
and the internet at the end of the 20th
century has created a new medium to display
photographs both of coins and classic works
of art. As both a coin dealer and person
engaged in coin studies, this issue has
attracted my attention of late. Google,
the internet search engine, had scanned
my online store, www.coinsoftime.com, for
its portal “Google Images”. 
Ancient Greek Numerals. Although
the Roman Empire was the dominant military and political power of
the Mediterranean from 2nd Century BC to the 4th Century AD, a span
of six hundred years, it was the Greek language from the time of
Alexander the Great in the 4th century BC that was the dominant written
language outside of Rome. This preeminence of Greek can be seen on
the ancient coins stretching from Egypt to Afghanistan. It is, therefore,
not only important to familiarize one's self with the Greek alphabet
to read ancient inscriptions, but more importantly to understand
Greek numerals. This article will only deal with the alphabetical
numerals and not Acrophonic numerals used for weights & measures. (entire article will be available soon).