Centre for Coins, Culture and Religious History Foundation

Author: Gregory C. Jenks

  • Public Charity Status Granted

    Public Charity Status Granted

    Effective March 6, 2023 the American Friends of CCCRH has been determined to be a public charity under Internal Revenue Code Section 170(b)(1)(A)(vi) and we are also now qualified to receive tax deductible bequests, devises, transfers or gifts under Section 2055, 2106 and 2522 of the IRC.

    The AF-CCCRH has been established exclusively for charitable purposes within the meaning of Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code (or the corresponding section of any future Federal tax code), and specifically to support and promote the Center for Coins, Culture, and Religious History in its mission to acquire curate, preserve, and publish information relating to coins, manuscripts and other cultural materials relevant to religious history for the benefit of the general public.

    Please email us to see how you can assist us in supporting the work of CCCRH and please share this information with family members or friends who you think may be interested in assisting us with a gift.

    Checks and other correspondence may be sent to:

    AMERICAN FRIENDS OF CCCRH
    1065 NORTH 24TH AVENUE
    BLAIR, NE 68008

  • Latest additions to CCCRH collection

    We have just added the details of 37 new acquisitions for the CCCRH collection to our online gallery.

    For those most part these items have not yet been fully documented, but their basic details are published along with photographs.

    During February 2024 we are planning to photograph around 1,800 coins and add those images to the online galleries. This will greatly enrich the value of the galleries for teachers students and researchers.

  • Search the CCCRH collection

    Search the CCCRH collection

    Search our Collection

    The full CCCRH inventory can be browsed or you can search for a specific item. This link provides you with read-only access to selected fields from every record in the database.

    When using this link for the first time you will be asked to register your email address and name. For each person who registers in this way, the Foundation receives a $10 credit towards the cost of our subscription to the AirTable software that powers our site.

    By default the items grouped by type (Ampulla, Amulets, Badges, etc) and then sorted by the name of the record.

    Please note that this collection is a work-in-progress and many records do not yet have photographs or cimplete academic descriptions. However, the curated subsets usually have photographs for most of the items as well as extensive notes.

  • Egyptian Ptah-Sokar-Osiris statue, c. 990/70 BCE

    PSO figure erect
    Open papyrus sheath at rear
    Base with 2 holes

    The Foundation has recently acquired an Egyptian Ptah-Sokar-Osiris statue, also called a papyrus sheath. It has been dated to 990-970 BCE. It is from the estate of an English military family who believed it was brought from Egypt in the early 1900s. It would have stood in a tomb near the mummy of the deceased.

    The statue is of wood and, like most of these figures, it is covered in black varnish. Apparently the black colour referenced the darkness of the night as well as the fertile black mud on the banks of the Nile, and in turn these referred to death and coming alive in the afterlife. 

    The PSO figure wears the atef crown of the god of the afterlife, Osiris. The deceased person becomes an Osiris after death and to make sure he can make the transition, the PSO figure would have contained a papyrus roll with excerpts from the Book of the Dead written in cursive hieroglyphics.

    On the wooden base there are two holes: one for the PSO figure and a small one probably for a wooden sculpture of a hawk, which represented Horus, the son of Osiris and Isis. 

    The PSO figure will be the central feature in the CCCRH Egyptian Exhibition.

  • Several new gallery sets

    We have recently published additional gallery sets for the following categories:

    Cities visited by St Paul
    Popes
    Venice

    As always, the most recent additions to the collection can be viewed in a dedicated online gallery.

    We hope the growing set of galleries for various subsets from the collection will be of value to researchers, students and teachers.

    In some cases, we do not yet have photographs of every item in the gallery, but these will be added as soon as possible.

  • Coin from Mytilene

    CCCRH recently acquired a brass coin minted at Mytilene on the island of Lesbos during the reign of the Roman emperor Tiberius (14–37 CE). It has the head of Tiberius on the obverse with a Greek inscription meaning “Tiberius, divine Augustus.” On the reverse, there is the bust of Tiberius’ mother, Livia—also known as Julia—with a Greek inscription meaning “Julia, divine Augusta.” On both sides, there are the letters MYTI for “Mytilene.”

    The coin provides evidence of the tendency in the eastern parts of the Roman Empire to declare that the emperor was divine, well before the more conservative authorities in Rome would embrace such an affirmation. The Roman Senate had posthumously deified Augustus (the stepfather of Tiberius) at the request of Tiberius. However, Tiberius had refused to nominate Livia for similar honours. Her divine status on the reverse of this coin indicates the city of Mytilene had issued it without the consent of Tiberius.  Livia would eventually be deified by her grandson, Claudius.

    The identification of the city is another interesting aspect of this coin. When minted around 35 CE, the coin preserved the older form of the city’s name: Mytilene (Μυτιλήνη). A later variant Mitylene (Μιτυλήνη), with the first two vowels reversed—also attested in Josephus, Antiquities, 15.350 & 16:20—is found in Acts 20:14 when describing a visit to the city by St Paul in 57 CE. Josephus was writing late in the first century. The Acts of the Apostles seems to have been partly inspired by the success of Josephus’ project and—for this reason—is dated no earlier than Josephus and perhaps somewhat later. The use of the later form of the city’s name in Acts 20 suggests that the author of the “we” material in Acts (16:10–17; 20:5–15; 21:1–18; 27:1–28:16) might not actually have been a companion of Paul during his travels. 

    Although this coin is very worn, it demonstrates the importance of primary source material in historical studies.