Centre for Coins, Culture and Religious History Foundation

Category: News

  • Aux amis de la constitution

    The Foundation recently acquired a rare and important pamphlet entitled To the Friends of the Constitution relating to the French Revolution. It consists of ten pages written in French by Pierre-Louis Couedic and printed in 1791 in Paris by Nicolas-Leger Moutard.

    The French Revolution is considered to have begun with the storming of the Bastille in 1789 and ended with Napoleon’s coup d’etat in 1799. The document will be the centre-piece in an exhibition about the French Revolution that will be available to schools and other organizations. The display includes coins and banknotes and will be particularly interesting to students learning French and their teachers. Research Associate, Dr Peter Lewis, will be available to explain the display and run through the PowerPoint presentation with the teachers if required.

    Couedic was a member of the Jacobin club, the most influential political group in Paris. The king, Louis XVI, had been caught trying to flee from France, but Couedic wanted him to continue as a constitutional monarch. He proposed that a council of citizens be established to act as guardians of the constitution.

  • Three more coin articles

    The following articles from the July, August and September issues of the Australasian Coin & Banknote Magazine are now available on the CCCRH website:

    September 2002 – The annunciation on coins and seals
    August 2022 – Rufus of Hierapolis 
    July 2022 – The coins of Hierapolis 

  • Bethsaida @ ASOR 2022

    The Debate over the Identification of Bethsaida-Julias

    A member-generated session at the 2022 annual meeting of the ASOR (formerly the American School of Oriental Research but now the American School of Overseas Research) in Boston on Friday, 18 November.

    Three (3) representatives of the Et-Tell excavations will debate with 3 representatives of the El Araj excavations about the identification of their respective sites in the first century of the Common Era.

    The team from Et-Tell will be Rami Arav, Carl Savage and Greg Jenks. Dr Jenks is the Executive Director of the CCCRH Foundation.

    The abstract for the paper by Dr Jenks reads as follows:

    During three decades of excavations at Et-Tell more than 600 coins have been found. Around two-thirds of these coins are from the Hellenistic and Early Roman periods, including 60 Jewish coins issued by Hasmonean and Herodian authorities. The coin record from Et-Tell reveals a distinct transition from Seleucid imperial authority to Jewish coins issued by the Hasmoneans. This pattern is sustained through to the end of the first century of the Common Era and suggests that Et-Tell was the location of a Jewish community through the Hasmonean and Herodian periods. The coins also reflect the elevation of Bethsaida to city status by Philip in a gesture to Tiberius on the anniversary of his mother’s death. Due to the early death of Phillip in 34 CE this process seems not to have advanced much beyond a formal declaration, the dedication of a small temple to Julia/Livia and some minor fortifications. The coin data indicates that the elevated site of Et-Tell was abandoned towards the end of the Early Roman period, with just three Late Roman/Byzantine coins having been found. This is consistent with geological studies relating to seismic activity in the region and changes to the northwest corner of the Kinneret at the time.

  • The Coins in Judas’ purse

    As the Gospel of John puts it, Judas Iscariot “kept the common purse.” What may have been in the coin bag of Jesus that Judas managed, and occasionally embezzled? This session peeks inside the common purse to see what cash Jesus may have been carrying around with him. We will have examples of these coins from the research collection of the Centre for Coins, Culture and Religious History at St John’s Cathedral, Brisbane.

  • Royal Portraits

    IMAGE: https://www.royalmint.com/our-coins/ranges/historic-coins/queen-elizabeth-ii/

    As part of the Jubilee celebration for Elizabeth II, The Age newspaper has published a beautifully illustrated story of portraits of the Queen on coins and banknotes over the past 70+ years. The story begins with her first appearance upon a Canadian banknote in 1935.

    Read the full story here …

  • Romulus and Remus (again)

    Among some recent additions to the CCCRH collection was another coin featuring Rome’s foundational myth of Romulus and Remus.

    CCCRH 3028

    Unlike most coins with this motif, rather than focus on the mother wolf and twin boys, this example tells more of the story with the kindly shepherd standing to left and bird in the fog tree behind the mother wolf.

    Here is the description of this coin from our online gallery:

    Roman Republic, silver denarius. OBV: helmeted Roma to right. REV: she-wolf standing right with head to left, suckling Romulus & Remus, fig tree with birds in background, with standing figure (Faustulus the shepherd) at left facing right; FOSTLVS to left; [SEX POM] off the flan to r.; [ROMA] in exergue. MINT: Rome. DATE: 137 BCE.

Exit mobile version