Month January 2026

Attributes

Attributes: Small objects held by a deity or personification that identify who they are. For example, a caduceus identifies Mercury, while a cornucopia identifies Abundantia (Abundance).

Anepigraphic

Anepigraphic: A coin that features no lettering or inscriptions whatsoever, relying entirely on imagery to convey its value or origin.

Overstrike

Overstrike: A coin that has been struck using a new set of dies over an existing, older coin. This was a common way for cities to “recycle” foreign currency into their own. Collectors prize these because traces of the original…

Mule

Mule: A coin struck with two dies that were never intended to be used together—for example, a coin with the obverse of one emperor and the reverse of another.

Incuse

Incuse: A design that is sunk into the surface of the metal rather than raised. Early Greek coins from Southern Italy (like those of Metapontum) often featured a raised design on the obverse and an identical, sunken (incuse) design on…

Exergue

Exergue: The small space at the bottom of a coin’s design, usually separated by a horizontal line. In Roman coinage, this area almost always contains the mint mark (the abbreviation of the city where the coin was struck).

Archaic Smile

The Archaic Smile: The Enigmatic Expression of Early Greek Art In the galleries of the world’s great museums, visitors often find themselves locked in a gaze with statues from the 6th century BCE that seem to share a private, timeless…

Amphipolis

Amphipolis: The Sentinel of the Strymon Perched on a plateau in eastern Macedonia, embraced by the winding Strymon River and overlooking the Aegean Sea, Amphipolis was one of the most strategically significant cities of the ancient world. Its history is…

Amphictyonic League

The Voice of the Sanctuaries: The Amphictyonic League In the fragmented world of Ancient Greece, where independent city-states were frequently at each other’s throats, the Amphictyonic League (from the Greek amphictyones, meaning “dwellers around”) served as one of the few…

Ambracia

Ambracia: The Royal Jewel of Epirus While cities like Athens and Sparta dominate the popular imagination of Ancient Greece, the city of Ambracia (modern-day Arta) stood for centuries as a formidable power in the northwest. A Corinthian colony that transformed…