Month: March 2025

Sidequest 17 – Collecting Ancient Coins with Dean and Josh

As a companion to our recent episode with Dr. Le Blanc, I thought it would be interesting to do an episode about collecting ancient coins. I reached out to Kinzer Coins and the result is this episode with Dean and Josh. After discussing their origin stories, Dean and Josh tell us what collectors should know when they start collecting, where to buy coins, how to store coins and grail pieces. I hope you all learn something from this and are more informed if you decide to start a coin collection.

Please check out their podcast to learn more information about their work and this interesting, and potentially not too expensive, hobby. You can also check out their respective sites to see if they have any coins you may want to buy.

Your reading assignments include Archaic and Classical Greek Coins and The History and Coinage of the Roman Imperators (49-27 BC).

The theme music is from Brent Arehart. Please call the pod (540-632-0160), leave a message and you’ll get in an episode. Let me know what you think about what we think in the comments.

And never forget that The Classical Antiquity Sidequest is a podcast without end.

Jam Session – New Cover

As you all know, me and some friends create cover songs in which we combine old-time tunes with They Might Be Giants lyrics. We recently did a cover of the TMBG song “Finished With Lies” for my friend Greg’s podcast, This Might Be A Podcast. I was the guest for the episode and our group’s song is played during the covers section. You can listen to the entire episode or just skip to the song which is below.

*As a heads up, me and Greg had a pretty adult conversation about mental health, suicide and the other sorts of things that we deal with as we age. Just wanted to alert you to this in advance.

Enjoy!

Sidequest 16 – Dr. Robyn Le Blanc and Ancient Coins

Those of us who are casual fans of Antiquity spend a lot of time talking about our favorite emperors and kings, in addition to discussing specific battles of significance along with myths and legends. One thing we probably don’t spend enough time talking about is ancient currency and the various purposes coins were used for during Antiquity. To remedy that, Dr. Robyn Le Blanc hopped on the pod to discuss numismatics (the study of coins and other units of currency). Turns out that coins were used for a lot more than just purchasing things and paying the soldiers.

During this episode, we cover the renaming of Dr. Le Blanc’s academic department, sources other than coins themselves which shed light on these ancient artifacts, whether ancient coins belong in a museum (don’t take a drink every time I reference Indiana Jones), how coins were made and distributed and how important it was to sack cities so you could make the money necessary to pay your soldiers. And we also learn about an early Robin Hood figure who lived during the reign of Septimius Severus. How cool is that?

We also discuss one famous coin that sold for more than FOUR MILLION DOLLARS. This is serious stuff, folks!

Your reading assignments are Moneta and When Money Talks: A History of Coins and Numismatics.

The theme music is from Brent Arehart. Please call the pod (540-632-0160), leave a message and you’ll get in an episode. Let me know what you think about what we think in the comments.

And never forget that The Classical Antiquity Sidequest is a podcast without end.