QUESTION: Mr. Armstrong; the WEC was the best ever. The materials it took you a month to prepare in advance are amazing. Your insight into the difference between a sovereign debt crisis and how that produces deflation compared to the debasement deserves a Nobel Prize. My question is how did the people cope with the […]
A lot a people wanted a bronze Roman Sestertius. We sold out of all the issues. The only one I had more of was those of Gordian III. This was an interesting emperor for Gordian III is where we find the last silver denarius to be issued in any quantity. Following his assassination, the dominant […]
The hoard of Athenian Owl tetradrachms has revealed something incredibly important. The seminal work of Chester Starr (Athenian Coinage) identified five groups of designs covering the period 480-407BC. While Starr examined known coins in museums and collections, he did show photographs and attributed them to a declining quality of execution based upon the fact that […]
QUESTION: You said that Imperial Rome did not have a national debt nor central banks. Did Rome ever have debts that were not private? JY ANSWER: Yes. In all honesty, it was the Debt Crisis that ended the Roman Republic. There was a Sovereign Debt Crisis during the Roman Republic period resulted in a […]
QUESTION: Mr. Armstrong; You mentioned that the environment was the primary cause of the Greek Dark age between the Heroic and Hellenistic periods. Can you elaborate on that at all? Thank you. They do not seem to connect the dots as you say in school MG ANSWER: What is most interesting is the fact that they do not […]
Gold rings were discovered in Ireland and they seem to be uncertain about their original use. The Celts did not create their own coins for many centuries. They used ring money which is commonly found throughout Europe, north of Italy. Celtic ring money is typically bronze. However, it is known that the Minoians sailed into […]
QUESTION: Sir; I have noticed that the Roman and Greek hoards of coins you have offered are silver. You do not offer hoards of bronze coins. I have two questions. First, are broze hoards less common? Second, why have you been a buyer of large hoards to begin with? Thank you LW ANSWER: There […]
QUESTION: Can you shed any light on the history of money in Portugal. There seems to be scant discussion of this subject. Thank you ANSWER: The first coinage of Portugal really is Roman and it appears to be struck by the first Roman Emperor Octavian/Augustus (27BC-14AD). The location of the mint was the city of Évora. […]
QUESTION: Your chart on the Roman money supply shows a huge spike going into 87BC. Was that just because of the Social War? GS ANSWER: No. During the autumn of 88 BC, there was a massacre of more than 80,000 unsuspecting Roman civilians which took place in Anatolia (western Turkey). The victims were Roman and Italian merchants, […]
QUESTION: You have previously said that the Persian monetary system was based on gold, the Greeks used silver and the Romans began with bronze. That actually described the Biblical story of the dream of Nebuchadnezzar’s Statue interpreted by Daniel. Do you think your research into the world Monetary System confirms that interpretation? WK ANSWER: I […]
