Introduction: Andorra is a tiny, independent principality situated between France and Spain in the Pyrenees mountains. It is, perhaps, best known for its ski resorts and a tax-haven status that encourages duty-free shopping. It was also one of four countries in Europe directly affected by the move to the Euro and, consequently, also had to…
Introduction: Medieval history is often taught as a power struggle between nobles fighting for control of their inherited lands via a series of military campaigns, often ending in a decisive battle that has been portrayed within a 19th century ‘nationalist’ mindset. My own education, from what I can remember of primary school and the old…
Kosovo is a fertile region lying just to the northeast of Albania, in central former Yugoslavia. It is one of the earliest settlements by the Slavic people who later became the Serb nation – one of the reasons the hard-line nationalists in Serbia were so determined to include it as part of a Greater Serbia during…
Bosnia & Herzegovina Bosnia & Herzegovina declared sovereignty in October 1991 and independence from the former Yugoslavia on 3 March 1992 after a referendum boycotted by ethnic Serbs. The Bosnian Serbs – supported by neighboring Serbia and Montenegro – responded with armed resistance aimed at partitioning the republic along ethnic lines and joining Serb-held areas…
The descriptions on this page have been taken from the Official Journal of the European Union and the European Central Bank website. Coins are listed in chronological order, i.e. date of issue. Where the dates of issue are the same, coins are listed in alphabetical order, by country (English spelling). Summary Date Country Commemorating Mintage…
Long before the introduction of struck coinage into ancient Celtic Europe, copper and gold rings were used as currency by Celtic tribes and were often worn on clothing or tied together by ropes. These particular rings, often referred to as “proto-currency”, were created in ancient Moesia (now Bulgaria) as long ago as 7th century BC.…
Celtic coinage is the most intriguing and varied of all the British coins since no one knows specifically for whom, when or where they were produced. To date, over 45,000 of ancient British and Gaulish coins have been discovered in Britain and all of these have been recorded at the Oxford Celtic Coin Index, but…
The Nervan-Antonine Dynasty (96–192) The Nerva–Antonine dynasty was a dynasty of seven Roman Emperors who ruled over the Roman Empire from 96 AD to 192 AD. These Emperors were Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius, Lucius Verus, and Commodus. They are probably of great interest to fans of the Gladiator movie but the real history…
The Year of the Four Emperors (68–69) and the beginning of the Flavian Dynasty The suicide of emperor Nero, in AD 68, was followed by a brief period of civil war – the first Roman civil war since Mark Antony’s death in 30 BC. Between June and December of AD 69, Rome witnessed the successive rise and…
Coins of the Roman Empire This is intended as a simple, introductory guide to Roman coins. Links to academic and other sources of information are provided for each Roman Emperor and more detailed Roman coin databases are available online. Roman Provincial Coinage (University of Oxford) Online Coins of the Roman Empire (New York University / ANS) Coin…
The Old Currency Exchange is a specialist dealer and valuer of Irish & GB coins, tokens and banknotes 