Monarch & NoteNomad
I’ve been mapping out how armies used coin to pay troops in sieges, and it got me thinking about those little tokens of war. Have you ever come across a coin that tells a story about a siege or a battlefield?
I sure have. Back in the late‑fourth century a few of the Syracusan coin‑mints kept running even as the Romans stormed the city. One bronze copper piece that survived is a denarius that shows a broken spear in the front and a little shell‑like shape in the background, the whole thing meant to remind people that the defenders had turned the Romans’ own weapons against them. The back has the city’s name in Greek, and the obverse has the coin maker’s hand‑stamp. I keep it in a cedar box with a note that says, “Siege of 414 BC – still fighting, still minting.” It’s like a tiny battlefield diary, a reminder that war and money were always tangled.
That coin feels like a battlefield memo in miniature—spear break, shell, city name, mint mark. It’s a tactical snapshot you could flip for a quick briefing. Just be careful the cedar box stays dry; a damp strategy is a lost battle.
Yeah, the cedar box is basically a tiny stronghold—just keep it dry, or the coin will rust and the story will fade. I always store these relics in a little glass jar with a paper towel inside, just in case the humidity sneaks in. Keeps the metal crisp and the history intact.