Numismatic Society of Ireland
         Northern Branch

The talk on the numismatics of the ancient Borporan Kingdom was presented to the members of the Northern Branch of the Numismatic Society of Ireland on Friday 7th October 2016. The insights in the history and chronology of the Kingdom were generously illustrated with maps and photographs selected by the speaker from public domain. A tray of specimens of Bosporan coins of various rulers and denominations was passed round the table for close examination. Attention was drawn to the scale of ongoing looting of the archaeological sites of the region and continued appearance of the top grade Bosporan coins and artefacts of a doubtful provenace in major aucton catalogues and sales in Europe and US. The slides of the presentation are now available in the archives.

In this talk, richly illustrated with images of the coins and English Monarchs from various public and private collections, Desi embarks on a comprehensive review of the origins, forms and evolution of a key British currency - the English halfcrown. Enjoy reading this fascinating story unwrapping the history and art of the British silver coins. 

'On Errors and Varieties, and How to Read What They Tell' by Alexey Shitvov 09/01/2015

In this light talk, basic taxonomy of mint errors and varieties is introduced and illustrated with examples from the speaker's collection. It is argued that contrary to mint errors, legend/image varieties can be intentional and aimed to encode essential infomation about the mint and issuer identity. Despite the view commonly supported by premium coin dealers that mint errors generally undermine the quality of representative specimens and are risky to invest, mint errors and varieties draw increasing attention of both lay and expert collectors and command high prices at the auctions.