Alexander the Great Bronzee Chalkon, Fine

These Billon Silver coins were minted between A.D.1022 and A.D.1135, making them between 900 and 1000 years old! They were created in India by those who fled the Islamic expansion and were based on Sassanian coins showing the side facing bust of the monarch on the obverse and a fire altar on the reverse. As time went by, they started to get less and less realistic as the reason for the designs were lost. This means that the coins we have from around 300 years later are very abstract! The stories of Sinbad the Sailor are based on the sea voyages that Arabic peoples made down across the Indian Ocean to Ceylon and these are the coins that the sailors would have found on their journeys. We offer you these Silver Billon coins called Gadhaiya Paisa that were the major trade coins of medieval India. The obverse shows a stylised head facing to the right with the reverse showing a fire altar made from abstract dots and lines.

This Indian banknote is a real treasure from World War II. A German bombing raid on Scotland led to the ship they were on sinking. The Bank of England had printed the watermarked paper for King George VI banknotes of India. The paper would be overprinted in India and used as money. The watermark shows the portrait of King George VI with the words ‘Reserve Bank of India’ and the denomination ‘Ten Rupees’. These banknote sheets were on the treasure ship for more than 50+ years. We bought the treasure ship that contained all the sheets. There was a great write up in IBNS Journal a few years back. We have had them cut into collectable sheets of four notes, which is a great size for display. Hold a light behind the sheet to see it in all its glory. India, World War II and treasure, what more could you want? We have seen the uncut sheet of 4 Indian banknotes bring £60-£65 each at auction. They probably bought them from us and then put them into auction... You can have them at our price and not the auction price.

Born in 630 A.D., Constans II became the Byzantine Emperor at the tender age of 11, reigning from 641 to 668 A.D. Despite his youth, he confronted a myriad of challenges, including conflicts with the Arab Caliphate and internal strife within the empire. In an endeavour to evade persistent threats from the Arab Caliphate, Constans II made the significant decision to relocate the capital from Constantinople to Syracuse. Notable for his initiatives to fortify the Byzantine military and his contributions to architecture, Constans II’s reign came to a tragic end in 668 A.D. when he was assassinated during a rebellion orchestrated by his chamberlain. We are offering these 40 Nummi struck in Constantinople on irregular shaped flans showing a beardless Constans on the obverse and a large M on the reverse, all have a sandy/earth patina, and they come in VG-Fine grade and are very reasonably priced.