The Rev. C. Daniel (Dan) Clark was born in 1926 and served in the Navy immediately following high school from 1944-1946.  In 1954 he completed his Master of Divinity degree and marrried Margaret who had served as a Methodist missionary in Africa. They had four children. He served as a Methodist minister in Michigan, Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana before retiring to southern California. He had a lifelong interest in early Christianity which led him to collect ancient coins with a Christian connection. In 1970 he began a small business auctioning by mail low-priced ancient coins. He went to coin shows where other dealers would bring large bags of late Roman and Byzantine coins (those were the days!) for him to cherry pick.
    If a coin had a Christian connection, Dan was interested even if the coin's grade was low. He was interested in the earliest Roman coins with a Christian connection and Byzantine coins. Some early Byzantine coins have a cross above the head while most do not. Among other things, Dan collected that group of types seriously, hoping to figure out the explanation. The site linked below gives the evidence from the coins in his collection, but the explanation for why some have that cross and many do not remains elusive.

Now (May, 2014) Margaret and Dan are moving to be closer to family and they asked me to help with his collection. This site was intended to preserve the information in his collection for future scholarship.  

Return to the main page of cross-above-head coins.