New Ancients: Greek, Indo, & ?

Finally got around to taking pics of my new ancients.


First up is my very first greek coin purchase:

KINGS of MACEDON. Perseus. 179-168 BC.(19mm, 6.8gms). Pella or Amphipolis mint
Ox: Helmeted head of the hero Perseus right; harpa to right

Rx: Eagle standing left, head right, on thunderbolt : B A P E around




Next is my first Indo ancient. Its also my smallest coin I own:

North West India - Kashatrapas - AR Drachm c. 115-395 A.D. - Rx: Garoda Bird. 11mm; 1.9gms.



Third I have no idea what it is. It came as a free pack-in with my order of the above. Any info would be great.





For larger pics since this board resizes them, just right click and copy url image link.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

Third looks like Maryan ancient india silver punched coin. They are about the same age as your Macedonian coin. I do not have my Mitchiner out right now, I am sure someone here can help you better soon.

 

Cool additions! Was wondering when you were gona post em.

 

I got them Wed. but was lazy to post till today, lol.

Thanks for the info medoraman, it is a interesting piece of silver to say the least.

 

I'm a beginner in Indian but would guess your second coin as Kumaragupta I rather than one of the Kashatrapas that should have the mountain reverse. Perhaps someone here can straighten me out on this.

The punchmarked coin is harder. Each piece of silver received five punches on one side and one on the other. They always overlap and wipe out some detail from each other. If you find one with five full and complete marks, it is a fake. Yours is a bigger mess than most. There are many kinds with a couple being much more common than most of the rest so they make a good place to start seeing if you can recognize the marks. The problem is that most used the same mark #1 and each mark after that narrows down the choices. If you have a clear strike of one particular mark, ID is simple but if your clear mark is another, ID may not be possible at my level of study. I attach one I believe to be a Samprati 216-207 BC that seems more clear than many and may be what yours is.... or not. I'd just call it Mauryan c. 200 BC.

 

As always doug your posts are appreciated. Like I said the third one was a freebie so I knew nothing about it. I didnt even know something like that existed cause you dont see them often on coin boards, at least I never did. As you said mines pretty messy, even with scratches but its free silver & its a good conversation piece. Yours has much better detail then mine. I wouldnt know the first place to look for id'ing such a piece.

 

Well I was close

Mitchiner ACW has a pretty good section on these. I am not sure what other attribution guides they are for them. I have a few just for funsies.

 

The problem is a copy of Mitchiner sells for more than pretty much a complete one coin per reign set of these. Of course it is a decent book for other things too. The easiest ID help for these might be watching sales on eBay. There is at least one seller that shows the drawings of the stamps on his offerings even when his coin is less than clear on all the stamps. Searching "Mauryan" on eBay can be as educational as finding a professional site which has photos of exceptional coins that don't look much like the grade people like me get offered.

 

What sort of coverage does Tye give these? (I still have to purchase the book.)

The other problem with Mitchiner is that his books are absurdly difficult to navigate. And he tends to throw anything he pleases into them.

 

You are right that only Gupta rulers have issued coins with "Garuda" on reverse. The legends on reverse are not complete to attribute this to a particular Gupta ruler; however the style on obverse is very similar to the one of Kumargupta's.

A very nice punchmark coin you have here. I have a decent collection of punchmarks and am trying to classify them by Gupta & Hardaker's catalog. Indeed, an interesting series in ancient Indian coins.

Regards,
Ballabh Garg

 

Tye’s book only covers jittals (specially bulls and horseman series).

For punchmarks, my first preference is a book written by Dr. P.L. Gupta and Terry Hardaker. The numbers assigned in his book is widely used by dealers in auction listings/sales catalogs.

Regards,
Ballabh Garg

 

I love the Tye book (Early World Coins and Early Weight Standards) but it is rarely a book to base exact ID's upon. It is more a way to find where a coin fits in the big picture of coinage. For example it shows about a dozen punchmarked Mauryans as always selected as the common ones likely to show up including the one I posted above. It does not really equip a reader to decide if they have that coin or just something similar. My coin is listed as 5 mark 'period VI' with no suggested ruler name except for a change in GH reference numbers, the coin before and after have the same data. There are many sections of Tye where I feel the ID assistance is more well done than in punchmarks.

The really nice thing about Tye is that you can often take a coin that you know absolutely nothing about and figure out, for example, that it is from a certain time and place that you can research elsewhere using the keyworks provided. Since he uses the common coins as examples this further research often turns out to be just confirming that your coin is a match rather than some rare variety.

The Jital book is completely different but by the same author. I recommend it also if you like Jitals.

 

While I agree Mitchiner is a little disorganized, I still like his series. I believe these are in his newer Ancient Trade and Early Coinage as well. Also, there is a reason his books are pricey, its because they are good and widely used.

 

What sort of price are we looking at for a copy of Gupta & Hardaker's catalog Ballabh? that is something I would certainly be interested in purchasing

 

Oops! I didn't realize that you were talking about his new book. I haven't got his new book yet, but it's in my list.

Regards,
Ballabh Garg

 

It's out of print now but a second hand coy can be purchased for around $60-$75. I have seen few copies in last couple of years in few numismatic library auctions.

Last year I purchased another book on punchmarks by Dilip Rajgor and it's a very good reference book on the series. It's very easy to follow and has details of many recent finds. There are many new types/sub-types reported in this new book and I recommend this to anybody interested in this series (if they are unable to find Gupta&Hardaker's book).

Regards,
Ballabh Garg

 

Can you let me know the title and publisher please Ballabh

 

The book's title is "Punch-Marked coins of Early Historic India" by Dilip Rajgor and it's published by "Reesha Books International", San Jose, California.

Regards,
Ballabh Garg

 

Where it is listed as sold out (7th down on this page):
http://www.reeshabooks.com/newrel.htm

 

I purchased my copy from a bookseller in India and believe that it was easily available with several dealers in Bombay.

Here is one listed on a well known coin dealer web-site (he lists a hard-bound copy for Rs. 3400/- but I knew a soft-bound copy was published for Rs. 600/- too) If you are interested, check with the dealer and he may have a soft copy available with him.
http://www.farokhtodywalla.com/books3.htm (Book #42 on this page)

Regards,
Ballabh Garg