chrsmat71's summer coin surge

Guess what the most common of all punchmark coins is. Gupta Hardaker 574. A dealer offered lots of ten identified punchmark coins for a good price so I wrote him asking if the ten would be largely different or mostly duplicates. He replied, "A lot of 574, few others." I don't have a lot of these but I already have three GH574's so I did not buy the lot. Yours is pretty nice compared to many but it is always nice to have the head of the bull struck better. Mine (pick your favorite shape):


I have not IDed all of mine by GH yet since my brand new book is still airing out. The one below is still unknown to me. Overstruck or banker's marks??? 442 or 416 seem possible but there is a mark missing so I need to keep working on it.

 

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very nice DS. .i was very happy with my new coin....but was a bit disappointed i didn't have a better bull. your third one has a nice bull and triple hill, mine has a nice reverse symbol? wonder how many you'd have to get to have one nice example of each punch?

interesting many seem to have a "redish" oxide type deposit thing going on as well.

 

Very cool coins, fellas ... my favourite shape is definitely the barf-cow!!

Unfortunately, I don't have any examples to add to your thread (I did bid once on a very cool lot, but was outbid ... I was pretty sure that the coin I was bidding-on had elephant punches on it, but now I'm thinking that they could have been barf-cows? ... ummm, they do have examples with elephant punches, yes? ... very cool)

=> thanks for sharing (keep 'em comin')

NOTE: I looked through my "Early World Coins & Early Weight Standards" by Tye and discovered that "yes" they do have elephant pumches/stamps (perhaps that is one on your second-to-last coin, Doug? ... is that a tusk, or is that a version of barf-cow?)

 

My last coin has the bottom of the elephant at the left with tusk barely showing. That is a problem with these. You rarely get a whole image of a stamp on on coin and some parts are easier to recognize than others. When I have picked coins, I have looked for recognizable strikes of what I consider the more interesting punches realizing that you can't have them all. The ones below complete what I have but have not looked up yet.

 

thanks Doug

 

"little guys with dots" symbols on the last coin are great.

i was going to save the best for last, but i'll have to do it second to last...have one more incoming. i've always wanted one of the macedonian hercules and zeus coins. was wanting an alexander the great lifetime, but this one was to pretty for the price...so i got his half brother. tried a fancy black background for this one.




Philipp III, AR Drachm
323-319 BC
Sardes
4.2 g
17 mm

Head of Herakles right, wearing lionskin / FILIPPOU, Zeus seated left, holding eagle and scepter. Torch in left field, TI under throne. Price P99.


i was surprised by by how high the relief is on this coins...very pretty.





someone has been doing squats...look at those thighs.

if you want to post any macedonian coins from era, i'l enjoy seeing them.

 

Wow Chris, very nice...

 

Holy schmokes, chrsmat => that coin is so sweet that you denied it the good ol' varnish-table background!! (very nice pick-up, coin-brother)

Ummm, I have an example from Lycia (Phaselis mint) => restoring the types of Alexander the Great of Macedon (it has a sweet Seleucid countermark ... but a crushed nose on the ol' flip-side) ...

 

It's a very nice coin indeed, but what the heck is going on in Zeus' pants? It looks like there was a substantial die gouge or something - where are his legs?

 

WOW! That is some relief. Very nice Chris. Very nice.

 

Great example. Mine is below.



Another macedonian coin of mine.

 

one leg is just left of the chair leg, which is just left of the T1. the other leg is a tad left of that, you can see it better on the angle pic probably. i don't know...it is very high. but you can see the folds of the garment almost up to the very top of the high point, where there seems to be some wear. so i don't think it's a die gouge...but i'm not certain. it is kind of strange...but it is the same height as the face of hercules on the obverse.

thanks all!

and nice macedonian coins stevex and mat!

 

I have only handled something around a hundred of these coins and have never seen anything quite like that reverse bump. I would very much like to hear what someone who had handled tens of thousands of these coins (major dealers, David Sear etc.) would have to say about this item. If someone has access to the Martin Price book on these issues, I would like to know if 'P99' examples they show have high relief or the big bump. This one from acsearch does not:
http://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=535200

 

Nice Coins! How do you date these? Just a curiosity. They are very interesting.

 

Wow! Nice one Chris!!! You'd better be careful...you're going to drag me off the wagon.

I've been coveting one of these for a while now. Yours is a great example.

 

I am at the point all I can do is look them up in the book by finding matches but I do not understand the theories of how they are dated or attributed. The common ones seem to be assigned to the 4th to 2nd centuries BC but I do not know on what basis.

 

Oh okay thanks

 

do it RB...jump off the wagon!

thanks RB.

I don't know how they are dated either, from just looking at some online stuff...it seems certain punchmarks are somewhat related to rulers, this page has some interesting stuff...but I can't really figure it out.

http://indiacoinsmarks.wordpress.com/

 

My "macedonians"

 

showoff!

but seriously, thanks for showing off those beauties dionysos. I love that edge shot.