I believe Steve has a nicer one but I always wanted to be like Steve when I grow up so maybe someday I'll get a nicer one. c.500 BC, Akragas issued a series of cast tooth shape bronzes with denomination marked on the third side showing a dot for each 1/12 litra. This is a hexas (1/6) with two dots. I recently upgraded my four dot trias (1/3) which is the most common coin of the series. I lack the tetras (3 dots 1/4). The sides show an eagle and crab but it is not easy to find coins with both animals clear. This one is 17mm long and 7.10g. For comparison, below is my trias. As a matter of fact, these are not all that easy to photograph.
Those are so cool, Doug !!! I love the unusual and items filled with history and interesting stories to say about their origins or connection to coinage in general---and those bronze pieces certainly have all of that.... Hmmm, now I have to wait for Steve (impatiently tapping my foot )
Waaaahhhh!!! ... I don't have a baby-tooth!! Yah, your cool new coin is "all that" => you're da King!! I merely have one of those Trias examples (four dots) ... Great new pick-up, Champ!! Oh, but I do have a few cool cast-examples to toss into this very cool thread ... Sicily, Akragas, AE Cast Trias (4 Onkia) 450 BC Eagle standing & Crab with claws Sicily, Selinos, AE Cast Onkia 450-440 BC Kantharos & Selinon Leaf Sicily, Selinos, AE Cast Tetras 450-440 BC Gorgon Face & Selinon Leaf Sicily, Akragas, AE Cast Onkia 450-440 BC Eagle & Crab-leg Wow ... again, that baby-tooth is very cool (congrats on a neat score) => man, I love owning these "first" examples of bronze coins!!
yummy ... yah, I returned to take another peek (man, the patina is very, very cool => does it actually look like that "in-hand" => yum-yum)
It is varied, chipped and shiny. The contrast between the red and green is only this strong in bright light. Coins this small look different in hand just because they are hard to see 'in hand'. They look more like this when using a magnifier because the red patches, for example are really only a millimeter across. This is a problem with my photos. If you shoot a 1/2" coin and make a 10" across image, all the faults are made 20 times as obvious as they are in hand. Fuzzy, tiny images taken with a cheap camera might be more accurate for those of us with poor eyesight. What you can't see without magnification exists only to those who care to look closely.
every time i see these i think of a guy i know who as some civil war bullets in a little display case in his family room...kind of like these.
