I still don't have any ancient gold. I keep seeing some from around the 900 AD era (can't remember the name), but would prefer BC gold.
I am sitting here shaking my head, not because of the coins.. I would be proud to own either because they are awesome.. I'm shaking my head because I found another type to start collecting which I am sure I can't afford and will be expensive.. That ancient Owl is awesome and I have never seen a coin that thick... I need to buy a book on those so I will have at least a small amount of knowledge when looking for those. Anyways, I see no winners or losers on that trade since both coins are great and those involved are happy..
OK , its time for a contest. Show your thickest coin not in millimeters but in proportion to diameter. Thicker than owls are turtles of Aigina of which early examples are on baroque shaped flans. Who else has a thicker than normal ancient to nominate for the fat coin show?
Funny thing is I told him to be careful, cause he was gonna get hooked on American Gold, and I am on a slippery slope on the ancient bandwagon.
This is when having my coins in trays would be handy. I'll have to sift through the boxes to find some others with high thickness to diameter ratios, but the winner in my collection is probably this Aegina stater (thickness is ~40% of diameter; ~8 mm thick and 20 mm diameter) I probably have some less dramatic coins with higher ratios but that will require some digging and measuring. I may have some coins which are thicker than this but with lower ratios.
Alegandron has previously mentioned recording thicknesses and I wish I would have thought more about it. Think I may have a new cataloging project. @Ancientnoob that's a very nice coin you got and I'm glad all parties are equally pleased. This place is great.
I am now approaching a thousand coins that I am making a project to thoroughly catalog, spec, and attribute. My wife has finally developed my database to a point where I can input data. One data-point is thickness, since ancients are such cool creatures having all kinds of thicknesses and random dimensions. I also will be catching up to the Ancients Team by learning to put my pics into a dark or black background tray... I know @Bing and @Ancientnoob have patiently coached or urged me to learn this... Pics will be a major part of the database (as a separate file database), so that I can add profile pics of thickness, comparatives to other coins, history files, info, etc...
Ummm, does this sweet ol' cast-AE example from Akragas count? => it's like a fricken bullet!! Sicily, Akragas Cast AE Trias (4 Onkia) circa 450 BC Diameter: 14 x 19 x 20 mm Weight: 16.28 grams Desc: Eagle standing left & trident of crab’s claws on sides, four pellets on base Reference: SNG ANS 1015-7; CNS 1
Not mine but TIF's. Dunno about the ratio but this is so amazing it deserves to be dragged out at any opportunity......
Wow TIF => both of those are gorgeous examples, coin-Princess (man, you really do have such sweet coins, eh?) ... oh, and apparently Pishpash works in your PR department?!
Thanks, Pish! It's definitely an all-around hefty coin at 95 gm. 45 mm in diameter but "only" 8 mm thick. ZEUGITANA, Carthage early 2nd century BCE AE 15-shekels, 45 mm, 95 gm Obv: wreathed head of Tanit left Rev: horse standing right, left foreleg up; solar disk with uraei above Ref: Alexandropoulos J (2000) Les monnaies de l'Afrique Antique, 103; Müller L (1861) Numismatique de L'Ancienne Afrique, 131; Luynes 3782; Jenkins GK and Lewis RB (1963) Carthaginian Gold and Electrum Coins, Royal Numismatic Society, London, pl. 28 12
one of my thickest coins per size is this nagas of narwar kakini, about 9 mm wide, about 2 mm thick, and 1.9g. it is unusual enough that i wanted a side shot, pictured with a 1/2 kakini, a coin pretty much the same except for the thickness.