Unpublished fracional of Araxa??

What the devil is this tidbit? I clearly read ARA in the Lycian alphabet on the reverse, upside-down, below the fish. I can't find the little bugger anywhere, in any of the usual online resources or any of my catalogs. It got compliments at FORVM, but no help.

I'm thinking Araxa, which would really be something unusual. What else would ARA stand for in Lycia? 0.2g, finger for scale.

 

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I LOVE that piece! That is really tiny! And, as what was popular in the recent elections, you have tiny hands too!!! Dooaahhh....

I want that fish to be a Piranha!

 

It looks like a tuna, and the coin looks to be uncirculated - too bad about the chip but it's not really that bad. If nobody can attribute it, I'll take it to NYINC and show it to some of the big boys, see what they have to say.

 

Great-looking coin. Is that a lion I see on the obverse?

 

Yes, forward facing lion.

 

Looked through many books but could not find it. Will take a bigger reference library. My best guess is that its a Lycian diobol.

 

Thanks for looking Ken!

 

Of course I looked at Mysia as lions and tunny are featured there. No dice. Also, the fish has remarkable similarities to an issue in Spain, but that makes no sense with the lion scalp. My best suggestion might be that it is an unknown issue from Tlos. Its a head scratcher. By all means, let us know what it is when you show it around.

 

I love it. That is such a well rendered fish!

I am a sucker for lion heads too.

John

 

what a fantastic little coin! i can't remember seeing anything with that surf and turf combo before, and i don't recall seeing a fish of that style at all.

 

I don't know. That fish looks like a PIRANHA, and the Piranha fish are from the AMAZON, where the AMAZONs were... ergo, this is the long lost rare Litra of the Amazon Warriors! Of course that would be a Lioness obverse, and a female Piranha on the reverse. It is chipped because one of the Amazon Warriors tossed it in the air and nicked it with an arrow she fired...

I am stickin' with my myth!

And at THIS point, no one can refute it!

 

Sounds good to me! Opening bid: $1,000,000,000.

 

Rrriiiiiight....

 

That tuna is definitely an 8. She would have been a 10 but she's got blood coming out of her eyes and her you know...wherever!

And I've said it before, @John Anthony 's tiny hands are making ancient coin collecting great again. A quarter of my collection has passed through those tiny yet glorious orange hands.

 

WOW !! What a cool coin!! I hope you can nail down an attribution.....

 

Very cool coin and fish! Reminds me of a Coelacanth which would be even cooler since they were thought extinct until recently.

 

Coelacanth is exactly what I thought, but a Coelacanth's tail is much broader. It's gotta be a tuna.

 

Can't help with the i.d. but it's a neat coin

 

Zero chance of me helping you out here but this is the kind of thing an ancient noob, like myself, might like to spend some time on.

The www. global database is about the only resource at my disposal and I tried any number of combinations in the search box:

"lion scalp" and "fish" and "ARA"
"Facing lion scalp" and "tunny fish"
"Facing lion scalp" and "tunny fish swimming left"

&ct. . . . . . . .

The most interesting was this linky: http://archaicwonder.tumblr.com/post/35450134286/zagaba-dynasts-of-lycia-silver-stater-380-375-bc

For me, the similitude of The lion scalps certainly suggests Lycian origin, and I liked the reverse fish.

I also enjoyed this article and might suggest your fishy, if not Tunny, could be a Sturgeon or Mullet. (Edited to add: probably not)
Opens as a PDF: http://www.pontos.dk/publications/articles/bss2_stolba.pdf

I enjoyed my little interwebs jaunt even though I knew if you hadn't found it in your references then I was on a wild-goose chase, but I learned a bit nonetheless.

 

Hey friend, thanks for helping! I came across the stater of Zagaba in my search as well, as the only Lycian coin with a fish on it. The hunt continues - hopefully someone at NYINC will be able to point me in the right direction.