most research-provoking coin of 2016

Some coins make you study them and check out all your resources. Maybe you like your most valuable coins the most, and maybe you like the most beautiful or rarest the most (and these categories overlap a great deal), but this coin which is not my most expensive, or most beautiful, or rarest, but it provoked the most research.


It was the subject of a thread I began on perspective:

https://www.cointalk.com/threads/perspective.279926/

After many hours of purposeful looking I can say that not many ancient coins show perspective in the sense of any "vanishing point" type idea. This one shows the front of the galley facing about half-right and with oars further away smaller.

Post your most research-provoking coin that was not your most expensive, most beautiful, or rarest piece.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

Oooh, I love this design. I posted my two in the thread you show. Yours is really a nice example.

 

While my top ten of 2016 included my Fonteius which was purchased exactly for the reasons you covered, I believe my most research provoking coins are errors and overstrikes. Sometimes the answer of what was going on on that coin is obvious; sometimes there is quite a bit of blankly staring before enlightenment comes. In 2016, the leader was my Anonymous Byzantine follis overstruck on a Gordian III as after nearly 800 years of being in the original form. Most recently was my barbarous Decentius falling horseman. Those have been covered recently here so I won't repeat them now. Of all my technically interesting coins, the most significant is this AE3 of Constantine I which proves that what we call clashed dies are certainly die damage rather than restruck brockages as too many people once believed.


The reverse die was damaged when the dies were struck together without a blank between them. The result was reversed intention of the obverse design. The coin was double struck and both strikes transferred the incuse from the clash offset from each other by the same amount as are the two strikes from the double strike as best seen on the obverse behind the head. I like this coin because it diagnoses a common error for those willing to look at the evidence.

 

The coin I have spent the most time on is the Galba below. It was difficult task to find other examples of this coin online that were properly attributed.In the end I found 2, one from the BMC and one from the Berlin collection. The attribution on WildWinds was incorrect (it has since been fixed). My actual coin which is RIC 193 was listed under RIC 191. The photo was of my coin before I bought it. The key difference between them is the direction of the reverse legend. There are other coins which are very close to mine with subtle differences. Tracking down these variants and finding the appropriate references was very much a fun process. In the end I confirmed the attribution that came with the coin (a purchase from FAC), and learned a lot about similar coins. This coin was not my most expensive but it is one of my rarest coins. There are no examples on acsearch, coin archives or CNG. It is definitely the one that provoked the most research.

 

This tiny (8mm, 0.73g) fraction. Third or fourth known specimen. The clear inscription allowed me to attribute it it to Mallos in Cilicia. Previous catalogers had not been able to read the inscription. I was also able to link the type to a similar coin with mysterious ΑΘΕ inscription and possibly Hebrew letter that was auctioned in 2007.

 

A great coin.

 

Warren, I really like this coin. I have looked at this many times and have not pulled the trigger to capture one. This captures a dramatic scene in warfare... imagine an enemy's ship seeing this Trireme bearing down on them to ram! BAM! I love it!

 

I really like this coin! Love fractionals, and especially with the amazing detail yours has. The owl has an interesting circle design on its head. I do not believe it a bankers mark, as it would be too small, and why would you need to test a fractional? LOL is it a third eye?

 

Hmmm? ... ummm, probably my sweet Akragas counter-stamped winna?

SICILY, Akragas. Æ Hemilitron
Late 5th century BC
Diameter: 28 mm
Weight: 14.71 grams
Obverse: Eagle standing right, tearing at hare
Reverse: Crab; six pellets around, crayfish below; c/m: head of Herakles right, wearing lion’s skin, within circular incuse
Reference: For undertype: cf. HGC 2, 136; for c/m: CNS 107 CM
Other: 11h .... Coin Near VF, countermark VF, green patina. Well preserved undertype.

From the Edgar L. Owen Collection



Akragas/Acragas ... ooow, there it is!! (cool)



... and wow, I know a lot of those sweet coin-cities, below (kinda neat) ...

I have coins from: Messana, Himera, Selinus, Akragas, Syracuse and probably more ... very cool



=> here is a link to learn a bit more about Akragas (below) ...

https://translate.google.ca/transla...s://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akragas&prev=search

Counter-stamping coins ... hey, why did they do that?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Countermark

... wow, that was kind of interesting too, eh?

Yah, so I am assuming that my cool Sicilian coin was counter-stamped by Alexander-III (The Great) sometime during 336-323 BC??? (that's my guess anyway)

Well, there you have it ... that is now my most researched coin of 2016 (that was awesome) ... thanks for getting me off of my ass and making me do a bit of research

Cheers

 

It might really be the third eye! It is common on Athenian owls. For example https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owl_of_Athena#/media/File:Tetradrachm_Athens_480-420BC_MBA_Lyon.jpg .I don't know why the dot appears on some but not all owl tetradrachms.

A similar dot is sometimes seen on gorgoneions. It is difficult to research this issue online due to the large number of new-age websites wishing to discuss dots, third eyes, and mythology.

For anyone who hasn't noticed dots on owl foreheads before, who knows what else you are missing? I have found it valuable to write a description of my coins myself. When I cut-and-paste from the seller's description it is easy to overlook features not in the seller's description. Try to write a paragraph for each new acquisition, similar to what a cataloger would write, and your coins may surprise you!

 

Not close to being the most expensive and certainly not the most beautiful....


CRETE, Gortyna
AR Stater. 11.77g, 29.8mm. CRETE, Gortyna, circa 330-270 BC. SNG Cop -; cf. Svoronos 58f (rev as Svoronos 62). O: Europa seated right in plane (platanus) tree, resting her head pensively on her left hand. R: Bull standing to right, head turned back left to lick its flank.
Overstruck on a stater of Knossos, circa 425-360 BC (cf. Svoronos 23), with undertypes of the Minotaur and Labyrinth of Knossos visible.

What I summarized briefly in the original post about this Gortyna stater overstruck on a Knossos stater was the result of many enjoyable hours of research - looking and photographing the coin from numerous angles, squinting at poorly-scanned plates of Svoronos's book on Cretan coins, trying to find any and all examples of Gortyna and Knossos staters elsewhere and online to compare with mine, and reading (or re-reading) what's been written about these two mints in the references I have access to. I guess it's really not surprising it ended up being my favorite coin acquired this year.

 

Do you have an example you wouldn't mind sharing?

 

Love the posts!!

So many of mine involve constant and continuing research to tweak all the information about a coin I can. But I suppose the most recent example was this example of Romulus....the lack of consensus of the reverse and the legend had me on the computer for weeks on end.

 

Interesting observation, Alegandron and Ed. It caused me to look at my Athenian owl and, sure enough, although too small to qualify as a third eye, there is a dot on the owl's forehead that I had not noticed before:

 

Can I share/use this photo? de Callatay and Macdonald are assembling a corpus.

 

Easily my most researched coin of 2016.


Vespasian (Countermarked)
AR Denarius, 3.06g
Ephesus Mint, 71 AD; Countermarked under Vespasian at Ephesus, circa 74-79 AD
RIC 1431 (C), BMC 457, RSC 276, RPC 833 (14 spec.); c/m: GIC 839
Obv: IMP CAESAR VESPAS AVG COS III TR P P P; Head of Vespasian, laureate, r.; c/m: IMP·VES (ligate)
Rev: PACI AVGVSTAE; Victory, draped, advancing r., holding wreath extended in r. hand and palm over l. shoulder. EPHE lower r.

An exceptionally rare appearance of a Vespasian countermark on a denarius struck for Vespasian. I know of less than half a dozen other Vespasianic denarii similarly stamped. I had a blast researching it and tracking down similar coins that were countermarked with the same stamp.

And it made my Top Ten of 2016 too!

 

Absolutely! If it's on overstrikes it sounds like something that'll be very interesting.

 

Yes it is on overstrikes- a very important undertaking. Do you have Macdonald's book? It is outstanding and very inexpensive. He doesn't list your type but a different one from Gortyna.

 

No, but it'll be going on my growing book want list for 2017 .

 

Great thread @Valentinian . Perspective is not always right on Roman coins. This is usually a ruler much larger than a defeated for or an Augustus larger than his children or Caesar.
I enjoy reading about coins I buy (before when on line or after when from a coin show). The two most researched I have posted often here - plumb bobs and die clashes.
One of the coins I most regret not winning looked like a die clash in the photos. I stopped bidding at about twice my max because I had the type. I was the second bidder and quickly sorry. Look for reversed letters in front of the chin.

I have since bought one that has a bit of a shadow, but in hand is not an obvious die clash - see what could be a C in front of the crown.


PS - I found another plumb bob symbol, actually an A frame level for my wish list.