Attribution Challenges

Crowd sourcing for attributions. Its a good idea. Often we can not see what should be obvious. Here are a few that have me a bit confused:


Gallienus, of Perga. I dont see anything in the literature that matches. Any idea? In hand the figure on the left appears to maybe be radiate (but maybe not).


Lucius Verus(?). But where?



This Nero should be easy for anyone with RPC, but I dont see it there or in the three supplements.


Elagabalus or Antoninus, I'm thinking Edessa in Mesopotamia.



Is this the same coin? I dont know. It's not the same obverse anyway.

Any ideas?

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

Edessa for sure. Very likely to be the same coin. Caracalla or Elagabalus? That's the rub. Can't find an exact reverse match on acsearchinfo.

Here is the listing in BMC for city goddess reverses from Edessa under Caracalla:



and under Elagabalus:



Far from complete, but it's something to go on. The obverse inscription on your coins seems to be more compatible with Caracalla.

 

Hmm. The last two have somewhat of an Edessa look and Tyche is prominent in that area so I checked Mionnet (supplement 8). I didn't see obverse legends which fit for Caracalla or Elagabalus and I only see one entry which has the possibility of a bare head.

What is the size of the last two coins?

 

18 and 17mm. I've got BMC and it was my first go to for all of these. BMC is nice as they have some rare and obscure types listed.

 

The Perga seems to be unpublished. Using ISEGRIM I searched for coins with PERGAIWN inscription, Gallienus, and two figures. None. Here is a search for the reverse type with emperor unspecified:

http://isegrim.mybluemix.net/#!?m=AE&po=Perga&rs=PERGAIWN$&rt=PERSONS 2

The published combinations are Artemis and Nike (Maximus), Hygieia and Asklepios (Caracalla, Phillip II), Hermes and Herakles (Salonina), emperor and Nike (Caracalla).

If we open up the search to longer inscriptions we find medallions with PERGAIWN NEWKORWN, PERGAIWN OYWTA, and PERGAIWN SIDHTWN OMONOIA. Under Gallienus we find two 2-person standing combos: Artemis and Nike and Athena and Artemis.

 

Hi,

Both are Diadumenian from Edessa. He adopted the name Marcus Aurelius Opellius Antoninus. The first obverse reads [M]OPELANTWNEINOC (note no laureate or radiate crown and no title). The second has a laureate crown but no title. It likely reads [O]ANTWNINOCM. The reverse of the second gives it away 95%. It reads OMEDECCA (Opellia Makrinia Edessa). Some early issues for Elagabalus maintain the OMEDECCA (that's why I said 95%), but that is likely due to recycled dies. I believe there is only one specimen of Caracalla in Greek (but it could be just that the bust of Caracalla was used for Elagabalus), and coins for Elagabalus always emphasize the title over his name: AYT, AYTO, AYTOK and K, KAI, KAIC. If no title, assume Diadumenian.

 

Also, your Lucius Verus coin is Lucius Verus from Antioch in Pisidia.

 

I got excited when I saw this thread, as I thought that meant Ken was back. Perhaps Ken saw your post @Edward Dandrow, but I don’t believe he is on the forum anymore.

welcome to Cointalk!

 

I'm sorry to hear that. Thank you for the welcome!

 

Nero should be Prusa, Bithynia but ISEGRIM does not clarify Hypium, Olympum or ad Mare.

VS: NERWN KLAYDIOS KAISAR SEBASTOS RS: PROYSAEWN

RPC I 2019(1-3) / COLL PARIS 1464(1) / WADD RG S577,5(1-2) / SLG WADDINGTON 498(1)

 

The last coin from Edessa is Macrinus not Diadumenian.
The bust is one giveaway, being Laureate is another.
What we are seeing on the Obverse behind the bust is the end of the legend (MACRI )NOC, for some reason the legend starts on the opposite side on his coins of this issue.

 

Yes, my mistake. Here is the obverse from the BnF

 

Just ran across this thread while researching an eBay pick up - a Diadumenian from Edessa. Have only the seller's photo at this point:



From what I can tell, there are two basic types; one with a bare head and one with a bare-headed bust draped and cuirassed.

The one I just got is definitely draped and cuirassed. I am not finding a lot of information on this, but here is a Savoca auction that has the draped/cuirassed type (attributed as cf. BMC 52)


https://www.biddr.com/auctions/savoca/browse?a=1875&l=2042309

My reference library is scanty and I don't have BMC, but from what I can tell from other sites the Tyche AE types are as follows:

BMC 52: draped and cuirassed
BMC 54: head

It seems there should be a BMC 53, and I found one at the British Museum, but I am not sure what the difference is between this and BMC 52 (draped and cuirassed):


https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/C_BNK-G-882

Further complicating things, mine seems to have a stray "K" in the reverse legend that doesn't show up anywhere else. Hoping for a die match with authoritative attribution by an expert numismatist, as always.

 

What happened to Ken?

 

He told me that he was banned, more than a year ago. I'm probably not supposed to say why.

 

Hi Mike,

The only difference for BMC 53 is the longer Obverse legend M OPEL.
Yours would be a 52 ( looks an Obverse match to the other posted ) with a different Reverse die.
Hope that helps.

 

Thank you @tenbobbit I really appreciate the confirmation - these Provincials really confuse me sometimes (a lot of the time!).

 

Nero is listed by RPC as from Prusa ad Olympum
https://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/1/2019