Excavating my miscellaneous accumulation

Discussion in 'Ancient Coins' started by Oxford Punter, Feb 27, 2020.

  1. Oxford Punter

    Oxford Punter Active Member

    In my noble and yet unrealistic goal of sorting my miscellaneous coin accumulation, I frequently come across items that are outside of any meager knowledge I might have. Such is the case with these two coins that were handed to me by a friend recently. I have been poking about with ancients a wee bit, but I still aspire to be even a novice.

    Your wisdom and gentle mentoring would be appreciated. Wazzit? Just casual curiosity on my part. Thank you.

    The first coin is 18-19mm diameter, 4mm thick, and 6.23g wt.
    The second coin is ~16mm diameter, 1mm thick, and ~1g wt.
    Coin1b.jpg
    Coin1a.jpg

    Coin2a.jpg
    Coin2b.jpg
     
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  3. David@PCC

    David@PCC allcoinage.com

    Similar to mine, but hard to pin down exact due to condition.
    g113.jpg
    Alexander II
    Mint: Apamea
    AE Serrate
    125 to 123 BC
    Obvs: Head of young Dionysos r. wearing ivy wreath.
    Revs: BAΣIΛEΩΣ AΛEΞANΔPOY, Tyche standing left with right hand on tiller and holding cornucopia. Control mark above cornucopia
    18mm, 6.1g
    Ref: SNG Isr.312.2367, SC 2242.3c
     
  4. Oxford Punter

    Oxford Punter Active Member

    Why, thank you! Yes indeed, the condition does leave a bit to be desired... o_O
    As ancients have not, up to now, been a direction of study for me, I had no idea how to start. I believe I need a basic primer in picking up a random ancient and deciding how best to begin to identify it.
     
  5. lordmarcovan

    lordmarcovan Eclectic & Eccentric Moderator

    The first looks Seleucid to my definitely untrained eyes, and the second is without a doubt a whatzit.
     
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  6. gsimonel

    gsimonel Well-Known Member

    Any chance the 2nd might be Macedonian shield, or perhaps a celtic imitation of one?
     
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  7. David@PCC

    David@PCC allcoinage.com

    I have a site for identifying seleucid coins (only through Antiochus II thus far but I add entries almost daily.)
     
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  8. Oxford Punter

    Oxford Punter Active Member

    Cool. A monumental task. I've bookmarked it!
     
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  9. Oxford Punter

    Oxford Punter Active Member

    Wow! My identifying skills are far better than I thought. I had the second one down as a whatzit too. Woohoo! :shame:
     
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  10. svessien

    svessien Senior Member

    I was thinking jewish prutah when I saw the second one. But I don’t know much about them at all, so I’m just guessing. Maybe it’s an ancient arcade gaming token;)
     
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  11. Oxford Punter

    Oxford Punter Active Member

    :D It does appear as if it could be used in a Shalom Invaders machine...
     
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  12. Oxford Punter

    Oxford Punter Active Member

    An acquaintance here said today that the second one "looks Indo-Greek to me." Well, thank you Bob, but I still have no idea how to even start looking into it.
    Oooooh, the humbling experience of stepping outside of my knowledge bases. Yikes!
     
  13. gsimonel

    gsimonel Well-Known Member

    Deep breath. You can do this.

    You have two coins that are very difficult to ID. You've already gotten an excellent lead on the first coin. The second one will take a while. Relax and enjoy the journey.

    I have coins in my collection that have sat around unidentified for 10, 20 years. Maybe someday I'll come up with a positive ID for them.
     
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  14. Oxford Punter

    Oxford Punter Active Member

    Thank you for the reminder.
     
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