Saturday Night Free For All

Some new purchases off one seller who I found on the dreaded eBay lol , quite happy with the haul. Be interesting to sort through them when they arrive (sellers pics)

 

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That’s a lovely example, especially that reverse!

 

VERY NICE new drachm, OJ! It's so visually engaging on both sides! And your CI Dafne is stellar!!

 

Those are some nice looking coins, Tony.

 

Thanks , just waiting for the mail man now !

 

One more Saturday night!



Rephotographing some campgates and looking them up in the antiquarian Sulzer catalog from 1777:

 

Great coins and references @Romancollector ! I don't have a campgate of Chrispus and I love Alexandrian coins so that Crisps is my favorite.

 

I'm working on a lot of things tonight. Among them these two recent arrivals. Welcome to the team!

Kingdom of Macedonia
Kassander
305-298 BC.
Amphipolis or Pella mint
Head of Herakles right, wearing lionskin headdress
BAΣIΛEΩΣ KAΣΣANΔΡOY above and beneath, Horseman riding right, right arm raised, Λ in right field, thunderbolt beneath horse.
SNG Alpha Bank 933-934.

Diocletian
Billon Tetradrachm
Egypt, Alexandria.
Obv: A K GOYA DIOKLHTIANOC CEB, laureate cuirassed bust right
Rev: ETOVC to left, Tyche standing left holding rudder and cornucopiae, star
to right. Year mark G.
Milne 4840 (3)

 

Alexandrian coins are a specialty where it is hard to be too picky about condition. There are thousands of types including hundreds that are so rare that the entire extant population will fit in one hand. Serious specialists get over 'condition snobbery' out of necessity and are happy to have coins that are worn but still legible enough that there is no doubt what the coin is (including the date). When there is one of something known, the best available is not guaranteed to be Fine. These coins circulated in daily commerce.

The Trajan is lovely. My best guess, and nothing more, is a flipover doublestrike. Drachms of the period tend to have a cup shape to the flan that I don't see in the photo. While there are other possibilities, this is consistent with a coin struck over another or itself with the opposite side up. Who here can show any Alexandrian coins with striking errors? I can't. There may not be enough to make a study of the subject.

 

Yep ....



... and I'm cataloging a new addition to my Faustina II subcollection.


Faustina II, AD 147-175.
Roman AR denarius, 3.30 g, 17 mm, 6 h.
Rome, AD 158-161.
Obv: FAVSTINA AVGVSTA, bare-headed and draped bust, right.
Rev: VENVS, Venus standing left, holding dove in right hand and vertical scepter in left hand.
Refs: RIC 730; BMCRE 167-68; RSC/Cohen 255; Strack 520i; RCV 5266; MIR 32-34; CRE 236.
Notes: Strack argues that the FAVSTINA AVGVSTA issues with descriptive reverses actually commenced in 158, a judgement confirmed by Szaivert in MIR. Szaivert, following the work of Fittschen, dates this coin, based upon the empress's changing hairstyles, to AD 158-161, which is in accord with Strack.

 

With almost no new coins coming in these days, over the past week I've gone back to delving into my small pile of ex BCD unknowns. This weekend, I managed to attribute a couple, including the first one below.

The types are clear enough, but Italy during the late Roman Republic was not at all my first guess as to where or when it was struck. The exact mint location is still uncertain, but a recent study of overstrikes by Stannard & Skinner establishes the dating quite confidently to the late 90s to early 80s BC (during the Social War). It's pretty modest-looking, but actually quite nice for the type.


CAMPANIA, Capua (?)
AE18. 5.43g, 17.7mm. HN III 2672; CAMPANIA, Capua (?), circa late 90s/early 80s BC. SNG Copenhagen 342-343; Lindgren II 190; Stannard & Sinner, "A Central Italian coin...", Saguntum 46 (2014), p. 161, 1. O: Head of youthful Dionysos to right wearing ivy wreath. R: Panther to right, holding thyrsos over shoulder.
Ex BCD Collection (Incerta)
For further info see:
1. Stannard & Sinner. "A Central Italian coin with Dionysos/Panther types, and contacts between Central Italy and Spain in the 2nd and 1st centuries BC." Saguntum 46 (2014), p. 161, 1.
2. Yarrow, Liv Mariah. "Dionysus and Panther at the Meta Sudans."

Here's another one, below, with extremely rough surfaces that made the reverse type challenging to figure out. Thankfully, I managed to match it with one of the BCD tags the lot came with, which helpfully identified what was inside the wreath as the forepart of a winged horse. Things always seem so much clearer when someone spells it out for you. With that sorted out, I could narrow down a handful of cities the coin might belong to, and even though the type seems rare enough that no examples show up in acsearch or wildwinds, I did find it listed in SNG Copenhagen, under Lampsakos. Interesting that the tag suggests a find spot in Thessaly!


MYSIA, Lampsakos
AE18. 3.8g, 18.2mm. MYSIA, Lampsakos, 2nd - 1st centuries BC. SNG Cop 216. O: Laureate head of Apollo right. R: Forepart of pegasos with curled wing within wreath.
Ex BCD Collection (Incerta), with his handwritten tag noting "C.C. ex Thess., Nov 92, DM 15."

I also photographed a few others that are still "in progress", like this interesting facing head bronze. The obverse resembles issues of Miletos with Apollo's facing head, but the reverse looks nothing like the lions on those bronzes. Maybe I have the orientation completely wrong, but it looks more like a bull butting left, or the forepart of a calf right??

 

I love that panther!!!

 

Lately as a result of postiing on another thread on CT I have been working on Athenian tetradrachms of the Mass Coinage 454 to 404 B.C. While doing some research I discovered that one of my coins was featured in a Lanz auction some three years before I bought it at the Denver ANA. Athens Tetradrachm Flament III/ II. The obverse is a Group III 16 the reverse is a Group II r. 17.18 grms 23mm The coin was actually a mistake. I purchased it thinking it was a Group II. I had concentrated on the reverse and did not realize my error until that evening when I got back to my hotel. I decided none the less to keep the coin and now I am now happy that I own it photo by W. Hansen

 

Yeah, he seems to be doing quite the strut!

 

Absolutely... Alexandrian coins are the one type where I'll still buy then even if worn to nearly nothing. They've given me a problem to figure out recently... a few weeks ago I bought a lot of 15 coins (13 or so from Alexandria... diobols and obols of Vespasian, Domitian, Hadrian, even an Otho! etc.) for about $30... they are mostly identifiable but worn to nothing or really rough. I'm trying to figure out if they make it into my collection binders or are just a fun attribution activity, then into the jar of worn coins with them. They're all pretty ugly but really fun to work on.

I started with the normal late third century tetradrachms but after getting a few rough earlier drachms... I was hooked. The reverses are just so interesting and the dating makes them fun among provincials where normally a specific year is hard to come by.

As for the Trajan, yeah I love it. The temple is what made me drool over it... the temple impression under the reverse is what tipped the scales to make me buy it. In much internet searching... it's the nicest of the type I can find anywhere. It does have a bit of a concave reverse. It's hard to see here but here's a photo.

 

That Faustina II is a beauty! Nice surfaces, nice style, nice toning, nice dove!

That Panther does have some attitude! Interesting coins. I don't think I've ever seen these types before.

Amazing Owl! I've always wanted an owl... and If I ever do get one, I want to pay to get one this nice.

 

Since it's a free for all.... my latest cool addition..

 

Nice new old coins, everyone.

My Saturday night was definitely free, and so will this Sunday be. It’s constitution day here today, but all arrangements are off due to Covid19.
I spent my Saturday like @zumbly; identifying Greek bronzes. Mine were from Asia minor; Mysia, Troas, Ionia, etc. I used the Plant book for identification, and in the cases where that didn’t help, I got down to dechifering the Greek letters. I then used the search engine for cities on wildwinds.
I made small collectors cards out of nice art paper, and wrote the basics about the coins on them. You know the drill.
I like to take my time with this, looking up cities to know a little more than the little information in books like Sear GCV. However, old Sear has some useful notes, that’s for sure. I was happy to read that one of my coins came from «a small coastal town situated south/west of Epheos». I’m from a small coastal town myself, so that made me appreciate that little bronze coin more than before. On the whole, I find that I appreciate the coins that have given me a little work, more. By the time I finished yesterday, I had a tray full of identified coins. I have at least one more to go. After that, I’m going to photograph and archive them all. When that’s done, I have to find another lot of unidentified bronzes, preferably from the same regions. It would be nice to come to a point where I found out that I only had silver coins left to collect from a city.



Here’s a little more on Phygela, from Wikipedia:

«Pygela (Ancient Greek: Πύγελα) or Phygela (Φύγελα) was a small town of ancient Ionia, on the coast of the Caystrian Bay, a little to the south of Ephesus. According to Greek mythology, it was said to have been founded by Agamemnon, and to have been peopled with the remnants of his army; it contained a temple of Artemis Munychia.[1][2][3][4][5][6] Dioscorides commends the wine of this town.[7] It was a polis (city-state) and a member of the Delian League.[8] Silver and bronze coins dated to the 4th century BCE bearing the legends «ΦΥΓΑΛΕΩΝ» or «ΦΥΓ» are attributed to the town.[8]

Harpocration wrote that according to Theopompos it took its name when some of the men with Agamemnon stayed there on account of a disease to do with their buttocks (pygai, πυγαί).[9] Suda wrote the same about the name of the place.[10]

It is located near Kuşadası, Asiatic Turkey.[11][12]»

 

Nice coin! With the flowers in the background, the appearance is very peaceful

Here's mine, different mint, and it looks like the headgear is bit different too?

 

Kicking off Saturday night coining with a new take on a blast from the past to get the energy flowing:

First coin up is Diocletian and Eusebeia with some Pancakes:

Diocletian
Alexandria
Struck A.D. 284/5.
A K Γ OVAΛ ΔIOKΛHTIANOC CЄB, laureate and cuirassed bust of Diocletian right
Eusebeia (Pietas) standing facing, head left, sprinkling incense over small altar and holding box of incense; in field left, LA ( = yr. 1 = A.D. 284/5 )
Emmett 4052, Milne 4752; Geissen 3204; Curtis 1994; BMC Alexandria p. 324, 2509

Also... this week I received Milne's Catalog of Alexandrian Coins so I'm learning how to use that reference. I have Emmett and Curtis... I'd say that Milne is much more detailed but more difficult to use.