Hi folks I need some help with some coins that are out of my wheelhouse 1. 9.5g. 23mm 2. 11.4g 22mm 3. 13.9g 23mm 4. 7.9g 20mm 5. 4.8g 15 mm thanks for the help Richard
Im afraid that I wont be much help....however that Owl is one of the nicest ive ever seen. Two thumds up.. Hang tight someone from the dark side should be viewing your specimens soon.
Right, consider the source, but the first one is an Athenian tetradrachm, likely just a little later than the iconic ones from around the earlier-mid 5th c. BCE. Coin 2 is the most fun from here. At first, the lettering looked Armenian, as in the medieval Cilician ones. Now I'm not so sure it's even Syriac. The motifs evoke some fun combination of influences from somewhere in Central - South Asia. 3 is a Ptolemaic tetradrachm, Egypt, c. 3rd-1st c. BCE. The Greek (and finding an online keyboard, from here, could be another ten minutes) for 'Ptolemy' is very clear on the left of the reverse. Doesn't help you much, since they were as thick as Louis ...s in France. They're nearly all readily attributable, though, by people who know what they're doing. 4 (and 5?) is from the kingdom of Amisus (AMI[...S]OY), c. 2nd-1ST c. BCE. From here, neither reverse is familiar. ...I'm out of my league here, but the monogram, "MR", in the upper left of the clearer one, Might be as easy as the prevailing royal name, Mithridates. Here's what Wiki has to say about the kingdom at large. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Pontus
This shouts fake. No Athenian tet weighs that little and I believe I have seen the style before. I am not sure about the others.
#2 is a ramatanka (a Hindu temple token from India). There are many varieties, this seems to be the most common design: first side depicts Rama and his brother Lakshmana standing, other side has Rama and his wife Sita seated on throne, Lakshmana holding parasol to left and the monkey-god Hanuman to right. Most were struck in the 19th or first half of 20th centuries. The legend is just "Rama Sata" (Sita) repeated over and over. Type 4704 in Michael Mitchiner's "Oriental Coins and Their Values Volume 2: Non-Islamic States and Western Colonies AD 600- 1979". Agree that #1 looks dodgy. The weight especially bothers me.
Mitchiner states that it is written in Gurmukhi, which is the writing system used for Punjabi. For far more information than you probably want, check out the Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gurmukhi
Here's the Fake report for the Athenian tetradrachm: https://www.forumancientcoins.com/fakes/displayimage.php?pos=-7113
...Just, next time, don't preemptively accuse me of wanting less information! Especially where linguistic dynamics are concerned. I went from your link straight to this one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proto-Sinaitic_script ...noting that the alphabet is a separate branch of the common prototype of both ancient South Arabian and Phoenician ones. ...Ancient South Arabian script (notably from Himyarite coins, c. 1st-2nd c. CE) has pronounced affinities with Aksumite script, which, along with medieval Armenian, is based on Syriac. The takeaway from here is that there is in fact a common Semitic element going on.
Hi @ziggy9, Coin#3, the Ptolemaic, is a year 5 of Ptolemy XII (11 Sept. 77 - 10 Sept. 76 BCE). - Broucheion
