My (offhand) guess is that this is a modern design. I can’t think of any Greek coins that are fully anepigraphic. It also is very uniform, something you don’t see with ancients in general.
The seem that you can see along the side let's us know it's a modern forgery. That said, I'm not very good at identifying die cutters from this period. Buuut, I'm pretty sure that's a Vinny from 42nd st.
Being anepigraphic is not all that unusual but this is certainly modern in style. The coins below are offered for fully optional ID practice by anyone interested but legends will not help at all. The job at hand is to decide whether a coin is anepigraphic or if it lost its letters to time and the elements. Of the group, only the first is stater size. The rest illustrate the fact that fractional coins are less likely to have legends than the larger denominations.
Yes, I have that exact same piece. I got it as a free give-away at the 2006 FUN show from a booth that was set up, demonstrating ancient coining techniques. I don't know the name of the company or organization that was doing it (sorry, didn't write it down). I have it labelled as "2006 FUN - Hammered "ancient" - private mint" I do remember thinking it was super cool, because the guy literally had a big hammer and was making fresh coins, just like they would have in a Greek mint. And it is an exact copy of the one you show. I can take pictures tomorrow if you want to see it.
I would imagine one could assemble a collection of a hundred 'ancient----NOT' coins made with no intention of fooling collectors but that still get presented to people in the hobby as 'whatsits'. My favorite is the 1898 Sterns Bicycle piece from Syracuse, New York. I do think it would be better had the 2006 FUN folks put some lettering on their token to prevent anyone from 'wondering'. The ANA seminar piece, like the Sterns, is a good example of a well done token.
I'm wondering if it wasn't possibly created by Ron Landis of Gallery Mint Museum, or possibly one of his understudies / students. The image I posted above was created by Ron at the 1999 ANA Summer Seminar. I have three of Ron's silver "cobs" from the 1999 seminar - unstruck, struck in white, and antiqued. He created these hammered coinage pieces again in 2000, but the dies are a bit more specific to the seminar he was giving, I believe . . . . I'm not sure who was doing similar at the FUN show. If not Ron Landis, possibly Joe Paonessa of Badger Mint? Z
It's lovely, whatever it is. A fun junk box find for sure. Before reading about the pieces from the 2006 FUN show, I initially wondered if it might be a Becker, but admittedly, I don't know much about those.
Thanks Physics that narrows it down. Of course this is a modern piece. I hope I didn't mislead anyone. I didn't think it was necessary to post "Who made (struck) this modern silver token in the style of an ancient Greek coin" for the ancient collectors on this forum. I learned a new word too. Of a coin or other artefact: without an inscription or legend.
