Hi folks! I am wondering about two of my Greek bronzes. First, there is this coin: Aigae, Aeolis. AE 18 mm. 3.33 g. Sear 4168. It looks to me like Apollo has had horns applied to him to make his portrait resemble Alexander the Great coins. The "horn" facing the viewer is incuse into the coin. I think it would be hard for a die artist to use an existing Aigae die to do this since this shape on the die would be in relief, so I'm wondering if this is a sort of countermark. I have seen this same phenomenon on another random coin I saw online somewhere (can't remember where). I also wonder if this is a sort of intentional punning. My second coin is a very strange thing that I have not been able to identify (please help if you can!). CoinTalker pprp was able to help me to get the fourth character in the abbreviation for Amphipolis (I couldn't see the other vertical stroke in the pi letter), but unfortunately I am still at a dead end with this coin. There are a few weird things that kind of intrigue me about this coin. The obverse portrait is one; I can't place it, but the head sure looks fierce! On the reverse, there are three points of confusion for me. The first is that the M - PH - I - P letters (for "Amphipolis") resemble a countermark, but it would be a wide countermark, like a rectangular stamp today. Can anyone say if this is in fact a countermark, and/or if countermarks of a rectangular or maybe oblong shape were used in antiquity on coins? The second strange thing concerns the thin shapes occurring at about 11:30 and 12:30 on the reverse. What are they? They remind me of this coin (below), but I think I'm probably trying too hard to relate them to two goats' horns, like on this coin below (I don't own this coin or even know what it is): My final puzzle occurs when I rotate the coin as follows (looking at the reverse): Now, I see a lion's head facing left, with a very visible open mouth, as well as nose, eye, and and maybe even ear. I'm wondering if the face that we see facing right could be a reworking of a lion design. Am I going crazy? This coin seems to offer so many possibilities of interpretation, and is really flummoxing me! (Thanks in advance to anyone who can comment!)
Now that is a cool coin, just the puzzle solving aspect is worth the price of admission. The challenges and pleasure of numismatics.
The comparative image of the second coin : "two rampant goats from Amphipolis" seems to fit. Your coin probably with Zeus obverse. It is not unusual that a coin is countermarked in the same city which issued the coin, and the countermarked letters also point to Amphipolis
Thank you, Shanxi! I wasn't sure if I was way off there or not. Also, I appreciate you mentioning about countermarking coinage occurring in the city that originally issued the coin. I hadn't thought of that. By the way: I LOVE your avatar! Nice owl!
Those countermarks can be fun. This one makes the obverse portrait look like the figure has curled ram-horns.
