I'm on the wagon but placed a minimal bid on this little coin for reasons not extremely clear and having nothing to do with the marketing skills of the seller. No one else wanted it. The listing attributed the coin to Trierus which is a city unknown to history except for a couple coin types. The obverse horse looks Thracian in style and I read that those with known provenance tend to be found in that region. The seller listed it as an obol but, at .38g, it is a hemiobol. The seller's tag also said EF-40 and $345 proving one of us is delusional. Compared to others I see online, mine is more worn with better surfaces. Being perfectly centered is a fault since all of us would trade a little more at the bottom for a little space above the horse's head. The extra metal at the left confirms the denomination as a hemi shown by only half a horse. Coins of this region from other cities often have four letters in the 4 part incuse reverse but some read around rather than left to right so we really do not know if the intent was TPIH or TPHI. References vary on that point. I prefer TPIHPOC as a guess. Everyone seems to agree that the next letter was an R but no one says why. Dates of the first half of the 5th century seem reasonable comparing to coins of other cities in the region. With some coins it is easier to know all that is known. This is not always an advantage.
Congrats => that's a sweet ol' animal-coin!! ... I tried researching it a bit, but could only come-up with the following two links (hopefully this'll be a bit more info for ya) .... http://www.vcoins.com/en/stores/ancient_imports/8/product/gfgf_thrace_trierus_ar_hemiobol__horse/34102/Default.aspx http://www.wildwinds.com/coins/greece/macedonia/trieros/t.html Oh and Doug => you and I ride the ol' wagon in a similar fashion ... => kinda side-saddle, making it is easy to jump off and roll without getting injured ... but then having the ability to quickly jump back onto the wagon without too much fuss!! (well played)
Trier is a well known center in Germany on the Rhine Land. It is famous for the Roman ruins therein. Does this apply to Trierus ? Trier + us Roman or Latin wise. Charles
Hmm, but Trier (in Rhineland-Palatinate, usually considered to be the oldest city in Germany) is today's version of what the Romans called Augusta Treverorum. That's not Doug's place. Christian
Nice addition! While searching for "TRIERUS" in google, one of the links showed the Welsh to English translation of the word. Its "TRIERUS."
=> here is another coin-link (some CNG examples) ... apparently it is Trierus and/or Trieros http://www.cngcoins.com/Search.aspx?PAGE_NUM=&PAGE=1&TABS_TYPE=2&CONTAINER_TYPE_ID=3&IS_ADVANCED=1&ITEM_DESC=trieros&ITEM_IS_SOLD=1&SEARCH_IN_CONTAINER_TYPE_ID_1=1&SEARCH_IN_CONTAINER_TYPE_ID_3=1&SEARCH_IN_CONTAINER_TYPE_ID_2=1&SEARCH_IN_CONTAINER_TYPE_ID_4=1
Notice that only one of the CNG examples met estimate and it went over triple. Did someone really want the retrograde P?
=> you're totally correct in insinuating that was a super overkill-bid ... but man, that coin really is the King of our examples, eh?
It was just pointed out to me that TPIH is also the start of the Greek for trihemiobol so the letters might not even be for the town. I consider this unlikely since a trihemiobol should weigh a lot more than any of these coins I have seen listed. Of course it could mean something else. The find spots recorded limit the place of issue to a region but all else is a matter for study.
