Greetings. I just received this silver rare coin weighing 12.85 g. I cannot decipher this strange foreign language nor do I guess the ID. I hope it is genuine. Thank you very much for all your lovely comments. Charles
i'm not familiar with the coin...but i con't like the gernal looks of it. seems "casty" looking, kind of porus with soft details. i hope i'm wrong!
It's Persian, but I don't know Persian types off the top of my head. I'll echo the comment that Chris made, though: it doesn't look right. Sometimes it's the image, though. Perfectly good coins can look fake if they're scanned.
Hi. Well I thought it was rare because I could not recognize the lettering. The letters are neither Latin nor Greek, not even Phoenician or Arabic. Then Chris himself said he was not familiar with the coin. Anyway, I still need possibly one reply to return this coin back to the seller. I appreciate your logical comment. Charles
If I correctly understand this statement... You are buying coins without knowing what they are You post them here for identification And then if you didn't get lucky, you return them?
Looks like a Parthian Tetradrachm. It should be around 28mm. They were made from debased silver, so many times will look "casty". However, they have been faked quite bit. I would go to Chris Hopkin's excellet website www.parthia.com to find the attribution. You probably will need to ask an expert in these if its real, but can compare your coin to this database.
Btw, the lettering is blundered Greek. These were made specifically for the Greek population in Parthia, so the original ones were done in good greek, becoming blundered as time went on.
To add to Medoramans comment: These coins are dated ! The Greek letters between the heads of the two figures translate to year 436 in the Seleukid era. That's around 124 AD. That would be during the reign of Vologases III, so i suggest you look here first. As for the general aspect of the coin: i also have some reservations.
That is how I was reading it also. It seems to be the pattern: https://www.cointalk.com/threads/constantius-head-left.250989/#post-1975229 https://www.cointalk.com/threads/shining-hadrian.250873/#post-1975199 https://www.cointalk.com/threads/genuine-greek.250760/#post-1974742 I would suggest that 7Calbrey might post questions & photos prior to buying ancient (unknown) coins in Lebanon.
I feel that several fellow members have increased their knowledge from this thread. Many other viewers and guests have also benefited by the same way. That sounds good for everybody. Numismatic is science, art, History, acquaintance and business alike. CT is a global main arm in this genius and humane hobby . I like..like... Sincerely Charles
I've never heard Numismatics called a "genius and humane hobby". I like that. The classic description is that numismatics is the "king of hobbies and the hobby of kings"
This reminds me of a story I heard at the Westchester New York coin show. There was a fellow that would buy a bunch of coins on Ebay the week before the show. He would then take them around the bourse floor & sell the coins where he could make a profit. After the show, he would then return all the unsold coins to the Ebay sellers. This is just a hearsay story but I have no doubt that it happens (maybe even frequently).
People nowadays refer to modern and not classic descriptions. Anyway, it remains a matter of taste. Personally, I am not a king and will never wish to become so. It is just because of my modest character, but numismatics remains one of my hobbies and CT my favorite site that i could never abuse of .. Friendly Charles
