I think it is a provincial coin from Thrace (Pautalia) and the reverse features Bonus-Eventus? How wrong am I?
That's not a bad looking coin at all JB. Show us the full attribution once you have it (I'm too tired. Been working in the Florida humidity all morning).
I remember my first year Greek professor pointing out that there was no rule in the language that could not be overruled by a desire to make the language sound better. This is called euphonics. I do not know where the city got its name but you can not say AGCHIALUS without twisting a tonsil. German would have no problem with the concept but Greek went from G to NG to N in the sound and we coin collectors have to deal with it. Also remember that standard practice was to put the genitive plural on the reverse of such coins so the reverse legend reads "of the Anchialians". Don't feel bad if you do not find an exact match. I doubt there are many of them surviving (but more than collectors dying to own one, unfortunately). See a similar but different coin: http://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=725046
Commodus, AE23, Pautalia, (AYT KAI) MAP AYP KOMODOC, laureate, draped bust right / (..OYL)PIAC P-AYTALIAC, Bonus-Eventus naked standing, holding patera & branch. This as close as I've come but i don't think this is it?
Ardatirion told you the city was Anchialus. Stop looking in Pautalia. I really doubt you will find it online and I do not have the specialized books to look it up. From what I have seen online, the city issued quite a few reverses over a period of time since we see young and old portraits of Commodus but not a lot of specimens of any one type. Yours is a little rough but so are many I've seen sold in the online resources (search CNG's past sales). Provincials is a really bad field to take up if you live for catalog numbers. If it is in the references, the books that need to be checked are numerous and expensive. From the coin, we can see a middle period portrait (youngish but not kid). I would have guessed Apollo but Boni Eventus is reasonable and do not claim to know which this is.
I gave up but I have about 15 coins and this is the only one I can't find a reference for. It's messing with my OCD...I'm going all Rain Man!
It's Apollo standing, holding patera and olive branch, variant of Varbanov 116. (V116 has a longer reverse inscription.) It may be listed in RPC, but I don't have RPC.
=> must be nice, my Floridian friend!! (although we are hovering around 10 celsius at the moment, I'm pretty sure the rain is soon gonna become "solid")
JBG => good luck tracking-down your Commodus I.D. (cool coin) ... Ummm, I have a couple of Commodus coins, but none of 'em are similar to your new addition (here, I'll show ya!) ... yah, they're both super-cool ... => oh and again, great new coin (I'm thinkin' that Ardy + JA have given you the sweet answer?) Cheers
ahahaha, that's awesome ... I never noticed it, but now I'll never forget it (thanks for the cool visual)
