Just received this coin from Forum Ancient Coins. With all of the recent talk here about the "first coins" from this area of the world, I wanted to get something similar for my collection. Not being able to get a gold/electrum stater at this time, I opted for this. Here's the attribution info from the seller: Silver siglos, Carradice Type IV (middle) B, Carradice Price p. 73 and pl. 19, 217 ff.; SNG Kayhan 1033; SGCV II 4683, aVF, 5.468g, 15.1mm, obverse Kneeling-running figure of the Great King right, dagger in right, bow in left, quiver on right shoulder, crowned, waist indicated, pellets on sleeves; reverse irregular oblong punch. Minted in Lydia, Anatolia while under Persian control, prior to Alexander the Great's conquest. It is pretty heavy for its size. Not mentioned in the description, but it looks to me like there is a secondary mark of some type to the right of the oblong incuse punch mark on the reverse. Originally I thought it looked like a ram's head, but now I'm thinking its more of a free form design. Or it this an unintentional mark of some kind? I'll try to get my camera to focus better and replace the obverse image soon. Any and all comments are welcome. Rob
Great coin. Thankfully, the Achaemenids hammered out enough of these to make it affordable to own a 5th-century BC silver. Nice pick up!
It's common to find these with various punch and counter marks. Looks like you've got a counter mark on the reverse.
Cool new addition, Teddydogno1 ... I love these sweet ol' Running King examples! Your example is a wee bit off-flan, but it is still very cool overall (I really like that you can see the dagger in his hand ... and there is good detail on the King's face .... oh, and I am always a huge fan of counter-marks and/or banker's marks) I also have an example ... sadly, my example is on a fairly small flan, so I am missing the King's bow (I bought my example before I knew enough about these cool coins and the different types) ... but I still love my coin!! ... it looks like my King is really moving fast, eh?
Watch for one of these not identified as something special (which it is) with the archer actually shooting. I do not have the most rare ype which shows the archer waist up only (not off center). Those two types are considered to be earlier (Darius I period).
Yah Doug, that example is awesome (very cool) ... A while back, I was outbid on a dagger version (the King's clothing was very detailed) ..... I fell asleep at the auction bid-button ... Sadly, I have yet to stumble-across an example with half-the-skills compared to that precious one that I let slip away (*sigh*)
Another thing some might find interesting is that even coins this early were subject to being counterfeited in their day. This fourree sixth is also of the early shooting version. Buyer beware.
With fourees, it can be almost any combination of base metals the counterfeiters could get their hands on. Typically it's bronze, with varying amounts of tin, but lead is not uncommon, sometimes alloyed with tin, sometimes mixed into the bronze.
I would love to own one of the rare fourree asses (the one I have seen was a Nero) which had iron cores under copper. My recent favorite fourree is the gold over silver of The Constantine VII & Romanus II. Remember that the nature of unofficial coins is that their makers did not follow rules so anything is possible. Some things worked better while others used what they had.
I didn't know what "fourree" was so I Googled it. Found an interesting Wikipedia page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourrée ). Guess who has an "external link" at the bottom? CT's own Doug Smith! Rob
Darn the English language! I wasn't really asking "is it copper or is it bronze?" I was just asking if it was base metal of that general type (copper or bronze) showing through because I'm pretty sure silver doesn't corrode in THAT fashion. Thanks. Rob
Coin collectors play it pretty loosely when they use the term 'bronze' or the abbreviation 'AE'. They include under that cover copper, brass, bronze, leaded bronze and billon coins with so little silver that you really can't see it (including the 4.77% antoniniani marked XXI). Some coins were stuck on a pretty tightly controlled alloy while others seem to be made from whatever fell in the pot. In the early empire asses were made of red copper and dupondii were yellow brass (orichalcum). Later the two were harder to differentiate to the point that RIC refuses to tell whether an issue was one denomination rather than the other. Usually the radiate crown marked dupondii but they were not worn by empresses or junior Caesars in earlier periods. I agree. I have been misusing it for many years now and am troubled by so many people misusing it differently than I. The problem with having 100 words for the same thing is that some people think all of them mean the same thing while others maintain a distinction between a tad, a bit and a smidgen. I have a 5 inch thick dictionary supposedly containing every Latin word used in antiquity. I often wonder how many of their words we have lot completely simply because no text using them survives. The true names of our coins may well be in this category.
