Ancients => $100 => Yup, I snagged myself a couple of sweet-enough archaics

Well sure , they may not be in the ol' all-star category ... however, I'm kinda sick of trying to compare my stuff to the all-star stuff, know what I mean?

So ummm yah, I'm gonna show you a couple of sweet examples that I scored from a great seller ... sure, they may be a couple of lower-end dawgs, but to me, they still bring the same cool "awesome-ness" that the higher end coins deliver!!

... yummy-yummy-yummy!!

=> please welcome a couple of 2500 year old rock-stars!!

LARISSA, THESSALY, OBOL
CIRCA 460 BC
Diameter:
Weight: 0.75 grams
Obverse: Facing bull head being restrained by a man to the left
Reverse: Horse head right within an incuse square



LESBOS, OBOL
500-450 BC
Diameter:
Weight: 1.05 grams
Obverse: Two boar heads confronted
Reverse: Incuse square





=> 2 x 2500-year-old, cool, archaic animal-coins for $100 => please sign me up!!

 

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both very nice coins stevex, i love the boars butting heads, that's awesome.

you left the diameter off, are they about 10 mm or so?

i only have one of these little archaic greek guy, but it's one of my favorites..triple animal score.

 

Interesting coins little brother. The pigs look pretty mad.

 

Have always loved the style of those butting boar heads. Have to get myself one of them someday.

 

Always liked them Greek animal coins. Keep it up.

 

thanks, fellas ...

Hey, by the way => you guys fricken "rock" as coin-buddies ...

=> I owe ya a drink, if I ever see ya

Cheers

 

=> hi chrsmat ... yah, that sounds about right (I don't actually have these two sweeties "in-hand" yet) ... I'll try to update the info when I get a chance to measure 'em, okay?

... I seem to be addicted to these sweet, lil' archaic gems (so cool)

 

Nice grabs, Steve, especially the first.

 

Nice additions
Mano e mano
Boar e Boar why not hehe

 

Last year I nabbed a similarly sweet deal on some archaics, thanks to a sharp-eyed friend who noticed this poorly photographed lot of two coins. Total for the two was $53 and a ridiculous portion of that was shipping. The identifications were wrong and they were definitely a good deal. I happily added the Pigasus to my squadron.


ISLANDS off CARIA, Rhodos. Ialysos. 480-408 BCE
AR Obol (or some other size-appropriate fractional name), 9 mm, 0.6 gm
Obv: forepart of winged boar left
Rev: helmeted head of Athena right within incuse square.
Ref: SNG Keckman 315; Karl 373 (based on this CNG coin) or SNG Keckman 308-16; SNG Copenhagen -; SNG München 563 if it is closer to this CNG coin. I think the first one is correct.


CARIA, Uncertain. Orou. Local dynast, 450-400 BCE
AR 1/16 Stater, 9 mm, 0.7 gm
Obv: Forepart of winged man-headed bull right
Rev: Female (?) head right within dotted border; all within incuse square; inscription behind head (OFOV?)
Ref: I'm not sure but seems to match this CNG coin whose reference is Konuk, Orou 2.3; SNG von Aulock 8474

 

Thanks for the coin-compliments, gang ...

Wow TIF, those are a couple of sweet ol' archaic additions ...

=> very cool

 

I really wish more of us could agree that coin collecting does not have to be a competitive sport. For that matter, I wish more of us could agree that life does not have to be a competitive sport. Maybe we could have fewer wars, fewer starving masses nd few people who feel the need for private bodyguards for good reason. Most of that last sentence is out of place here but the part on coin collecting is very much on topic. Instead of comparing your miserable losers to my corroded abominations lets try to see who can enjoy what it is we are here to do. If the fun you get out of collecting coins is having a better collection than someone else, please do not visit the British Museum. The Queen wins.

Did I mention a conversation I had at a show with a dealer who is considerably older than I am? I asked how long he intended to keep doing these shows. His answer was, "As long as I enjoy it." His sales at the show were not on the level of NFA's last auction (or, for that matter, big houses still in business) but I don't see him getting morose about it. This is less a problem considering that most of us on CT don't remember who NFA was and why I mention them now. The catalogs are worth seeing. I have most of them and enjoy greatly the few coins I won from them.
http://esty.ancients.info/catalogs/ scroll to NFA, halfway down the page

Before you buy the following book new, notice there are several 1 cent + post used copies.

http://www.amazon.com/Fun-While-Lasted-Rise-Fortune/dp/0786868643

The link below dates to 1993 which is long enough ago to be humorous when it predicts the end of the coin market ... "tomorrow".

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...-prices-geraldine-norman-reports-1509860.html

It is not always a matter of "how much" so much as "how".

Conversely, lets not have an ugly dog battle. You'd lose. Come to think of it, I'd lose, too, after all we have a couple people here who collect Dark Ages and Central Asian. Them dogz iz uuugly! (No offense, you know who you are!)

 

Wow, an ugly contest ... now there's an idea, eh?



... just jokes ...

Doug, I agree 100% that people shouldn't obsess about having the world's best coins and/or turn-up their snouts at coins that aren't 5/5 and flawless ...

=> however, I do feel that a bit of competition is often quite healthy, but I'm certainly not in this hobby to win the title of "Mr. Biggity Coin" ......... I would definitely settle for "Miss Congeniality"



Oh, and you failed to comment on my new coin additions, my friend ...

Cheers

 

What's the difference between an archaic and an ancient?

 

Archaics are the "really" old babies with the incuse reverses (they were the first coins) ... the early versions only had a subject on the obverse and basically a punch as the reverse ... later-on, some smart guy decided to etch a cool image onto the punch and made a coin with a subject on the obverse and reverse ...

here are a couple of examples:

 

Ancient is old. Archaic is the oldest of the old. In terms of Greek coins we usually call the issues of the first half of the 5th century 'Archaic' when the reverses are often simple punches or simple designs compared to later periods (Classical, Hellenistic, etc.).

I did comment on your coins, Steve, I called them 'misterable losers'. Actually, the Lesbos is better than most of these I have seen so it is a happy winner. As I recall, these usually are from poor metal and tend to look weathered. I can't recall seeing the Larissa so it may be a miserable rarity which is, you understand, a compliment coming from me. I don't have either one so I'm jealous.

 

Good conversation which makes sense even to me.

 

Only two steve?
Anyways, nice pickups

I would say something to this, but that will just do me no good...

 

Say it anyway.

 

What seems obvious to me with all these archaics is that the incuse punch was the moveable die, the obverse die being on the anvil. The highest relief is always more-or-less in the middle of the obverse, and sometimes the obverse side is convex. It was an elementary but effective use of the physics of metal flow, which was no doubt discovered by a certain amount of trial and error.