I collect mostly because I enjoy what I learn in the process. It would seem that you might be able to learn as much from looking at auction catalog photos and other people's treasures here on CT but we still like to get new coins. This one got a good close inspection and showed me what I considered an interesting detail that is the subject of this post. Looking at this detail can you ID the coin or what it shows that I found interesting? Top to bottom, this shows 2mm of coin shot from an angle. At the right is the most raised surface showing a little polish on the silver from friction or cleaning. At the left top and bottom is the field. Between them is an almost straight down cliff caused by the coin being extremely high relief. I found most interesting the striations at the top of this area. Few coins are cut so deeply as to have areas like this but this one is very primitive even as Archaic issues go. If you did not recognize the ledge, the second image pair should help. Not nearly as close, you can barely see the striations now recognizable as the southbound end of a northbound Satyr from this Thasos stater. These two images are also taken from an angle. The right side also shows the face of the nymph with considerable double striking. Above and behind the satyr's head the field is roughly smoothed in an attempt to remove horn silver which remains in a few spots at the top. The coin is a mixture of relatively original and harshly scrubbed surfaces. Finally we have a standard straight-on shot which does not show the rear of the rear at all since that region is pretty much straight up and down. I'll ask those who have one of these staters (especially the claw handed, early ones) to look and see if your coin shows this characteristic when examined at an angle. The straight, normal shot shows more of the double striking on the nymph that was hidden by the other angle. It also shows the difference in surface reflections between the polished upper areas and the recesses not attached by what I imagine was a brass brush. The reverse was not brushed as hard as the obverse top but has quite a few fine scratches in what I suspect was more like the tone before the cleaner had his way with the coin. It is hard to be too critical since I have no idea what the thing looked like before it was scrubbed. It is a problem coin but I don't buy MS gems so here it is in all its educational glory. The first shot was made with a 70-80 year old Leitz microscope and a Canon 5DmkII. The others were done with my regular coin set up (Canon Digital Rebel and Canon 100mm macro on extension tubes). The angled photos here were processed with CombineZP focus stacking freeware. I love the program but have barely touched its features. These were done at the defaults. The first image used 12 shots each with different focus settings which the software combines using the most detailed parts of each. There are a few places where the sharpness could be improved by raising the number of shots combined. The second (pair - one is a crop of the other) used 5 originals. Most of my playing with CombineZP has been shooting nature (flowers) but it is good for coins like this. There are other brands of focus stacking software but this one is free and does what I want so I have no intention of buying others. If anyone has played with focus stacking ancient coins or shooting very small parts of an ancient coin, this is the place to show it.
Not trying to be inappropriate here. But what I see on the obverse of that coin is sexy time. Is this like one of those Rorschach inkblots and I just got exposed as a deviant?
that's pretty awesome....didn't guess what it was even with the archaic hint. so i assume those striations are from the die scraping the butt there whet it was struck?
Dies ordinarily press down on metal when it is struck but the straight down cliff in this die seems to have cut sharply and scrape as the edge passed. I wonder if this effect might be found on a deeply cut letter in a legend but do not know other examples of dies cut this sharply.
