ILLYRIA, Dyrrhachion AR drachm

now that's a nice one sallent!

i like it when they have some cool little minor devices on there like a bird or club or whatever.

i have a bargain bin example, pretty well centered but missing most of the legend and any minor devices that may have been present.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

Took forever to find one in my price range. I settled on this when one did surface.


Apollonia, Illyria, Greece, (200 - 80 B.C.)
AR Drachm
O: APIΣTΩN (moneyer), cow left, head turned, suckling calf right.
R: double stellate pattern within double linear square with sides curved inward.
3.2g
17.5mm

 

This is not one of the issues I think of as often faked but the Black Sea diobols are. In general the fakes that worry me most are struck from dies which are harder to spot than casts unless you have a tip on the style of the fake dies. There can be fakes of anything made by casting but making fake dies is a lot of work and we tend to see them in greater quantity. It is perfectly possible that a hoard will be found with every coin from the same die set but any issue that shows up with dozens of die matches all of a sudden when there has not been any before does require looking closely at all the other factors.

My Apollonia and Dyrrhachion offerings:



Slightly before our cows came on the scene there were Dyrrhachion drachms with Herakles and Pegasos. These are not rare but not as common as the cow.

 

My Mommy cow and little cow coin.

Speaking of "animal coins" I have discovered that some of the early republic bronze "prow series" Ases have a dog on the prow!

 

=> ooowwww, I wanna see that!!

 

Dogs on Republican bronze coins, by Crawford number (from Andrew McCabe's website, with his proposed rarity rating in parentheses):

26/4 Half litra (Common) picture, 3rd coin
122/3 As (Scarce)
122/4 Semis (Very Rare)
122/5 Triens (Rare)
122/6 Quadrans (Rare)
122/7 Sextans (Rare)
(pictures of various Crawford 122 issues here and here)

Hey @stevex6, do you use CNG's automated Want List? It's very handy and you can enter the Crawford number to make the hit very specific. You'll be automatically notified when a match is coming up for auction. Numisbids also has an automated Want List function but it isn't as sophisticated.

 

*maybe*



... no