I thought I'd try my hand in identifying an ancient that was given to me. I'm still a newbie but thought this one would be easy. I searched on line for pictures, checked out some auctions, looked through some sites with ancient coin information. I just couldn't find a good match. Does anyone have a good "recipe" on the steps one would take when trying to identify an ancient coin ? (Especially when the letters are not clear). Thanks ! BTW, here's a pic. Its about 14mm and thick.
This is a coin from the Byzantine era. Most of them have religious motifs on them like the cross on the reverse of your coin. Use sites like Wildwinds, Forvm Ancients and Coin Project to find something close as a lot of Byzantine coins have many different slight variations. The best way go forward is to look as many coins as you can. Certain areas and time periods have certain styles. Greeks have lots of animals, Romans use lots of political figures, gates, soldiers and the such. Byzantine coins appear stick like in figures with lots of religious motifs on them. Then from there look for any legends you can ID on the coin and search from there.
google the identifyable details like "fo ca" "x" "cross" "coin" with quotes then search https://www.google.com/?gfe_rd=cr&e...s_rd=ssl,cr&fg=1#q="fo+ca"+"x"+"cross"+"coin"
Yep, simply type into Google ancient coin with cross on, then check out images. You'll narrow it down soon enough. Have the weight and diameter to hand. If you struggle, post it on a forum, but always have a look first ......
That is a very non-typical coin. The name of the ruler appeared on obverse left with only his title(?) PERP (forever as in perpetual rather than perpetrator as in criminal even though the latter might fit the guy in question ) remaining at the right on flan. What is unusual is his repeating the name across the reverse. The first step is trying to identify the general period/place suggested by the style. In this case the large cross and facing bust shouts Byzantine. This become easier the more coins you experience. Often it helps to identify which rulers used a specific type. In this case, this is the cross. Then we are down to the searching. I find Google sometimes works but it fails here. acsearch.info is all coins but lacks the search sophistication needed to correct minor misspellings so you are advised to search on fewer words. Here "fo ca" does the trick but sometimes you just have to keep changing the search until you get some hits. Searching web references is more of a performance art than a science.
Basically you have to search online coin databases with terms like things you get to see on your coin that could narrow it. I would start with "FOCA", adding probably "cross". Sometimes if this doesn´t turn up nothing, you should try google images too. I found it usefull when I have absolutelly no clue as to what I have.
Thanks all, for the information. I did some more searching and I found a close match while searching through many thumbnail pictures on Whirlwinds. Its not exact but looks very similar. Seems that the Emperor is Phocas 602-610 (and not a nice guy as Doug said). vs any Idea why my coin has one X and the coin pic I found has 2 X's ?
The description on Wildwinds: Phocas. 602-610 AD. AE Half follis, Carthage. DN FOCA PERP AN S, crowned, mantled bust facing, holding mappa and cross / F-O-C-A in the four corners of a cross (sometimes with a dot to left and right), XX (or dot XX dot) below. SB 685, DOC 113.
It is a mark of value, XX means 20 nummi (or half follis) yours is X, which means you got a decanummi.
@Scalight Firstly "Wecome" Secondly, your question appears to have more to do with attributing coins in general rather than this specific coin. I have found that there are as many 'recipies' (for identifying coins), as there are recipies for making dishes (of food). In some cases looking at the 'Legend' will help significantly. In some cases looking at the portrait will provide assistance. Is the bust 'Laureate' or 'Radiate'. Is the bust facing left or right. Is the bust 'draped' or 'cuirassed' (or both). Those are just SOME of the things I look for on the 'obverse' side of a coin (when such things can be found). On the 'reverse' side of the coin you could look at the 'legend' (again), the 'mintmark', the 'picture' (image), the content of the 'picture', and the 'field' markings. These are some of the things that help (me) to determine what coin I am looking at, and to narrow it down further the composition (bronze/silver/gold), the size, and the weight all provide substantiating evidence when 'attributing' a coin. It is also my experience that when you do all of these things (and many more) a correct 'attribution' is only possible, and not guaranteed. I am relatively new to this, too, and I do hope that my comments have been helpful to you. Regards
