Some Greek AE

or are they both greek? see below.



i finally picked up an alexander iii coin, took me 5 years! now that's just embarrassing.



not a bad looking little bronze, feels nice in hand.




Macedonian Kings, Alexander III, 336-323 BC
O: Heracles in lion’s skin r. R: AΛEΞΑΝΔΡOY, club; below, bow in case; above, monogram. Byblos mint. 19 mm, 5.9 g. Price 3425. VF.

byblos is in modern day lebanon, if anyone else didn't know where that was.





i posted this in the "cuddly snake" thread a bit back, but am going to post it again with my own pictures. it's a cool type i hadn't seen before. coins from the area frequently show the nymph and serpent with an amphora, even later roman provincials. not sure whats up with that knife, but it's cool hu?



Pisidia, Etenna. 1st century AD.
Obv.: Nymph grappling with snake, amphora in left field. Rev.: E-T, sickle-shaped knife. 19 mm, 3.5 g. Hans von Aulock, Pisidiens, 522

i'm not sure how to classify this coin. this area was under roman control in the first century right? southwestern turkey? or at least there must have been some client king or something? so anyway, is this a greek coin? an autonomous city coin? or a roman provincial?

i'm readying sayles book on roman provincial coins, and one way he defines what a provincial coin is is the same way the supreme court defined pornography back in the day...we know it when we see it. this coin just doesn't look like a roman provincial coin to me. looks pretty greek. any thoughts?

post any cool greek AE coins you want!

 

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Those Macedona weapon coins are cool. There are also tons of variations, so feel free to add more if they interest you.

Here is one of mine

 

AWESOME Chris on the Makedonon... I love all the AE's of Alexander and other Makedonon kings!



Alexander - Eagle looking back


Alexander - Bow, Quiver in front, Club


Alexander - Bow in case, Club


Hey! ANOTHER Alexander - Bow, Quiver in front, Club, but with MY initals: BA !!!

I am an Alexander kinda guy...

 

Makedonon ... Perseus 178-168 Poseidon and Club...

 

It is a Roman Provincial = Minted outside of Rome from 44 BC to AD 296/7. Here is a Greek coin that looks provincial.


Thrace, Ainos. AE22. Poseidon / Hermes
Obv: Head of Poseidon right.
Rev: AINIΩN, Hermes standing left, holding kerykeion and purse; altar below
22mm., 6.1g.
SNG Cop. 423-424

 

Wow... Minting the same coin for over 300 years? That is wild!

 

Yes, but only coins from Ainos, also know as Aenus.

 

this building was once the aenus mint.

 

Chris, if you show that Etenna coin again, I'm going to have to buy one! Your pic of it looks excellent, too.

 

Yeah. It's on my hit list now too .

 

CNG's archives has a similar coin (ethnic is rendered differently) and describes it as 1st century BCE. That coin was sold in 2009 and was listed in the Greek section. Maybe additional scholarship has emerged since then, moving the timeframe?

 

I understood that it was only Ainos. What is amazing, is that in the Greek area of the world, some coins were minted over long time spans. But, I have never been aware of a same coin design minted for 300 years... that is an incredible span of years NOT to change designs... and quite unimaginative!

 

Wonderful posts!!! It's always so hard to resist a Greek coin.

My bronze of Alexander---and friend:
View attachment 516385 View attachment 516387

 

Hmmm... the way I read it, the statement about Roman provincials being coins struck outside Rome between 44 BC to AD 296/7 wasn't related to the coin being shown.

The coins that Ainos (Aenus) struck during the 1st-2nd centuries AD were semi-autonomous bronzes with the head of Hermes. After that, they struck some bronzes under Caracalla, and that was it.

 

Thanks for the clarity. I misunderstood the statement.

 

As to the question of going for long periods of time without a change to basic coin design, the Greeks had nothing on the Chinese .

 

Agreed. I am starting a collection of Ancient Chinese... have several, but I am taking pop-shots at collecting the "different" ones right now. However, several of mine are the "boring" versions also...

 

Sorry for the confusion Alegandron.

Hey! I had one from Etenna but it's not as nice as Chrsmat71's. Also just had this ID'd, talking about boring Chinese coins.


Pisidia, Etenna. AE15
1st Century BC. Nymph in the long chiton, holding a snake, and behind her slanting pitcher. Rv. ET-EN sickle.


Korean 39mm amulet
at least late Joseon Dynasty (1700 and newer)
Mandel: 72.6 and DK: 9-329

 

Hey @chrsmat71 -- I've wanted an Etenna Nymph-cuddling-snake coin ever since you posted yours. I finally got one. It's a smaller denomination so i guess I'll have to get at least one more


PISIDIA, Etenna
1st century BCE
AE chalkous, 14 mm, 2.1 gm
Obv: Nymph advancing right, head left, holding coiled serpent in both hands; to left, oinochoe
Rev: ET-EN Curved knife
Ref: SNG Copenhagen 147. SNG Paris 1334 = SNG von Aulock 466.

I made a video of it but videos of small bronzes in hand are not particularly impressive nor do they add much to the visual understanding of a coin-- at least in this instance.

 

Sweeeet!!

I did end up with one of my own too. Actually, two, but I only have one of them photographed.