Hey All, Long time no see. I haven't purchased an ancient coin in a couple of years, and even longer since I purchased a Greek coin, but I did come across a bargain priced beauty that I just couldn't pass up. Like most here I have mixed feelings on slabs. I couldn't pass up the toning that looks like 5 o'clock shadow on Helios. I thought it was great coin that just spoke to me. The coin series was struck during the "life time" of the Colossus of Rhodes that was destroyed by earthquake in 236 BC, after standing only 50 years. I hope y'all like it as much as I do.
Very cool Tetradrachm! I've always wanted one of those. Great profile bust of Helios on @lordmarcovan 's Drachm. That's another type I need to add... Here are some of my "Pseudo-Rhodian" types. These are all Drachms (on light standards, under 3g), struck during the Third Macedonian War, probably for mercenaries (especially from Crete) hired by the Macedonian King Perseus to fight the Romans. (He lost.) The mercenaries were familiar with Rhodian coinage, so the design (Helios/Rose) was borrowed -- and sometimes, apparently, even the "magistrate" names! They may have been struck at Thessalian and/or Macedonian mints, rather than in Caria, Rhodos. Other Pseudo-Rhodian types were struck elsewhere in Greece. HERMIAS Type Drachm (2.46g): Ex Sitichoro/Larissa, 1968 Hoard (ICGH 237); ex Dr. Lawrence D. Sporty & Lampasas Collections. STASION Type Drachm (2.65g): Ashton 59b (this coin cited); prob. ex 1992 Thessalonike Area Hoard (CH VIII, 426). ARISTOKRATES Type (2.77g): Ashton 79 "plate coin"; ex 1992 Thessalonike Area Hoard (CH VIII, 426). RHJ Ashton. 2002. “Clubs, Thunderbolts, Torches, Stars and Caducei: more Pseudo-Rhodian Drachms from Mainland Greece and the Islands,” Numismatic Chronicle 162: 59-78. * * * I've also got various much later Roman Provincial Helios types... My favorite is this Gordian III Alexandrian Tetradrachm from Giovanni Dattari (1853-1928) Collection, illustrated in Savio (2007), No. 4731. This coin also = RPC VII.2 3874, 8th ex., and this coin cited (as Dattari 4731, but not illustrated): Vogt II (1924), p. 140; Klose & Overbeck (1998) p. 36, No. 97; Sear (2005) RCV vol. 3, No. 8858 (this coin cited); SNG Hunterian (Goddard 2008), part 2, p. CCCVIII. My Commodus / Helios Alexandrian Tetradrachm -- also from the Dattari Collection -- is obviously much less attractive (and also less interesting on several numismatic grounds): Dattari-Savio (1999/2007) Pl. 210, 9612 (this coin illustrated) = RPC IV.4 3550, ex. 25 (this coin illustrated online) And others I'd like to show (including standing Helios and Helios countermarks -- or just facing heads on Greek coins in general), but I'll take a pause for now....
I like all these Rhodes and pseudo-Rhodes types. I had a pseudo-Rhodian once upon a time, too. And I sorely miss it- it was a gorgeous little coin. NGC gave it a perfect grade. (They should’ve given it the star, too, but didn’t.)
Karia. Rhodes. Circa 305-275 BC. AR Didrachm (6.46g, 19mm). Obv.: head of Helios three-quarters right. Rev.: ΡΟΔΙΟΝ, rose with bud on right, grape cluster in left field, E-Y flanking stem. SNG Helsinki 454; Ashton 158; Weber 6716. VF.
