This strange little Greek AE10 came to me in a bulk lot. The obverse is obviously Tyche, but the reverse is more tricky. It has what appears to be a bunch of fruit (?) or perhaps a flower of some kind with an ethnic I cannot read below. All and any thoughts welcome! Apologies for bad pictures, best I can do on a mobile phone away from my usual setup.
I'm now working on the idea that the reverse might be upside down and the pears are actually poppies, with the 'ethnic' representing the tops of the flowers. However, this hasn't really helped pin it down. I suspect we are somewhere in Asia Minor - maybe somewhere like Elaea or Nysa...
You have it correctly oriented. It's a figure standing or possibly another object on Mount Argaeus. Here's a similar image, albeit more detailed, on a larger coin of Caesarea in Cappadocia (from RPC). A few other mints are possible. I'm quite sure yours is rare. The legend ends ...(Ε)ΙΑΣ. Maybe ΚΑΙΣΑΡΕΙΑΣ? Could be a different city though Here's one in ACSearch that's similar to yours but larger module -- also they have the reverse upside down! (Flip their photo & you'll see the Greek letters become visible on theirs, though I think their ID is probably off.) https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=9499159 Not exactly sure what the legend is.
That's great, thanks Curtis. I would have never worked out that it was a stylised representation of a rocky mountain. The reverse inscription on that coin seems to be very similar if not identical to mine. I will do a bit more research tonight and see if I can work it out.
Following a bit more research from myself, I feel certain this is a civic issue of Eusebeia probably struck in the late 1st century BC (aka. the Cappadocian pre-cursor to Roman Caesarea). The ethnic under the rocky mount reads ΕΥΣΕΒΕΙΑΣ. This is partially visible on my coin. I have found two other coins via biddr archive which are of the same issue, both very similar weight and size. However, there are none like this on RPC which depict only Mt. Argaeus and the ethnic - we certainly have coins depicting Tyche (RPC 1 3609, 3612, 3616A, 3618) but these all have date letters. So - perhaps something new. More work to be done, more obscure journal articles to consult!
