Well, this little green coin came in the mail yesterday. I don't much care for the obverse, but that's not the reason I purchased this coin. Now the reverse......., well, take a look for yourself. AKARNANIA, FEDERAL COINAGE AE20 OBVERSE: Head of Herakles r., wearing lion's skin headdress REVERSE: Head of the river god Archelous r.; monogram behind Struck at Leukas 200-167 BC 4.6g, 20 mm BCD Akarnania 33.5 Share your coins that you procured because of just one side of the coin; or show your coins from Akarnania; or show your Archelous coins.
Thats a beauty Bing , congrats. at first glance it looks like a manfaced bull coin from Sicily. Got a Akarnania Pegasus to join this thread:
Wow, Big-bro => that's a deadly lookin' OP-Archelous!! (congrats) Ummm hey, does it count if I have the "under-coin" (host)? Yah, I have one of your cool AKARNANIAN-OP-winners, but some ancient dude went and banged another coin on top of it!! (the nerve of some Roman Republicans, eh?) Oh sorry, I didn't read your "just one side" preface (well, if I had to pick a side, then that would be quite tough ... ummm, but I guess the prow with the snout is the coolest side?) Again, congrats on adding that awesome river-god to your collection (great coin for a cool guy) Cheers, brother
Nice one! That's allegedly a magistrate's name- AGHTWP, not the usual monogram. These probably date after 167 BC. Struck at either Thyrreion or Leukas. The ref is BCD Akarnania 38; Gross-McClean 5394; MSP I, 464.
I don't think the obverse of your coin is that bad, Bing, but agree that the real interest is the reverse. I wonder if the BCD Akarnania reference number for your coin is correct. I don't have it but if there is some logic to the numbering system, based on the correlates I see in Potamikon your coin might instead by BCD Akarnania 38 or 39 (Potamikon 465 or 466). I wonder what @Nicholas Molinari will make of it Nick was addressing this issue while I was composing this post I bough one of these in 2015 in part because I liked the coin, specifically the MFB, and in part for the pedigree. CNG had been selling selections from a 19th century collection of Ottoman statesman and coin collector, Alexandre Carathéodory Pasha (1833-1906). I like interesting pedigrees This deserves a reshoot. I just looked at CNG's images and I like them better . AKARNANIA, Federal Coinage (Akarnanian Confederacy) 3rd century BCE Æ (20mm, 6.38 g, 10h) Obv: laureate head of Zeus right, bird behind (really, there is , it's just not very clear on this coin); API below Rev: head of Acheloios as a man-faced bull to right; trident head above, monogram to left. Ref: BCD Akarnania 32 33c; HGC 4, 736; Potamikon Leukas Group IIIA, 461* From the collection of Alexandre Carathéodory Pasha (1833-1906) Checking Potamikon, I think the CNG might be slightly off but I don't have the BCD or Hoover references. The reverse monogram isn't well shown in my images. CNG's show it better (see below) and it looks like a mashup of A and P rather than A and K, therefore Potamikon 461, which correlates with BCD Akarnania 33c. Potamikon 462 with ligate AK correlates with BCD Akarnania 32. Potamikon also goes into detail about likely timelines of Arkarnania and the Federation, pegging this coin as being struck in Leukas from 219-211 BCE.
TIF, I think yours is MSP 463, the combo of P and K. So Imhoof-Blumer 3, not in BCD! Incidentally I just noticed a font didn't transfer on 476-7. It isn't PPI but Pi Rho Iota. Yours is awesome!
Thanks for the correction. I've already annotated my catalog. When you say "after" 167BC, can you narrow it down?
I wouldn't date them much later than that, but it could possibly be earlier. I think I list them with a question mark in my book. Akarnanian coinage from the mid 4th to early 2nd century is difficult to date because of the turmoil in the area. This coin is, in my mind, the most difficult to date precisely. I think there are other coins with the same name that are easier to date but I can't recall.
Perfect sized AE Mr @Bing ! Great Achelous reverse, just a neat coin. Cool capture! I do not have any from the Akarnania Federation. I do have a couple: BLOTTO-FACED: Campania Neapolis 320-300 BC AR Nomos Nymph Achelous LUCKY-FIND: Campania AE Apollo-Achelous -275-250BCE PLATE COIN 3 KNOWN RARE SNG ANS 474 - Listed Potamikon pg 232 Plate 343, 1 of 4 known.
