I picked up a few coins today and could not wait to post something. Post your over-strikes or something like the over or under types. A longer version is here - http://rrdenarius.blogspot.com/ This one is a RR Sextans, Corn Ear/KA, over a Syracuse Poseidone / Tridente bronze. It is not the first one like this I have. It does look to have an added feature, the two "extra" dots on the obverse. The top coin reverse looks pretty well struck. The obverse looks lightly struck. Repubblica Romana - Serie 'spiga di grano e KA'. ca 207-206 a.C. Sestante. Ribattuto. AE. D/ Poseidone - Mercurio e ulteriore ribattitura da identificare. R/ Tridente - Prua a destra sopra spiga di grano, davanti KA. Sotto ROMA. Syd. 310d. Cr. 69/6b Crawford assigns letters by what is before the prow: · KA = a, see below · IC = b, see above · C = c Peso gr 8,63. Diametro mm. 22,5. BB-BB+. Interessanti ribattiture. Buon esemplare per la tipologia. Patina verde. The under-type, not mine. coin by Art Coins Roma. The over type, mine. Roman Republican struck Sextans Corn-ear and KA series Sextans circa Sicily circa 207-206 Obv - Head of Mercury right; above, two pellets. Rev - Prow right; above, corn- ear and before, KA ligate. Below, ROMA. Crawford 69/6a. Sydenham 310d. Black patina, flan crack otherwise very fine; Æ 20mm., 4.38g; Ex I. Vecchi sale 3, 1996, #180 An example of one with the sides flipped, mine. (You can tell by the blue tint in the pic. There is no truth to the rumor that my "new" camera is in the shop because I was not happy with pic quality.) The coin flip calls this one a quadrans, Cr 69/5. But... the Cr 69/5 is a Hercules / Charging Bull design. The Cr 69/6 is a Mercury / Prow R design and that is my best guess too. Why is this pic blue??? It was not in the view finder. Grrr.
Very cool & historically interesting overstrikes! Issued not long after the siege of Syracuse and the death of Archimedes. Excellent idea for a thread, too. Here's my favourite overstrike, a Tiberius III Apsimar follis (SB.1366, Constantinople) on top of a Leontius follis (scarce on rare): The Leontius follis is SB.1334; a loros is clearly visible on the undertype obverse (overtype reverse); the loros was not used on busts until Leontius. You can also see the undertype regnal year (letter A, so 695-6) on the overtype obverse. The old M and cross above are also clear. Given its position, the cross that appears to be the one above the M on the Tiberius overtype is probably actually the undertype cross in the field next to Leontius on SB.1334. Clearly I get to check the box for Tiberius III (698-705) with this coin. The question is: do I get to check off Leontius (695-698) too? You can see a bit of his hair...
These Sicilian Roman overstrikes are quite interesting. I purchased this one a while back from an eBay seller who didn't quite know what to make of it. This one is a 69/6 sextans on top of a poseidon/trident type as well.
Where have you been keeping this beauty? I don't remember you showing it off before. Very interesting coin.
I shared it a while back in this thread. Thanks for the kind words, it is definitely one of my favorite RR bronzes.
that's an awesome overstrike! here's a less awesome one, i never did figure out what the undertype was for this one... Constantine X Ducas. 1059-1067. AE Follis O: Facing bust of Christ, R:Crowned facing bust of Constantine, wearing loros, holding cross and akakia. Constantinople mint, SB 1854, overstuck on unknown type. 27 mm, 6.0 g.
Nice overstruck coin. I've been taking an interest (yes another one) to them. Picked up a few but haven't taken pictures yet.
@rrdenarius , great coin, and REALLY cool history. It looks like YOURS, @red_spork , and mine are of a SIMILAR overstrike! Several months ago I attended a coin show in Raleigh, NC. The dealer said it was a Janus head. He had NO CLUE as there were none this small (it is 5.3g / 19mm)... I snatched it up for $30 thinking nothing to lose. 19mm, 5.3g I spoke with @ancientcoinguru and we noodled through it. Actually ACG NAILED it! I was going down rabbit holes chasing Italia coinage, and she was going after the Sicily issues. We concluded: (I later purchased low cost versions of the coins so that I could verify) "WOW, that may be it... little dolphin, Prow interference, but the trident struts would parallel the prow, so hazy, but not destroy the overstrike... Would the Hieron II be around 5g? 19mm (shows AE24 in attribute...) YES>>> A) Sicily, Syracuse, Hieron II, AE 19 mm., 5.72g, head of Poseidon left, rev. IEP-ÙNOÓ, trident flanked by dolphins, Ó[?] below (SNG Morcom 828 var.), dark green patina. Obv. Diademed head of Poseidon left. Rev. IEPΩNOΣ, Ornamented trident head flanked by two dolphins; below, N. B) Anonymous.AE-Sextans, 5.21 g. Sicily, 211-208 BC. Head of Mercury right wearing winged petasos; • • above. Rev. Prow of galley right; grain ear above, IC before, ROMA below. Crawford 69/6b; Sydenham 310d; BMCRR 280. Brown patina. EF. Surely one of the finest known specimen That would work... SOoooooo..... 1) Crawford 69/6 Sextans... ROMA below, Corn ear above 211-208 BCE; 2) overstruck: 3) Hieron II AE Trident 275-215 BCE; 4) Siege of Syracuse 214-212 5) 19mm / 5.3g would fit for both coins Timing perfect @red_spork and I concluded this was a fascinating time in Roman History... 2nd Punic War, Siege of Syracuse, overstrikes of coinage... it was a busy time!
Here's a Christ follis with peeping Tom reverse: Romanus IV Diogenes, 1068-1071 AE Follis 10.57 g Constantinople Obv: IC-XC over NI-KA to left and right of bust of Christ facing, dotted cross behind head, wearing pallium and colobium, holding book of Gospels with both hands Rev: C-R P-Δ in the four angles of a cross with globe and two dots at each extremity, X in the centre. Ref: Sear 1866, DO-8 I'm not sure of the exact coin it was struck over-- another Christ follis but I don't know which. Maybe someday I'll look into it.
Charles Hersh was the king of RR overstrikes and actually wrote at least two interesting papers on them that helped me a whole lot in learning to spot them. If anyone would like a copy please PM me.
Crawford has a table of over-strikes. He used this information to help order some coins. The corn ear-KA sextans over Hieron II (Poseidon/Trident) is #65. He lists 19 examples with weights 4.54 to 9.54 grams. Mine are near the top and bottom by weight.
i've just found out in the last few days thanks to John Anthony, that i have a Trajan drachm that is a strike-over on a Nabataean drachm and here i was thinking i had no strike-overs!
