The only coin from Friday's show that I have not shared is about as unimpressive as they come from the popular Alexandrian series. I bought it because I did not have a coin of the denomination (dichalkon) making it my smallest Alexandrian coin. The reverse is off center but even that fault still allows the date LIA to be on flan. Surfaces could be better - a lot better - but that is not unusual for these so I'll keep this until an upgrade is available to me at a price I can tolerate. The holder for the coin specified the bird on the reverse was a flamingo but the seller asked if I thought there were ostriches in Egypt. Owners of a book on Alexandrian coins, students of Egyptian culture and bird lovers might prefer we call it an ibis. The portrait is similarly unidentified. There never was an obverse legend but the face is Domitian. I hope to do a better photo someday but this is not an impressive coin.
It is, of course, an ibis. These coins are hard to come by in any state of preservation; acsearchinfo, for example has only three in their database and CNG has never sold one. There is only one at V Coins, at £ 95.00. I think it's an interesting coin and I'm happy for you.
Neat coin. But I feel a little dumb - at first glance I thought it was the front end of a camel. Evidence, perhaps, of some of my ancients attribution difficulties.
Amazes me when interesting & scarce/rare coins get so little replies, but a run of the mill Philip I or something gets 20 or more replies... Gets very old... Anyways, nice find, Doug. I would be happy to own it. I have a few bronzes with that look, especially a Claudius provincial.
That would be a star in any zoo collector's stable. My Ptolemaic dichalkon is 3.17g. and 15.5mm. What are the stats on that one? Ptolemy III Euergetes (246-222 BC), Salamis (Cyprus) mint.
Cool bird! What strikes me as also unusual here is how round and well-formed the coin is. I'm more familiar with this denomination looking more like ragged bits of metal closer in look to my Trajan dichalkon below. Trajan struck most of these, and I don't see many round ones, but even going back to those struck under Claudius and Tiberius, you see a lot of flans with rough cut edges and sprues: https://www.cngcoins.com/Search.asp...R_TYPE_ID_2=1&SEARCH_IN_CONTAINER_TYPE_ID_4=1
The coin is 15mm and 2.19g. It is the most round dichalkon I have seen. Emmett comments that some authors (not he) distinguish between these and smaller ones of these which they call chalkous. This is a good size one for the period. Weight standards fell as time went on. That is the whole idea. I bought 8 coins at this show and looked at several thousand. Some took a few milliseconds to eliminate from consideration. Some jumped out and said, "You will be sorry if you leave me here!" Advice: When coins speak, listen. The coins you buy because you thought you should but they just lay there ignoring you rarely work out as well. At shows, it is sometimes embarrassing when a dealer calls me by name and I can find nothing in his stock I would want at half the price. The secret is to buy coins no one in their right mind would want. This one is small, poorly centered, textured and low in eye appeal. This one is only Emmett rarity 3. This is the only year of the several in which this type was made that is not a 5. We do not want many people to appreciate the coins we like. Could I talk you into giving up Alexandria and collecting proof sets?
Doug, can you please post the diameter and weight of this coin? I may have one that I bought in a lot and have not been able to ID. I've had it for years. I'll dig it out and try to get a decent picture of it. Mine is quite small, maybe 10mm or so.
