On early Greek (hammered) coins there is a variety of 'incuse punchmarks'. My question is:- Do these 'say' anything or have any meaning when it comes to attributing the coin, or should we be looking at the coin as a single faced object? For example, on this coin should we just look at the 'obverse' to attribute it, or do we have to factor in the 'reverse' as well? I mean, I can find lots of 'Chickens' on coins from Troas , Dardanos, but I cannot find one with an incuse punchmark that resembles the one on this coin.
Yes, it does mean something, at least in how coins are attributed. Not being able to find a similar reverse in archives is worrisome, as is the overall look of this coin although maybe that's just from corrosion/leaching and cleaning. Before declaring it "unpublished" or condemning it as a modern fake, dig deeper. If you've exhausted your search in freely available databases (ACsearch, Vcoins, etc), the next step would be to search through reference books. Many are old and available online. A good strategy is to find similar Dardanos AR coins in CNG's archives and see which reference they used. Since the references are abbreviated and you likely won't know the full name of the title, take that information and search in CNG's Bibliography to get the full title of the work. If the reference is old enough you'll be able to find a .pdf full text online somewhere. Right-click and copy the title of the reference book and drop it into a Google search. Edited to add: A quick perusal of archives shows that a bunch different "Daradanos AR cock" fractionals are cited as unpublished. It would seem that there is work to be done in studying these coins .
Sometimes a very similar coin was issued for many years and the early/late ones might be separated by such changes as the incuse punch design. A few of these seem random and rough but many have a pattern that shows what the mint considered appropriate at the time. A thorough study of a particular long term issue might allow placing all these punches in an order just as a study would sequence the obverse design style. Some of this work has been done for some issues; some waits for an interested student.
