I picked this up this past weekend at our local monthly coin show. Purchased from a reputable local dealer. I am having trouble pinning down the exact variety. What is throwing me off is the thing that looks like a crossbow at Zeus' knee. These were just quick cell phone photos. I will get proper ones taken this weekend. 16.0 grams 29.27 x 26.48mm Obverse Head of beardless Heracles right wearing lion skin headdress Reverse ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΑΛΕΞΑΝΔΡΟΥ: Zeus seated on throne left, eagle on outstretched right hand, sceptre in left hand Any help is greatly appreciated. .
I saw several on wildwinds with the anchor but they are all vertical. At least the ones I have found so far.
As @Ajax said, it's a tet of Seleukos I Nikator from the Ekbatana mint. The control marks in the left field are an anchor and the forepart of a horse below it. With the primary control mark under the throne it would be SC 204.7 or there about. My concern is that it only weighs 16.0g. Seleucid mint standards were very high at this time, and a good tet from Ekbatana should be a little over 17g.
For reference, here is an example of an Ekbatana tet of Seleukos I Nikator. This one has different control marks under the throne and above the anchor. Not my coin, I can only wish.
Hopefully you wanted a Seleucus instead of a Alexander The inscription is BAΣIΛIEΩΣ ΣEΛEYKOY, not that of Alexander and minted well after his death. I'm not concerned with the weight of this remote mint in general, not making any assumptions for your photo though.
The photos do make it difficult... A quick review of more than 50 of these Seleukid I Nikator tets with horizontal anchor and forepart of horse showed the vast majority of examples have a weight in the expected range of ~17.1-17.2 gm, with some falling around 17.0 and only a few below that. There are two examples with weights which are dramatically lower (15.95 and 14.88). Bidders may have been leery because of the weight; these two coins failed to sell. Or, maybe the opening bids were just too optimistic. The first coin seems to be a reverse die match to the OP coin. https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=5249543 https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=89638
Thank you all. I had noticed that the weight seemed to be off also. I had also been searching on Mantis (ANS) and despite not finding an exact match I saw that they only have a handful close to this weight. I did purchase it from a reputable dealer although he does not specialize in ancients. If it is determined to be no good I won't have any problems returning it.
This brings up a really good point. The most honest dealer in the world but one who can't tell Alexander from Seleukos when written clearly in Greek on the coin is better than a fakeseller only because he can be expected to make a problem right if it is discovered. I suspect that many coins are sold every day that have problems that may never be discovered so they never will be corrected. That is why we suggest knowledgeable and honest dealers. From the photo I can't say real or fake for certain.
Unfortunately this coin is a forgery. The obverse style is wrong for this mint. The reverse is off as well, but the obverse is the most obvious. Barry Murphy.
