Hello, I am wondering if anyone know the meaning of the trident counterstamp on this Attica Athenian tetra-drachma? I have understood that the use of counter stamps could be a sign of authenticity, validity or change of denomination when the coin was used outside Attica. And that it’s possible to identify the location where it was stamped based of the type of counter stamp. Even read that counter stamps as far away as India has been identified. So, my question is. Is it possible to get some more info from this coin and where it’s been based on the trident counter stamp? The stamp is on the coins reverse under the owls breast. Thanks for any help!
What a lovely example! I don't know more about your coin's countermark but I don't think it is a trident. There are numerous scholarly articles about Athenian tetradrachms so with some digging (and often with translation) you may be able to answer your own question. Here's an article that might get you started. I casually browsed it and didn't find the specific countermark on your coin depicted but the article was just a big-picture view of a hoard of ~10,000 Athens tets found in Syria in 2007. https://www.jstor.org/stable/43580558?read-now=1&seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents Although this article doesn't answer your question, you may find footnoted articles to be helpful. Perhaps the character in your countermark is Phoenician or Aramaic, as were some of the marks found on coins of this Syrian hoard. As an aside, this doesn't seem to be the source of the ~10,000 tets recently hitting the market-- the Syrian hoard discussed in this paper seems to mostly be cut, countermarked, etc unlike the higher grade and unmolested coins we've been seeing lately.
