Now That's A Tad Odd...

I was doing some research and came across this coin. While I have never specialized in Alexandrian types I have never seen anything like this (and scanning through Martin Price's work I did not see anything like it either but I might have missed something). Can anyone else see what makes me hesitant but explain why the weird and abnormal attributes might be considered normal or worthy of being genuine and thus slabbed?

 

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Looks like a half-brockage, if something like this is possible. But a brockage should be mirrored. Strange.
Creative Tooling ??

 

I don't understand. Where is this "half brockage"? What is unusual about this coin? At first the odd reflection of Zeus's garment (lacking the usual folds) as it stretches from his left knee to his right ankle confused my eye, but to me the reverse looks like a very nicely rendered almost 3/4 facing seated Zeus. I like it.

As for the label, I have no idea if this is from AlexIII or if it a later issue. There are recent CNG sales with the same control marks which they attribute to Philip III Arrhidaios.

 

Maybe it is the only lightning. But it looks like the lower right part of the reverse is incuse.

 

Oh . Yeah, that's just a trick of the lighting and reflections.

 

Is that Chinese lettering...

 

yup, the P mintmark is for Peking

 

Cf https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=4821600

 

I see this monogram on drachms of Sardis, Price 2599 through 2603

http://numismatics.org/pella/id/price.2599

There is something weird on Zeus' right shoulder and his left elbow seems to bend the wrong way. However this coin from the Newell collection with a known findspot doesn't look much better.

http://numismatics.org/collection/1944.100.31151

 

FWIW, the coin is properly listed at NGC (cert verification) so it is not a fake slab.

 

Zeus' six pack looks too well formed.

 

Looks incuse to me as well but certainly may be a trick of lighting and reflection as @TIF says. Even if that is the case everything below the ankles looks weird to me.

 

I agree. I've never seen one where the ankles are covered.
But I'm no expert. In fact, I'm still just a pert.

 

Found this one , also slabbed by NGC:

 

The style of Zeus, particularly his face, seems totally off to me. If you had posted this without any info and slab, I would have said fake reverse die without hesitation.

 

Alexander's Varieties are numberless.. Indeed such an original and superb coin.

 

I thought that it definitely looked incuse on the bottom right as well, but I now agree that it’s just an optical illusion from the lighting and reflection. When I zoomed in (see screenshot below), it no longer looks incuse to me.

 

I’m not second-guessing NGC here--they certainly have more experience with Hellenistic coinage.

 

Good morning. I apologize for the novice question. Would you please explain why there's a mintmark from Peking? The NGC slab reads 'Kingdom of Macedon' with no mention of the Peking mintmark. Maps I look at don't show Alexander III's empire going as far as Peking/Beijing. I'm not doubting it, it's just my mind was blown when I saw the chinese characters. Again I'm a novice with ancients and appreciate any help in learning.