On an unrelated note, some of the other coins from the lot, reinforcing that this may have been one of my best eBay purchases. Constantius II, FTR from Alexandria, an overall very nice coin, even if it isn't slivered anymore Aurelian Alexandria tetradrachm, Year 5? Byzantine conquest of Carthage, AE nummus of Justinian, Chi-Rho within double circle Indo-Parthians, Gondophares AE Drachm bust / Athena (And this is a curious and unusually nice rendition of the type - they are usually more blocky than this) Galatian celts (?) Imitating Seleucid, maybe Demetrios I? AR 19mm, 0.64g British Celts, Durotriges BI stater (there was another just like this) Kings of Macedon, Philip V AE Chalkous(?) Tarraco, Hispania AE As? Augustus / Gaius and Lucius Caesares Kingdom of Galatia, Deiotarus Philoromaios AE Zeus / Monogram & shield Post-Seljuk Artuqids, Qutb al Din il-Ghazi II AE dirham, imitating a Constantine "Eyes to Heaven"! I'm being struck with a case of the Bilbo Baggins "After all... why shouldn't I keep them all?"
The celtic AR unit shows resemblance with this one https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=5809886 from Demetrios I. Weight differs a bit though, but the style is comparable. The Durotriges is not a billion, but an AR stater, I think Van Arsdell 1235-1. It's in quite OK condition, but a bit rough.
Are you sure this is a silver coin? It looks bronze. My Axum gilt coin (17 mm, 1.69 g) is definitely bronze, it was minted by king Ouazebas: I wouldn't dare to start cleaning the grime...
I concur: it looks like a dirty bronze. Weighing the coin may help differentiate. On the other hand: soaking it in distilled water and very gently brushing the coin will likely not harm it.
If Aphilas did mint bronze coins, I can't find any record of them online; only his gold and AR with gold inlay. Here is my coin compared to three @ CNG, all AR https://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=56869 12mm, 0.71g https://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=380704 12mm, 0.71g https://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=282857 13mm 0.71g
I would keep them all as a reminder that you don't lose all of the time. Were it mine, I would soak the Axum in distilled water perhaps rubbing lightly with fingers. The coin has potential.
Great group of coins @Finn235 ....I agree with @dougsmit there looks to be some good detail under the gunk...Maybe even use a very soft toothbrush and I would start on the obverse and see what happens...
Great Axumite coin, I believe that many of their silver coins were made using a somewhat debased alloy so a crust of dirt and copper salts may be why it looks like a bronze piece. I have used dilute citric acid to clean the copper salts off a little Axumite AR coin but it started out rather less encrusted than yours and is dangerous/unforgiving to begin with so I wouldn't recommend it. Please post updates if you make progress cleaning it!
Thanks all! I'll try hand at cleaning the Axum coin with distilled water and brushing first - I'll keep you updated if I make progress! And I ran out of room earlier - more goodies from the lot! In no particular order: Arab Byzanine "Three Caliphs" fals - no idea how to ID it any better? Looks to be overstruck on something Lucania, Thurium AE, Apollo / Horse Same, but apollo / cithara (a type of lyre?) This one threw me for a loop... Philip II of Macedon AE 1/4 unit (12mm, 1.04g) Head of Herakles / FILIP-POY above and below club, spear head above Spent an hour scouring coins of Philip III looking for this one before I thought to check daddy! Thrace, Chersonesos AR hemidrachm Lion / pellets and HP monogram in quadrupartite Lucania, Paestum AE sescuncia Demeter / Wolf Another Axum AR! This one I think may be Ousanas? (This is what I *don't* want the Aphilas to look like after cleaning!) And this one... I don't know? AE 15mm, 3.55g Obv: Female head (venus?) right Rev: Nike walking left, Phoenician or Punic inscription
This was an interesting thread. I decided to watch the sellers other auction lots. Before this thread they sold at very modest prices. After the thread, all the lots sold much higher than retail might average. I guess many are still looking for that diamond in the rough. Me? I hate gambling (aside from poker of course).
Been watching a few more of the seller's sales and Ken is right, some of these are getting ridiculous, although there were still a few bargains to be had if I could justify buying them. But this one that sold today... https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.com/ulk/itm/372825184451 Went for $532 for: - Average quality Kushan tetradrachm - A few medium-low grade Judaeans (yeah one is a Pontius Pilate, but still...) - A chipped Sev Alexander denarius - An Indian state or Mughal rupee - A few low grade eastern Celt ARs - A Parthian AE Unless I'm missing something major, someone got carried away and spent like 5-8x retail on that lot!
I notice that two feedbacks on this seller seem to acuse him of selling stolen merchendise (it's in French, so I'm not sure) "objet volé meme pas d'envoie avec signature pour ce prix c'est une honte"
I believe the correct translation is that the item was stolen in the mail. Buyer is angry because it was shipped without signature confirmation.
I think he's saying that the coins were stolen in the mail and it wasnt shipped secure, or signature required.
Really interesting stuff. I'm really enjoying this thread- it is giving me a vicarious thrill. I've been watching this seller like a hawk - because of budget constraints I've only won one lot - I got a decent Claudius DV countermark out of it, but also a bunch of early Islamic stuff I've been (slowly and inexpertly) working on - it has been fun, and from what I can tell from auction and Vcoin sales, a great bargain for me, at under $2 a piece. This is the Islamic part of the batch: