Help with an unknown Greek with two dolphins

I have looked at this coin on and (mostly) off for months and can't figure it out. It's not in great condition but still it shouldn't be this difficult to figure out. Coin is 20mm and 8.1gms

Obv: Bust of Athena right
Rev: Two dolphin; city name between



If you can tell me what it is, and you want it, I'll send it to you.

 

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Greek with two dolphins

 

@Alegandron: I know you're joking but you may win ... and then you're stuck with it

 

LOL

 

Is it ΑΡΣ between the dolphins? I will be the first to admit that I have a terrible time with Greek coins. I've looked all over in my scant resources for this coin and am having no luck.

 

I read and study Greek, perhaps abbreviation for Argos???

 

It reminds me of this coin in the ANS collection.


Crete, Arsinoe, 10mm, 1.62g. ANS 1944.100.40291, Svoronos -.

However, that coin is smaller with Athena facing the other way. I suspect they are related but haven't found one your size yet.

Does anyone have Les Arsinoeens De Crete, pp 229-240 in Essays In Greek Coinage Presented To Stanley Robinson, Ed. by: Colin Mackennal Kraay & George Francis Jenkins, Oxford, UK (1968)?

Edit: BMC has one with Athena left, but not illustrated. ARSI not ARS like yours.
https://books.google.com/books?id=1mECAAAAYAAJ&lpg=PR35&ots=EqghjoXI7y&dq=arsinoe coin crete&pg=PA13

 

I think you're on to something, and I believe my example also has ARSI between the two dolphin. The final "I" is light, but legible.

 

@Ed Snible : That's exactly what this is. Here's an example I found online (although this one is much smaller at 2.3 grams).

https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=440103

 

Teamwork!

 

@TIF: Yep. That's what great about this site.

I searched for dolphin style coins on acsearch and other sites but never could find this type. Problem was that the similar coin description was in German and didn't pick up the word dolphin (delphin in German). Ed's link to Arsinoe was what got me there. Additionally, the city of Arsinoe isn't listed on Wildwinds.

 

At this point I am convinced you have an Arsinoe. I found one more on ACSearch, and at least two in the BnF.

A C Search: https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=440103
BnF: https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b85706239
https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b10311668g
SNG online: (has a silver coin of a different city named Arsinoe)
SNG Copenhagen: (doesn’t have the city?)
Münzkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin online: -
Wildwinds: (doesn’t have the city?)

 

As an aside, is anyone else using the BnF database to search for coins?

They seem to have many coins online that can't be found anywhere else. I have not found an English search page. I have struggled to get the reverses of coins to appear ... it isn't obvious, or easy to remember, how to do it.

https://catalogue.bnf.fr/index.do is where to start.

 

I just checked out the BnF site and it is unfortunately quite difficult to navigate, although maybe with a little more time I can figure it out. Like you, I couldn't pull up images very easily.

Anyways, thanks again for helping me identify this piece. Much appreciated.

 

Yes BnF is difficult, but they have the coin (ups, this was already posted):

https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b85706239.r=arsinoe?rk=42918;4



But about the difficulty, it's better to start your search here. At least you can see both sides.
https://gallica.bnf.fr/accueil/en
If you start your search with "Monnaie :" you get only coins and coin books

 

@shanxi : Thanks for the info. That seems to be the smaller 2.1gm version of the coin, this one is 8.1gms. I do need to figure out how to navigate through this site though, it seems like there's a lot of good information there.

 

I found this which is similar to Ed’s
https://www.vcoins.com/en/stores/da...n_athena_dolphin_starfish/798572/Default.aspx
Not much help.
Hope you get to the bottom of it....

 

I found dozens of coins with 2 dolphins and a helmeted Athena. But NONE matched this coin, close is not good enough. Most dolphin coins are Mycenean, Cretean, Cyprus, or Greek Islands. I quit searching, need to eat and sleep!

 

Hi @Brian Bucklan,

As @Ed Snible correctly pointed out, the coin is from Crete, from Rhithymna renamed to Arsinoe under the Ptolemies. Based on the size and weight it seems to be a new coin in the series that Lorber cataloged starting with B525 - B528 in Coins of the Ptolemaic Empire. This coin would come before B525.

- Broucheion

 

Yes, congratulations!! Good research.