My Fisrt (Real) Ancient!

Okay, okay. It hasn't arrived yet... but it will be here by the time I get home! I will swiftly update with pictures tonight.

And technically it is a gift for my girlfriend who studies history, but I kind of see it as the beginning of my collection.

If you've been following my posts you will know that the first coin I purchased (an Ephesus Drachm) is a forgery. I feel that this next one is completely legitimate.

So here it is in all its glory:


Described as this by the Vcoin seller:
Obv.: Nymph Histaia, of nice style, wreathed with vine Rev.: Nymph Histaia seated to right on galley, Greek legend ISTIAIEON... SG 2948 var. Very Fine ( 12 mm , 2.2 Gm )

I've been trying for the past two hours to attribute it with some luck. I don't fully understand the notation and cataloging used, but this is what I found on acsearch.

https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=1052890


The obverse appears to be a perfect match, however the reverse is is a bit different. Especially in the position of of AIEΩN.
I feel that the reverse better matches this example:
https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=1366076



How would I go about attributing this coin? Any help and clarification would be greatly appreciated. Thanks everyone for your fantastic responses!

 

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good deal Adam8... these are purdy coins.(sometimes you have to kiss a lot of toads before you get a prince)..i have worn tetrobol of her i bought in a group of coins..

 

Sure are purdy! Even the worn ones

 

Yours looks to be quite nice example.
I have a tetrobol.

 

@AdamB , I'm sorry, but I think it is a modern fake. A big "hoard" of these appeared at the 1999 New York International. After many were sold the "hoard" was determined to be modern fakes.

Long ago Barry Murphy posted this composite of the fakes:

https://bpmurphy.ancients.info/images/misc/histaiacomp.jpg

The pellets (berries) in the hair and the hair shape are different on genuine examples. Nevertheless, many dealers have been fooled and still offer coins like yours as genuine.

Search Forgery Network
http://forgerynetwork.com/
with "keyword" Histiaia and find many like yours.

http://forgerynetwork.com/viewasset...f2vYy3sF2SpMb5EMxrg==&srco=1&num=20&srchall=0

See also:
http://www.forumancientcoins.com/moonmoth/coins/histiaia_001.html

You might wait for some confirming information. When you get it, be prepared to ask for a refund.

 

That's a bummer

 

Truly!

 

I don't think this is the case, and here's why: if you compare the hair rolls of mine to that of the fakes, they are completely different. All of the fakes have a curve to the profile of the hair. Mine is straight. I also read that no fakes have any markings below the prow of the boat. Mine has the remnants of the trident as seen in the other examples.

I could be wrong and I'd like to hear other opinions but I still feel that it's genuine.

 

You may be right. I certainly hope so. Your coin has a distinct roll of hair at the face line that the fakes I linked to do not. I am beginning to think you are right.

 

I hope so too. I was so worried the day after I bought this because I found out about all the fakes on the market! I should've done better research up front but I think I got lucky.

 

Welcome to the real world of collecting ancients, trying to determine if the one you bought is genuine. All of us have doubts about some of our coins and the fakes are so good now that anyone with a large enough collection is likely to have a few. But take heart, as some of these might be ancient counterfeits, not modern copies. Counterfeiting was invented the day after coins were.

 

Welcome to the dark side!

 

Should read, "Welcome to the enlightened side"

 

How about thecdark enlightened side?

 

2 "hopefuls" - 1. Hopefully, it is , in fact, a truly wonderfully looking genuine coin. 2. Hopefully, if it turns not genuine, that the VCoins seller will honor the VCoins code of ethics and give you a full refund, including all the funds expended by you. I highly respect VCoins Code as one of the best of all the online selling platforms. Good luck.

 

Although it is correct that counterfeiting (mainly in the form of gold or silver foil-wrapped fourrèes) began about 2:00 in the afternoon of the day that coins were first introduced at 9:00 in the morning, it's not really accurate - in fact misleading - to use the term "counterfeit" with something like the irregular-appearing Histaia tetrobols. These were extensively copied in the surrounding hinterlands and not in order to make fake coins for a profit - these were 100% legal tender in their local issuing areas. They may exhibit variously crude features and/or be somewhat underweight (or overweight), but local ad-hoc copying of coins to use with no intention to defraud anyone began at about 5:00 on that same theoretical day.
Some people insist on calling them "barbarous" although they had nothing whatsoever to do with "barbarian" peoples. Contemporary copies made with no intent to defraud, just in order that your village could have the same things as the town down the road, is at least as old as counterfeiting for fraudulent purposes.

 

Welcome to the world of ancients. I sincerely hope your coin ends up being genuine. I only have one coin of which I am suspicious, a fairly rare type of sestertius. It was purchased from a very reliable dealer but it may have slipped through.

 

Yes, I have a AV Dinar that was a contempary "imitation" of a Ilkhan AV Dinar struck under Abu Sa'id circa 1330AD in E. Anatolia. The originals where struck in territory held by Ilkhans (Iraq/Persia) Both where struck in .999 gold/ imitations had no mint/ or AH date. The "imitations" also were accepted in Ilkhanate regions. These only are known from a small hoard of 50-60 UNC coins found in Turkey.

 

..i thought i remembered reading that these type coins were struck by many different peoples over several hundred years...

 

Yes, I believe I recall that David Sear makes a similar comment under this type in Greek Coins and Their Values.
Many types became the prototypes for generations or even centuries of local and also often distant locations' copying. These Histaia 2/3 drachms are an example. The Heracles Staters of Thasos similarly were copied and used in many locations for centuries. There is a whole sub-class of Celtic copies of Thasos Tets on which you can trace the progress of the distortions of the types as local artistic conventions were incorporated into the copies. For one example, in the later Celtic copies of the Thasos tets, the vine diadem and hair of Dionisos morphs over a period of years into a scorpion and eventually "walks away" from the portrait. I had a friend one of whose specialties was the wilder-style Celtic copies of Thasos tets - you should have seen some of the pieces he had.
Of course the types of Philip II and Alexander III of Macedon were the prototypes of literally thousands of types of very similar coins from hundreds of locations and at various levels of "officialdom" and in production over nearly three centuries.