Greek Coin Attributions, online source?

Discussion in 'Ancient Coins' started by joecoincollect, Sep 17, 2020.

  1. joecoincollect

    joecoincollect Well-Known Member

    Hello. I started less than a year ago with Roman Imperials, and haven't had too much difficulty identifying my coins (except really worn ones!). I've obtained some Greek/Roman Provincials and cannot discern much about them. For instance, it's intimidating dealing with Greek legends, and many letters/numerals (?) are worn so I'm left browsing page after page on wildwinds trying to locate the coins via thumbnail pics and it's no use. For instance, I have (I'll try and upload a pic later) a 19mm coin, female head on front with no legend, back has a crescent moon with star inside. Legend on reverse is unintelligible to me. The female may be Artemis, Selene, Luna--I have no idea. When I googled moon images, other coins with similar reverses come up but not mine. Not sure why wildwinds primarily searches Greek coins by City/region since I have no idea where any come from. I found another website I think on ANS but it seems to be down, so I can't search by figure, etc. Sorry for the long explanation, but I don't have anyone to ask besides here. One last question, how do I know if it's Roman Provincial or just a ancient Greek coin pre-dating Rome's empire? I'm guessing the coin aforementioned is just Greek, since it doesn't have a Roman emperor, but I'm thinking this may be wishful thinking. I got many volumes of Sayle's books, but haven't read the Greek one yet. Thanks if you read this far.
     
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  3. Herodotus

    Herodotus Well-Known Member

    Julia Domna Thrace, Byzantium by chance?

    Try this site. It has a good search feature to help potentially narrow down the amount of thumbnail scrolling to locate a possible match.

    https://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/
     
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  4. Herodotus

    Herodotus Well-Known Member

  5. Herodotus

    Herodotus Well-Known Member

  6. PeteB

    PeteB Well-Known Member

    I suggest you learn the Greek alphabet and sound-out the obverse and reverse legends.
    Just trying to match a picture is incredibly hard....and probably fruitless.
    There is no alternative to learning the Greek alphabet for provincials.
    Give us a large, detailed, clear photo and we will sound it out for you, to give you an example.
     
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  7. joecoincollect

    joecoincollect Well-Known Member

    thank you both for replying. I’ll definitely check out that site. Here are the best photos i have, sorry my phone is terrible. 68C4C12B-D2BF-4CE5-9CBD-3535067C41A1.jpeg
     
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  8. Edessa

    Edessa Well-Known Member

  9. joecoincollect

    joecoincollect Well-Known Member

    I appreciate it, I’ll take a look
     
  10. PeteB

    PeteB Well-Known Member

    Rough, but I think my old eyes see the end of the reverse legend: Ζ? ΑΝΤΙΩΝ.
    If the z is correct it. Would sound out ZANTION.
    Not too many ancient city names end that way. ΒYZANTION is one. So bingo, it matches the city sent to you by Edessa.
    So sounding out Greek letters is important. Not all letters are hard to read...as in the above case. You only had to know or look up Ω.
    Next, you have to study city names on line or in references to get a feel for what the Greek letters are telling you. There is no substitute for months and years of studying Greek and Greek Imprerial/Roman provincials. But that's all part of a very rewarding hobby.
    Good luck. Don't give up. Don't feel that you can't come to CT for help, despite my dumping on you. We will be here for you.
     
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