I am soliciting opinions on this one and adding a poll. The 1st one I contacted was Nicolas Molinari who was doubtful but couldn't say either way due to the wear. Exhibit A is this coin It is a plate coin fron Seleucid Coins and as far as I know is the only one in existence as well as the only Seleucid coin that features a man faced bull. I'm only showing this one to set a precedent of the possibility that there may be other Seleucid mfb's out there, not another with this exact design of looking forward. Since my coin has some wear I found these images of mfb's looking sideways also with some wear to draw a comparison. Now all of these are from Italy or Sicily, so a loose comparison has to be made since my coin was minted a couple thousand miles away from these. My coin is different for a few reasons, but mainly because is is an Indian humped bull with long horns. Antiochus I Soter Mint: Ai Khanoum 281 to 261 BC Obvs: Beardless head of Heracles right wearing lion skin headdress. Revs: BAΣIΛEΩΣ above ANTIOXOY below, man faced bull or humped bull walking right? AE 17mm, 4.79g Normally this coin would be cataloged as SC 441.1. This coin is also 40% heavier than average and a full 20% heavier than the heaviest example. I know less about mfb's, but I know alot about Seleucid coins and I've never seen a bull like this. Here is what you would typically see. Now I compare my coin more towards the squarish beards vs. the roundish ones found on some mfb's. If it is truly a new Seleucid mfb type, I would expect it to look at least a little different than types found in europa. Please find your way to the poll and tell me what you think.
David, I think Nicolas Molinari offered the most logical answer. Even after enlarging the image there isn't enough visual evidence to make a sound conclusion . You can surmise by the small size of the coin that it is unlikely to be a "man headed bull", but that would only be a guess . Sometimes a great artist can create an image with ambiguity, as James Earl Fraser did with the Buffalo Nickel in 1913. As Cornelius Vermeule writes in his book Numismatic Art in America, some art critics thought that the Buffalo (actually a Bison) had a human face, & Fraser's modeling of the beast's head could certainly be interpreted that way. Anyway, pictured below are two Buffalo nickels, one in mint state & the other with heavy wear. The coin with heavy wear is a good comparison to your ancient bronze coin. You can't say either of these coins has a human face .
at coryssa.org there is one from Seleucia on the Tigris, Mesopotamia, 5.4 g: https://www.coryssa.org/1815964/sub.../0/search_title/on/period/greek/period/greek/
Nope, after wanting a steak, I came down on Just Plain Bull. :<} As such, your example is Very cool, with the juxtaposition of an Indian humped one (--don't say that too fast ...it's late here) and the Alexandrian Herakles motif on the obverse. ...It's truly bracing to be reminded how, in every corner of the ancient world I can think of --Greco-Celtic? Massilia: Check-- this kind of mixing and matching of cultures was the default mode. ...And nowadays, people in any number of fields need 'diversity training.' Just Look at how enlightened we are!
The thing is, the bull is clearly facing us. You can clearly see the horn and the ear on the left side of the head. So the blob to the right of the head can't be a right-facing face like on the coin at the very top of this page. So we have to assume that, if it's a mfb, it's a facing mfb, and without more detail, it is impossible to distinguish between the two possibilities unless a second one turns up with less wear. Looks like a hump on that very topmost bull, too.
This one somewhat reminds me of a countermarked "mystery coin" I own. I so far didn't manage to attribute it. When I asked for help here on CT back in 2018, even BCD didn't recognize it. We also had a man-faced-bull discussion back then. Since it's reverse resembles David's coin, this might be a clue: Obv: veiled head r., countermark. Rev: bull r. 18mm, 4.31g. Sorry for the bad pictures – I need to take better ones at some point.
I would love for it to be a man-faced bull, if only to make Nick write a new chapter. But I voted for regular bull. While it is not entirely clear, and man-faced is a possibility, I went with the logic of "extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence". Though there is already one Seleucid with man-faced bull I would still wait for a clearer example to be sure there is now a second. SC
Thank you everyone for your input. We have two options of either a bull or a mfb. If it is not a mfb, then there has to be a reason why it looks the way it does meaning the square face. I was only able to find a couple of clear examples of what this coin might be. One from CNG and the other from the ANS. The features are definitely from the die and not encrustation or something. The only reasons I can think of it looking this way is it was engraved poorly, but coins from this mint are typically well rendered. Which leaves the possibility that this is some local imitation. Either way having a less worn example would clarify the matter.
I thought the poll was about the first OP coin which I regard as a man-faced bull. When you corrected the other member, I noticed I, too, had voted on the wrong coin, so I went back and changed my vote to regular bull. Can you edit your post to say "Don't vote on this coin! Vote on the one below!"?
Good catch, I was totally fooled. I thought the poll was for the first coin. I agree the actual coin seems to be just a regular bull. Sorry for the mix-up. John
