Pays to research

Discussion in 'Ancient Coins' started by Ryan McVay, May 9, 2022.

  1. Ryan McVay

    Ryan McVay Well-Known Member

    Recently I purchased a little scruffy looking coin that I thought was Men but I couldn't find it anywhere. So I decided to look at the reverse and that was just as hard. There are many coins with an eight-rayed star and several with Greek lettering. But I couldn't find anything with the Greek letters. By chance I was looking for a different coin in Pontos and found an example of my coin! Yay me! A bit more research, well quite a bit more research, and I can only find 5 other examples. One being a plate coin in SNG Volume XI.
    I'm very happy to add this coin of Men form Pontos, Pharnakeia! (Circa 85-65BC), AE 2.72g, 15mm pharn1.jpg

    Here's a link to one of the 5 found on CNG archives.

    There is a similar coin that has been grouped into this series but the bust is different "style" has a beaded border and the letters are in 3-rows around the star. I'd call it a different coin.
     
    rrdenarius, DonnaML, Edessa and 18 others like this.
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  3. robinjojo

    robinjojo Well-Known Member

    Nice catch!

    Yes, researching a coin can be very rewarding indeed.
     
  4. Herodotus

    Herodotus Well-Known Member

    Yes, it appears to read ΦΑ-Ρ-Ν-Α-Κ-Ε-Ω-Ν on the reverse.
     
    rrdenarius and Ryan McVay like this.
  5. rrdenarius

    rrdenarius non omnibus dormio Supporter

    Congrats on an interesting coin. I was not familiar with Men from Pontos, Pharnakeia and had to do a bit of googling. Coin descriptions call what is on his either a Phrygian helmet or a Phrygian hat. I found a couple of pics:
    bust of men from Anatolia .jpg
    Men from Anatolia on a horse Harvard.jpg
     
    Ryan McVay and Roman Collector like this.
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