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<p>[QUOTE="dougsmit, post: 882304, member: 19463"]I am unclear what is being asked. This type comes in several varieties and denominations. Varieties include which head is upright (the two coins here match) and which way the eagle faces (these two are opposite). The top coin is obviously what is called either a drachm or stater (depending on who you ask - they weigh about 5g and probably were not called either name by the people who issued them) with slight double striking on the reverse. Without a weight, I'm not sure what denomination the bottom one is. The bottom coin has a heavy die break on the obverse and is the only one I have seen this severe. I suspect from the reverse that it was damaged by being struck without a blank in place but was kept in use making coins that showed the die damage. These are beautiful and very popular coins with a lot of discussion relating to the meaning of the two heads. Staters are most popular but a bit more common than the smaller fractions. The smallest I have seen is this .3g example which could be 1/12 of the stater but, again, that is just a guess. If one calls the big one a drachm, then the smallest could be a hemiobol but I really doubt that ancient Istrians used the currency system of the Athenians and it is wrong to force these names on coins from other regions. </p><p><img src="http://www.pbase.com/image/124279167.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>Fakes exist; both ancient and modern. Ancient fakes can be plated fourrees or very wildly styled barbarous copies that often replace the legends with rows of dashes. Someone could do the science of numismatics a great service by conduction a full study of these interesting coins. I would not be surprised if someone is not already working on this project (perhaps in Romania???).[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>
[QUOTE="dougsmit, post: 882304, member: 19463"]I am unclear what is being asked. This type comes in several varieties and denominations. Varieties include which head is upright (the two coins here match) and which way the eagle faces (these two are opposite). The top coin is obviously what is called either a drachm or stater (depending on who you ask - they weigh about 5g and probably were not called either name by the people who issued them) with slight double striking on the reverse. Without a weight, I'm not sure what denomination the bottom one is. The bottom coin has a heavy die break on the obverse and is the only one I have seen this severe. I suspect from the reverse that it was damaged by being struck without a blank in place but was kept in use making coins that showed the die damage. These are beautiful and very popular coins with a lot of discussion relating to the meaning of the two heads. Staters are most popular but a bit more common than the smaller fractions. The smallest I have seen is this .3g example which could be 1/12 of the stater but, again, that is just a guess. If one calls the big one a drachm, then the smallest could be a hemiobol but I really doubt that ancient Istrians used the currency system of the Athenians and it is wrong to force these names on coins from other regions. [IMG]http://www.pbase.com/image/124279167.jpg[/IMG] Fakes exist; both ancient and modern. Ancient fakes can be plated fourrees or very wildly styled barbarous copies that often replace the legends with rows of dashes. Someone could do the science of numismatics a great service by conduction a full study of these interesting coins. I would not be surprised if someone is not already working on this project (perhaps in Romania???).[/QUOTE]
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