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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Curtis, post: 8460126, member: 26430&quot;]I&#039;ve shared this one on another forum. The photo isn&#039;t recent (<a href="https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=235671" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=235671" rel="nofollow">CNG e-Auction 116 [15 June 2005], Lot 56</a>), but it&#039;s way better than the recent auction photo where I just won the coin (too recent to have received it, I&#039;m really hoping I&#039;ll find it still looks like that, but something may have happened in the past 17 years!). The overstrike is what got me.</p><p><br /></p><p>Adranon Mercenaries (Sicily, Aetna area) AE Drachm (30mm, 26.1g) overstruck on a Syracuse Drachm. I loved how it gave the appearance of a helmet on Apollo (originally Athena&#039;s helmet) and the dolphins serving as a frame for the lyre:</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1499120[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Just to show what the undertype looked like, here&#039;s another example from the CNG archive, oriented about how the undertype is on mine:</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1499121[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>I&#039;m really interested to know the context of the Adranon mercenaries but haven&#039;t learned that much yet. Sounds like they may have been veterans resettled in that area by... Dionysios I (?).</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>That&#039;s something I&#039;ve always suspected.</p><p><br /></p><p>It came up as a side-topic during an ANS Long-Table in October 2021, in which Richard Beleson and David Hendin spoke about Bar Kochba coins, many overstruck on Roman AR Denarii (incl. one struck over a Vespasian Judaea Capta!).</p><p><br /></p><p><b>From my notes</b>: Hendin suggested the Judaeans&#039;/rebels&#039; decision to overstrike was because they lacked minting infrastructure.</p><p><br /></p><p>I followed up (in text): &quot;...was there also propaganda value in the choice to use Roman coinage for over-striking? It’s tempting to think the &#039;fabric&#039; itself was symbolically important. (Obliterating their Roman oppressors.)&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Answers</b>: Beleson said he thought it’s about &quot;what was available.&quot; Hendin agreed that it was a question of &quot;availability and infrastructure.&quot; While tempting to think it was a motive -- and yes, they &quot;may have gotten some thrills&quot; with the overstriking of Roman coins and recognized it as such at the time -- it was &quot;probably not a major motivation,&quot; above and beyond the &quot;practical decision.&quot;[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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