Akragas - a strange request

Sometimes after looking at a coin for a quarter century we can see things that may be hidden from a more casual observer. My wife does not see things in half of my coins that I consider obvious. I'm writing a new page for my website that includes a discussion of the coin below. My strange request is for anyone with free time or interest to tell me what you see in this photo. I will tell you that this is an AE28 of Akragas in Sicily but what I want to know is what other eyes see. You may use terms like beautiful and ugly or even nice, unusual and garbage but none of these will do me any good compared to descriptions of details or the 'why' behind your judgments of merit.

Please, feel free to post your better examples of exactly the same type or any trivia in your brain just dying to escape. What do you see? I paid $32.00 over 25 years ago. Call me a fool. It is not for sale.

 

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Intersting coin. I don't know much about this category.
I think i recognize a standing bird on your left picture and the crab on the right picture. I see part of the crab's legs in the periphery. Seems to me that this side is upside down based on the position of the crab. The swirl which is at the top i believe is usually at the bottom
And then the most apparent detail: somebody later put a countermark of a face looking right over the crab. This also flattened the opposite side of the bird somewhat. I guess there is some story connected to the countermark, which i do not know.
One last detail: is also see some round dots on the bird's side. The feeling i have is that these do not immediately fit in the design here.

 

Looks like a dinosaur to me!

 

I am similar. I see the eagle on a dolphin on the obverse, and a crab that has had a countermark of a right facing portrait on the reverse. The countermark looks double struck, but there is something weird going on on the portrait's cheek and side of head. I do not know if that is damage, part of the portrait, or another countermark.

 

Kinda reminds me of those Mexican coins with the eagle eating a snake?
That or its a fish?

 

Oh I was looking at the wrong coin .. is this is it?

 

I'm amazed so much came out so quickly. Yes the crab side is upside down due to the countermark being shown right side up. The dots on the crab side are very significant. I was hoping someone else had one to show. No?

 

I don't collect ancients, but these two photos don't look like the same coin. Am I the only one who thinks that the cracks are different?

Chris

 

Paddyman98's coin is a great example of a coin almost a century later but I find it interesting that Sear gives mine #1026 and his #1027. What happened to Akragas in the intervening years is a big part of the story.

 

old images; needs a reshoot.

AE22, 7.5 gm. The nomenclature for Akragas denominations is confusing. I don't know if this coin has only two dots of if a third is worn or off flan to the right. Is mine a heavy hexas, or a light tetras?

Yours does have an unusual arrangement of dots. What is the size and weight?

 

Doug, is your coin a so-called hemilitron, weighing 20-ish grams? Perhaps there are two more unseen dots for a total of six?

 

There seems to be an indication of two dots at the edge of the countermark where one would expect these with a symmetrical design around the axis of the crab.

 

OK, I know I'm not describing what should be on the coin, but I am describing what I think I see. It's kinda like looking at clouds and describing the shapes one sees.

On the left image, I see a rooster pecking at the ground while on the right I see a portrait facing left with victory flying above. The portrait looks like a double strike with the chin and neck below and maybe the crab on the upper portion.

There. You have the musings of an old man.

 

The OP is 19.4g and I believe a four dot trias just like the one below. The coin paddyman changed to is a six dot hemilitron but I still think it is later. Many sales of these call them hemilitra but I'm less sure that the originals were even if the intent was for the countermarks to upvalue them.

Mine are not nice by general standards but I am having trouble finding listings of 5th century Akragas AE that are EF. Later ones are generally nicer.

 

Doug, on the obverse an eagle with wings partly spread eating a hare in its talons is expected. I think I see modern carving outlining the back, legs, and tail of the eagle, as well as some of the hare. The eagle's head never had much relief and seems to be slightly outlined in the wrong position by light engraving. So, in my opinion, well over half the detail in that one side is not original.

Others can comment on the other side.

 

Looks to me like a portrait stamped over the crab.

 

Exactly.

 

There was a lot of going back and forth of Cities in Sicily between allegiances between Carthage and Syracuse.
I am sketchy with my history here, but I would like to posit some thoughts:
1) Counter-stamp due to capturing town, and establishing authority via re-marking existing coinage.
2) No coinage between Sear 1026-1027: Occupied by Carthage and used Punic coinage, abandoning Akragas coinage. Then, recaptured by Syracuse / Greeks and coinage resumed.

Just thoughts, there are historical experts here to refute or expand on them.

 

Is that Tanit / Kore as the counter-stamp bust on OP pic?

 

After looking closer, it looks like there is another strike on top of the portrait strike, maybe the crab again?

The coin may have changed hands once, then back again?