Ancients: Coins of Syracuse, Sicily Help

I like Athena a lot. Maybe Id branch out some though.

 

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A lot of this is confusing to me. Its a lot of information. A lot more than my Owls. Maybe it would be easier if I stuck with one Tyrant ( thats what they called their rulers right? ) at a time. I like a lot with Athena on them. I like bronze litras a lot. The silver Tetradrachms are always beautiful too. Artemis and Arethusa coins are also very beautiful... After some more specifics anyone have any suggestions?

 

Ummm, well I spent a whole lot of random money chasin' all sorts of coin-directions!! (some dudes thought I had no rhyme nor reason) ... but here I am still spending money in random directions and "I'm lovin' it"!!

... I chose animal-coins, primarily (but I also like coins with weapons, with ships and with pretty much anything cool on 'em)

... I hope that you eventually find your go-to (ummm, but don't be in too much of a hurry ... the "coins" will find "you")

Cheers

 

I know patience is very important with this hobby. I always wait a while before pulling the trigger on my Owls. But it looks like these will take a lot more research which also means a lot more patience and Im okay with that.

 

This coin in TIF reference is said to be a drachm. Im assuming that a litra and drachm are different but I could be wrong. There is an example of a litra and it seems to be smaller. Im confused because you say its a litra but in the reference it says drachm so what is it??

 

Something else Ive realized is what we would normally call the obverse side, with the head of a person, is sometimes the reverse side on these coins. Can someone tell me why that is? Or how we know which side was meant to be the obverse and which one was meant to be the reverse?

 

=> ooops, my bad => yes, you're correct, this baby is a drachm!! (it is bigger than a litra) ... sorry to muddy the waters, my new cool coin-friend

 

Haha dont worry about it. Glad I could help! Ive basically spent the last hour looking through that website. Im pinpointing areas that I like and will be sure to post them when I know for sure.

 

yah, I guess the whole figurehead on the obverse thingy hadn't quite been ironed-out back in the 4th-n-5th century BC (a classic example being the "Corinthian Staters", where Pegasus is the obverse and your sweet chick Athena is merely the reverse)

=> nowadays, the modern coin nerds would not approve of this type o' coin-thingy, eh?

 

Ahh, the x6 guru.

 

yeah. How do we know what side was meant to be the obverse?

 

=> just jokes, son ... jokes I say

Ummm, I merely go with the order that the pros classify 'em ... it's all I got

 

Ive found the area that I especially like. My absolute favorite are the coins of Dionysius I. They are beautiful and I would love to own some. I also really like the coins of the Second Democracy. Not as much as Dionysius I but they are still very cool and it seems like there are lots of different tetradrachm that they made. Any info on these areas would help greatly!

 

=> three of my Syracuse-coins fell within this time period ...

 

All of them are great! I especially like the last 2.

 

You need to give me a warning before you post that coin so I can fasten my seat belt.

 

Agreed! Stunning!

 

Here is a tetradrachm from Sicily, Kantane, 450-430 BC. Sadly it's quite well worn.
A the time I took this photo I had no idea that the quadriga was the obverse, nor what the coin even was for that matter. Maybe they determine the reverse by which side is incuse.



I've had it for a while and put away, but recently had another look at it to find it was a die match to this one below pictured on acsearch.



Now thanks to dougsmit's link above I've found it to be a part of Group II, obv. 19 (the quadriga) paired with die 29 (apollo). Here is the example from that site.

 

Technically, the obverse is the side on the anvil and the reverse on the punch. The reverse tends to deform into curved fields. Usually we think of the reverse die being smaller if there is a difference. There are coins that don't follow these rules including pincher dies that probably could be hit from either side. There are sestertii of the late Adoptive period that strike me as having the portrait on the punch but I can't prove it and still catalog them as normal. Many people still call the obverse the side with a head if there is one. Others will say the obverse is always the more important side so any coin showing Jesus has him on the obverse despite how the mint looked at it back in the day. Some issues have special rules or ask for common sense. Coins of the time of Aurelian always have the workshop letter on the reverse. Two headed coins of Vahabalathus and Aurelian have the shop letter on the Aurelian side so the Antioch mint (then under control of V.) considered Aurelian the reverse.

Another way of looking at it is, "Does it really matter?" These are collector terms that really mean 'one side' and the other side'.

 

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