Hello ladies and gentlemen, Just managed to win a coin I consider iconic - Pamphylia, Aspendos stater with wrestlers and slinger. One of the ancient coins that cannot be considered rare, but from what I know a good condition brings a high price with it. So this one will do very nice. What I am trying to determine is a full attribution as I am checking on Wildwinds and there are a lot of varieties. Can somebody please help? Also - on the reverse, I would say there is a countermark behind the slinger - what would that be? Later edit - after further searching this appears to be Tekin series 1 similar to https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=6115333 This would mean it is older than the auction house attributed (380-325 BC), correct dating being 420-410 BC. However from https://www.persee.fr/doc/anatv_1013-9559_2000_act_12_1_956 This sounds like 2nd series? I would still like a second opinion from more experienced members, please.
This corresponds to my findings, thank you. That means the attribution for this coin I found as "series 1" is wrong https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=6115333 as it is also series 2. Any idea about the countermark on the reverse on my coin, please?
Wow, I have one being delivered to me tomorrow & significantly rare from the looks of it & with Warrens help when I bought it. Congrats on your new coin.
Wonderful example my friend And that countermark adds at ton of character. At first I was thinking tripod but it looks like these coins come with loads of different CMs! https://www.acsearch.info/search.ht...de=1&fr=1&it=1&es=1&ot=1¤cy=usd&order=0 Here's my Greek athletes: Pamphylia. Aspendos 370-330 BCE Stater AR 22mm., 10,17g. Two wrestlers grappling; AΦ between / EΣTFEΔIIVΣ, slinger to right, triskeles in right field. very fine SNG France 83 IONIA. Smyrna. Ae (Circa 115-105 BC). Paramonos, magistrate. Obv: Laureate head of Apollo right. Rev: ΠAPAMO ΣΜΥΡΝΑΙ. Hand in caestus; palm to right. Milne 1927, 239. Good very fine. 1.91 g, 14 mm. Numismatik Naumann Feb 2021 Philip II AR Tetradrachm. Pella, 342-336 BC. Lifetime issue. Laureate head of Zeus right / Youth on horseback right, holding palm and reins; thunderbolt below, [N in exergue]. Le Rider 222-306. 14.22g, 24mm, 7h. VF. Purchased from Savoca July 2021
Good example, Ryro, clearly better than mine in regards to conservation. Especially the obverse. Series 4, I think. What I don't like about my coin is the small flan and the obverse, but it will 99% make it in my top 10 this year. The countermark makes me scratch my head for 2 hours now as I have no idea what it is and I couldn't find something similar. I hope someone will figure it out.
Nice coin,@ambr0zie. Congrats! Not quite sure what to make of the countermark. Vaguely reminiscent of a (Macedonian) helmet? Like the control on this Antigonos Gonatas tet. Anyway, here are my wrestlers. I love the type.
Probably my wrestlers stater is the worst on CT but I still like it I don't think it's a helmet (thought crossed my mind) There are 3 straight lines not 2. Other possibilities - Cerberus. A flower. Cista mystica. Really stuck.
I must say I think you are looking at it sideways... this is clearly the head of the Cthulhu. In all seriousness great new Aspendos coin! Here is my example from this year as well. PAMPHYLIA, Aspendos AR Stater, Aspendos mint, struck ca. 380-325 BC Dia.: 22.1 mm Wt.: 10.62 g Obv.: Two wrestlers; the left one holds the left arm of his opponent with both hands, the opponent grasping with right hand his right wrist; no control in between legs. Rev.: Slinger, wearing short chiton, discharging sling to right; Π in between legs; on right, triskeles to right, EΣTFEΔIIVΣ behind, all within dotted square; c/m: wolf running left in rectangular incuse. Ref.: BMC 52; SNG Copenhagen 214; Tekin Series 4 Ex Harlan J. Berk; Ex Minotaur Coins
My 4th Series example (probably the most common series), purchased last month at the most recent Harlan J. Berk Buy or Bid Sale: Aspendos, Pamphylia, Asia Minor, AR Stater ca. 380/75-330/25 BCE (Tekin, 4th Series [see fn.]). Obv. Two standing wrestlers, naked, grappling with legs spread apart and heads touching; wrestler on left grasps his opponent’s left wrist with his right hand, and left elbow with his left hand; wrestler on right grasps his opponent’s left arm with his right hand; letters “KI” [for name of minting magistrate] in field between wrestlers, below knee level / Rev. Slinger wearing short chiton, standing with trunk in facing position, head and legs in profile facing right, legs held straight with feet apart, left arm extended forward holding sling with left thumb, right arm drawing sling back with elbow bent; triskeles in right field with legs running left; ΕΣΤϜΕΔΙΙΥΣ [adjectival form of city name Estwediius in Pamphylian dialect of Ancient Greek] upwards behind slinger; all contained within square dotted border. SNG Copenhagen 226 [Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum, Copenhagen, The Royal Collection of Coins and Medals, Danish National Museum, Part 31, Lycia, Pamphylia (Copenhagen 1955)]; SNG Von Aulock II 4557 [Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum, Deutschland, Sammlung Hans Von Aulock, Vol. 2: Caria, Lydia, Phrygia, Lycia, Pamphylia (Berlin 1962)]; BMC 19 Lycia 45-46 [both with initials “KI” on obv.] [Hill, G.F. A Catalogue of Greek Coins in the British Museum, Lycia, Pamphylia, and Pisidia (London, 1897) at p. 99]; Sear GCV Vol. II 5397 (obv. var. -- diff. magistrate’s initials) [Sear, David, Greek Coins and their Values, Vol. II, Asia & Africa (Seaby 1979) at p. 491], 26 mm., 10.96 g. Purchased from Harlan J. Berk, Ltd., 217th Buy or Bid Sale, 17 Sep. 2021, Lot 132; ex. Harlan J. Berk, Ltd., 7 March 2001.* Video at https://www.cointalk.com/media/aspendos-video-from-hjb.18273/ *Aspendos, near the south coast of Anatolia, ”was an ancient city in Pamphylia, Asia Minor, located about 40 km east of the modern city of Antalya, Turkey. It was situated on the Eurymedon River about 16 km inland from the Mediterranean Sea.” See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspendos. It was captured by the Persians in 411 BCE (not for the first time), and remained under Persian domination until captured by Alexander the Great in 333 BCE. Id. In the introduction to BMC 19 Lydia, supra at p. lxxii, the reverse legend in the Pamphylian dialect and the reverse iconography of the slinger on this type of Aspendian “wrestler stater” are explained as follows: See also the Wikipedia article on Pamphylian Greek, at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pamphylian_Greek. According to an important article on the Aspendian wrestler/slinger staters, this type falls into the so-called “4th Series” out of five, issued circa 380/75-330/25 BCE; it probably belongs to the later part of that period. See Tekin, Oğuz, Aspendian 'Wrestlers' : an iconographic approach, in: Mécanismes et innovations monétaires dans l’Anatolie achéménide. Numismatique et Histoire. Actes de la Table Ronde d’Istanbul, 22-23 mai 1997 (Istanbul : Institut Français d'Études Anatoliennes-Georges Dumézil, 2000), pp. 159-169 at 165-167 (Varia Anatolica, 12) (available at https://www.persee.fr/doc/anatv_1013-9559_2000_act_12_1_956): “4th SERIES (c. 380/75 - c. 330/25 B.C.) On the obverse of the staters which we have classified under this series there are letters found between the wrestlers at knee level (pl. XXVIII, 11). These letters are shown in Table 1 below [Table omitted; the two-letter combinations used include “KI”). . . . It is understood that in the first examples of the [4th] series there was only a single letter on the obverse or reverse.. . . These letters figuring on the obverse of the staters indicated the initials of either the name of a single magistrate or of two different magistrates. The changed order of certain letters on some staters, that is the A figuring before the Z in one example (AZ) whereas in another the Z figures before A (IA), if not a coincidence, must have been done with considerations of equity as regards the priority in magistrates' names. There exist six such examples [listed in Table 3; KI is not included among them.] . . . The noteworthy main feature on the obverse of the staters of this series is the position of the wrestlers. One of the wrestlers holds his opponent's arm with both hands, whereas the other holds his opponent's wrist. The wrestler's match therefore is now represented in one single position [by contrast to the 16 different positions found in some of the earlier series]. As regards the slinger on the reverse, there is not much change at first. But the quadratum incusum tends to disappear in the first examples and gradually becomes totally inexistant. Therefore, in the great majority of this series there is a square dotted border instead of the quadratum incusum on the reverse, the incuse [found on the earlier coinage] has disappeared.” Although Tekin proceeds to discuss the countermarks that are common in the 4th Series, he notes that “The last examples of the fourth series do not have countermarks.” My coin does not have any countermarks.
Here's my Tekin Series 1: PAMPHYLIA, Aspendos AR Stater. 10.94g, 24.2mm. PAMPHYLIA, Aspendos, circa 420-410 BC. SNG Cop -; SNG von Aulock -; Tekin Series 1; SNG BN 47 var. (direction of triskeles). O: Two wrestlers grappling; the one on the left holding his opponent's leg and belt, the one on the right holding his opponent's neck and belt. R: EΣTFEΔIIVΣ, slinger in throwing stance right; triskeles to right in field; all within dotted square border.
I am starting to think it's an antelope with a dolphin between horns but I am not aware of this countermark design.
I very much like this type! My example is from series 4: Pamphylia, Aspendos, AR stater, 380–325 BC. Obv: two wrestlers grappling; FИ between; in exergue, EΛVΦA MENETVΣ. Rev: slinger in throwing stance r.; EΣTFEΔIIYΣ to l., triskele to r.; all within dotted square border. 23mm, 11.04g. Ref: SNG France 97–98; Tekin: Aspendian Wrestlers (2000), series 4.
