That's the first time that I acquire a coin from Apamea- Bithynia. Usually, I notice that all my coins which were struck in Apamea do happen to be from Syria or less from Phyrgia. The coin shows helmeted Athena on obverse and dates back to the fourth century BC. It's listed as a very rare eastern coin and has a monogram above a bull butting right on reverse. This Greek bronze coin weighs 8.6 g. Post your coins from Bithynia if you like.
Nice coin @7Calbrey ! Well centered, nice weighty AE. Congrats! The patina is great and that is a great Athena. I only have one from Bithynia. I captured this one because of the bust of Mithra. Mithraism was the Religion of the Legions. Bithynia Kios 250 BCE AE11 1.06g Laureate hd Mithra r Kantharos 2 grape bunches hanging K-I below within a wreath SNG Cop 382
Interesting! I wonder if the scholarship surrounding this coin has changed over the years, and why/how someone determined it was from Apamea in Bithynia in the first place? The iconography of Athena/bull appears on coins from many places, albeit not with that specific monogram above the bull. This would be a fun coin to research. It does not appear to be a common coin. Did you attribute your coin by finding the similar example in Wildwinds (it's a CNG coin), or by the seller, or by some other means? I'm not finding this as being a coin of Apamea (Bithynia) anywhere else so far. I'm going to broaden the search to "AE, Athena, bull" and report back
Actually I forgot to post the attribution or references. Here they are: Rec.Gen 2 ; Hunter 1. You can find it at Wildwinds on the page of Apamea- Bithynia City and semi- autonomous coins.
Nicomedia, Bithynia Faustina II. FAUSTEINA SEBASTH Head of Faustina II. r. MHT NEW NEIKOMH Aphrodite seated l.holding apple 8.30 gram 25.5 mm Waddington 530, 109. All I have from Bithynia in the Roman era.
That Wildwinds entry (which cites a CNG coin that sold in 2008) is the only one of these I've found in acsearch and CNG's archives (search terms "AE Athena bull"). I'd love to know how it came to be attributed to that locale when the coin is anepigraphic except for a monogram. Maybe that monogram is found on other coins which were attributed with certainty? Other evidence? Very interesting, Charles. Nice coin too... and apparently very rare!
If you only find one instance of a coin on CNG and acsearch does that mean it is rare? That is what I have gathered so far from some posts on CT.
Before I go to sleep, I think I have a nearly similar one in my old boxes, I'll try to find it and post it tomorrow. Hope it could help a bit./
I felt lucky to ID this Bithinian coin. If you want to play, see the AE17 picture. Answer is in the link below: https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=335732
I think that's a fair statement. Those archives go back to the early 2000s. Finding only one example of a coin is unusual.
I wish I could agree with that but.... Common, cheap bronze coins have to be exceptional to make it into the lowest level of big auction houses mail sales. On the other hand, every example of high demand, big name and expensive coins gets shown. There may be thousands of late Roman bronzes sold each year but relatively few are from the sellers that are included as single lots in the online reports. Coins that are usually found in ugly condition are not shown as often as ones that exist in prooflike shape. These factors skew our rarity perceptions.
Good point. Charles's coin though, simply by being Greek, is more likely to be of a value high enough for it to make into an auction house's offerings, and not always in a group lot.
I have the same coin of Plautilla. It's unlisted in the major references, from what I can tell. Plautilla, AD 202-205 Roman provincial Æ 15.8 mm, 3.08 g Bithynia, Nicaea Obv: ΠΛΑVΤΙΛΛΑ CEΒΑCΤΗ, bare-headed and dr. bust, right Rev: ΝΙΚΑ-ΙΕΩΝ, Demeter standing left, holding long torch. Refs: BMC --; Sear -- The CNG listing says to compare the coin to Waddington's Recueil General Des Monnaies Grecques D'Asie Mineure, 494, pl. LXXX. But that catalog listing is for an Æ 27--quite a bit bigger and it has a different obverse legend:
I spent hours searching in my old boxes without succeeding to find the exact match. However I found 2 Greek coins that date back to the same period of the OP coin and have the same reverse. The obverse has the shape of Medusa but with a face similar to Alexander the Great. Both have the same weight, nearly 6.2 g., but they differ in size. They are very dark and black and need cleaning later.. I also found many other interesting coins, such as nymphs, Amisos Pontus, 2 rare coins of Claudius II, as well as a possible double head of Emperor Probus. I'm tempted to go at my seller tomorrow to bring that same coin of Bithynia, of course with some luck. But first, here are the 2 Greek coins.
