Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Marsyas Mike, post: 3274851, member: 85693&quot;]In my quest for cheap ancient countermarks, I recently landed a pitted follis of Maurice Tiberius with what looked like a countermark - the seller correctly identified the host coin, but missed the countermark.&nbsp; In hand, I was (I think) able to attribute it, a monogram of Heraclius&#039; name in a circle.&nbsp; It was apparently issued by Heraclius during his Syrian wars with the Muslim Arabs, and was used in Palestine. </p><p><br /></p><p>The most helpful information was from a &quot;sold&quot; listing on FORVM - I quote from this listing:</p><p><br /></p><p>&quot;Heraclian countermarks on Byzantine copper coins in seventh-century Syria&quot; by Wolfgang Schulze, Ingrid Schulze and Wolfgang Leimenstoll discusses finds near Caesarea Maritima, where this example was found, and concludes, &quot;During the military conflict between the Byzantine Empire and the Muslim Arabs in Syria in the years 633-36 Byzantine coins were countermarked by the Byzantine military with a Heraclius monogram. Countermarking most probably was exercised predominantly in Palestine I and was carried out to revalue the few circulating copper coins in order to remedy the general supply gap and disastrous shortage of cash.&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p>This is the FORVM coin in the listing - the countermark is beautiful:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]864566[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://www.forumancientcoins.com/catalog/roman-and-greek-coins.asp?param=77067q00.jpg&amp;vpar=1376&amp;zpg=87821&amp;fld=https://www.forumancientcoins.com/Coins2/" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.forumancientcoins.com/catalog/roman-and-greek-coins.asp?param=77067q00.jpg&amp;vpar=1376&amp;zpg=87821&amp;fld=https://www.forumancientcoins.com/Coins2/" rel="nofollow">https://www.forumancientcoins.com/catalog/roman-and-greek-coins.asp?param=77067q00.jpg&amp;vpar=1376&amp;zpg=87821&amp;fld=https://www.forumancientcoins.com/Coins2/</a></p><p><br /></p><p>The FORVM example has a much clearer countermark than my example.&nbsp; The host coin on mine, despite some pitting problems, is remarkably intact in terms of identifying characteristics - the oddly under-sized reverse compared to the full-size obverse is interesting.&nbsp; The countermark, unfortunately, is not very clearly struck - my &quot;enhanced&quot; version show why I am attributing the way I am.&nbsp; Any corrections (or disagreements) welcome, as always.&nbsp; I was staring pretty hard to attribute this and I might be seeing things. </p><p><br /></p><p>Are there any others of these out there?&nbsp; This Palestine countermark seems to be scarcer than the Sicilian issues of Heraclius, but I think these were all issued in abundance. </p><p><br /></p><p>My example: </p><p><br /></p><p><b>[ATTACH=full]864564[/ATTACH] </b></p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b>[ATTACH=full]864565[/ATTACH] </b></p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b>Byzantine Empire Æ Follis</b></p><p><b>Heraclius (c. 633-636 A.D.)</b></p><p><b>Countermark on Maurice Tiberius (585-586 A.D.)</b></p><p><b>Constantinople/Palestine Mint</b></p><p><b>Host coin:</b>&nbsp; [M]AVRIC TIB[ER PP AVG], helmeted &amp; cuirassed bust facing / Large M, ANNO left, cross above, II / II right, Є below; CON in exergue.</p><p>SB 494, MIB 65d-67d.</p><p>(11.31 grams / 27 mm)</p><p><b>Countermark: </b>HRC cruciform monogram in 9 mm circle.</p><p>Schulze HCM type 1b[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in