Featured Coins that go bump in the night Part II- The Vampire strikes bat!

Yet again we find ourselves in the midst of the Ghouls, Witches and Undead ready to slit each others bloodless throats at a moments notice. Though, enough about US politics it's the season of the WITCH, BABY!!! Time to celebrate all things spooky, ooky, cooky and macabre...ooky
In last years edition of CTGBITN we had plenty of blood curdling scares and terrors! If you would like to catch some serious fun and nightmare fodder check it out:
https://www.cointalk.com/threads/coins-that-go-bump-in-the-night.324528/
This year I will save you the history lesson on "all ghouls day" and get right to what you are all here for, THE VIOLENCE...I mean, the coins. Yes, of course, the coins
I started last years Creepshow off with one of Vlad "The Impaler" Tsepish (That is the real life Dracula for those with virgin necks) Grandpappys. So why not start this year off with his other one?!



(The only reputed portrait of "Dracula" supposedly copied from an original painted during his lifetime, 1428–1477, or should I say, deathtime?)

Ironically named, Alexander "The Good"



Alexandru cel bun (Alexander the Good)
Half gos type 4. 11.7 mm diameter, ? g, copper or billon
Obverse Moldavian coat of arms: urus head bearing a five ray star between its horns, the uneven ray pointing down, waning crescent at left and five petal rose at right, the odd petal pointing down (heraldic positioning Reverse shield split vertically; three bars at right and five fleurs-de-lis at left arranged 2-2-1 (heraldic positioning); over the shield the Moldavian urus having at heraldic left a waning crescent (in the missing portion of the coin a five petal rose); partially visible outer pearl circle.
Secret Saturnalia gift

Here's one that, most certainly, was inspired by one posted in last year's CTGBITN (so I hope to see many more this year). Though, this coin wont go bump...it will go BITE!




(Don't bring fangs to a stinger fight)
CARIA, Mylasa(?).
Circa 450-400 BC. AR Obol (7mm, 0.63 g, 6h). Facing forepart of lion / Scorpion, tail to right. SNG Kayhan 934-8; SNG Copenhagen (Cyprus, etc.) 379 very fine

As most of us CT zombies know, Medusa is not the only Gorgon on the block. She had 2 sisters! The daughters of Echidna and Typhon had 3 girls: Medusa, Taylor Swift and Miley Cyrus.. I mean Stheno and Euryale (easy mistake to make).
I was admittedly over joyed to add such a nice Gorgon to my collection, one with the obligatory snake hair, fangs and thanks to wear, no eyes!!!






THRACE, Apollonia Pontica
After 450 BCE. AR Reduced Drachm (14.38 MM 2.31 gm). Head of Gorgon facing, tongue protruding / Anchor with crayfish and A at sides. SNG.BM.162. aXF

Very much LOVE the fact that with just a little cropping and a ridiculous cover up for a hole in the coin (debating on removing whatever that silly plug is) that it looks like the rat is escaping a sewer and running into a spider's web!






Ti. Quinctius. 112-111 BC. AR Denarius (18mm, 3.59 g, 7h). Rome mint. Laureate but of Hercules left, seen from behind, wearing lion skin draped across back and with club over shoulder / Two horses galloping left, with rider (desultor) on the nearer horse; rat to lower left. Crawford 297/1a; Sydenham 563; Quinctia 6.


Looks like my new Constantius II suffers from exophthalmos, that's bulging eyes and not one of my favorite Greeks, Antigonus Monophthalmus (sorry @ominous1).



Constantius II
AD 337-361. Antioch Follis Æ 15mm., 1,95g. D N CONSTANTIVS P F AVG, rosette-diademed head right / VOT XX MVLT XXX within wreath, mintmark: SMAN?

Ex-Savoca

So, to quote my old pall the Crypt Keeper, "Boils and Ghouls" please share all the coins that will keep your CT friends and fam up at night or for those of us that are creatures of the night, to keep us up in the early hours!

 

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I enjoyed this thread till I scrolled down to the spider

 

Probably my scariest coin:

Nicephorus II (963-969) w/ Basil II, fourrée solidus

But I am also the temporary custodian of this amazingly ghoulish denarius, perhaps even a competitor to @TypeCoin971793's scary example!

L. Hostilius Saserna, 48 BCE

 

My Halloween standards :


Roman Imperatorial, moneyer L. Plautius Plancus
47 BCE
AR Denarius, 3.79 gm
Obv: L. PLAVTIVS; facing mask of Medusa, serpents at either side of face; banker's mark on cheek
Rev: PLANCVS; Aurora flying right and conducting the four horses of the sun. Banker's mark in left field.
Ref: Plautia 15b Sear 429, Cr453/1b; Syd 959a.
formerly slabbed by NGC


L. Hostilius Saserna
48 BCE
AR denarius, 19 mm, 4.1 g, 6 h. Rome
Obv: Bare head of a Gallic woman to right, with long disheveled hair; behind, carnyx; in field to right, 3 test cuts.
Rev: L.HOSTILIVS / SASERNA; Artemis (Diana) standing facing, holding stag with her right hand and spear with her left
Ref: Crawford 448/3. Sydenham 953.
Ex W. F. Stoecklin, Amriswil, Switzerland, acquired prior to 1975.

 

I know it's not an ancient but I think this head on a platter coin is very Holloween.



1742 Malta

 

Can I post modern coins here or ancient coins only ???

 

I was worrying that it might be too much @Yorkshire. It certainly gave me the willies when I found it! Tell you what, if you post some spooky coins or coins that look like something spooky I'll switch it up to something less sad for spider kind.
That coin is a trip @Severus Alexander! Amazing fouree. And those Saserna's of you and TIF reminded me that I picked one of these bad momba jombas up this year myself:

Maybe it's just the cheapskate in me, but sometimes the coin being more "well traveled" adds to the spookiness of it (though I would kill for that reverse on TIF's).
And @TIF, that gorgon is so sweet I almost turned to stone looking at it! I think you shared 2 of these last year. Each more terrifying then the next!
LOVE the head on the splatter platter @Chris B ...but whats for desert?
@spirityoda, I say, yes please. If its got gore then give us more!

 

Nice job, @Ryro ... now NO young collectors will EVER join! You scared them all off!



Great thread!

Although this coin is fairly difficult to capture, it has a generally creepy look to it... with the super scraggly lion looking as if he crawled out of a grave, and Melkart-Herakles looking very creepy...

Actually, Herakles' ruddy nose is the remnant of an overstrike (understrike coin), that @TIF graciously discovered the mystery coin underneath! (Thank you so much again).



Carthage-LIBYAN UPRISING - Mercenaries issue
Mercenary War 241-238 BCE
7.36g AR DiShekel
Herakles Head in Lion's Head-
Lion walking; Punic M above; LIBYA below
R SNG Cop 240f

Coins were struck in the name of Libya and "M", which has been taken as either "machanat" - the Camp (of the mercenaries), or perhaps Matho, their leader.

 

Well, last years was pretty darn good, & this is starting off GREAT!

It's pretty grievous, what some people did back in the day...wait...what?...back in the day was last week???

 

AMISOS, PONTOS
AE30
OBVERSE: Helmeted head of Athena right
REVERSE: AMI-ΣOY across fields, Perseus standing facing, looking left, holding harpa and head of Medusa; Medusa's body at his feet right, AMTE and ΩΣ monograms to left and right
Struck at Amisos 109-89 BC
19.87g, 27mm
BMC 30; RecGen 17h; SNG Tuebingen 2049; Malloy 16L

 

Spooky stuff i'm scared of that scorpion!

 

Not my thread but if it’s spooky and ghoulish I want to see it.

 

I don't have anything spooky but just noticed this

 

Should have included my severed heads, which I seem to prefer with gruesome detail...

 

This thread is even better if you read it with this soundtrack:

 

Wow, I can't believe someone had the guts to punch Medusa in the nose & mouth!

And the Hostilius really does look "hostile"!

 

This scary guy has been haunting my dreams for years:


I can't find the details right now. About 10mm, about 1g.

I acquired this in 2003. For a long time I thought it was a Celtic piece, or a medieval piece, but I have never found anything similar in the published literature of numismatics.

The surfaces look ancient. It looks like a crystalized coin that has lost its rim. It could be a medieval fantasy of an ancient coin. It could be a modern decoration. I haven't shown it to anyone in a long time.

 

Last time I saw a face like Uberitas's it was in a haunted house!




Trebonianus Gallus, AD 251-253.
Roman AR antoninianus, 5.43 g, 20.1 mm, 6 h.
Antioch, first series, AD 251-252.
Obv: IMP C C VIB TREB GALLVS P F AVG, radiate, draped and cuirassed bust, right; •••• below.
Rev: VBERITAS AVG, Uberitas standing left, holding purse and cornucopiae; •••• in exergue.
Refs: RIC 92; Cohen 125; RCV 9652; Hunter p. cvi; ERIC II 63.

~~~

A rather ghoulish-looking Pudicitia -- or perhaps she's just wearing a gas mask:




Julia Domna, AD 193-217.
Roman AR denarius, 3.20 g, 17.6 mm, 7 h.
Rome, AD 211.
Obv: IVLIA PIA FELIX AVG, bare-headed and draped bust, right.
Rev: PVDICITIA, Pudicitia veiled and stolate, seated left, head and torso facing, right hand on breast and left hand resting on chair and holding scepter.
Refs: RIC 385; BMCRE 19; Cohen 165 (error); RSC 172a; RCV 7105; Hill 1298; CRE 383; ERIC II 210.
Notes: Ex E. Button, Frankfurter Münzhandlung 114, lot 619, Dec. 5, 1967. Ex CNG Triton XX, lot 614 E053, Jan. 9, 2017.

 

How COOL is THAT, Ed! Wow, cool design and cool broken edge. Hope it makes it to the authentic column... and as a neat Celtic piece!

 

Man, that is truly odd Ed, pretty cool and truly scary! It piqued my interest enough to give it a quick search (although I knew if you couldn't ID it, it wasn't going to be easy.) No luck, but I did stumble across this from Triton XXII, which fits the theme of the thread quite well:



CNG's description and commentary:

ASIA MINOR, Uncertain. Late 6th-early 5th centuries BC. AR Stater (17.5mm, 9.71 g, 11h). Winged figure (Baal?) advancing left, torso and head facing, arms raised, tail hanging below; uncertain symbol or letter(s) to outer left, star to inner left, L' (in Aramaic) to outer right; all on raised circular field [with radiate border] / Herakles, wearing lion skin headdress, holding bow in extended right hand and club raised overhead in left, advancing left; uncertain devices above; to right, forepart of creature left, head reverted; all within incuse square with portions of the sides extending into the inner fields. Rosen 750 = Asyut p. 126, fig. D = Leu 13, lot 293 (same dies); otherwise unpublished, but cf. Mildenberg, Bes 1 (third stater); and cf. CNG 91, lot 344 (sixth stater). EF, deep cabinet tone. Extremely rare, one of two known.


This stunning issue was first discovered in a small group of coins found circa 1970 that M.J. Price and N. Waggoner thought was likely another parcel from the Asyut Hoard. The authors suggested the coin was from the Cypriot mint of Lapethos based on an issue of that mint that has roughly similar types (cf. Larnaca Hoard 458-30). The coin was further analyzed by O. Masson in his RN 1982 article, "Notes de numismatique Chypriote" (pp. 14–6), in which he accepted Price and Troxell's attribution, and suggested that the epigraphy referred to a king named 'B[D]– (or 'abd–), for which there are possibilities at various locations on Cyprus. Price and Waggoner had found the inscription "vague", but suggested that it was perhaps Baal written in retrograde. The coin was again discussed by J.H. Kagan in the context of discussing a hoard of archaic coins that included two staters with a nearly identical obverse type as here, but lacking any legend and paired with a reverse featuring the forepart of a winged, man-headed bull right in an incuse (J.H. Kagan, "An Archaic Greek coin hoard from the Eastern Mediterranean and early Cypriot coinage" in NC 154 [1994], pp. 17–52, at 36 [Kagan also notes that one of these winged-bull staters was present in the archaic Demanhur Hoard (IGCH 1637)]). Kagan accepted an attribution to an uncertain mint on Cyprus, though he was not convinced of the connection to the Lapethos issues noted by Price and Waggoner. Two fractions, a third and a sixth stater, have since come to light that must be associated with the present coin, both featuring obverses with the exact same type as here, but with rough incuse squares on their reverse (see references above). While no legend is visible on the third stater, the sixth stater appears to have the Aramaic letters B' above, and another B' in the left field, flanking the lower wing (though the second letter is partially off the flan).

The attribution of these issues to a mint on Cyprus, though, is untenable for many reasons. First, the association of the issue with the Lapethos coins is very weak. The obverses are certainly of very different figures, though their poses are somewhat similar. The reverse type is found on many coinages elsewhere – a popular type that was replicated on a number of disparate issues. Second, none of the known provenances for any of these coins is a location on Cyprus – two are in Egypt, Asyut and Demanhur, while the third is thought to be from a site in Cilicia, Syria, or Phoenicia. Third, all of these hoards contained coins from various mints, and none are of exclusively Cypriot composition. Fourth, characteristics of the flan – thick and compact in manufacture – is rather inconsistent with early Cypriot issues. The coins of Euelthon are the most similar, but even these have flans that are consistently more flat and spread. In contrast, many early coins of southern Asia Minor, Syria, and Phoenicia have this type of flan. Fifth, the form of the incuse, with portions of the sides of the square extending into the fields, is not present on any Cypriot issues, but is known on coins of Lycia (cf. Asyut 249–51) and an uncertain mint likely in southern Asia Minor or Syria (cf. Triton XXI, lot 515, and Savoca 19, lot 96). As such, it seems more likely that this coin is an issue from southern Asia Minor, particularly so if the issues with the forepart of a winged, man-headed bull are from the same series, as that reverse type is well known on issues in Caria, Lycia, and Cilicia.

Finally, the identification of the types has also probably been incorrect. The figure on the obverse has traditionally been identified as a Gorgon, which would make this issue unique for the fact that it would be the only Greek issue depicting the full figure of a Gorgon, rather than just its head. Admittedly, the facing head with its protruding tongue is identical to the form of Gorgon heads commonly found on early coins, but other characteristics of the figure suggest it is not a Gorgon. For one, the figure has four straight wings, depicted in a style that is the norm for eastern deities, but is unknown for Gorgons. There are rare early vases that do depict Medusa with four wings, but they are quite different in their representation (cf. Attic black figure amphora Paris N1020 or F230, in the Louvre). The most salient feature discounting the figure as a Gorgon has been completely overlooked before – the figure has a tail – a feature that is not a part of any ancient representation of a Gorgon, nor is a Gorgon ever described as having one in ancient literature. It is thus more likely that the obverse depicts a local representation of Ba'al, as noted by the legend on the coins. If this is correct, it is also likely that the reverse type does not depict Herakles, as previously described, but the eastern deity associated with him, Melkart.

Needless to say, but to avoid confusion I'll say it anyway: neither the coin nor the commentary are mine.

Phil Davis