I just recently added this half shekel to my collection. It has an old Spink ticket dating it to 1 BC. That means, if Spink is right, it's either dated PKE 2/1 BCE or PKς 1BC/1AD. I can't make heads or tails of it but I know CNG and some others seem to be able to decipher these. Just thought I would post it to see if anyone might know how to read these crude dates. Thanks in advance, Nemo
I'm no help but I LOVE that shekel!! The surfaces are super, especially compared to those I've noticed at auction/sale.... and even including the one I lost out on several months ago. Congrats!!!! I think @TIF might be able to help...or @dougsmit, @Ken Dorney etc ????
Thanks for the kind words guys. After dong my best to figure out the date for this crude piece, the answer likely lies with the Isfiya hoard. Uncovered in 1955, the Isfiya hoard consisted of more than 4,000 shekels and half shekels. The coins had a full range of dates through the 50s AD (about the Tyre year 170s). About 15 percent of the coins had crude and unreadable dates. Since the hoard had almost no coins in the 20s to 30s AD (mid Tyre year 140s through the 150s), the finders made a conjecture that that's where these unreadable coins fall. All these coins with unreadable dates had a KP monogram. Mine lacks readable monograms so I cannot be 100% sure about its period of striking. However, this coin is consistent with the coins in this group. This case is closed for me......unless I find a die match in a better state of preservation.......
The coin shows severe scratching on the bottom of the obverse and the right of the reverse behind the eagle. I would guess that these are remnants of horn silver or other encrustations that were removed very roughly easily deeply enough to remove field letters that allow dating. What s left might be linked to a better coin but they used thousands of dies for these over a long period of time. I would not call the coin crude. It is damaged. Finding the die match would be more luck than skill. It is, as it is, a decent looking coin from a distance unless you are bothered by the scratches.
Insider, you are a bore. Doug, the surfaces are scratched and the attempt to remove horn silver, I agree, is a good guess. However, the coin has toned nicely and, in hand, the scratches are not easy to make out. The picture is not very kind to this one. The style of the reverse is, imho, clearly a "crude" issue. I'll post other examples when I get a minute.
Many of my ex-girlfriends have expressed the same sentiment. At 6:00 on the reverse inside the upside down crescent layer is what looks like a copper-colored or red pin scratch. Is it a red fiber or a scratch that exposes copper?
