I figure you can't go wrong if you buy what you like and pay a reasonable price. To help offset shipping costs I usually purchase a few cheaper coins to get my order to around 10 or more. This is one of those budget coins. I didn't think anything of it until I went to catalogue the coin. It wasn't in any standard references and I could only find a single match on RPC Online. The other coin is in the BnF museum collection. Apparently I stumbled across a very rare Pisidia, Isinda coin with only two known copies, the one at BnF and mine. I guess dumb luck strikes again. Province, City: Pisidia, Isinda Mint: Isinda (Year (HI) = 8-9 AD) Obverse: Laureate head of Zeus, right Reverse: Helmeted rider on horseback galloping right, wielding spear, coiled serpent below; HI (= 8-9 AD) in left field Exergue: ICIN References: RPC Online: RPC I, 3512r (specimen #2, this coin); Von Aulock Pisidiens – ; BMCG -
Nice specimen with unusually clear rev. scene (usually the snake is hard to make out) & date! Cataloging coins in great detail & finding such rarities is one of the fun things about collecting Provincials! Note, however, a correction you may want to make: This type is not absent from von Aulock Pisidiens, there are 8 specimens (661-668) cited for this date (HI = Year 18) in vol. 1. (I've cut-and-pasted them all below.) (Maybe you meant it's absent from SNG von Aulock?) RPC Online cites them in the "Reference:" line at the top of the page: https://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/1/3512r but hasn't added individual entries below for most of the specimens yet (that happens occasionally). The only one with a specimen record is von Aulock Psidiens 682 = one of the BnF Paris coins (they have at least 2). Here's the other BnF specimen (430) cited by von Aulock (Pisidiens 681): But the other 7 are of this same type too. (Since there were 20 different regnal years for RPC 3512, it looks like they may have just decided to post one spec. online per civic year from the RPC print vol. I when going digital? Most of the other Years, 1-20, for RPC 3512a-3512t also have their own, different sets of von Aulock Pisidiens nos. cited in the "Reference" lines, but not all the individual specs. posted; however, their descriptions are all individually available in the database linked below.) If you look up this type in ISEGRIM (text only, no photos, but very valuable database for Asia Minor) you can find further references for those specimens. Available online (or as an Excel download from Wildwinds updated with additional records by Dane): http://isegrim.dasr.de/isegrim_neu/test2014.php Bibliographical references for RPC 3512r (HI = Year 18): - AULOCK PISIDIEN 1 661(1) = SNG FRANCE 3 1585(1) = COLL PARIS 430(1) [image above] / - AULOCK PISIDIEN 1 662(2) = SNG FRANCE 3 1586(2) = COLL PARIS 425C.1(2) = cited on RPC I Online 3512r, spec. 1 / - AULOCK PISIDIEN 1 663(3) = COLL WIEN(3) / - AULOCK PISIDIEN 1 664(4) = COLL ANS(4) [prob. this spec. based on weight but no photo or description of Yr] / - AULOCK PISIDIEN 1 665(5) = COLL ATHEN(5) = SVORONOS JIAN 1903 S226,474(5) / - AULOCK PISIDIEN 1 666(6) & 667(7) = COLL ROM(6-7) / - AULOCK PISIDIEN 1 668(8)<FUND> = COLL ISTANBUL(8) Here's one from CNG EA 300, 157, citing the BnF specimen illustrated above, and suggesting a date for CY 18 (HI) of "8/7 BC or 5/6 AD?" [ISEGRIM gives 8 BC to 9 AD, not sure what the uncertain dates are based on; Cohen's Dated Coins of Antiquity, No. 549, includes other CY's for the Isinda's AEs, suggesting 8/7 BC for this one.]
