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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;TIF, post: 2255494, member: 56859&quot;]My carving skills aren&#039;t the greatest and I don&#039;t have (or know how to use) CAD software yet.&nbsp; Dragons and griffins might be a bit challenging but eventually I&#039;ll give them a try.</p><p>...</p><p><br /></p><p>I guess this is as good a place as any to introduce the following coins.&nbsp; I had planned to wait until the archaeology team had uncovered more specimens.</p><p><br /></p><p>These are the first known coins from ancient Tiffily, a small now-submerged ancient island nation somewhere off the west coast of Anatolia.&nbsp; The exact location is being withheld to prevent opportunists from disturbing the historic site.&nbsp; Dive teams are methodically excavating the city.&nbsp; In addition to coins and the usual remains of ancient civilizations, engraved tablets have also been found and archaeologists are currently working on transcriptions.&nbsp; Apparently, these tablets record the history of Tiffily, including myths and religious beliefs.</p><p><br /></p><p>To date, several coins have been found at the underwater dig site.&nbsp; All have the same iconography: a winged iguana which the researchers have dubbed &quot;Iguanasus&quot;.&nbsp; Hopefully, translation of the texts will reveal more details about this mysterious creature and Tiphonian culture.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]446922[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]446926[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p><b>TIFFILY, Tiphonia</b></p><p><b>c. 5th century BCE</b></p><p>AR18, 7.4 gm, and AR 17, 7.4 gm</p><p>Obv:&nbsp; Forepart of winged iguana left</p><p>Rev:&nbsp; Monogram within dotted square, incuse</p><p>Ref:&nbsp; SNG Tiffily 1 and 2, respectively</p><p><i>This, and one other of similar size and weight, are puzzling.&nbsp; Metallurgic analysis shows them to be 99.9% silver yet they are somewhat porous.&nbsp; Perhaps the copper leached out over the centuries.&nbsp; These three coins are thought to be older than the rest.&nbsp; However, the dies are quite similar.&nbsp; Current thinking is that coins 1-3 were cast rather than struck.</i></p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]446900[/ATTACH]</p><p><b>TIFFILY, Tiphonia</b></p><p><b>c. 5th century BCE</b></p><p>AR 16, 6.0 gm</p><p>Obv:&nbsp; Forepart of winged iguana left</p><p>Rev:&nbsp; Monogram within dotted square, incuse</p><p>Ref:&nbsp; SNG Tiffily 4</p><p><i>This coin is missing from the research lab and it is feared that an unscrupulous member of the archaeology team has sold it on the black market.</i></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p><i>[ATTACH=full]446918[/ATTACH] </i></p><p><b>TIFFILY, Tiphonia</b></p><p><b>c. 5th century BCE</b></p><p>AR 16, 7.5 gm</p><p>Obv:&nbsp; Forepart of winged iguana left</p><p>Rev:&nbsp; Monogram within dotted square, incuse</p><p>Ref:&nbsp; SNG Tiffily 5</p><p><i>Most of the coins, including this one, are of terrible workmanship.&nbsp; One would think that these mint workers had no idea what they were doing.&nbsp; Clearly there was no quality control.</i></p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]446901[/ATTACH]</p><p><b>TIFFILY, Tiphonia</b></p><p><b>c. 5th century BCE</b></p><p>AR tetradrachm (Rhodian standard), 15 gm</p><p>Obv:&nbsp; Forepart of winged iguana left</p><p>Rev:&nbsp; Monogram within dotted square, incuse</p><p>Ref:&nbsp; SNG Tiffily 10</p><p><i>This coin is also missing and feared sold.</i></p><p><br /></p><p>Metallurgic analysis reveals that all Tiphonian coins found so far are an alloy of 90% silver and 10% copper, except for SNG Tiffily 1-3, which are 99.9% silver.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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