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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;-monolith-, post: 24760097, member: 150064&quot;]I rarely purchase &quot;unidentified&quot; coins but this one intrigued me. I haven&#039;t found a coin yet that I couldn&#039;t identify, however this one has eluded me. I purchased it at auction from a well known London dealer. Their staff could not identify it either. I spent months researching the coin and even contacted Dane at Wildwinds to help with its <a href="http://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?board=7.0" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?board=7.0" rel="nofollow">i</a>dentification. Based on our discussion we were able to determine the following:</p><p><br /></p><p>1. The coin appears to be an autonomous issue from possibly the 1st-2nd century BC (based on obverse portrait of Zeus).</p><p><br /></p><p>2. The coin is unusual in that it is a very small bronze (14mm, 1.82g). </p><p><br /></p><p>3. I believe the reason the coin has an untrimmed casting runner, bottom right, with trim marks on the opposite side, was due to the obverse image of Zeus and the inscription on the reverse overlapping onto the runner.</p><p><br /></p><p>4. Obverse: Laureate head of Zeus, right (early / primitive style - possibly 2nd-1st century BC). A faint, circular inscription is visible on the upper left, above the head of Zeus &quot;...Π&nbsp; or Ω&nbsp; TOS...&quot;. There appears to be a large &quot;Σ&quot; in front of the nose. This could be a date Σ=200. The portrait of Zeus has a very similar style to coins minted in and around Cyprus.</p><p><br /></p><p>5. Reverse: Soldier wearing tunic standing facing, head right. Holding helmet or head in right hand and standard with vexillum or spear and large shield in left hand. A faint, circular inscription is visible to the bottom right and overlaying onto the runner (bottom left). The text on the runner appears to be &quot;...OΦC...&quot; / &quot;...OCC...&quot; / &quot;...YΦC...&quot; / or &quot;...YOC...&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p>Note: My coin appears to have a lot of similarities (size, weight, material, portraits) to the Cyprus (Cleopatra VII) coins. However there are still some nagging differences:</p><p><br /></p><p>1. The &quot;Σ&quot; in front of his nose and apparent inscriptions on the obverse and <a href="https://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=reverse" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=reverse" rel="nofollow">r</a>everse. The Cyprus coins have no inscriptions, only borders of dots.</p><p><br /></p><p>2. The right hand on my coin appears to be holding a mass like a head or helmet. The Cyprus coins are holding ears of corn. I don&#039;t see any lines extending above and below the soldiers arm indicating the corn.</p><p><br /></p><p>3. All the Cyprus coins have a star above the figures head. Its possible that it got cut off on my coin but I don&#039;t see any marks indicating a star above his head.</p><p><br /></p><p>Any help identifying this coin would be greatly appreciated.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1583847[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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