Judging by the fabric of this coin, it's either a later (after, say 150 B.C.) Greek or Roman provincial AE14. The reverse appears to be an altar unless I have it mis-oriented. Is it upside down? The obverse looks like it was double struck and shifted downward after the first strike, rendering most of the lettering ambiguous. The legend appears to start _HT, but that's all I can say with any certainty. The coin is 14mm and weights 2.4 g. Any guesses?
It looks like she's wearing a mural crown and that would make her Tyche or a city goddess. However, IF it's provincial and IF the obverse depicts a human and not a deity, it looks more like Crispina than anyone else. Could be Lucilla; less like Faustina II.
Could it possibly be a variant of this provincial of Lucilla? https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=6006520
I'm thinking altar enclosure with antefixae at the upper corners as well, but the reverse MIGHT be a pulvinar of Juno with a wreath on the seat and a peacock in front of it, sort of like this denarius of Faustina I:
Definitely looks like a mural crown, which would mean a city (or koinon) personification and not an Empress. For the reverse, my guess would be not an altar enclosure, but a prize table. Much more common on Roman Provincials especially from parts of Asia Minor. SC
Yes, I think you are correct about a prize table. Now that you've said this I can see a similarity to this provincial coin of Caracalla that I sold several years ago: It's from Anchialus, in Thrace So I checked ACSeach for "Anchialus table" and for "city goddess table" and "provincial crown table" but nothing turned up. I also looked through Anchialus on Wildwinds without luck. An ACSearch of "Lucilla table" does not turn up anything. Looks like this one might remain unsolved.
Can you make out the lettering? It appears to be the Greek for "oon" over the bust at 12h00 which possibly means the obverse is MITROPOLITOON - which of course does not narrow it down at all...... SC
What with the corrosion and the double striking, I can see just about any letters that I want to see on the obverse just by changing the angle that the light strikes the coin at. But your suggestion, in Greek letters--"MHTPOΠOΛITΩN"--would be consistent with the "_HT" that I see at the beginning of the obverse inscription. Alas, ACSearch turns up nothing for "MITROPOLITOON", "MHTROPOLITOON" or "MHTPOΠOΛITOON". Searching for "MHTPOΠOΛITΩN" produces 17 different coins, but nothing with a table (or altar) on the reverse. Wildwinds lists 4 different regions with towns called Metropolis that produced coins: Akarnania, Ionia, Phrygia and Thessaly, but doesn't show anything that looks like my coin. If nothing else, I am getting a geography lesson out of this. Thanks to everyone who posted ideas/suggestions. I'll keep looking.
Sadly its even worse. It is not just towns called Metropolis. Mitropolitoon was used to mean "town of" and appears on coins from lots (hundreds?) of towns followed by the actual town name. SC
