I like to believe that I've become good at identifying bronze Seleucid coins by only looking at the obverse and am right most of the time. When I saw this particular coin I became excited because I thought I knew what it was and it came unattributed from the seller. The major problem was that the reverse was badly corroded and not identifiable, or at least I thought. I began working to prove my suspicions of its identity right away. The known facts were easy to come by, such as weight and size. Other metrics I used was flan shape (unusual in this case) which was a big help, die axis, and finally the obverse, which was rather decent. The obverse clearly shows a head of Zeus which narrowed down the results a lot, in fact I searched all bronze coins with the same size dimensions and obverse and luckily it happened to land on the type I suspected it was. It was a good start. Next I verified the flan was the correct manufacture. Seleucid bronze coins were made in a mold and afterwards the edges were either modified were the channels touched or in this case the entire edge was worked to make a smooth beveled edge on the obverse / \. It so happens on this particular type the edges are beveled on the obverse, which is a rarer occurrence. The known weights for the type fall between 7 and 10.5 grams and are between 20 and 23mm. My coin weighs 10.65g and is 21mm. Again all of this is good. I was only able to find 3 images of the type, one from a reference and two from museums. I own the reference Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum Israel I: The Arnold Spaer Collection of Seleucid Coins so I did a side by side comparison of the obverse. The dimensions were nearly identical and the head of Zeus was also spot on. Still I wanted more evidence since the reverse was nearly gone. There are 3 versions of this type and only 2 have images that I know of. Besides the SNG example two reside in the American Numismatic Society and Bibliothèque nationale de France. I was unable to find more images. The one in the ANS was 3 grams lighter and what traces of lettering remaining on mine did not match, but the BN example seemed fairly close in reverse lettering and weight. Here is the reverse of their coin 12148/btv1b8567419m It is a extremely nice example of the type. And here is my reverse suffering from corrosion and wear on the edges. To give the best chance I made an overlay to see if the design/inscriptions were even possible. I was relived to see that at least it could be a match particularly on the arm of Apollo which seemed like a unique feature not found on many other coins. Under 20 times magnification I saw, at least what I believe to be, Λ and N where they should be. The only last thing I could do as a comparison was to check die axis. The ANS example has a 5 degree axis and the BN does not have the axis listed. But my coin has a nearly 180 axis. The only thing I could do is guess what the BN axis is. From the red and blue lines it is clear that the BN example is different from the ANS example and is on a medal axis or roughly 180 degrees and matches my coin when rotating from left to right vs. top to bottom. Normally I would not 1. purchase a coin in such a condition, and 2. spend so much time validating, but this is an exceptionally rare issue only minted for a short time. And here it is Molon Mint: Seleuceia ad Tigrim 221 to 220 BC Obvs: Laureate head of Zeus right, dotted border. Revs: (ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ) on right MOΛΩNOΣ on left, Apollo robed standing right holding cithara and plectrum. 20x21mm, 10.65g Ref: SC 949.2; HGC 10, 430(R3) Note: Obverse has bevelled edge. Molon was an obscure usurper that revolted against Antiochus III and is only known from his coinage. When the two met on the battle field Molon's soldiers fled and resulted in a spectacular defeat. He committed suicide to prevent his capture. With this acquisition I am confident that I may actually be able to complete a set of the entire Seleucid dynasty. Post any detective finds, Seleucids, or related.
Impressive attribution, @David@PCC! Don't worry about grade when dealing with great rarities -- after all, when will you have another opportunity to acquire one? This one was tough to attribute. The clues were the Julio-Claudian hairstyles, the presence of a crescent on Claudia Octavia's forehead, and that the empress was facing right: Nero and Claudia Octavia Roman provincial Æ 24.6 mm, 8.60 g Crete, Cnossus, AD 54-62 Obv: NERO CLAV CAES AVG IMP LVPINO VOLVMINIO II, bare head of Nero right, scepter over left shoulder Rev: NERO CLAV CAES AVG IMP ET OCTAVIA AVGVSTI, bare head of Nero, left, star above, facing draped bust of Octavia, right, crescent above Refs: SGI 655; RPC 1005-6; Svoronos 95, 217 var; Cohen 313, 1-2.
Hate to say never, but this guy never comes up for sale. I am unaware of any being offered in the past. The BN example and even rarer silver issues I would expect to sale for 5 or 6 figures at a big auction. But you never know a small hoard could appear. Great job on the ID despite not having much lettering. The high relief I'm sure helped in id'ing it. The molon reverse appears weakly struck.
