Justin’s Top Coins of 2019

What a great year!! I like the Alexandrian tets, the Sep Sev sestertius, and the Mamertines best. (I totally saw that elephant at first!) Any thoughts on the dating of the Mamertine bull coin? I see CNG has moved from 288-278 to 264-241 on a lot of the earlier Mamertine stuff.

Also, congrats on all the extra-coinicular accomplishments!

 

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Merry Greetings Justin . Wish you the best in the coming year 2020, to you and all your family and friends. I liked the Sicilian warier, as well as Venus, Hercules, Augustus and the couple Gallienus - Salonina. What's more?? Man.. They're all gor..... geous. Cheers...

 

Great coins Justin Lee! I like your Galba the best, although - not my field of expertise - the shekels from Carthage are very appealing too. Best wishes for 2020!

 

That #1 pair are awesome man, that's some cool Greek AE! I'm with limes, I also like that silky smooth Galba...and of course sexy reverse Julia!

 

Very nice additions @Justin Lee! I notice you like Carthage a lot I still need to get my first Carthaginian coin, great shekels!

 

Thank you all for the kind words and support! It's nice to see the variety of coins and eras/empires you all enjoy!

In A Study in the Coinage of the Mamertines (shared with me earlier this year by @cmezner), Särström sets this type of Quadruple unit (Series I Group A [Plate I, p 203], discussed in the text, pp 56-65) between 288-278, and maybe even a tighter date of 288-285 BC...

"Assuming that the Mamertines began to strike these coins shortly after their arrival at Messana, we are probably not far wrong if we fix the approximate date of the issue of the coins in Series I between about 288 and 285 B. C."

That's the research I'm using for my dating. Is there more explanation from CNG on their dating?

 

I assume their change in the dating is based on more recent scholarship (that book is from 1940) but I have no idea what that might be. Let me know if you find out!

 

Your (top) coin is thought to be an issue of Hieron II possibly continuing or supplementing a run of somewhat similar types of coins produced for a brief period by an actual Ptolemaic mint (making Sv 610) on Sicily. Hieron II made coins 'sort of like' Sv 610 (either contemporaneously and/or subsequently) in several batches with identifiable styles and control symbols. Several qualities easily distinguish the Hieron 'imitations' from the actual Ptolemaic Sicily-mint coins (Sv 610): styles, random die axes (vs uniform 12h for Sv 610), and control symbols (PHI, N, NK, etc.) that are found on other Hieron II coinage (vs no control symbols on Sv 610).

The Hieron II 'imitative' coins and the Sicilian Ptolemaic issue Sv 610 both lack the 'sigma', are exactly equal in average weight, and both Ptolemaic and Hieron Zeus/eagle/shield coins are sometimes found together along with Hieron's own 'portrait/horseman' coins, also of the same weight. There's little reason to doubt they circulated together and were likely interchangeable, valued equally. The Sv 610 are frequently found on Sicily (not a single one has been found in Egypt) but Sicilian numismatists never made the connection that the reason is because they are actually Sicilian coins.

There's more about the Ptolemaic coinage of Sicily in some powerpoints and papers you can read for free on

academia.edu

PtolemAE

 

Sev, do you have any links to any recent lots in mind that I could use as reference if I reached out to CNG?

 

Sure. First, there's your coin which they list as 264-241 (they say it's Series II):

https://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=384380​

Whereas back in 2009, they were listing a helmet-behind variety as 288-278 (there may be differences I'm missing, since they're not catalogued the same):

https://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=145833​

Looking at other types, here's an Ares/eagle series IIA listed as 264-241 in 2016:

https://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=321631​

But here's a similar series IIA listed as 288-278 back in 2007:

https://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=98361​

And in general they haven't listed any Mamertine coins as being any earlier than 264 since 2009! There's a hint as to the reason behind the transition on this listing from 2009, where they give the earlier 288-278 dates but list a reference as follows: BAR issue 4 (“264-241 BC”). So maybe they decided in 2010 that BAR (whatever that is) is more accurate than Särström?

 

Great coins, I like all of them but your two Carthage are excellent, congrats on a great year.

 

Thank you, PtolemAE & AA!

I reached out to CNG and graciously Brad there shed some light on the situation: first, BAR stands for...

B. Carroccio. Dal basileus Agatocle a Roma: le monetazioni siciliane d’età ellenistica (cronologia - iconografia - metrologia). Pelorias 10. Messenia. 2004.​

...and, second, "The series designation for this issue actually has not changed; the coin was erroneously cataloged as a quadruple with the eagle type reverse. I have made the appropriate changes in our database, and the online description of your coin has been corrected: https://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=384380".

Like you, I'm curious to see more info about the BAR Issue 4 ("264-241 BC)" designation. I found the book for sale on MA Shops but it's too expensive for me to pull the trigger at the moment.