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Message:: [QUOTE="Curtis, post: 8473400, member: 26430"]I can see why! There are obviously multiple things about this one that are special, but my eye is drawn to the shoulders, can't remember seeing ones quite like that before. Hard enough to find one with four legs/feet on the flan, but feet are really nice, the legs too, especially the front right. Scales, toes, and claws are really well defined. My first Tortoise was a compromise. I ordered it from a Colosseum Coin Exchange Mail Bid Sale around 1990 or 1991. (I was in jr. high school then.) I wanted a Stater, of course, but was happy to get this Drachm (5.01g): <img src="https://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/albums/userpics/27154/normal_CONSERVATORI-Aegina_Drachm_Turtle~0.png" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" />Aegina Land Tortoise AR Drachm (Testudo Graeca Ibera)Greek (Classical). Islands off Attica (Saronic Gulf), Aegina. AR Drachm (5.0g, 19.5mm, 3h?), struck c. BCE 350-338.Obv: Land tortoise (prob. testudo graeca ibera) with segmented shell of 13 plates. Rev: Large incuse square with skew pattern, two pellets (astragalos?) in one of five compartments (left, top or bottom?).Ref: Millbank Period V (404-375 BC), pl. II, 16; HGC 6, 443; SNG Cop 520; SNG Lockett 2004 ("acorn").Prov: Ex-Colosseum Coin Exchange, Hazlet NJ, Mail Bid Catalog ca. 1990-1992 (possibly MBS 53, 22 Jan 91; if anyone has the catalog, I'd love to know if that's it!). Took over 20 years to upgrade to my AR Stater. (Still a compromise, since I went for one with a bad reverse so I could have a better obv.) <img src="https://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/albums/userpics/27154/normal_CONSERVATORI-Aegina_Stater_Land_Tortoise.png" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" />Aegina Land Tortoise AR Drachm (Testudo Graeca Ibera)Greek (Classical). Islands off Attica (Saronic Gulf), Aegina. AR Stater (11.97, 20mm), struck c. 456-431 BCE.Obv: Land tortoise (prob. testudo graeca ibera), segmented shell of 13 plates. Rev: Large incuse square with five-compartment skew pattern with wide border.Ref: Meadows Group IIIb; Millbank Period V (404-375 BC), pl. II, 10 (same obv. die); SNG Cop 516; Sear 2600. See also HGC 6, 437. Prov: Ex- Gitbud & Naumann Pecunem 20 (3 Aug 2014), Lot 186.Notes: Coin-in-hand video: <a href="https://i.imgur.com/tY4HOVd.mp4" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://i.imgur.com/tY4HOVd.mp4" rel="nofollow">LINK</a> And a couple more years to add the third to the set. I'd still like to have one of the very early archaic sea turtles. By Meadows' dating, this is the last of the sea turtles (and the one above the first of the land turtles, which I find odd, since the fabric/style are so different): <img src="https://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/albums/userpics/27154/normal_CONSERVATORI-Aegina_Stater_Sea_Turtle.png" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" />Aegina Sea Turtle AR Stater (leatherback, Dermochelys coriacea)Greek (Archaic). Islands off Attica (Saronic Gulf), Aegina. AR Stater (12.19g, 21.5mm, 7h), struck c. 480-457 BCE (contested).Obv: Sea turtle (prob. leatherback, Dermochelys coriacea), head turned sideways in profile, with trefoil collar and 'T-back' design, column of pellets on shell. Banker's mark: Incuse circle with cross and four sunken compartments. Rev: Large 'skew pattern' incuse square with five sunken compartments. Ref: Milbank period III, pl. 1, 14-15 (Banker’s Mark = p. 19, Counterstamp 15); Meadows Aegina Group IIIa; HGC 6, 435; SNG Cop 507; SNG Lockett 1970.Prov: Ex-Nomos Obolos 16 (Zurich, 11 Oct 2020), Lot 772Note: Incuse geometric design of the Banker's Mark (Milbank #15) is an interesting complement to the reverse imagery. Coin-in-hand video: <a href="https://imgur.com/3ieAxT9.mp4" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://imgur.com/3ieAxT9.mp4" rel="nofollow">LINK</a>[/QUOTE]

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