I was going to wait until I got this in hand but I am going to be busy over the next few days. So here we are, my first and probably last tessera. Antnious Lead tessera 18mm 2.68g EGYPT, Antinoöpolis. Draped bust right, wearing hem-hem crown, upright crescent in right field Serapis standing left, kalathos on head, right arm raised and holding sceptre in left. LK in left field. 2nd-3rd centuries CE Dattari 6535 Description subject to change!
Great job Pish! These are on my radar also, but I have not been looking yet. I will probably do the same as you... acquire one or two, and have them. Always curious how these were used.
Very nice tessera @Pishpash! I have a few tessera, but none with people on them, which are harder to find. Looks like a female on the obverse of your coin....did females wear the hemhem crown?
Well, he was a favorite of Hadrian. From Wikipedia: "Antinous was a Bithynian Greek youth and a favourite, or lover, of the Roman emperor Hadrian." Nice addition for your collection PP.
Bing I am delighted with it. Unless I win the lottery, I will never have one of his coins, so I am more than content with this.
Wow Pish, that's a sweet addition ... congrats, coin-girlfriend Coincidentally, I just scored a Pb Tessera as well (I will make my own thread later today) Again, that's a fantastic coin (you rock!!)
Yay, I'm glad you finally nabbed one, Pish! I'd love to have some of his Alexandrian or Bithynian issues but for now and probably a long time, this lead tessera will suffice: EGYPT, Antinoöpolis. Antinous 2nd-3rd centuries CE PB tessera, 25 mm, 7.63 gm, 11h Obv: draped bust of Antinous right, wearing hem-hem crown; crescent before, AN behind Rev: Serapis standing right, head left, raising hand and holding scepter; to left, ЄYC/YBA/[...] Ref: Peus 386 (26 April 2006), lot 759 (same dies); Milne –; Dattari (Savio) –; Köln –
Yours is much better than mine TIF, but for the probable difference in price, I get to own mine! I am quite happy with it. It will be interesting to see if the reverse cleans up at all, I haven't cleaned lead before, might be better to leave well alone.
This is an excellent first piece, and you got it at a fairly reasonable price. I've been putting my budget into more modern coins recently, otherwise I might have outbid you! Now, why is this one interesting? The date (LK[...], there's a third letter in the right field. Maybe B?)is actually quite high for the Antinoöpolis series, with most coming in around years 1-8. I'm doing this all of the top of my head, but I know I have another example recorded somewhere with a fully visible date that ought to be the same dies. Your cataloging is incorrect though. NO tesserae are known for Alexandria. This is an issue of the city of Antinoöpolis, of which Antinous was the titular deity. It is decidedly NOT struck 137-138, but much later. Various evidence suggests that these were mainly produced after the Antonines, and with a date like this I'd suggest its from late in the reign of Caracalla. There is no obverse legend on this variety.
@Ardatirion many thanks, this is part seller info and part Wildwinds. I see no letters at all! I had assumed that the weird shape was something to do with the Nilometer.
Wildwinds and 99% of dealers are notoriously unreliable for cataloging tesserae. There's only two sources I can honestly recommend for accuracy: Gert Boersema and CNG (for whom I catalog, of course). Athena Numismatics on vcoins has some mostly decent information, as Emmett helped them with the few tesserae they have.
My modern exonumia dwarfs my ancient collection and because of this I would like to add one someday. Nice tokens(?) @Pishpash and @TIF
Hey, let me know. I have 248 pieces cataloged, and a bunch more that I haven't recorded yet. It's an infinitely interesting and challenging field.
