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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Blake Davis, post: 8283747, member: 91820&quot;]One aspect of our hobby that I love is attributing unknown coins, especially Greek bronzes.&nbsp; Sometimes it goes fast - my starting point is the Wildwinds database, followed by two books of Greek bronzes - Lingren III and Lingren European Mints (still looking for an affordable examples of the other Lingren books), and the CNG catalog of the Fried collection of Greek bronzes from the early 2000&#039;s. Sometimes it takes a long time - my record is three years.&nbsp; My score is probably close to 95% - maybe one out 20 just cannot be pinned down leaving no choice but an educated guess. These are sitting in a bowl to my left as I write this.&nbsp; I have not given up and remain hopeful that in time I will discover where they were struck - in fact, the number of coins in the bowl fluctuates as the mystery of attribution is solved.</p><p><br /></p><p>There is one catagory of coins that are sometimes so difficult to attribute that doing it is a chore, but for the most part I enjoy it...for the most part.&nbsp; And I have made mistakes.</p><p><br /></p><p>All of this is Smithian prologue to the theme of this article. In the late 2000&#039;s I was involved in some customs issues on behalf of a friend.&nbsp; Most of the many coins were eventually released, some were later sold, many remain over a decade later. Among these are some that appear to be Byzantine but have defied all efforts at attribution.&nbsp; These are set forth below.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1463276[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>0.60 16mm - if it is Byzantine it is LATE LATE Byzantine</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1463277[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>1.04 grams 19mm - also late Byzantine - or from elsewhere - note concave surfaces like last one - a traditional &quot;cup&quot; type flan, but definitely smaller than typical</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1463277[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]1463279[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Finally attributable - Croatian? Silver 18mm 0.60 grams</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1463280[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>More silver - 15mm 1.04 grams</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1463281[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Looks more &quot;regular&quot; Byzantine 1.66 grams 21mm</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1463282[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Very crude bronze - 0.78 grams 21mm</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1463283[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>More crude bronze - 1.61 grams 25 x 20mm</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1463284[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>More of a &quot;normal&quot; Byzantine - 1.75 grams 16mm</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1463285[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>0.76 grams 19mm - very very crude</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1463290[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>The final one in the group 1.21 grams 20mm</p><p><br /></p><p>----------------------------------------------------------------------------------</p><p>And that&#039;s it - I have been collecting coins long enough to know that finds of extremely rare coins in circumstances like this never happen - my guess is that, aside from the few that are clearly Byzantine, most are from elsewhere.&nbsp; The silver coins may point the way to attribution of most of the rest, although I should add that the liklihood of these being from the same find is low.</p><p><br /></p><p>In any event, since I enjoy attributing unknown coins I would not typically ask for help.&nbsp; But these, or most of them are <i>weird</i>.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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