Need HELP from CoinTalk Community! This part of an old coin was used as a bargaining chip in extreme circumstances - simply as a piece of metal (because there was no local coinage or regular money supplay from anywhere in a place there it was found). But the edge of the coin is very special: it resembles the teeth of the saw. The metal of the coin is, likely, Brass. Was this coin Antique? Medieval? European? Indian? or Arabian? Experts' feedback would be very helpful and GREATLY appreciated. I am very interested to know any available information about this unfortunated coin. Thank you! Mutargim
I don't quite understand your query. You state that the piece of metal you have was used as "emergency" money but then you ask for identification. My questions..... how do you know this is what you think it is? Maybe it just a worn gear. Where did you find it? Did you find it in situ or was it given to you?
Thank you! In fact, I am a coin collector or even a coin finder from my childhood, but my experience is limited by 17-20 centuries. I found this piece of the a coin by myself in 1977, and it, surely, was a coin, because it was made so that no other way of usage of this piece of brass when it was unbroken jet was expected. Also, the place where it was found was once a little fort used till the beginning of the 16th century. With the exellent view on the Arabian sea from it. I think, it was broken as "emergency" money because when I myself came to this place I also could not change a large local bill as local people hadn't enough small paper money or coins - and it was in the second half of 1970s! Surely, the situation was more complicated in this place through its history BC and AD. Also the edge of this piece shows that it was made in this wery special way to prevent a coin fromgrinding metal - so they often defended the integrity of the coins in ancient times.
Thank you, randygeki! Seleukid Kingdom is a very good idea. I also find one Macedonian coin with, likely, a similar edge - and it was also made from brass. But the simply similarities are not enough for my research. The full coincidence if the edge's shape is needed.
I'm sorry, it couldn't. It was made serrated but its "saw" teeth are shorter than those by this Antiochus VI coin -
I find this an interesting item which I had never come across before. You appear to have the knowledge about this type of coin, so I'm curious why you didn't just begin your thread with the information you have. I think it would have made it far easier to give this info and then have members narrow it down for you. Btw, welcome to Coin Talk! I'd like to see more of your collection.
However, as the Dictionary Of Roman Coins says about serrated coins: "The brass coins of the Syrian kings (such as the Seleucidae) also exhibit the same peculiarity; but this probably was done to them as an ornamental feature, and the metal was cast in that shape before they were struck". So, it could be not a coin initially, but a cast serrated workpiece for the production of a Coin? Thank you for the idea! If so, the question to be answered would be: how the serrated workpiece reached the place of some 2000 miles to the south from its mintage place?..
Thank you! In fact, my little collection emerged mostly in my childhood and from the items picked up, really, from the ground. We lived in that part of Poland, which once was a part of Poland, then an independent little state with a right of coinage, then a part of Austria cut off it by Friedrich II - and, finally, became a Polish western province after 1945. So, that earth was a Klondike, you see. But there was nothing antique to find. Only somthing like this - http://acbon.pagesperso-orange.fr/v14_fr4.jpg or like this masterpiece of the engraver G(eorg) H(einecke) from Liegnitz - http://www.ma-shops.de/olding/pic/thumb/231595.jpg Of course, before asking for help I surfed a long time through the Internet. Although, my little knowlrdge in serrated coins is not enough yet. So, the help is needed and welcomed!
