New Akragas Hemilitron

Received this Akragas Hemilitron today. It is a thick and hefty bronze coin with artistic devices. I really like the Triton on the reverse blowing his conch shell. He is the son of Poseidon and Amphitrite, god and goddess of the sea respectively, and is herald for his father. He is usually represented as a merman, having the upper body of a human and the tail of a fish. Triton was the supposed to be able to calm the seas by blowing on this shell.



Sicily, Akragas, Ca 425-410 BC
AE Hemilitron, 21.02 gm, 26mm
Obv: Eagle with head reared, standing right on dead hare
Rev: Crab; below, Triton right blowing into conch shell, six pellets around
CNS 32, Rare

Post your Tritons, shells, and/or coins of Akragas.

John

 

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Oh, wow, marvelous coin! I love the head-rearing eagle and conch-blowing triton!


SICILY, Akragas
Circa 500-406 BC
AE Tetras or Trionkion
9.97g, 20.6mm
CNS I 52
O: Eagle standing right, head lowered, on hare held in its talons.
R: Crab gobbling a leaf; three pellets and crayfish swimming right below, mussel-shell (?) to right.


PLAUTILLA
AE Assarion
3.68g, 19.4mm
BITHYNIA, Nicomedia, circa AD 202-205
RG 253 (same obv. die); Lindgren & Kovacs 172 (same obv. die)
O: ΦOY ΠΛAYTIΛΛA CEBA-CTH, draped bust right.
R: NIKOMHΔEΩN - ΔIC NEΩKO/PΩN, Triton swimming left, holding horn and trident.

 

Zumbly, I love the Plautilla Triton, great coin!

The crab eating the leaf on the Akragas is also very cool.

 

Awesome Hemilitron.

I have a didrachm that a treasure!

Sicily, Akragas
AR Nomos (BC 510-500)
24 mm x 8.30 grams.
Obverse: Eagle with closed wings standing l., AKRAC-ANTOS around
Reverse: Crab.
Ref: ANS 911. Dark gray toning

 

Super didrachm, Noob!

 

That is a wonderful bronze. What is the obverse legend? We only have to mourn the loss of three dots of the denomination. My worn bronze is also a hemilitron (three pairs of two dots each with one almost erased by the c/m) of a more common series overstruck with a head of Dionysos after the destruction of Akragas c.404 BC.


The 0.68g silver is a whole litra from c.440 BC reminding me I do not have a half or smaller in silver from this city. Like a-noob's wonderful nomos, it has boustrophedon legend and uses an R of the style we know today rather than the standard Greek P (rho).

 

My Akragas

 

Mine. I see not dots......

 

Wow, @Theodosius -- what a fantastic Akragas!

 

Wonderful posts!!

I always need more coins but I'm sorely lacking 'Greek' issues since this is yet another type I'm missing...

BTW: I have a cool purchase pending

 

Very nice, I love the Akragas designs.

 

Eagle-bacon!!

 

I welcome comments from other members, but I feel obligated to point out to you, Theodosius, that your coin, although covered with a heavy patina, would appear to be from the same dies as this example condemned as a fake:
https://numismaticfakes.wordpress.com/tag/akragas/

 

I wonder if that is a cast fake of a real coin? There are several similar examples to mine on the various search sites leading me to believe this is a real set of dies.

Any help from the community in evaluating this would be appreciated.

John

 

It is, of course, possible that your coin was the host coin used by forgers. I don't profess to be an expert, but I would like to hear other opinons. I would also inform the seller immediately that you are attempting to verify authenticity.

 

Hmm. I signed up for that lamoneta to be able to view the coins under discussion (numismaticfakes cited a lamoneta discussion). Perhaps there are limitations of Google Translate, but the opinions regarding the coin shown (not the OP coin, but perhaps a die match) were mixed. I don't know anything about the people who rendered the opinions. Are they experts?

Before posting my original comment further upthread, I checked Forvm's fake gallery and didn't see any matches, but of course that database and all others are never considered complete.

 

We continue to learn. I'm not alway clear on what I am learning beyond how little I know. That is an interesting site even with a few fakes found in major public collections.

 

My coin and the one in numisfakes have different flan shapes and centering so they are not casts of each other. They could both be struck fakes from the same fake dies. I will see if these dies are the same when I am at home and look for die matches with major collections and reference books.

It sure passes the looks and feels real in hand test but I realize that means little with a struck fake.

 

Hoping the best Theo.

 

Thanks Bing. I got the coin from an established vcoins dealer so I feel confident if David Sear says it is a fake I will get my purchase price back.