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Message:: [QUOTE="DonnaML, post: 4552314, member: 110350"]Indeed, you did!  Here's mine, followed by a question for our experts on Greek coins. Thrace, Istros. 400-350 BCE. AR Drachm. Obv. Two facing male heads, left head inverted / Rev: Sea eagle on dolphin, ISTRIH [partially off flan] above eagle, globule under eagle’s tail; A[?] ligatured beneath dolphin. SNG.BM.249 [Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum, Great Britain, Volume IX, British Museum, Part 1: The Black Sea (London, 1993)]; AMNG I/I No. 417, see also id. No. 422 [Behrendt Pick, Die antiken Münzen von Dacien und Moesien, Die antiken Münzen Nord-Griechenlands Vol. I/I (Berlin, 1898) at pp. 161-162]; BMC 3 Thrace No. 6 [R.S. Poole, ed. A Catalog of the Greek Coins in the British Museum, The Tauric Chersonese, Sarmatia, Dacia, Moesia, Thrace, etc., Vol. 3 (London, 1877) at p. 25]; Seaby 1669 var. [D. Sear, Greek Coins & their Values, Vol. I: Europe (Seaby 1978)]. 19 mm., 5.36 g. [ATTACH=full]1127116[/ATTACH] My question is: what is the letter or symbol ligatured to the "A" beneath the dolphin?  If you zoom in on the photo by clicking it, the symbol looks basically like the top portion of a backwards Γ (gamma). Does a backwards Γ signify something in Ancient Greek? Here are the relevant portions of the catalogues I cite in my description above, each of which depicts the symbol similarly: First, the entry for SNG.BM.249 (unfortunately, it doesn't describe the symbols beneath the dolphin, but they're reasonably clear in the photo): [ATTACH=full]1127121[/ATTACH] Next, the entry for AMNG I/I No. 417 (which is specifically cited further down in the SNG.BM.249 entry). The symbol is depicted at the end of the second line in the right-hand column of the entry: [ATTACH=full]1127122[/ATTACH] Next, the entry for AMNG I/I No. 422, which shows a complete backwards Γ ligatured to the A (which actually looks more like a delta!); if you translate the German, the right-hand column of the entry states that "perhaps" the symbol on No. 417 is simply the upper part of the symbol on No. 422. [ATTACH=full]1127123[/ATTACH] Finally, the entry for BMC 3 Thrace No. 6; see the right-hand column of the entry: [ATTACH=full]1127125[/ATTACH] (By the way, the numbers in the first two columns of the BMC entry are in grains and inches rather than grams and millimeters: 84 grains = 5.442 g., and 0.8" = approx. 20 mm.) So: does anyone have any idea what the mysterious symbol ligatured to the "A" signifies?[/QUOTE]

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