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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;TIF, post: 2698012, member: 56859&quot;][guffaw]&nbsp; Awesome <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie8" alt=":D" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>Moh&#039;s 11?!&nbsp; That is one hard pi-weight invisidirham!&nbsp; Quite a robust Apgar score too <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie8" alt=":D" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>...</p><p><br /></p><p>Relevant to the day:</p><p><br /></p><p>These are the first known coins from ancient Tiffily, a small now-submerged ancient island nation somewhere off the west coast of Anatolia. The exact location is being withheld to prevent opportunists from disturbing the historic site. Dive teams are methodically excavating the city. In addition to coins and the usual remains of ancient civilizations, engraved tablets have also been found and archaeologists are currently working on transcriptions. Apparently, these tablets record the history of Tiffily, including myths and religious beliefs.</p><p><br /></p><p>To date, several coins have been found at the underwater dig site. All have the same iconography: a winged iguana which the researchers have dubbed &quot;Iguanasus&quot;. Hopefully, translation of the texts will reveal more details about this mysterious creature and Tiphonian culture.</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="https://www.cointalk.com/attachments/sng-tiffily-1-jpg.446922/" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><img src="https://www.cointalk.com/attachments/sng-tiffily-2-jpg.446926/" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><b>TIFFILY, Tiphonia</b></p><p><b>c. 5th century BCE</b></p><p>AR18, 7.4 gm, and AR 17, 7.4 gm</p><p>Obv: Forepart of winged iguana left</p><p>Rev: Monogram within dotted square, incuse</p><p>Ref: SNG Tiffily 1 and 2, respectively</p><p><i>This, and one other of similar size and weight, are puzzling. Metallurgic analysis shows them to be 99.9% silver yet they are somewhat porous. Perhaps the copper leached out over the centuries. These three coins are thought to be older than the rest. However, the dies are quite similar. Current thinking is that coins 1-3 were cast rather than struck.</i></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p><i><img src="https://www.cointalk.com/attachments/iguanasus-struck1-jpg.446900/" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /> </i></p><p><b>TIFFILY, Tiphonia</b></p><p><b>c. 5th century BCE</b></p><p>AR 16, 6.0 gm</p><p>Obv: Forepart of winged iguana left</p><p>Rev: Monogram within dotted square, incuse</p><p>Ref: SNG Tiffily 4</p><p><i>This coin is missing from the research lab and it is feared that an unscrupulous member of the archaeology team has sold it on the black market.</i></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p><i><img src="https://www.cointalk.com/attachments/sng-tiffily-5-jpg.446918/" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /> </i></p><p><b>TIFFILY, Tiphonia</b></p><p><b>c. 5th century BCE</b></p><p>AR 16, 7.5 gm</p><p>Obv: Forepart of winged iguana left</p><p>Rev: Monogram within dotted square, incuse</p><p>Ref: SNG Tiffily 5</p><p><i>Most of the coins, including this one, are of terrible workmanship. One would think that these mint workers had no idea what they were doing. Clearly there was no quality control.</i></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p><i><img src="https://www.cointalk.com/attachments/iguanasus-tetradrachm-jpg.446901/" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /> </i></p><p><b>TIFFILY, Tiphonia</b></p><p><b>c. 5th century BCE</b></p><p>AR tetradrachm (Rhodian standard), 15 gm</p><p>Obv: Forepart of winged iguana left</p><p>Rev: Monogram within dotted square, incuse</p><p>Ref: SNG Tiffily 10</p><p><i>This coin is also missing and feared sold.</i></p><p><br /></p><p>Metallurgic analysis reveals that all Tiphonian coins found so far are an alloy of 90% silver and 10% copper <font size="3">(oddly, the precise alloy of 20th century US silver coins.&nbsp; Huh)</font> except for SNG Tiffily 1-3, which are 99.9% silver.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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