Newps: More Early Nabataeans

I have a handful of new early Nabataeans arriving over the course of the month, so I'll dedicate this thread to them and eventually finish it off with a team picture.

The first installment is a proto-Nabataean overstrike variety that I've been hunting for some time. This coin comes in at 22mm, 6.7g, and that' s significant because the vast majority of these overstrikes are smaller, at around 18mm, 3g. I've only come across one other coin of this larger size for sale, and now I'm glad I didn't buy it, as this piece presents far more dramatic features.

As I mentioned in another thread, I prefer to collect overstruck coins that exhibit details of both the host coin's design and the new design. This example is a perfectly glorious mess. A 45-degree counter-clockwise rotation of the obverse gives us a clear picture of Zeus' face peering out of Athena's neck, and the reverse shows copious detail from the overstruck eagle, not to mention that his head is peering over the top of the edge of the overstruck devices.



This coin demonstrates that it was overstruck with the smaller dies intended for 18mm coins. The other coins of this larger size - that I've seen - exhibit the same characteristic. We know the older Ptolemaic bronzes were denominated by size, so we are left with the question: did these larger Nabataean coins circulate at a higher value than the smaller? It's a question that may never be answered.

 

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John, I clicked on your picture to (hopefully) enlarge it and it opened a new window for postimage.org. ???

 

Very interesting JA, love the color and details, very nice...

 

=> I agree ... the colour is very eye-appealing (neat coins, my friend)

 

That's it on the resolution - dealer's image. I'll post my own when it arrives.

 

Ecchhh!!

=> I clicked-on the photo and this weird image of PAN appeared!! (creepy, eh?)



Cheers, brother JA (I got the photo from one of our old ID-threads) ... I'm sure that you're far more gray in the mirror!!

 

I'm not much grayer yet. That's a fairly recent pic. My kids are going to make me a lot grayer, though, and quick. Three teenagers.

 

That creates a very cool effect, neat addition.

 

oh, those are very cool...took me a while to figure out what was going on with the obverse....almost like a rorschach test. the "bird man" reverse is worth the price of admission!

teenagers?! good luck JA....i'll have two teenage daughters soon.....lord help me.

 

Here's another interesting proto-Nabataean overstrike. This coin was sold at a lower price than most, presumably because its disheveled features would make it less desirable, but its orientation makes it a rarity.

The earliest Nabataean minters were generally very careful to align their dies with the Ptolemaic host coins: Athena facing the same way as Zeus, Nike standing in the same profile as the eagle. Obverse to obverse, reverse to reverse.

But occasionally one comes across a coin which, for whatever reasons, is oriented differently, and this example is a dramatic one. It's upside-down and backward: obverse to reverse, reverse to obverse, with the new dies rotated 180 degrees to the host coin's devices...



You can see the eagle standing upside-down through Athena's bust on the obverse, and Zeus' locks are strewn across the bottom of the reverse, at Nike's feet. Nike did not make a strong appearance on this coin on account of a weak strike.

It's definitely the sort of coin only a mother could love, or a wacky aficionado of Nabataeans, like me.

 

Do you think you will be able to identify the host coin?

 

I haven't studied Ptolemaic bronzes enough to clearly identify the host coins. The seller of the above coin identifies the undertype as a bronze of Ptolemy II. Here's an example of a coin of Ptolemy II in the same orientation as above, and it seems to fit the bill (not my coin)...



Sometimes the overstrike obliterates the host coin's devices to the point that it's impossible to accurately pin down the original coin. I've consulted Ptolemaic experts about a few of my proto-Nabataeans, and the most they could do was narrow the undertypes down to two or three possibilities.

 

Maybe once you get the coin in hand some details will emerge. This site
http://www.ptolemybronze.com has extensive coverage on Ptolemy bronzes with a small section on the Nabataean overstrikes. It's a very interesting coin, I had my eye on it myself

 

Yes, I've been studying that site - a lifetime endeavor to be sure. The owner of the site, Daniel Wolf has helped me narrow down one of my undertypes.

 

Silly, but you picture how people look and i didnt think JA would be dashing and bearded.... is your surname Anthony or Gibbs?

 

Thank you sir! We had a thread earlier in the year in which we posted our pics, and many of us were surprised at the fact that we didn't look like ancient coin collectors. I don't know what we expected - that we should all look like Doug?

 

Doug IS Postumus...fact!

 

WHERE IS THAT THREAD???????

I want to see what TIF looks like.

 

I don't think TIF posted. She's rather private.

 

Hmm, I guess I could just google her name...