Now That's A Tad Odd...

He’s making a joke that the coin is a forgery.

 

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I have very little experience with AIII tets, but does it look like a double strike on the obverse? I keep thinking I see two eyes for the lion head.

 

Treashunt was making a joke. There were coins in China during the time of Alexander the Great, and some of the people in this discussion group collect them and are very knowledgeable about them. But AtG never made it to China, so there's no mint mark for Peking. The "Chinese" lettering that you see is actually a [Kharosthi?] monogram above a stylized rendering of a torch.

 

Could be. It looks like there's a bit of ghosting around AtG's lips and chin.

 

Thanks for explaining

 

..he was joking

 

got it, lmfao

 

The person that posted that joke is not a regular participant in the Ancients section but is over in US. What drives people who do not collect ancient coins to drop in and cause confusion with trash posts is wholly beyond me. He was hinting the coin is a Chinese fake ("Peking"). It is not.

 

Others have told you that the joke is that the coin is a counterfeit. When I read the joke I thought it was about the odd monogram. Most Greek monograms look like a mish-mash of letters, but this one looks like an old TV with rabbit ears, or like a Chinese character.

The monogram:


This coin is from Pella. The monogram is the greek letter Pi (Π, on it's side), E, and Lambda (Λ; upside-down). PEL. A squarish "A" might be in there too.

The monogram looks "Chinese". Perhaps like 音. But it really isn't.

 

Thank you @dougsmit and @Ed Snible for explaining the what and the why (I feel alittle less like a novice dodo). I appreciate the post-the coin and the history are fascinating.

 

In addition to the weird die, I would note the weird toning pattern. Or is that just a trick of the light too?

 

Those marks or devices only resemble Chinese characters. Someone was joking about the P mint mark. I can read some Chinese and those "characters" do not say anything.

 

It looks like it was struck in extremely high relief

 

just a joke, since P would be Philly if made/minted in the US

 

why not, confusion is what makes the world go round