Another cheap flea market find brought me this AE 4 (about 15mm) which looks like a pretty common coin, except its execution looks more barbarous than most of what I have seen. I am having trouble with the attribution mainly because I cannot make out the letters. Any help appreciated so my one dollar purchase will have been worth while.
Hah, it appears as though the legend reads "HHHHHHHHHHH" on the obverse and "IIIIIIIIIIIIII" on the reverse, coupled with the amusing scarecrows on the reverse I'd say it's an appealing nonofficial barbarous issue. Definitely worth buying for a dollar in my opinion.
I like it! Man... I really need to start accumulating some of these fun barbarous/unofficial coins . My favorite of all time, or at least of all CoinTalk time, is the infamous denarius of Isiusiisiuisii owned by @arnoldoe. That thread never fails to make me laugh. Arnold, if you ever sell that coin, please give me first crack at it .
It was in a junk box of 19th early 20th century foreign. I always go through these boxes when I can. I already got my dollar's worth of learning from this coin, especially from the two scare crows, each wearing a broad brimmed patesis.
These barbarous/unofficial issues are very interesting - more interesting in this case than the "official" coinage. It's definitely a keeper. I guess there were coin shortages in some places either in the empire or outside of its borders.
