After a few years of having my lowball bids beaten I finally got a decent Drachm of Rhodes, one of the later Plinthophoric issues which I now understand to be the result of a complete reorganization of their coinage to harmonize with other regional systems as well as the Cistophoric weight standard. Seller's Pics: It looked like a nice example underneath the excessive tarnish and zones of crusty silver sulfide, so after getting it yesterday I dissolved the finger-grease in acetone and poked at the encrustations on both sides with a bamboo skewer for the better part of an hour. There is still some left between the rosebud at right and the edge of the incuse square but I'll need something tougher (wish I had some Locust tree thorns here) to get the rest. Rhodian Plinthophoric Drachm 15mm, 3.13g ΞΕΝΟΦΑΝΤΟΣ (Xenophantos), magistrate circa 188-170 BC. Radiate head of Helios right / ΞΕΝΟΦΑΝΤΟΣ above and P-O Ethnic flanking rose, with bud to right; in left field, ram's head right above Kerykeion/Caduceus. 48.00 shipped. (Pardon my bad pics, baby broke the good camera ) I wouldn't call it a collection but have picked up a few other Roses when the prices were right: Plinthophoric Chalkous 13mm, 1.95g ca 166-88 BC. Radiate head of the nymph Rhodos right wearing stephane / Rose with 2 buds, flanked by P-O ethnic in incuse square. The other 2 are an earlier 3/4 facing Hemidrachm 11mm, 1.85g that I can't quite find a match for due to a strange design element to the right of the rose that looks like a 4-legged beast of some sort (Ram? Wolf?) And a chunky little 9mm, 1.46g bronze with roses on both sides and what looks like KPP above the more ornate rose. Any insights or corrections are welcome, and please post your own bouquets, I think I'd like to collect Rhodes and could use some aspirational inspiration!
Great coin and a nice ram as mintmark. In my opinion you shouldn't aim to clean it all the way until it is shiny to the bare metal, I prefer a coin with slight darkening of the silver much more then one that almost looks like the silver is from 2018, but that is just my opinion. By the way, could I ask why you date the coin 188-170 B.C.? As far as I know plinthophoric Rhodos coins didn't come until around 170 B.C. I would date this coin around 170-150 B.C. Also, nice looking little collection, I have Rhodos on my list to have a denomination set from, however I am a little bit more focused on coins from Epiros and Ephesos at the moment. This is my rare Rhodos drachm with a butterfly countermark, around 35-20 years before the issue of the plinthophoric coinage: Rhodes AR Drachm. Circa 205-190 BC. Obverse: Facing head of Helios with flowing hair Reverse: Magistrate ΑΙΝΗΤΩΡ (Ainetor) above, P-O below, rose in bloom with side branch bud to right & butterfly to left.
It looks like you did a nice job of cleaning the coin but it's hard to fully appreciate with the bright salmon tint of the images. Is there a way you can manually white balance the camera? I tried correcting the color in Photoshop Elements but when it is off by so much it is hard to make it look normal, and perhaps the background wasn't white? Anyway,
Rhodes produced a wide variety of coins with the Sol/Rose motif rather like we see from Athens with her owl. My new one from the Baltimore show is AE27 from 167-88BC. From 1990 (when I was still working) is a didrachm c.300 BC. I had placed my hemidrachm in the mid 2nd century but have no knowledge of how and by whom that was determined. What is the standard reference of coice for Rhodes currently?
For plinthophoric coins this is Jenkins, for non-plinthophoric especially Ashton and SNG Keckman. Plinthophoric coins from Rhodos are definitely introduced after 170 B.C.
Nice coin, thanks for sharing! And I don't plan on cooking this piece with aluminum foil or anything drastic, just the mechanical removal of the last bits of crusty sulfide. I lifted the date attribution from a Savoca auction of a drachm of ΞΕΝΟΦΑΝΤΟΣ, but have no references or personal knowledge to back it up so will defer to your judgement, thank you for the correction. Thank you, and I agree that the photographs are bad, I am a detestable noob regarding photography and it shows quite clearly with this camera. The background was a white notecard, so your photoshopping is wonderful and the corrected images of the drachm are quite faithful to the generally dark patina of the coin in-hand. Thanks! What a cool coin! Thanks for sharing your Rhodians, a large charming bronze is definitely on the list, along with a didrachm with aesthetic appeal like your own.
Nice set indeed. Decent bronzes of Rhodes are more difficult to come by than the silver, for the obvious reason that bronze doesn't weather time as well as silver. But I wonder if in general the bronze coins had lower mintage numbers. The minute double rose coins are particularly scarce.
While I agree, I also note that quite a few of these show little casting voids and smoothing scratches that were not erased when struck with the dies. Some suffer from weak strikes which is not all that surprising for large bronzes of this date. The technology/muscle required to transfer full detail on these coins is more than some of us had considered. My only other Rhodian bronze is this Nike reverse AE36 which has a considerably domed reverse die. This allowed better central detail transfer than a perfectly flat die would have if weekly struck.
Thanks for the insight, are you referring to double rose bronzes like mine or a different type? It was €5.53 and worth it to me even if a common one. EDIT: I was poking around for something else and realized I had another little double-rose with a rosebud and O (presumably of R-O) visible at right. 10mm at widest, 1.34g. I managed to take marginally better pictures this time (please forgive me TIF!) If anyone recognizes the KPP (KAP? ΚΔΡ?) coin please chime in.
