Ptolemy IV Philopater

Thanks, very educational and appreciated info. I can't learn enough it seem's

 

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We underestimate the ingenuity of ancient peoples, probably because we've achieved so much with recent technologies. My wife calls it chronological snobbery. I was very surprised when I first read those pages. The ancient Egyptians had lathe-machining technology?? Yup.

 

that sweet fat coin deserves and edge shot...nice and THICK!

 

I LIKE that term: "Chronological Snobbery".

It ALWAYS AMAZED me that the Egyptians built the Great Pyramids in the BEGINNING of their history! The 3 Great Pyramids of Giza were built during the FOURTH Dynasty, almost 2600 BCE. I also read that virtually HALF of ALL building materials used during the next 2500 years were consumed building those pyramids. AND, they were handling a lot of GRANITE in those constructions, which is some of the hardest stone materials to cut and shape. (Don't start the "Aliens" crap, it is just AMAZING what the Ancients were capable of doing...) Later construction down to the Ptolemies was using Sandstone, a much EASIER material to shape. So consider: over that time span, humans IMPROVED materials to make tools (Stone-Copper-Bronze-Iron-Steel), yet the BUILDING materials degenerated from handling HUGE amounts of granite (no, the Pyramids were NOT completely made from granite, but a lot of cap-stoning and complementary pieces were cut and smoothed Granite) to using sandstone... That is an odd dichotomy in Manufacturing capabilities.

 

It was aliens according to the History Channel.

 

It IS a shame that the History Channel started out as good stuff, then degenerated to the Aliens crap. Eric Van Daniken is such a fake. Read his book back in the 70's, then read "Crash go the Chariots" right after it. Learned early what flukes (or flakes) are.

 

Congrats on scoring that sweet OP-example, old49er

Ummm, I have a couple of these cool P-IV examples ...

 

Just got around to taking a picture it's not very good, just using my phone. I really should buy a proper camera.
Ptolemy IV Philopator. 222-205/4 BC.
Æ Drachm (41mm, 62.40 g, 12h). Alexandreia mint. Diademed head of Zeus-Ammon right / eagle standing left on winged thunderbolt; filleted cornucopia to left, ΔI between legs.

 

Here's an edge shot of that hockey puck that I took shortly before selling it.