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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;PtolemAE, post: 3811616, member: 108089&quot;]The ptolemybronze.com site specifically because the attribution of those types of coins is difficult.&nbsp; It has become the &#039;first stop&#039; for identifying them by beginners and experts, too. There has also been a software program that automates the process that&#039;s been available for almost 10 years now. These tools save having to wade through giant reference books (you think that web site is complex? - try attributing a coin using the &#039;online&#039; partially translated Svoronos reference book <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie1" alt=":)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" />.&nbsp; Fortunately, for at least Ptolemy 1 - 4 there are new books by Catharine Lorber with nice color plates, which are much better than Svoronos and are also easily available by an experienced writer in excellent English.</p><p><br /></p><p>The ptolemybronze site is so widely used that folks often post its (clearly posted) copyrighted pictures and descriptions here without even crediting the site and at least one participant even lifted one of the photos for their identification image.&nbsp; The site is maintained and updated and you can use it FREE so obviously your support and crediting it when you use it are appreciated by its author.&nbsp; There is also a facebook page for the site with over 1300 followers from dozens of countries around the globe.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>There are no &#039;centration&#039; dimples, rather the dimples have nothing to do with &#039;centration&#039; (centration of what?) and they&#039;re seldom in the center (nor even in the same place on both sides).&nbsp; Sometimes there are more than one.&nbsp; They&#039;re caused by mechanical devices used to prepare crudely cast metal disks (flans, planchets) for striking - a technology introduced about 265BC, later seen used on some Seleukid and other coins.&nbsp; This is not news and has been discussed many times in online forums.</p><p><br /></p><p>The obsession with &#039;which ptolemy made this coin&#039; has been mentioned earlier and may be essentially meaningless for these most of these Ptolemaic bronze coinages.&nbsp; Some can be associated with a single ruler but many others can&#039;t - think of them as the &#039;Lincoln cents&#039; of their time, without dates <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie1" alt=":)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /> We have zero evidence that any of these types started production the day after a particular Ptolemy took the throne and ceased the day the next one did. The &#039;ruler envy&#039; obsession misses the point of the functions of these coins in the context of their time.</p><p><br /></p><p>There are indeed two denominations of the coins with the LG an LD dates on the right side of the eagle.&nbsp; The larger one has Zeus (original post in this thread), usually with a K behind the head.&nbsp; The smaller one has Heracles in lionskin headdress.&nbsp; The reason recent &#039;opinion&#039; favors Ptolemy IX is because there is actual evidence from coin finds of these bronzes with tetradrachms of Ptolemy IX.&nbsp; The discovery wasn&#039;t known to Svoronos who included them among coins of Ptolemy V. Fortunately numismatics can adapt to improve the coin attributions when new evidence comes to light.</p><p><br /></p><p>Always a bit mysterious why folks keep secret the basic info about a coin they want identified, regardless of the type, but these types almost always *REQUIRE* knowing the size and weight *and* seeing the pictures of both sides.&nbsp; Pictures alone can result in comments and such but seldom will permit identification of the coin. There *are* fakes and fantasy tokens that look like Ptolemaic coins.</p><p><br /></p><p>For those who want to take things to the next level there is a rich (mostly) freely available modern literature on Ptolemaic bronze coins with papers published in the ANS journal, Numismatic Chronicle, Israel Numismatic Research and other peer-reviewed journals.&nbsp; You can find a lot of these texts on the pages of their authors on </p><p>academia.edu</p><p><br /></p><p>It&#039;s pretty easy to search around there using related words like &#039;Ptolemy&#039; .</p><p><br /></p><p>PtolemAE[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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