Forgive me, first time posting. I’m very new to all of this but I really did put forth a lot of effort trying to find this old coin before using the easy route and asking. I have found many coins that look like the front but non matching the back side. Any help on finding this coin would be greatly appreciated. Thank you. P.s. if you need better photos let me know and I will do my best to show something better.
Hi Shannon, welcome to CoinTalk I think your coin is a provincial issue of Valerian I struck in Anazarbus, Cilicia. Here's similar coin from CNG's archives: CILICIA, Anazarbus. Valerian I. AD 253-260. Æ Hexaassarion (30mm, 17.68 g, 6h). Dated CY 272 (AD 253/4). Laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right / Six agonistic urns; ЄT BOC (date) in field. Ziegler 837 (Vs1/Rs7); cf. SNG Levante 1518-20; SNG von Aulock 5509. VF, green patina. (Edited to provide a closer example)
Oh wow! Thank you. I don’t think I would have ever found it. I thought the urns were apples and it said something like anazar boy... boy was I off (pun intended). But again, thanks, would’ve been at it for many more hour if not for the help!!!
You're welcome CNG has an extensive archive and their search engine is good. For instance, if you recognized the things on the reverse as prize urns, you could readily find this coin by typing "six urns" in the search window. Here are the results for that search. In this case the results are very specific because Valerian seems to be the only person who issued a coin showing six urns. ACsearch is another widely used database and it includes coins from a large array of auction houses. Anyone can search the database and see the results but you have to be a paid subscribed to see the prices realized. You were nearly right-- it does say ANAZAP BOY. You just didn't know that it is the way "Anazarbus" is spelled on these provincial coins
wow they couldn’t have made it easy and spelled the whole thing? I was reading a thread here in the ancient coin forum about creating a book of reference for these types of coins. Anyways, they put down a whole slew of names that I could reference off of. But big difference in the letter count AND spelling altogether.
"Citadel of Anazarbus/Anavarza. Anavarza used to be the capital of both Byzantine and Armenian Cilicia. In the 1st century B.C. the Roman Emperor Augustus visited this city."
