Wow... That obverse reminds me of a British tourist on a holiday in Jamaica... (i'm probably not allowed to say this)
Maybe all the effort our bureaucrats spend on MOUs should go into prevention of artifact destruction. What if dealers refused to resell maimed coins? Wow: "Haupt der Arethusa mit feiner Frisur" Head with a nice coiffure
Perhaps not. More likely a real coin that got a weird makeover when tooled. Arethusa's hair, for one thing, is really strange. Hence the "rastarethusa" pun in the title ("Rastafarian" + "Arethusa"), which admittedly took me a moment to get.
Did your auction listing supply the Boehringer number for this coin? Most of the dies for these are illustrated online in more than one site and evidence of what was 'touched' and what was original would be shown in comparison. https://www.wildwinds.com/coins/pdfs/Syracuse_Boehringer_and_Tudeer.pdf Look in the 40-60 range for the legitimate Rasta styles. The link below is harder to use but shows a chart of which V (obverse) dies were used with which R dies. http://www.magnagraecia.nl/coins/Area_IV_map/Syracusa_map/Boehringer_034.html Do note that the Arathusa side of this coin is the reverse with the chariot correctly being the obverse so what is needed is a Boehringer 'R' number. Anyone interested could loot at the choices and see if a die match can be found but many sellers provide this data and could say us work by providing a starting place. It might be shown in the format Boeh.xxx (Vyyy, Rzzz). For years I have wanted the book but it seemed silly to spend the money when I own so few coins in it. If I were a billionaire, I would collect the series. https://www.vcoins.com/en/stores/an...hringer__coins_of_syracuse/40492/Default.aspx
Indeed there are some dies where the hair of Arethusa are comped in little braids. In this case however it looks like someone did some small incisions to achieve this effect. The reference given is Boehringer 168. I have the Forni reprint which I don't think is extremely useful as many coins pictured are worn and in small size, so you can't distinguish many details. It's also another example that everything related to ancient coins is getting very expensive. I paid 100 euros for it and it arrived with a sticker with a price of 60. In recent auctions it went for more.
dougsmit "For years I have wanted the book but it seemed silly to spend the money when I own so few coins in it. If I were a billionaire, I would collect the series. https://www.vcoins.com/en/stores/an...hringer__coins_of_syracuse/40492/Default.aspx" The book "Die Münzen von Syrakus" von Erich Boehringer" is available online Text is here https://www.academia.edu/43928361/BOEHRINGER_E_Die_Münzen_von_Syrakus_1_Text And the 32 Bildtafeln (plates) are here https://www.academia.edu/43928659/BOEHRINGER_E_Die_Münzen_von_Syrakus_3_Tafeln You can login with google or facebook account or creat a free account and then download it for free.
