Say hello to my new little crabby friend (Akragas hemidrachm)

I love the Akragas coins with their crabs and eagles. Particularly this hemidrachm type mentioned below. With the eagle snatching a hare on the obverse and the Ketos (sea serpent) snatching a fish on the reverse, there’s a lot of predatory action going on here! But the pièce de résistance is, as always, the realistically rendered crab.

I had a lower grade example of this type perhaps a decade or so ago, and after I sold it I always wanted another- slightly nicer- one, and vowed I’d do that someday. In fact, if I recall correctly, an Akragas crab was one of my numismatic New Year’s resolutions for 2024, so I’ve fulfilled that just before the year’s end.

This is the lower grade example I used to own:




Now, recently one came up on CNG, but I was outbid on it (which usually happens to me in CNG auctions).

Then I saw this example in a German auction and was actually relieved to have lost on the CNG coin, because I actually like this one a little better. It might not be as high grade as the CNG coin, but it’s got the ideal grey contrasting toning I like on my old silver coins. (And this one is very old indeed!)

Not only do I like it better, but it was also considerably less expensive than the CNG example turned out to be.

This is the new example I just bought:


Here’s the auction description, Google-translated to English:

Post your “crabby” coins, if you have ‘em! Or other types from Akragas.

 

Wow! And a real banger of a strike on it, too!

 

That’s a sweet little tiny one!

 

I wouldn’t have expected it to be.