Hello All, I bought two coins recently from the Bay and I am having a bit of a hard time with one. The obverse legend appears to be: AUTO KAI L CEP CEOUHROC and the reverse is obviously sort of incomplete but appears to end in: KAIC A PEON. The seller noted that the coins were from Saitta, Lydia. The one coin is undoubtedly from there but this coin sure throws me for a loop. It appears very similar to BMC 24 from Akrosos, Lydia or possibly Paris 1001 from Philadelphia. I apologize for the pictures, but the coin might be a Fine at best and lends itself about as well to picture taking as it does self-identifying. I am still a rank novice when it comes to Greek coins so any help here is surely appreciated. Happy New Year to everyone!
https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=1872909 I knew that style could not be Caesarea but knowing the city makes the rest easy. Compare to the above.
Ah man, I feel dumb now, because it appears so obvious when you guys start pointing out things. Thank you @Pellinore, @zumbly and of course @dougsmit. Are coins of Heirocaesarea less common? I guess I just don’t come across them very much to really have any idea.
Hierocaesarea, literally meaning the Holy Town of the Emperor, from Hieros, holy. Not Heiro. On Vcoins I see only 5 coins, all mediocre condition, all low-priced. On CoinArchives there are seven, and on Wildwinds there's a long list, including (more or less) your type, which sold for $205 seven years ago (but the preservation is excellent). That's rather high for a Roman Provincial. Rare apparently. As for making reasonable pictures with ease: take an ordinary water glass (or whisky if you prefer) and put it mouth down on a neutral background, put a coin just next to it, put your mobile phone on the bottom of the glass with the camera eye downwards, make the coin almost as wide as the camera screen allows, focus on the coin, and softly touch the button.
Lol you should have seen how mad I was getting when Google and VCoins would not turn up any results for “Heirocaesaraea.” That’s what happens when you are tired and try to do stuff. Spelling corrected in my mind and my search engines, with much better results! From going through listings online as well as the occasional catalog (Berk Mail Buy or Bid just came in regular mail), I don’t see much of any Hierocaesaraea issues. I guess I can give myself somewhat of a break for not recognizing the issuing city name right away. I’ll have to try your method for taking pictures. It’s the first I have heard of it.
This is the photo setup, on my kitchen table - a neutral grey background. Don't have any coins of Hierocaesarea, but here's a picture made by the whisky glass method of a comparable coin of Grimenothyrae. Not perfect, but you can work with it.
It also works with a Santa mug for the non-whisky equipped among us. Because the mug was too tall, I put the coin on top of a rubber soft grip removed from a disposable ball point pen which I also use when shooting with my camera. The camera still makes better photos but the glass camera support is a good idea.
That's a very smart improvement, because it blurs the background and helps sharpening the coin picture (I suppose).
No phone has a zoom lens. All they do is take a small part of the image and blow it up losing quality all the way. Placing the coin closer will help avoid this. There may be some add on macro lenses that might help but I am not a phone photographer so I am not up on accessories. You need one with two or more glass elements. I see some include a Bluetooth shutter release and LED fill light which could be good if used properly. In the end, it still is a phone.
