I have answered quite a few questions here on CT and recently received help myself with a question on Parthians. I liked this repay concept so much I will ask another question for those of you willing to help a silly old man who bought a coin he did not understand. My bet is that relatively few of you have anything remotely similar. The coin is from the FSR auction and was sold (lot 225) as a didrachm (6.4g) of Trajan from Caesarea. That is obvious. The reverse is dated COS II in Greek making it earlier than most similar coins I see online. The first thing you notice i the online group is that there are many variations with different reverse persons of which many have less than certain ID. Frank noted that the Hera bust (as he IDed this) almost always faces left. That made me ask how we know this is Hera as opposed to the other options. What characteristics define Hera? Do they show on this worn coin? What figures were part of this series that were seen to he right? Can anyone show a figure of Atargatis from this series that faces left? What characteristics separate the goddesses? I bought this coin despite what was described as 'surface quibbles' that I would have called cleaning scratches that resulted in bright, hard to photograph surfaces. Not all coins of interest are beautiful and perfect. Online sellers have a variety of versions (mostly left facing). Some seem more common than others. Side question: Does it strike anyone that the two dies on these coins may have been made in different places? The way the letters are cut just don't match in my eye.
Interesting questions and I have no answers. In regard to your side question: I was very tempted (but i didn't) to purchase this coin simply because of the interesting contrast in letter style.
Last things first: the style of the portraits as well as the distinctly different looking lettering make me think you could be onto something. Shockingly, I can only think of one coin of mine with a Hera portrait. This little lady was completely encrusted when I purchased her in an uncleaned Roman(?) coin lot. I had to use electrolysis to get her out: Argolis, Argos Æ Dichalkon. Circa 280-270/60 BCE Head of Hera right, wearing stephane inscribed APΓE / Athena Promachos left. BCD Peloponnesos 1100-4; 3.90g, 18mm, 6h. And to attempt to answer the question; the only thing in common, besides right facing females, is the Stephane. I can only think of seeing one other goddess wearing one (which made iding mine all the more tricky). But that seems to me to be a characteristic of Hera. First things last: great coin Doug. Really amazing piece. Congrats!
While I can't help much with your coin. I will throw my 2 cents in and say that they don't seem to be from the same die cutter as well. Great coin though
In RPC IV the coin is listed as 3577 and it appears to be from the mint of Antioch not Caesarea. The reverse is described as Baalat- Hera. A very brief look at Wikipedia did not shed too much light on this but my guess in this context she would be the consort of Baal. Again according to RPC there are a number of varieties of this reverse both left and right facing. During the Flavian period as well as the early Antonine period, a large number of coins meant to circulate in the east were in fact minted at Rome. This can cause a lot of fun when trying to deal with these coins. Quite a number of silver issues as well as a few aes issues fall into this catagory.
Thank you very much. I would still be interested in comments on whether the coins were minted in Rome or if the obverse dies were supplied from Rome and combined locally with the reverses. The reverse lettering seems so not-Rome.
I don't see a lot of stylistic difference in the portraits. The lips look very similar. Antioch was a major mint. Was it possible that there was more than one person at the mint cutting the inscriptions?
What is the die orientation? If it's six o'clock that would point to Rome, twelve o'clock local. In the Flavian period provincial silver coins were sometimes struck at Rome and then sent to the provinces for circulation. Die orientation and style are normally the key to understanding which ones were produced in this manner.
