Unpublished Tetrassarion of Caracalla?

This rather rough but cool bronze caught my eye because of the reverse---that chunky, robust image of Hercules just said.... 'Take me home'!! It also seems it may be unpublished and perhaps exceedingly scarce, rare or even unique. This specific reverse appears unknown to coins struck at Platinopolis, Thrace but numerous variations are relatively common from other mints in Thrace. The city is identified in Greek on the reverse. (https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?term=caracalla thrace hercules&category=1-2&en=1&de=1&fr=1&it=1&es=1&ot=1&image).

Of course, scarcity or even rarity do not necessarily equate to desirability or value, but I think it's kind of neat to own a coin that few others may ever have in their collections. I hope the more well-known Severen specialists like @maridvnvm or @dougsmit will offer their opinion(s) about this coin. Note that there is obvious 'smoothing' within the fields (especially the reverse) but no obvious evidence of 'tooling'----at least none that I can recognize. In any case, since I mistakenly placed a comma with my maximum bid instead of a period, I 'won' it at a slightly higher price than intended----perhaps 'fate' meant it to be so LOL

Post your coins of Caracalla, Hercules or whatever you would like to share.

AE24 Tetrassarion of Caracalla 198-217 AD., Plotinopolis, Thrace - laureate head right / Herakles standing left, leaning on raised right leg set on rocks and holding club (7.15 grams, 24 mm) Plotinopolis mint 198-217 AD., Varbanov - Mouchmov - SNG Copenhagen - BMC

 

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Love the reverse @Mikey Zee

 

Agree with JW, love the reverse.

 

Sweet!! => congrats on adding that very cool Herakles-addition, Mikey-Z!!



Ummm, here are a couple of my Herakles (Hercules) thread additions ...

Thessaly, Oitaioi, AR Hemidrachm
Lion with Spear & Herakles with Club



Syracuse, Sicily Agathokles, AE24
Herakles & Club and Lion



M. Volteius M.f., AR Denarius
Hercules & Erymanthian Boar



Thessaly, Skotoussa, AR Hemidrachm
Herakles with Lion headdress & Horse forepart



Kings of Macedon, Philip V, AE22
Herakles with Lion headdress & Harpa



Anonymous, AE Quadrans
Hercules with Lion headdress & Prow with Elephant Head



Gens Quinctia, Ti Quinctius, AR Denarius
Hercules with club and lion cloak & Rat and Horses




Mikey-Z => congrats again on scoring that great OP-winner

 

oh yeah, cool coin with a cool hercules reverse MZ!

 

Maybe its just the photo but it appears to be heavily tooled. The inscription is incorrect for the city and doesnt appear anywhere in the literature. It really seems like the Omega's were redone into "O". Odd.

 

Hmmm, @Ken Dorney .... Now I don't know what to make of all of this. I guess I'll have to wait for others to chime in.....although now I think I see evidence of tooling too

 

Agree. It should read ΠΛΩTEINOΠOΛEITΩN.

 

Not to rain on your parade! But to me it has issues. The tooling and smoothing, the incorrect inscription, the odd pose of Herakles and the missing lions skin, the oddly varying size of the letters in the inscription, etc. They all lead me to think this was re-engraved from something else.

 

Thanks for the clarification guys...It certainly seems a prime candidate for a return/refund.

 

Very nice coins here,
nice catch MZ
TROAS, Pionia Hadrian AE 14 Heracles standing

 

Sorry better luck next time

 

Great coin!

 

A final post:

The issues raised by Ken and and Roman Collector have convinced me there's too much doubt about this coin and the 'alterations' whether ancient or not (probably modern) made me contact the seller resulting in a refund.

I think I'd better stick with 'published' coins from now on LOL

BTW: The seller is well-known and reliable but still unsure about the coins 'true status' but concedes there's room for doubt and worked things out with me.

 

That is great! Trust.

 

Happy Ending => Mikey-Z, congrats on successfully sorting-out the coin dispute

... it's usually better to walk away from questionable coins (I don't like having coins that make me feel uneasy)

 

i have this Greek Caracalla. in the legends it has the omega on the obverse then an o (along with an omega) on the reverse.

 

good for U

 

Well, O and Ω are separate letters. One is a little o, the other is a big O. This is reflected in their names O-micron and O-mega. Think of micro and mega.

The interesting thing is that one has a mispelling on the reverse--it's missing the second O. It should read ... ΜΑΡΚΙΑΝΟΠΟΛΙΤΩΝ; instead, it reads ΜΑΡΚΙΑΝΟΠΛΙΤΩΝ.

 

o..mines missing an o too? wow, what does that mean? bad spelling or bad coin? i had this for years and just recently got told what it was, or what its supposed to be.