What do you suppose this is?

Not Philadelphia.

You might be right to be skeptical, though.

 

It was almost certainly struck on the European continent.

 

Can't believe I've stumped all of you.

But I set out to try, so...

 

This is a real ID challenge- not a prank.

Well, sort of. There is one small pranksterish twist at play. More on that later.

It is to the best of my knowledge a genuine coin, and an old one at that. Not a seal or replica or token. (Or roofing nail, haha).

Can you make the ID?

To be fair, it should be said that I myself do not presently know the exact attribution, though I've got a strong hunch about which direction to look for it. (And that hunch could be wrong, but such are hunches.)

See if you can figure it out.

 

I only said the coin was old, not ancient.

(But since this is the Ancients forum, you can't be blamed for making that assumption. I was being deliberately vague.)

 

@roman99 has seen through my ruse and recognized the twist.

I turned the picture upside-down.

Sure looked like a tetrastyle temple before, didn't it?

But no, I think @roman99 is barking up the right tree, and that it is in fact a castle, not a temple.

When I first saw this coin posted online by another member here, it was oriented the "temple" way, not the "castle" way.

But invert it, and Lo! Castle, not temple.




But it is not a Spanish cob.

At least I don't think so. I have a different idea. Haven't checked it yet.


*

 

Not unless someone slipped a controlled substance into your coffee.

 

Yes, because that's the only side there is!

It is uniface!

 

Now, ask yourself what part of Europe where small uniface minor coins were struck in copper, (or coppery billon) and you're just about caught up with my hunch of where to look next.

 

Ahhh, but see, this isn't an ancient. I think it was struck in the 17th or more likely 18th century, but I haven't nailed that down just yet.

I just couldn't resist posting it here because when it's upside-down, it sure looks like an ancient with a temple on it, doesn't it?

(That's where the twist came in, see?)

 

BINGO!!!

Winner, winner, chicken dinner!

I believe it to be a ca. late-1600s to 1700s copper or billon uniface pfennig from Hamburg.

But I have not definitively confirmed that yet.

Thanks for playing along.