A bit ostentatious, what with all the countermarks on the obverse--makes the person in the portrait seem a little vain.
I love ancients with countermarks. When I get one, I don't rest until I find out the "who" and "what" of why they would up on the coin. Any theories on this one?
A most unusual and attractive coin. I've only been collecting countermarked ancients for a couple years now, so I don't know a lot. I've looked at a lot of stuff online and I have never seen anything quite like this. It will be interesting to see what you find out about it. Before I collected ancients, I collected modern countermarks, for a very long time. It is a field of numismatics that is rife with counterfeits and fantasies. Some of these fakes had a tendency to be "numismatically beautiful" to an extent that was hard to believe - a Philippines and an Azores and an Imperial Portuguese countermark all on the same 8 reales. One of the traits of the "numismatically beautiful" countermark is the tendency for the countermark to be carefully applied so a minimum amount of damage is done to the host coin. Some ancient coins were carefully countermarked - the Macedonian helmet countermark on Antigonos II Gontatos is always found centered on the host coin's helmet of Athena - out of respect for the goddess, I assume. Macedonia Kingdom Æ 16 Antigonos II Gonatas (277/6-239 BC) Uncertain Macedonia mint Helmeted head of Athena right / Pan rt. erecting trophy; B[A] across, Macedonian helmet l., monogram between legs, [wreath right]. SNG Copenhagen 1205 (5.31 grams / 16 mm) Countermark: Boeotian cavalry helmet (?) in 5mm circle. Note: Common countermark but rarely described; helmet comes from a nice example from Noble Roman Coins. But most of the time, countermarks seem more haphazard than this - and ugly: Byzantium CM on Macedonian Kingdom Philip III Arrhidaios drachm Kolophon? (c. 323-319 B.C.) Countermark: 280-225 B.C. Head of Herakles right, wearing lion-skin. / FILIPPOU Zeus seated left, monogram left. Countermark: ΠU over prow. SCGV 1585 (countermark) (4.00 grams / 17 mm) I bring this up only because the OP is indeed "numismatically beautiful" - the countermarks are uniformly well-struck (except the off-center dolphin) and all appear to have the same amount of wear, and are positioned in such a way that the host coin is still visible. This does not mean it is not genuine - I do not know enough to make that call. But I would do some digging - perhaps post it on FORVM - there are a couple of countermark collectors there who have astonishing collections. Thanks for sharing it - it is a wonderful-looking and interesting coin.
