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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Marsyas Mike, post: 3583391, member: 85693&quot;]A most unusual and attractive coin.&nbsp; I&#039;ve only been collecting countermarked ancients for a couple years now, so I don&#039;t know a lot.&nbsp; I&#039;ve looked at a lot of stuff online and I have never seen anything quite like this.&nbsp; It will be interesting to see what you find out about it.</p><p><br /></p><p>Before I collected ancients, I collected modern countermarks, for a very long time.&nbsp; It is a field of numismatics that is rife with counterfeits and fantasies.&nbsp; Some of these fakes had a tendency to be &quot;numismatically beautiful&quot; to an extent that was hard to believe - a Philippines and an Azores and an Imperial Portuguese countermark all on the same 8 reales. </p><p><br /></p><p>One of the traits of the &quot;numismatically beautiful&quot; countermark is the tendency for the countermark to be carefully applied so a minimum amount of damage is done to the host coin.&nbsp; Some ancient coins were carefully countermarked - the Macedonian helmet countermark on Antigonos II Gontatos is always found centered on the host coin&#039;s helmet of Athena - out of respect for the goddess, I assume. </p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]956312[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p><b>Macedonia</b> <b>Kingdom&nbsp; &nbsp; Æ 16</b></p><p><b>Antigonos II Gonatas </b></p><p><b>(277/6-239 BC)</b></p><p><b>Uncertain Macedonia mint</b></p><p>Helmeted head of Athena right / Pan rt. erecting trophy; B[A] across, Macedonian helmet l., monogram between legs, [wreath right].</p><p>SNG Copenhagen 1205</p><p>(5.31 grams / 16 mm)</p><p><b>Countermark:</b>&nbsp; Boeotian cavalry helmet (?) in 5mm circle.&nbsp; Note:&nbsp; Common countermark but rarely described; helmet comes from a nice example from Noble Roman Coins. </p><p><br /></p><p>But most of the time, countermarks seem more haphazard than this - and ugly:&nbsp;&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]956313[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Byzantium</b></p><p><b>CM on Macedonian</b> <b>Kingdom <b>Philip III Arrhidaios drachm</b></b></p><p><b>Kolophon? (c. 323-319 B.C.)</b></p><p><b>Countermark:&nbsp; 280-225 B.C.</b></p><p>Head of Herakles right, wearing lion-skin. / FILIPPOU Zeus seated left, monogram left. </p><p><b>Countermark:</b>&nbsp; ΠU over prow.</p><p>SCGV 1585 (countermark)</p><p>(4.00 grams / 17 mm)</p><p><br /></p><p>I bring this up only because the OP is indeed &quot;numismatically beautiful&quot; - 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.&nbsp; This does not mean it is not genuine - I do not know enough to make that call.&nbsp; But I would do some digging - perhaps post it on FORVM - there are a couple of countermark collectors there who have astonishing collections. </p><p><br /></p><p>Thanks for sharing it - it is a wonderful-looking and interesting coin.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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