Usually I know what I buy however once in a while I get some extra coins as part of a lot/batch. I can already recognize many ancient coin styles, including Byzantines, Ptolemaic, Seleucid, many romans etc. My main issue is with the roman provincial... Usually I just use google images and recently I learned about acsearch.info from this great forum. What's your method for coin ID when you can't read the legend? For example, how can I ID these two?
Let's do the first one. What do you see ? A radiate bust, and somebody standing with purse and caduceus, the symbols of Hermes Go to acsearch an write: hermes standing radiate https://www.acsearch.info/search.ht...s=1&thesaurus=1&order=0¤cy=usd&company= You get 66 results, one of the first (No. 11 in my search) has the same letters AMK in the right field as your coin. This coin comes from Anazarbos. Now you can search for Anazarbos/Hermes on acsearch, or since Anazarbos is in Asia Minor, change to "Asia Minor Coins". There you find your coin quickly: http://www.asiaminorcoins.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pid=3358 It's Trebonianus Gallus from Anazarbos, and an obverse die match with your coin. The obverse die match eliminates all doubts, but usually you shouldn't forget to compare the legends, even if they are hardly readable as on your coin. There is e.g. a similar Gallienus from Anazarbos, and you could be easily wrong if you don't compare the obverse legends. http://www.asiaminorcoins.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pid=3325 Now try the second one !
Very impressive! Besides the radiate bust I would not guess the purse and caduceus... And therefore won't search for Hermes... But hey, I'm learning from you guys
It's not so difficult. Above the horse you can read AMK. You know these letters already from your other coin fom Anazarbos. Anazarbos is not the only town with AMK on coins, but there is also ANA.... behind the horse. Then the obverse. It looks like a young Severan, and if you compare these (Carcalla, Elagabal, Severus Alexander) and their legends from Anazarbos the most likely is Severus Alexander with a possible obverse legend ..T K... CЄ AΛEΞA.... So it's Severus Alexander from Anazarbos. To find the exact type might take some time: This is an Severus Alexander with AMK in bad condition http://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/6/7413/ Is your coin also in this size range? That's another imoprtant thing to know if you search for an ancient coin, e.g. RPC online allows you to search by size.
Thanks for the link to RPC online. I could use a resource like that for my large batch of unattributed Provincials.
