Sulla80

Welcome @Spargrodan congrats on your move to Spain! and good luck with your diadochi collection...are you thinking tetradrachms, drachms, or AE? all of the above? Seleukos I Nikator (Second satrapy and kingship, 312-281 BC) AE Sardes, 282-281 BC. Drachm Lysimachos Tetradrachm Antigonos I Monophthalmos Price 3853 ca. 316-311 BC

This little coin is 42mm and 72g - in general the bigger coins are more expensive....I think you got a fair deal for a nice coin.

My coin of interest today is the third in a micro-collection with personifications of Boule, Demos, and Gerousia. This coin from Phrygia, Hierapolis . What was the Gerousia of Hierapolis? Which apostle's tomb were found in Hierapolis in 2011 by Francesco D'Andria, Itialian Archeologist? more in my notes: https://www.sullacoins.com/post/gerousia Post your coins with personifications of Boule, Demos, Senate and Gerousia.

Always fun to see your Flavian rarities, @David Atherton, congrats on this latest one. The video really shows the coin well - great condition and super rare! Here's a common coin of 28 year old Domitian from the end of Vespasian's reign, in the year of the eruption of Vesuvius. Vesuvius erupted in October, the month of Domitian's birthday.

A nice tetradrachm @Parthicus, here's mine also with officina A from the Simonetta Collection of Parthian coins. https://www.sullacoins.com/post/the-end-of-parthia Kings of Parthia, Vologases III (c. AD 105-147), BI Tetradrachm (27mm, 13.49g, 12h), Seleukeia on the Tigris, year 435 (AD 123) Obv: Diademed and draped bust l., wearing tiara; A behind. Rev: Vologases seated left, receiving wreath from Tyche standing right, holding sceptre Ref: Sellwood 79.13 for those interested in seeing hat the 5 control letter (officianae?) look like - I made this collage a while ago (I do not own any other than the one posted)...If I remember correctly the later tetradrachms of Vologases IV and VI only use the letter B...

I do like a nice portrait of ΔHMOC: Next: Boule or a coin related to voting....

https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=377256

I don't think your coin is demeter - it looks more Seleucid king to me...lalso looks like Thrace maybe Agathocles son of Lysimachos.... https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=6844249 https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=6783032 although lettering on the reverse is not quite right - maybe over-struck or doubled? and neither of these coins has the prominent border of dots on obverse. what's really bothering me is that I feel like I once owned this coin or perhaps even own this coin still...

Link: watercraft Phoenicia, Arados. Uncertain king. Circa 380-351/0 BC. AR Third stater 2.91g. 13.2mm Obv: Laureate head of Ba'al-Arwad right, with frontal eye Rev: Galley right above waves; 𐡌𐡀 (M A in Aramaic) above; dotted square above, linear semicircle below; all within shallow incuse.

I struggle to determine whether coin prices are higher or my expectations are just not reasonable on price....this coin, that I bought recently for about $100 USD sold in 1977 for DM 287 (about $115 USD at the time). So are prices up or prices down or my expectations just not moving as fast as the value of the dollar is changing? Kricheldorf, Stuttgart, Nov 1977, Auction 32 Lot 190

Here's a coin that celebrates his nephew's recovery from Parthia of the standards that had been lost ~30 years earlier by Crassus after a devastating lost against the Parthians in 53 BC. Octavian a few years before becoming emperor. Octavian Augustus (27 BC-AD 14), Denarius 19-18 BC, Rome mint, moneyer P. Petronius Turpilianus Obv: draped bust of Feronia rightTVRPILIANVS III VIR Rev: CAESAR AVGVSTVS SIGN RECE Bareheaded Parthian warrior kneeling r., holding in outstretched r. hand standard marked X and adorned with vexillum.

I find it interesting to see that there is a Pescennius Niger coin with SAETERNITAS AVS (not my coin : ex Leu May 27 2023)

Here's Selene : moon goddess (note the large crescent moon in front of her near the left edge of coin) Egypt, Alexandria, Commodus (177-192) Poitin Tetradrachm., Year Λ = 30 (AD 189/90) Obv: Μ Α ΚΟΜ ΑΝΤΩ ϹƐΒ ƐΥϹƐΒ; laureate head of Commodus, r. Rev: L Λ; bust of Selene, l., (wearing taenia); before, crescent Next: as we have covered thunderbolts & moons, I suppose that we should see some stars...

A Macedonian Thunderbolt: Koinon of Macedon. Antoninus Pius. A.D. 138-161. AE 24 Obv: KAICAP ANTΩNЄINOC, laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust of Antoninus Pius right Rev: KOINON MAKЄΔONΩN, winged thunderbolt Next: more thunderbolts

Thank you for the references and research, @DLTcoins, very much appreciated! I like your "shrug": ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 🙂 Rabino, “COINS OF THE JALĀ’IR, ḲARA ḲOYŪNLŪ, MUSH͟A’SH͟A’, AND ĀḲ ḲOYŪNLŪ DYNASTIES.” The Numismatic Chronicle and Journal of the Royal Numismatic Society, vol. 10, no. 37/38, 1950, pp. 94–139. Catalogue of Oriental coins in the British Museum Vol. VI; The Coins of the Mongols in the British Museum, classes XVIII-XXII, Stanley Lane & Stuart Poole, BMC, London, 1881 (Plate IX coin 615 ) https://archive.org/details/in.gov.ignca.67049/page/n295/mode/2up

several general questions about this coin and Islamic coins more generally: - are the four caliphs always ordered on coins in chronological order? - does the engraver of my Jalayrid coin have really bad handwriting? - can anyone make sense of the lettering in the "vanes" on the 5-vaned obverse? e.g. I am trying to make out "Hamadan" the mint anywhere on the reverse or obverse. حمدان (maybe in the center of the 5 vanes in a tortured two lines?)

When I have occasionally taken stock of "coins I already have" I enjoy the three categories that I usually find: - coins that I am thrilled to have - coins that I forgot that I owned - coins I am happy to part with I keep a box for the last category that eventually makes it to an auction house to fund more in the first two categories. Here's an old friend, Gallienus (AD 260 - AD 268)/ MARTI PACIFERO (RIC 236), purchased while I was living in the UK ~30 years ago.

Thanks, @DLTcoins - That is more than the same die pair - that is my coin! Zeno 83055, with photos that are differing a little in perspective and lighting.

That's a fantastic coin with gleaming surfaces @Parthicus! I am a fan of the caligraphy on these Seljuk coins. Here's the Lion and Sun, გურჯი-ხათუნი issue of Sultan Ḡīāṯ-al-Dīn Kayḵosrow, first reign, AH 634-644 / AD 1237-1246, Dirham, from Sivas I have a writeup of the story of this coin with some of my other favorites from the children of Sultan Ḡīāṯ-al-Dīn Kayḵosrow here: https://www.sullacoins.com/post/lion-and-sun-გურჯი-ხათუნი

Thank you! that looks like the right answer! I found one from Steven Album in ACSearch: Islamic - Post-Mongol Iran & Timurid https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=6687878 JALAYRIDS: Sultan Husayn I, 1374-1382, AR dinar (1.46g), Ani (in Armenia), AH780, A-2308.3, very rare mint in Armenia, well known for the later Ilkhan rulers, but virtually unknown for the Jalayrids, and abandoned shortly thereafter, wonderful strike, with bold date on the obverse (in words) and the mint interlinearly within the reverse, EF, RRR.

Thank you for the research - and a good point about the dates being written out. My coin definitely doesn't have a date mixed in with the Kalima.

Thanks @John Conduitt, that is a good visual match & a useful avenue to chase.... what I am seeing is that there are no coins on zeno from Shirvanshahs in a weight range of 2.2-3.5g (compared to my coin of 2.78g) and the writing on the reverse much different and these 4-5 gram tankas seemingly always on a flan too small for the die....and hard to see a quatrefoil surrounding the Kalima.. http://search.zeno.ru/index.php?v=0&ar=on&th=on&c=&t=Shirvanshahs&k=&d=&wmin=2.2&wmax=3.5&smin=&smax=&m=&ymin=&ymax=&y=&u=&n=&a=&e=&f=0&s=0&p=2

Here are two favorite Valerian portrait. For an article with a Valerian reconstruction see: https://www.worldhistory.org/image/13041/valerian-facial-reconstruction/ This coin is the coin that first inspired any interest in these little lumps of metal.

If I make a small attempt each day, eventually my expectation is that I should start to be able to read the inscriptions on Islamic coins more easily. I have to admit that it still feels more like identifying shapes that reading...some words and names are starting to be easy to see. Here's my coin of interest today.... Looking at this coin the first thing I see is : "There is no God but God" although I am not sure I am reading this right as there are some stray lines in red that I can't explain other than an engraver who wasn't very good or some flourishes. Here's a cleaner version from another coin: The next element that stands out for me: "Muhammad" I enjoy this style of script with its elongated letters and flourishes, although I have to admit that I have difficulty seeing the mapping to محمد and the next (at this point expected line of the Kalima) which seems fairly easy to see even with the sloppy calligraphy of this coin: rasūl Allah (is the Messenger of God) and the last elements are the names in the four lobes of the quatrefoil which I am expecting as the names of the first four caliphs, i.e. the "rightly guided" caliphs because they learned directly from Muhammad. Abū Bakr/'Umar/'Uthman/'Ali only two are visible which I see as: (bottom lobe) (left Lobe) here again - I am seeing with more expectation than ability to read letters and asking questions like: - are the four caliphs always ordered on coins in chronological order? - does this engraver just have really bad handwriting? Here is an example with much neater calligraphy from a coin of Abu Sa'id. SOLVED with many thanks to @John Conduitt. Jalayrids: Sultan Husayn I, 1374-1382, AR dinar (2.78g), AH 780-783, AR 2 dinars (variant of A-2308.3 and Zeno 53369)...and thanks to @DLTcoins the mint is Hamadan, rather coarsely engraved, undated, Zeno #83055 (this coin). type TC : five-vaned pattern / quatrefoil, kalima within Album notes: "The date is engraved in minuscule words between the five vanes, often so wretchedly as to be utterly illegible" This coin weighs 2.78g and could be a 2 dinar based on the 1 dinar coins that I have seen in the 1.4-1.5 range. It is an ellipse with a diameter that ranges 17-21mm. What was the region that the Jalayrids ruled? The Jalayrids were a Mongol tribe that spread over Central Asia after the Mongol conquest in the 13th century, those that migrated to Iran and Iraq founded the Jalayrid Sultanate in 1330 the the breakup of the region ruled by the Ilkhanids (the core territories of which are today parts of Iran, Azerbaijan, and Turkey). Public Domain map via Wikimedia Commons. Share your experience reading medieval Islamic coins, post coins with interesting calligraphy from this period, or anything else you find interesting or entertaining.

Here's one of my favorite coins with an unusual obverse portrait of a bull: https://www.sullacoins.com/post/of-greeks-and-cattle