Ed Snible

Gold is very hard to photograph! Here are six professional pictures of the same coin: These pictures appeared on the auction catalog or web sites of numismatic auctioneers Harlan J Berk, Classical Numismatic Group (twice), Heritage, Stack's Bowers, and the coin grading company Numismatic Guaranty Corporation. These images were taken over the span of eighteen years. The version with the red background was scanned from a printed auction catalog. All of the other images are taken directly from auction sites or the slab company's slab verification image. This coin did not change color in the last 18 years. Something about the lighting situation and the camera's color profile was different enough that each of these pictures is different.

ANACS guarentees the authenticity of ancient coins in their slabs. Note that they only slab ancients valued less than $1000. @John Conduitt, Davissons is an IAPN dealer. All IAPN dealers have real guarentees.

Those aren’t his own pictures, they are from the NGC Slab Verification page, e.g. https://www.ngccoin.com/certlookup/6060752-001/NGCAncients/ vs https://www.vcoins.com/en/stores/numistrade/329/product/lydia_el_hecte_walwet_c620560_bc_ngc_ch_xf_strike_55_surface_35/2037552/Default.aspx NGC slab photos are not the best, perhaps because improving those photos would reduce interest in their PhotoVision service, and its $8 fee. With their current photos I can't see the stab, its grade, or the coin. A montage such as this might give the buyer a rough idea of the size, grade, and the coin itself.

These coins are have a special dating system, the "PYE" or Post-Yazdgard Era, where year 1 = 652/3 AD. Luckily, Sa‘īd only governed for three years. The page https://www.zeno.ru/showgallery.php?cat=5617 shows 18 examples of his coinage. You should be able to find a match with a coin a that collector on Zeno has supplied the date PYE date for. From their you may be able to calculate a 12-month period of issue for your example.

Interesting overstrike of Pantikapeion on Pontos Amisos aegis/Nike type: THRACE, Pantikapaion, 85-75 BC, AE21, 8.22g Jean Elsen, auction 68, December 2001, lot 231 The obverse head is usually described as Apollo or Dionysos, but I wonder if it could be a young Pharnaces II?

The industrial revolution was good for people. Jobs for horses still haven't recovered. I am sure new kinds of work will open up, but will those jobs go to humans or machines?

Could it be the same as this coin, which just closed on Aphrodite Art Coins auction? https://www.biddr.com/auctions/aphroditeartcoins/browse?a=4434&l=5273526

I use Tom Mallon's guide at http://grifterrec.org/coins/sasania/sas_mint/sas_mint_table.html when I get stuck. The first and third are AW. The second one confuses me. It might be AHM, because it reminds me of lettering on a coin where I called in an expert for help, and was told it was AHM. The Parthian is Ecbatana [= Hamadān, Iran]

You titled this post "Tiny Treasures" but put the cutoff at 13mm. I consider 13mm to be medium size. Here is an 8mm: THRACE, Thasos, 411 - 404 BC. AR Tritartemorion. 8mm, 0.42 g Here's a 6mm: Pamphylia, Side Circa 300 BC, Tetartemorion. 0.15g, 6mm Ref: Unpublished denomination. cf. SNG Von Aulock 4774 (obol), cf. SNG Paris 731-739 (obol)

Sikyon hemidrachms look quite good, and cost $100-$200. For example: Sikyon, circa 330/20-280 BC, hemidrachm, 2.82g, 15mm Obv: ΣΙ; Chimaira advancing left, paw raised ex-Stacks/Coin Galleries, December 2005 auction, lot 71 I believe the auction house called it “Attractively toned. Good VF”

Insisting on not buying something you won’t like in ten years implies a commitment to not growing and learning for the next ten years. I was talking with a friend who has collected for more than 60 years last week. We both bought coins with holes in them in the beginning — and no longer like those coins. So don’t do that! Don’t worry about a few dud purchases. You are doing the right thing by browsing price lists. If you live within a few hours of a coin show that has ancients, visit and inspect actual coins. Don’t just look at the display coins under glass; find a dealer who lets you riffle through entire boxes. Usually, when you pick the one favorite item out of an entire catalog or entire coin show you’ll still believe the coin is above-average ten years later. As your handle is "Typhon" probably you should collect coins whose reverses feature monsters and snakes.

Thanks! Long time mystery solved. A few years ago I worked with Tom Mallon's widow to restore grifterrec from backups. We couldn't get the old domain so we used grifterrec.org, for example http://grifterrec.org/coins/par_rel/par_rel.html

Here is an Orodes II drachm that I need some help on: 18.5mm, 3.32g I bought this unattributed six years ago at an ANA show. I tried to attribute it with web sites and Shore's book and apparently decided that it was an Eastern Imitation, cf. Sellwood 47.29-34, cf. Shore 239-262. I can't recall which web site or book lead me to that conclusion. Can any experts confirm this attribution?

Here is an example from the AWH Ahwaz Mint: Yazdgard I, 399-420, AWH Ahwaz Mint 4.08 gm; 29 mm. From Frank Robinson auction 121, lot 423 The above is a cellphone picture. I will attach two auction photos to show how difficult these are to photograph: same coin! same coin!

I have checked my photo file of Neapolis hemidrachms. I cannot find earlier examples from these dies than the examples reported by Amentia I have never seen coins from these dies in less than high grade. Congrats to Amentia.