Ed Snible

1. Older sources say 120-63 BC because those are the years Mithradates reigned and there is no easy way to get firmer dates. Francois de Callatay wrote extensively about the dates, starting with L'Histoire des Guerres Mithridatiques Vue par les Monnaies (1997, in French). A friend of mine loaned me her copy; I am struggling with French. It's nearly 500 pages, a PhD thesis. Newer publications use de Callatay's proposals. In English de Callatay has a 2005 paper, “Coins and Archaeology: the (Mis)use of Mithradatic Coins for Chronological Purposes in the Bosporan Area” but can't find my copy of this paper. I can't remember what he said about your coin type. For the Aegis/Nike type, he said “[the Piraeus hoard] proves the type ‘Aegis/Nike’ was struck prior to 86 BC, the date of the Sack of Athens and of the destruction of the house where it was found.”. The date rationale is many little facts like that that build up a big picture. 2. You are correct, the goal is to call the coin by its ancient name. I don't think there are ancient sources for the denominations of any of Mithridates coins. 4. In his 1889 catalog of the British Museum collection, Warwick Wroth wrote "Dionysiac types are frequent at Amisus, and the head of the god is often assimilated to that of Mithradates himself." The head is never identified, has the attributes of Dionysos, but resembles Mithridates. It's not clear if Mithridates asked for Dionysos and some die cutter decided to flatter him. Perhaps Mithradates asked for his own portrait but showed up for his portrait session dressed as Dionysos for some festival later that day. We'll never know. 5. Some monograms occur on coins of multiple cities. I don't know what they mean. There is a list of all known monograms in a 1991 paper by Michel Amandry (and three others), “Le Tresor De Binbasioglu (Tokat, Turquie) - Monnaies de Bronze des Villes du Pont Frappees sous Mithridate VI Eupator”. Also in French.

Adrienne Mayor is a lady. https://classics.stanford.edu/people/adrienne-mayor This coin depicts a "ketos" (sea monster), not a griffin: CARIA, Halikarnassos (or Kindya?), 499-497 BC, hekte (or tetrobol?), 2.29g ref: Kagan and Kritt, Numismatic Chronicle 1995; Asyut 688; Richard Ashton and Koray Konuk, THE KETOS COINS OF KARIA #6 (same obv die A6) Purchased from Brian Kritt, January 2003 The depiction of the sea monster on this die of this coin type seems to show bones. Could it have been inspired by a fossil? In ancient times, some ancient authors believed the myth of Perseus and Andromeda's rescue from the ketos took place at Joppa (modern Jaffa in Israel). The skeleton of a sea monster was moved from Joppa to Rome in 58 BC by Marcus Aemilius Scaurus. Pliny claimed the monster’s backbone was 40 feet long and 1.5 feet thick with ribs taller than an Indian elephant. It's not clear if the monster that was moved by Scaurus was a fossil or a whale skeleton. Adrienne Mayor argues Scaurus’ skeleton was the fossil of a giant elephant, the prehistoric mastodon.

Wow, @Tejas, those are in exceptional condition, especially the third. @Rand the language is Sogdian. However, there is academic disagreement about what some of the letters mean. Here is another example from Cache: Chach, Kanka domain, Unknown ruler, 7th-8th century? AE 1.53g, 18mm. Overstruck. The reverse inscription is supposedly "ZNH pny tkyn c'cynk xwβ" which means "This is a coin of the Tegin, Chach's ruler". (Tegin is a title).

Aftercast from pierced specimen: Italy, Florence. No Date (after 1465). Artist uncertain. 70 mm. 101 g. Obv: MAGNVS COSMVS MEDICES P P P; Cosimo Medici bust left Rev: PAX LIBERTASQVE PVBLICA - FLORENTIA; personification of Florence holding an orb and triple olive branch Heritage, 2019 March 14 Weekly World and Ancient Coin Auction #231911, lot #62229 The auction house did not mention it, but this is an aftercast of a pierced specimen. A plugged hole can be seen at 12 o'clock. At first I thought it was an early aftercast, due to the good details. However, the Harvard Art Museum suggests their example, which greatly resembles this one, was made in Paris circa 1902 by Georges Liard Sr. (French; active 1895-1913). There has been a lot of speculation about the identity of the artist. Flaten believes the maker was Leonardo da Vinci's teacher Andrea del Verrocchio (ca. 1435–1488). George Hill suggested Cristoforo di Geremia (1410–1476) or Niccolò Fiorentino (1418-1506). The curators of the Slater Memorial Museum offer Michelozzi Michelozzo (1396–1472). Heiss and Armand attributed the medal to Donatello.

What's your criterion for quality? I like Baldwin's. Their upcoming auction includes a fourrée EID MAR denarius with a 1979 pedigree.

According to the seller, "eBay Lanz", this is a silver plated tin-lead alloy. I haven't had it XRFed and it doesn't really look silver or plated. It arrived with a rather large cut in it that was not present when this photo was taken. I don't think it was damaged in the mail. I could have returned it, but these don't come up very often, and I doubted I could obtain another. In addition to these tin strikes made from Becker's dies, there was a US "firm" called "Becker Reproductions" operated by Peter Rosa which made replica coins, some quite good, from copies of Becker's dies and copies of genuine coins. These are documented in Wayne Sayles' book Classical Deception.

The government requires collectors to apply for a license. Collectors must supply to government with an inventory of the collection, and allow visits to the collection. I believe the number of licenses granted are very few. https://www.law-archaeology.gr/index.php/en/collectors

This was lot 506 in Wayne Phillips' Mail Bid Sale 47, February 2002: This is an Indo-Greek Menander I (165-135 BC), square AE, 3.8g. Catalogers always describe the obverse as Athena, but I suspect it is Menander's portrait. Obv: ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ / ΣΩΤΗΡΟΣ / ΜΕΝΑΝΔΡΟΥ; Helmeted and draped bust of Athena (or Menander?) right Rev: 𐨨𐨂𐨱𐨪𐨗𐨯 𐨟𐨟𐨪𐨯 𐨨𐨅𐨣𐨪𐨯 (Kharosthi inscription Mauharajasa tratarasa Menamdrasa; “The Savior King Menander”) There should be a gorgoneion on the shield, but it has worn off. It turns out this is a very rare denomination, with one one example in BIGR. The usual square shield Menander coins weigh twice as much.

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