Ed Snible

SELEUKID EMPIRE. Alexander I Balas. 152-145 BC. Æ (13mm, 2.13 g, 12h). Antioch on the Orontes mint. Struck circa 150-146 BC.
ex-Classical Numismatic Group, e-auction 426, August 2018, lot 228

The first published example of this type was by Pellerin in 1762. I was never able to figure out how he deduced the coin was Seleukid. It is now attributed to Antioch. No clue why; Newell did not include it in his book on Antioch.  Antioch is a bit like the junk or "odd sock" drawer; it accumulates types that don't clearly belong somewhere else.

Pegasos was mythologically the “child” of Medusa – born from her neck – and Alexander Balas claimed to be the child of Antiochos IV, a king who used the aegis as a coin type. It makes sense to strike types related to the types of the claimed father. Balas struck no other coins with Pegasos or the aegis, however. Houghton and Lorber note that thunderbolt iconography is prominent in Alexander Balas’ coinage and Athena is frequently represented on his bronze. The aegis could represent Athena, or thunder (or both I suppose!)

SAMARIA, “Middle Levantine” Series. Bedyehibel (or Beruhibel, or Yehibel). Circa 375-333 BC. AR Obol (8.7mm, 0.50 g, 11h).
Obv: Facing gorgoneion
Rev: ࠁࠃࠉࠇࠁࠋ (=BDYHBL); Forepart of Pegasos left.
CNG, auction 97, September 2014, lot 323 (Dr. Patrick H. C. Tan Collection)
Meshorer & Qedar 17; Sofaer 95
Meshorer and Qedar say the inscription BDYHBL should be read as the inscription BD YHBL “by the hand of Yehibel.”

Here is one that hasn't been posted on the thread yet:

Spain, Ildurir/Ilturir (Granada). Circa 225-125 BC, As. 16.12g
Obv: Helmeted and bearded head right.
Rev: Crude round grinning face (gorgoneion?) within triskeles, no tongue, the head (but not triskeles) within a circle of dots, [with Iberian legend below?]
Ref: L. Villaronga and J. Benages, Ancient Coinage of the Iberian Peninsula, 2286-2289
ex-Aureo & Calicó, online Auction 321, December 2018, lot 2243

Here is a question for the linguists: Is "triskeles" singular or plural?

I believe "triskeles" and "triskele" were both borrowed into English.  The Oxford English Dictionary considers the word to be "triskele", although it undermines itself because one its reference citations uses 'triskeles' in a singular context.  (Link to my 2010 blog).

4 hours ago, DonnaML said:

I have no idea, of course, how this compares to the results of Leu's previous auctions.

I probably deleted the reviews of auctions 20-23, but these results seem in line with the previous auctions.

Leu Web Auction 24 - Review
Starting: 529,125 CHF | Hammer: 2,803,292 CHF | 100% sold
45,514 bids | 1,864 bidders from 75 countries

Web Auction 19 - Review
Starting: 325,175 CHF | Hammer: 2,046,574 CHF | 100% sold
38,853 bids | 1,752 bidders from 75 countries

Web Auction 18 - Review
Starting: 430,425 CHF | Hammer: 2,395,185 CHF | 100% sold
44,127 bids | 1,751 bidders from 72 countries

Web Auction 17 - Review
Starting: 345,725 CHF | Hammer: 1,783,573 CHF | 100% sold
36,590 bids | 1,534 bidders from 66 countries

Web Auction 16 - Review
Starting: 613,075 CHF | Hammer: 2,849,721 CHF | 100% sold
46,860 bids | 1,694 bidders from 73 countries

Get well soon!

Uncertain artist. 1955, Bronze, 58mm. Circa 83-87 g.
Obv: Bacterium Streptomyces Rimosus
Rev: CLIN-BYLA / PFIZER / S.I.B. / MASSY

S.I.B. is Société industrielle de biochimie. Clin Byla was a French company that merged and took on a new name in 1980. Pfizer is a US pharmaceutical company. Massy is a commune (municipality) in France.  See https://pharmainnumis.fr/index.php/produit/clin-byla-pfizer/ which illustrates a variant dated June 1955.

18 minutes ago, John Conduitt said:

I don't think it will be so long until we can search the catalogues. Software exists that can read scans and turn them into searchable text - the hard job is scanning them in the first place. Even copyrighted catalogues would be searchable, but pay-per-view.

Scanning is fairly cheap.  Many catalogs have already been scanned but can't be shared.

The expensive part is getting legal clearance from defunct entities.  Even Google was unable to do this.

We haven't yet had legal precedent about the copyright status of a Large Language Model trained from copyrighted text.  If any countries get a legal precedent that allows web sites to use data derived from copyrighted works we should the kinds of tools @Prieure de Sion desires soon after.

It is worth pointing out that provenance finding tools will be great fun for collectors, but might take away the fun of people who have built large reference libraries and are doing the research today.

It's also worth pointing out that although people collect catalogs, I don't know of anyone collecting the intellectual property behind the catalogs.  For example, I have dozens of old Alex G Malloy catalogs.  Each has photos and descriptions of thousands of coins.  I have used them to track down provenance.  In theory, any of us could write Mr. Malloy and offer him a small amount of cash in exchange for the copyrights on the catalogs he put out for 27 years.  I think we are all fools, myself included, to ignore collecting the copyrights.

@Prieure de Sion the only person in the world who can search in the way you suggest is Dr. Jonas Emmanuel Flueck.  He scanned a large library of catalogs and hired a programmer.

The only way I have found pre-1999 provenances is through the ANS library.  To do this I first memorized my collection.  On every visit to the ANS library I pull down the boxes of catalogs from a particular dealer and flip through all of the plates.  It's time consuming!  I've gone through the big dealers but still have many more dealers to go.  Without a library, you are limited to flipping through the catalogs of dealers that appear on the sites I gave, which is mostly Harlan Berk, CNG, and NFA.  I enjoy this kind of thing, but many collectors do not.

Spring's book on auction catalogs stopped in 1985 because they number of catalogs was starting to explode.  Copyright law is 95 years.   I am sure in the 2081 AD time-frame there will be web sites that will let you search the way Dr. Fleuck does.  By 2095 most catalogs will be searchable digitally.

This is why provenance research is so expensive (see other thread!).

You can often find pre-1920 stuff at https://www.rnumis.com/frontpage.php , https://www.hathitrust.org/ , and https://books.google.com/ .

For catalogs from the 1930s-1960s, you must purchase them.  Try eBay, https://www.numislit.com/ and https://www.vcoins.com/en/stores/charles_davis-44/ancient-coins/Default.aspx .  Before you start purchasing, probably buy John Spring, Ancient Coin Auction Catalogs and Dennis Kroh, Ancient Coin Reference Reviews.  Scanning the books recommended by Spring is how https://www.ex-numis.com/ got started.

For catalogs from the 1970s-1990s, these are unavailable at any price.  You can sometimes get them for free, when your friends are getting ready to move to Florida.  Some stuff might be on https://nnp.wustl.edu/ .  You can visit the ANS library in New York City.  Online, if you are interested in Roman Republican, there are the Schaefer notebooks.

This coin is a great mystery to me.  It is from an old Triton group lot.  Another example was in the Pozzi collection (3359ter).  Other than those two, I've never seen another.  I have no idea if the shield shows a Chi or a cross.

Euboea, Chalkis (?), 1.28g, AE11
Obv: Female head wearing triangular earring right
Rev: Cross or Χ (Chi) upon circular shield
Pozzi 3359ter, otherwise perhaps unpublished
CNG, Triton VI, January 2003, lot 1563 (part of) David Freedman collection. Described as 'Uncertain, possibly Selge'.

Here is half a shield:

BOIOTIA, Thebes. 525-480 BC. AR Hemiobol (0.53 g).
Obv: Half Boiotian shield
Ref: BMC p. 33, 13.

Ex two "name" sales:
- Classical Numismatic Group, Triton IX, January 2006, lot 326 (BCD collection)
- Malter 49, 15 November 1992, lot 422 (Dr. J.S. Wilkinson Collection)

@Ryro you now need to find a specimen with the elephant walking left.

Seleukid, Antiochos III. Fifth Syrian War (202-198 BC)?, 4.65g 17.3mm
(Unofficial imitation of?) Uncertain mint, probably a military mint in Coele-Syria (the modern Beqaa Valley, Lebanon)
Ref: Seleucid Coins — ; Nicholas L. Wright, "Two new imitative issues from the fifth Syrian war (202-198 BCE)", Israel Numismatic Research 2009, page 47, #1
ex-AncientImports.com, April 2008

Sogdian:

Chach, Kanka domain, unknown ruler 7-8th century AD. 20mm 1.78g.

The reverse features a tamga is surrounded by the Sogdian legend ZNH pny tkyn c'cynk xwb - “This is the coin of the Tegin, ruler of Chach”.

DALL·E wasn't given many ancient images to train on.  It is surprising that it can generate ancient-looking art all.  At least it tried.

I have found the output more interesting when I ask for things that never existed.  I asked for "An Ancient Greek Lincoln cent".

It already looks better than the Sponsianus coin!

Several different government organizations make the rules.  The ACCG is fighting the State Department over their Memorandums of Understanding.

In the case of Iran, this rule doesn't come from the State Department, but from the Office of Foreign Asset Control, a department of the U.S. Treasury, and these guys are still enforcing the sanctions from the 1979 Hostage Crisis when Iranian college students seized the US embassy and held diplomats hostage for 444 days.

A few years ago US Customs seized an antique vase from Iran.  The Treasury is looking for goods from Cuba, Iran, Burma (Myanmar) and most of Sudan. 

According to US Customs you are allowed to import "books, magazines, films, posters, photographs, microfilms, tapes, CDs, records, works of art, etc. Also gifts of up to $100 (U.S.) in value."

It is sort-of unclear if ancient coins are works of art.  Coins also circulated widely, and it is unclear if a Persian coin minted on the territory of modern-day Iran but found in a medieval hoard buried outside of Iran is "Iranian".

Best approach: Buy coins imported into the USA during or before the time of the Shah.

Also OK: Become a lawyer, study the law, realize it is unclear, import some Persian coins minted in medieval Tehran as a test, fight US Customs for a decade or more establishing precedent.

It all depends on the questions you ask.  I asked "Which Roman philosophers would have viewed the Byzantine Empire as a continuation of the Roman Empire?"

Quote

One Roman philosopher who would have likely viewed the Byzantine Empire as a continuation of the Roman Empire is the historian and senator Cassius Dio. In his work "Roman History," Dio refers to the Eastern Roman Empire, which later became known as the Byzantine Empire, as the "Roman Empire" and continues to write about it as the continuation of the ancient Roman Empire. Similarly, the philosopher and historian Procopius of Caesarea, who lived in the Eastern Roman Empire during the 6th century AD, referred to the Byzantine Empire as the "Roman Empire" and viewed it as the legitimate successor to the ancient Roman Empire. Additionally, the philosopher and statesman Boethius, who lived in the late Roman Empire and early Byzantine Empire, wrote a treatise called "The Consolation of Philosophy," in which he refers to the Byzantine Empire as the "Roman Empire" and encourages his fellow Romans to accept their new circumstances and to find solace in philosophy.

On 2/9/2023 at 2:15 PM, Monolith said:

Any suggestions for reading more about these coins?

I don't know who is working on these.  This 20-year-old article is the best summary of the coins of Olbia that I have found:

A. M. Gilevich, “Coins from the Excavations on Berezan Island, 1962-1991”, Northern Pontiac Antiquities in the State Hermitage Museum (2001)

For a long time I thought the "Parion" gorgon/incuse coins were from Olbia.  I no longer believe that.  The Olbia coinage itself remains mysterious.

@Monolith I have seen Olbia bronze duplicates.

I don't know if the mold is re-used, or the same "mother" was used to create duplicate molds.

@ambr0zie I can't recall my password and only used it anonymously.

Try visiting http://forgerynetwork.com/ in an "incognito" window to see if your problem is with old cookies.  If it works in an incognito window there is something wrong with the cookies.

I had never seen one of these before.  It looked cool.  Later I found out I paid full retail.

Augustus, AE quadrans. C. Naevius Capella, moneyer. Struck 4 BC. 14.5mm, 2.98g. Lugdunum mint.
Obv: III VIR•A•A•A•F•F•; garlanded altar with bowl-shaped top
Rev: C RVBELLIVS BLANDVS legend around large SC

A similar design was used on a modern coin:

Isle of Man 1991 50 Pence.

(Using the image from Numista because I don't have a photo of my specimen).
 

If you like ancient poppies you might enjoy this 55-year-old article from the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime: "The history of the poppy and of opium and their expansion in antiquity in the eastern Mediterranean area" by P. G. KRITIKOS and S. P. PAPADAKI.  Part 2, the coin part, is here.

Here is another coin.  This one was tough to attribute for me.

Moesia Inferior, Tomi. Nerva (96-98 AD), AE16, 2.91g; RPC vol. 3 #778
Obv: [ΑΥΤΟΚΡΑΤωΡ Ν]ΕΡΟΥΑ; laureate head of Nerva, r.
Rev: [ΤΟ/Μ//ƐΙΤ/]ωΝ; bunch of 3 ears of corn and 2 poppy heads
ex Pegasi Numismatics, WESPNEX coin show, 2005 (misattributed as an unpublished coin of Elaeia in Aeolis.)

1 hour ago, Deinomenid said:

Lovely coin @ewomack and I never understood the gorgoneion description when these come up for sale. A few are a little less good-looking but it’s not a typical gorgon at all. I put it down to overzealous copy and pasting of an early incorrect description but they “all” say it…

Earlier issues show a clear gorgoneion with bulging eyes protruding tongue:

PISIDIA. Selge?  PAMPHYLIA, Aspendos? AR obol (14mm, 0.88 gm, 12h).

At some point there was a change and gorgons supposedly start looking beautiful.  Think of the side views of Medusa on coins of Seleukos I and of the Roman Republican moneyer Sabula.

The coins of Selge and Aspendos seem to change over to a very Helios-looking face at some point.  I is not obvious when it happens.  When the tongue goes away?  When the expression becomes mild?  Where should the line be drawn?

PISIDIA, Etenna? 0.99g 9mm
O: Facing head (humanized gorgon?).
R: "t" and astragalos behind helmeted head (of Athena?).
Acquired from Atlantis Ltd (May 2003)
 

This coin looks double-struck, but actually the first strike was a brockage strike.

Rome, Probus, Antoninianus. 4.22g, 22mm
Ref: RIC V Probus 173

@maridvnvm I suspect your "Amisis" is a Scythian imitation.  http://digitalhn.blogspot.com/2015/12/imitations-of-bronze-coinage-of-pontos.html

L. Plautius Plancus. 47 B.C. AR denarius (18 mm, 3.62 g). Brockage strike. Rome.
Obv: L · PLAV[TIV]S below, head of Medusa facing
Rev: Incuse of obverse.
Classical Numismatic Group, e-auction 59, February 2003, lot 131.

7 hours ago, DLTcoins said:

@Ed Snible Will there be electronic accommodation for those not in attendance such as a live stream of the meeting or recorded video?

@DLTcoins If you join the ONS you may attend via Zoom and engage in the Q&A.  https://www.orientalnumismaticsociety.org/sections/north-america/

In the spring I will upload a video to the ONS YouTube channel.  Subscribe to be notified at https://www.youtube.com/@orientalnumismaticsociety5508/videos

If anyone wants to meet me, I will be hosting the Oriental Numismatic Society meeting at 4pm on Saturday.

We have three interesting speakers lined up.

• John Deyell - A Uniface Indo-Sasanian Coin Reveals Ancient Minting Techniques (via Zoom)
• Pankaj Tandon - Analysis of the Metal Content in Gupta Gold Coins.
• Michael Bates - The Earliest Muslim Coinage of Iran.

6 hours ago, Deinomenid said:

I can't figure  out what they mean  but their  email definitely says  the "list will go  live at 10am on  our website at 10AM EST when they will also be  on display at our table 307 at the NYINC.

In the early years one could walk in at noon and head directly to that table to find 25% of this fixed price list was already sold during dealer set up.

Later, the Fixed Price coins showed up on the CNG website at midnight before the show.  10am seems a lot more civil.