Broucheion

Hi @MrZun,

I'd be much more concerned with the crystallization shown by the chip on the second Vespasian coin.

- Broucheion

Hi All,

Overstruck coin and its undertype.

Æ Hemiobol Ptolemy I Soter (306/305-283 BCE), Egypt, Alexandria / Cyprus? Series 2A: ca 306-294 BCE
Size: 17x15 mm
Weight: 2.5 g
Die Axis: 1:00
Broucheion Collection 2001-02-08.001
 

Obv: Alexander the Great, diademmed and horned bare head with long, curly hair, facing right. No border visible. Overstruck on coin of Demetrius with reverse prow of ship. Monogram AP and labris below chin (reverse undertype) showing through at base of Alexander's head.
Rev: Εagle facing left, wings spread. In right field: ΚΛ above Corinthian helmet. Legend: ΠΤΟΛΕΜΑΙΟΥ; to right: [ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ] off flan. No border visible.
Refs: Lorber: CPE-B022; Svoronos-171, pl A, 26 [9 listed]; SNG Copenhagen-43 var: different monogram.
Undertype: (Æ 17mm; 2.63g; Die Axis:00:00): ET Newell, "The Coinages of Demetrius Poliorcetes," pl. II, 9 & 10. Neither example shows the curving tip of the prow all the way up to the ornament, but 10 shows enough to assure the identification of the undertype. See also Newell 163; SNG München 1056; SNG Alpha Bank 956.
Provenances: David Hendin (Ptolemaic coin) Praefectus Coins (Demetrios coin)

From CC Lorber - CPE: "Ptolemy’s final currency reform can be dated with precision. The overstriking of bronze coins of Demetrius Poliorcetes with the types of B22 establishes that the reform can be dated no earlier than the Ptolemaic recovery of Cyprus in 294, while the overstriking of Demetrian bronzes with the types of B78 indicates that the process of overstriking the enemy’s coinage continued after the currency reform. The evidence of the overstrikes can be supplemented by control links between the reformed precious metal coinage of Alexandria and issues of Cyprus, Sidon, and Tyre. The earliest Cypriote issues share four of the above-mentioned controls (CPE 217-218, 221-222, 230, 234-236), while the earliest issue of Sidon and the second of Tyre share one of them (CPE 241-242, 244-245). The first Ptolemaic tetradrachm of Tyre (CPE 243), though not involved in this nexus of control links, was closely related to the coinage of Demetrian Tyre but struck on the weight standard of the reformed coinage. The currency reform is thus fixed between the Ptolemaic reconquest of Cyprus and the surrender of Tyre. CC Lorber (2012) has now demonstrated that the latter event must be situated in the immediate aftermath of the victory on Cyprus."

- Broucheion

 

Hi All,

This overstrike can be used to confirm the order of the controls for the coins of this series.

Hi All,

The Greek incarnation of Aurora was Eos, the goddess of the dawn. Eos is the sister of Helios, the god of the sun, and Selene, the goddess of the moon.

From Wikipedia: "In Greek literature, Eos is presented as a daughter of the Titans Hyperion and Theia, the sister of the sun god Helios and the moon goddess Selene. In rarer traditions, she is the daughter of the Titan Pallas. Each day she drives her two-horse chariot, heralding the breaking of the new day and her brother's arrival. Thus, her most common epithet of the goddess in the Homeric epics is Rhododactylos, or "rosy-fingered", a reference to the sky's colours at dawn, and Erigeneia, "early-born". Although primarily associated with the dawn and early morning, sometimes Eos would accompany Helios for the entire duration of his journey, and thus she is even seen during dusk." [For more see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eos ]

Here are two Alexandria drachmas showing Eos holding a torch and trying to hold onto one of the horses of the sun.

LUCIUS VERUS (7 Mar 161 - 169 CE)
ALEXANDRIA, EGYPT Year 04 (163/164 CE)
Æ Drachm
Size: 33 mm
Weight: 26.3 g
Axis: 11:30
Broucheion Collection R-1995-08-11.002

Obv: Lucius Verus laureate draped bust facing right. Legend: [ΛAYPHΛIOC] - OYHPOCCЄB. Border not visible.
Rev: Eos standing facing left with head turned to right. Holding torch inoutstretched right hand. Left hand leading one of the horses of the sun facing right with head turned to left. Above: Hω; Left field: [L]; Right field: Δ. Dotted border.
Refs: Emmett-2391.04 var: HWC; Geissen-2153 var: HWC & date above; Dattari-3719; Dattari-Savio pl 199; RPC IV.4-2642; Milne-2499; BMC-1372 var: L-Δ.

LUCIUS VERUS (7 Mar 161 - 169 CE)
ALEXANDRIA, EGYPT Year 04 (163/164 CE)
Æ Drachm
Size: 32x33 mm
Weight: 20.9 g
Axis: 11:00
Broucheion Collection R-2020-09-12.001

Obv: Lucius Verus laureate draped bust facing right. Legend: [ΛAYPHΛIOC - OYH]P[OCCЄB]. Border not visible.
Rev: Eos standing facing left with head turned to right. Holding torch inoutstretched right hand. Left hand leading one of the horses of the sun facing right with head turned to left. Above: L[Δ]; Below right: Hω. Dotted border.
Refs: Emmett-2391.04 var: HWC; Geissen-2153; Dattari-3721 pl xii (rev); Dattari-Savio pl 199; RPC IV.4-2659; Milne-2499; BMC-1372 var: L-Δ; Mionnet-2242.

- Broucheion

Hi All,

For anyone interested, "Medieval Coins with Rory Naismith", a 47 minute discussion at https://www.medievalists.net/2024/04/medieval-coins-with-rory-naismith/?utm_content=291277370&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&hss_channel=tw-142691943

“Because they’re so familiar, coins can sometimes seem to be a part of the natural order. But in the Early Middle Ages, just about everything to do with coins was in flux, from where they were sourced, to who was using them. This week, Danièle Cybulskie speaks with Rory Naismith about the complex world of medieval coins.

Rory Naismith is Professor of Early Medieval English history at the University of Cambridge, where his research focuses on economic and monetary history including coins. You can learn more about Rory from his university webpage ( https://www.asnc.cam.ac.uk/people/Rory.Naismith/ ) or Academia.edu page ( https://cambridge.academia.edu/RoryNaismith/ ) or follow him on X/Twitter @Rory_Naismith “  

- Broucheion

Hi All,

GRECO-ROMAN EGYPT - STAMPED GLASS PENDANT
EGYPT ca 1st - 3rd Century CE
Glass & Gold Pendant/Charm/Amulet

Size: 20 x 27 mm
Weight: 2.43 g (glass and gold)
Broucheion Collection SEAL-2002-01-18.002

Obv: Galley under sail with six oars facing right within gold suspension band with loop.
Rev: None [Uniface]

- Broucheion

50 minutes ago, Bonshaw said:

It briefly flashed a webpage giving the date, and then switched to "not saved."

I waited a minute and tried again, and the web page I saved previously was back in the archive again.

Hi @Bonshaw,

It sounds like the updated page lives on one of the Archive.org servers but that new page hasn’t yet propagated to update all the servers with the new links. So, as you long in again, sometimes to link to the server with the newest page and sometimes you don’t.

- Broucheion 

Hi All,

FAUSTINA THE YOUNGER (UNDER ANTONINUS PIUS)
ALEXANDRIA, EGYPT Year 14 (150/151 CE)

Æ DRACHMA
34mm
16.6grams
Axis: 00:00
Broucheion Collection R-xxxx-xx-xx.035

Obv: Faustina diademmed draped head facing right. Legend: [CE]B ΘYΓ - ΦAVCTINA. Dotted border.
Rev: Nemesis seated facing right (griffin with left paw on spoked wheel). In left field: [LI]; In right field: Δ. Dotted border not visible.
Refs: Emmett-1986.14; Geissen-1957; Dattari-3318 var
Prov: Ex-Antioch Associates

Next: Any Alexandrian bronze.

- Broucheion

Hi All,

I just recently posted my quintessential Sun-Moon coin in early April as part of the Eclipse thread:

- Broucheion 

12 hours ago, John Conduitt said:

If it came from Alexandria, it is likely there would be a statue of Clodius Albinus there?

Hi All,

My Alexandrian Clodius Albinus is here: 
https://www.cointalk.com/threads/clodius-and-victory-s-as-emperor.399316/#post-8513199

- Broucheion 

19 hours ago, Furryfrog02 said:

Does this constitute it being rare? Or is it because it is rather obscure, nobody really tracks it?

Hi @Furryfrog02,

in my collecting experience I would call your coin “scarce.” I once had a dealer say that rarity was a relative term because “there are only 3 known specimens of that coin, but the two people who collect that issue already had one.” He wasn’t trying to be funny.

- Broucheion 

Hi All,

Let's not forget Alexandria.

QUIETUS (ca Sep 260 - ca Jun 261 CE)
ALEXANDRIA, EGYPT Year 01 (ca Sep 260 - ca Jun 261 CE)
Bi Tetradrachm
Broucheion Collection

Obv: Quietus laureate cuirased bust seen from behind, facing right. Legend:
AKTΦIOVNKOYHTOCЄCЄB. Dotted border.
Rev: Eagle wings open standing facing left with wreath in beak. In left field: LA. Dotted border.
Refs: Emmett-3788.01; Geissen 3013-14; Dattari-5382; Milne-4057/4058; Curtis-1566; SNG Copenhagen-832; BMC-2305 var (legend); Mionnet-3407-9; Bern-247, pl vii
Provenance: Ex Steven M Huston (1996 List 60, Lot# 50); Ex R.S. Speck Collection.

- Broucheion

9 hours ago, JAZ Numismatics said:

but history has largely forgotten his worst student, Mediocrates.

Hi All,

- Broucheion 

Hi Amanda,

It looks like it’s Armenian.

- Broucheion 

Hi All,

I think this is the book @Deinomenid mentioned. 
https://www.ma-shops.com/jacquier/item.php?id=4935
https://www.deamoneta.com/en/shop/item/d-andrea-magna-graecian-sicilian-counterfeit-coins

- Broucheion 

Hi @Amanda,

You might get some basic orientation by looking through guides #37 (Medieval Coins) and #38 (Post Medieval Coins) at the British Archeology Jobs & Resorces website. These are free downloads at http://www.bajr.org/BAJRread/BAJRGuides.asp .

• 37. Medieval Coins
• 38. Post Medieval Coins

- Broucheion 

Hi all,

Maybe the obverse of a two part button?

- Broucheion 

Hi All,

It's a new category: the notorious provenance. I'm sure there will always be someone to buy it. Witness

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/feb/18/adolf-hitler-telephone-auction-second-world-war

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/02/20/hitlers-phone-sold-for-almost-250k-at-us-auction.html

- Broucheion

Hi All,

A small gem.

BERENIKE II (UNDER PTOLEMY III: 246-222 BCE)
UNCERTAIN MINT 32: PERHAPS SELEUCIA IN PIERIA, ca the Third Syrian War

Tetartai (Gold 1/16th Mnaieon = Hemidrachm)
Size: 10 mm
Weight: 1.6 g
Axis: 11:00
Dies: O09/R13
Broucheion Collection P-1994-11-29.001

Obv: Berenike, veiled bust facing right wearing diademed stephane and lotus scepter of Arsinoe Philadelphus. Dotted border.
Rev: Single cornucopia tied with a filleted diadem. On left: [ΒΑΣΙΛΗΣ]ΣΗΣ, on right: ΒΕΡΕΝΑΚΗ[Σ]. Dotted border not visible.
Refs: CPE-806; Svoronos 983, pl xxxv, 15-16 [5 listed]. Sng Copenhagen-170 for type (silver trihemiobol); BMC 06.060, #015; Sear-7831.
Note: Sewell-Lasiter die study (2020) dies O09/R13, also showing globules. Only sixteen examples noted by van Driessche (van Driessche 983).
Prov: George Beach, Auction #22 (1994) Lot #3

From CPE-806 entry: "The small gold coins of this issue confuse or deliberately blend the iconography of Berenice II with that of Arsinoe Philadelphus, portraying the younger queen with the stephane and lotus scepter of her predecessor. A similar mixing of the two queens’ attributes can be observed on the mnaieia of Uncertain Mint 33 (CPE 809-811), and details of the diadems binding their cornuacopiae were exchanged at Alexandria early in the reign (see CPE 733-734). On the first of the tetartai, CPE 806, the queen's name and title are transposed from their usual positions, as on the gold eighth mnaieion of Ptolemy III (CPE 805), on a tetradrachm portraying Ptolemy III (CPE 781), and on the reverse of bronzes of Berenice II from Heraclea by the Sea or Seleucia in Pieria (CPE B452-B459). On the gold fractions and on the bronzes the diadem tied round the cornucopiae is rendered in similar fashion. As noted above, CPE 805 & 806 are probably companion pieces, perhaps struck at Seleucia in Pieria soon after its surrender to Ptolemy III. In contrast, CPE 807 displays the straight diadem ends and legend configuration characteristic of the Alexandrian coinage of Berenice, as well as a control letter. These differences may reflect a later correction of the anomalies of CPE 806.

The tetarte, defined as one-sixteenth of the mnaieion, had been struck previously at Alexandria under Ptolemy I as one of the novel denominations of his currency reform of 294 (see CPE 129, 134, 139, 144, 149, 155, 172). It failed to establish itself as an essential denomination of the Ptolemaic currency system and is attested mainly as a unit of weight used in connection with jewelry. Its revival at the beginning of Euergetes’ reign seems to reflect the same innovative tendency as the revival of the Attic standard in Egypt for the coinage of Berenice II."

- Broucheion

Hi All,

Since eclipses concern Helios and Selene (the Sun and Moon), here they are on a Julia Mamea Drachm of Alexandria Egypt. Sold to me as a "19th century imitation of a Matidia Drachm of Egypt or an imitation Paduan Æ."

JULIA MAMEA (223 - MAR 235 CE, Under Severus Alexander)
ALEXANDRIA, EGYPT Year 10 (230/231 CE)
Æ Drachm
Size: 32 mm
Weight: 21.2 g
Axis: 00:00
Broucheion Collection R-1999-09-14.001

Obv: Julia Mamea bust facing right. Legend: IOYMAMAI[AC]Є[B]MHTCЄB[KCTPA]. Border not visible
Rev: Helios and Selene busts facing right. Helios with radiate
crown and aegis, Selene with crescent moon tiara. Palm frond in right field; in left field: LI. Border not visible.
Refs: Emmett-3248.10 (R5); Milne-3038; Geissen-1880 var: reverse; Dattari-4553? (Bad image); Otherwise unlisted. See Geissen-1880 for similar reverse of Antoninus Pius (Year unreadable).

- Broucheion

Hi @Amarmur,

Also see RPC Online: https://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/coins/3/2391

- Broucheion

Hi All,

My largest, from a few years back. Sorry for the photo quality.

https://www.cointalk.com/threads/savior-but-for-whom.348734/page-2#post-3883369

 - Broucheion 

Hi All,

Just a thought ...

- Broucheion

Hi All,

PTOLEMY VI PHILOMETOR (FIRST SOLE REIGN 180-170 BCE)
UNCERTAIN MINT: GREECE, ARSINOE-METHANA?, before 169 BCE
Unknown Æ Denomination

Size: 19 mm
Weight: 5.77 g
Die Axis: 11:30
Broucheion Collection P-2002-01-18.002

Obv: Ptolemy VI youthful portrait head facing right. Countermark: KPA monogram in rectangle. Dotted border not visible. Centration depression.
Rev: Eagle on thunderbolt facing left, wings open, head turned towards right. In left field: dolphin entwined on a rod (or anchor?). Legend: [ΠΤΟΛΕΜΑΙΟΥ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ] and dotted border not visible. Centration depression.
Refs: CPE-II B0654 temp; Svoronos 1487 [1 listed, Berlin]; Svoronos 1488, pl xlviii, 21-23 (with countermark) [5 listed].
Note 1: Countermark (on obverse): KPA monogram in rectangular punch.

Note 2 From CC Lorber "The Royal portrait on Ptolemaic coinage", (EUROS, 2014) : "Somewhat better attested is a royal portrait bronze of Ptolemy VI, showing the king as a child or young adolescent, without divine attributes. The reverse features the standard Ptolemaic eagle accompanied by a dolphin symbol in the left field. This issue often bears a countermark on the obverse, in the form of a monogram involving the letters KPA. Poole attributed the coin emission to a coastal town of Coele Syria and Phoenicia and the countermark to Cyprus. Svoronos associated the bronze with the portrait tetradrachm of Ptolemy VI struck at Ptolemais near the end of his reign (Svoronos 1486), despite the evident disparity in the age of the king in the two portraits. Rejecting an association of the tetradrachm and the bronze, Kyrieleis opined that the neck truncation of the bronze shows Seleucid influence, which would imply an origin in Coele Syria and Phoenicia in the last five years of Philometor's reign. Hazzard tentatively proposed a Cypriot mint and dated the portrait bronze to Philometor's second sole reign. Frank L. Kovacs reported a specimen from a Thessalian hoard containing mainly bronzes of the Thessalian Confederacy and suggested that the countermark could stand for Crannon, or alternatively for a moneyer of the confederacy who signed with a very similar monogram. Once again we encounter a provenance that implies a Greek mint, and once again the only candidate for a royal issue is Arsinoe-Methana."

Next: More dolphins

- Broucheion

Hi @Amarmur,

Per Lorber it’s CPE-222 = Svoronos 362, pl. xi, 8 [8 listed]. Ptolemy I, minted sometime after 294 BCE. Uncertain Mint 9 on Cyprus (Salamis or Citium).

- Broucheion