Alphabet game GAME OVER

[expat]

Bit of fun. Run sequentially through the alphabet from A-Z. First letter of the main feature or person, god, deity etc on obverse or reverse. Coin, token, country all are good.

EDITED AFTER A GOOD SUGESTION BY @kapphnwn

RULES: After 4 days the next letter of the alphabet can be applied. Once you post please let at least 1 other person post before you post again to involve as many as possible, thanks

Start with this

A: Antoninus

 

 

Edited September 6, 2022 by expat

[John Conduitt]

B: Burgred

Burgred Lunette Type A Penny, 852-874

London. Silver, 19.5mm, 1.36g. Bust (type V5) right; BURGREDREX+. +BEAGZTA in between [N]MON | ETA (Beagstan moneyer); two clowed lunettes divide the legend (S 938).

[expat]

3 minutes ago, John Conduitt said:

B: Burgred

Burgred Lunette Type A Penny, 852-874

London. Silver, 19.5mm, 1.36g. Bust (type V5) right; BURGREDREX+. +BEAGZTA in between [N]MON | ETA (Beagstan moneyer); two clowed lunettes divide the legend (S 938).

First time I have seen one of those, nice design.

[kapphnwn]

Brettian League Ae Sextans 211-208 BC Obv Head of beardless Herakles right wearing lion skin headdress. Rv Athena advancing right with transverse spear and shield HGC 1363 15.80 grms 25 mm Photo by W Hansen

This coin would have been minted during the Second Punic war when the brettian league was allied to Hannibal. My understanding is that some of these men stayed with him at the conclusion of the war, but upon the resumption of hostilities were formed along side his veteran troops at the Battle of Zama. 

One point. to @expat perhaps some form of time constraint should have been made eg 4-7 days per letter. One might have to look into this at some point.

[expat]

8 minutes ago, kapphnwn said:

Brettian League Ae Sextans 211-208 BC Obv Head of beardless Herakles right wearing lion skin headdress. Rv Athena advancing right with transverse spear and shield HGC 1363 15.80 grms 25 mm Photo by W Hansen

This coin would have been minted during the Second Punic war when the brettian league was allied to Hannibal. My understanding is that some of these men stayed with him at the conclusion of the war, but upon the resumption of hostilities were formed along side his veteran troops at the Battle of Zama. 

One point. to @expat perhaps some form of time constraint should have been made eg 4-7 days per letter. One might have to look into this at some point.

Thanks for the suggestion. Opening post has been edited

[Qcumbor]

Do we stick to "B" for a while then ?

Balbinus :

Balbinus, Denarius - Rome mint, AD 238
IMP C D CAEL BALBINVS AVG, laureate, draped and cuirassed bust of Balbinus right
PROVIDENTIA DEORVM, Providentia standing left, holding rod and cornucopiae, globe at feet
2.7 gr
Ref : RIC # 7, RCV # 8490

 

Q

[expat]

Just now, Qcumbor said:

Do we stick to "B" for a while then ?

Balbinus :

Balbinus, Denarius - Rome mint, AD 238
IMP C D CAEL BALBINVS AVG, laureate, draped and cuirassed bust of Balbinus right
PROVIDENTIA DEORVM, Providentia standing left, holding rod and cornucopiae, globe at feet
2.7 gr
Ref : RIC # 7, RCV # 8490

 

Q

Yes, My fault for not putting a time constaint in the rules. B through Saturday. C starting Monday Thanks for sharing the Balbinus, lovely evample.

[Phil Davis]

Brutus as moneyer in 54 BC, Crawford 433/2.

[expat]

2 minutes ago, Phil Davis said:

Brutus as moneyer in 54 BC, Crawford 433/2.

Good looking coin. Different engravers for obv and rev?

[Spaniard]

I'll play....I always like games like this as you get to see coins you were unaware of......

B = Bolskan.

Spain, Bolskan (Osca). Circa 150-100 BC. AE Unit (10.35 gm, 24mm).
Obverse: Bearded head right; dolphin behind.
Reverse: "BOLSKAN" in Celt-Iberian in exergue, rider on horse right, holding spear; star behind.
CNH 8; SNG BM Spain 734; SNG Copenhagen 325. VF.

[expat]

2 minutes ago, Spaniard said:

I'll play....I always like games like this as you get to see coins you were unaware of......

B = Bolskan.

Spain, Bolskan (Osca). Circa 150-100 BC. AE Unit (10.35 gm, 24mm).
Obverse: Bearded head right; dolphin behind.
Reverse: "BOLSKAN" in Celt-Iberian in exergue, rider on horse right, holding spear; star behind.
CNH 8; SNG BM Spain 734; SNG Copenhagen 325. VF.

I have my eye on the same coin but yours is a bit better strike.

[Prieure de Sion]

B = Bosporus

 
Tetrachalcon Kingdom of the Bosporus 330/315 BC

Material: AE Bronze

Diameter: 21.5mm

Weight: 6.53g

Mint: Pantikapaion, Kingdom of the Bosporus

Reference: MacDonald 69

[expat]

Just now, Prieure de Sion said:

B = Bosporus

 
Tetrachalcon Kingdom of the Bosporus 330/315 BC

Material: AE Bronze

Diameter: 21.5mm

Weight: 6.53g

Mint: Pantikapaion, Kingdom of the Bosporus

Reference: MacDonald 69

Thanks for sharing, beautiful. This is why I started this thread, I am already seeing coins that I have never seen before. My list of coins to look further into is growing by the minute.

[Phil Davis]

17 minutes ago, expat said:

Good looking coin. Different engravers for obv and rev?

Thanks. We can't really know the answer of course, but to my eye they look to be both from the same hand. I know you're "new" to ancients, so maybe a bit of explication is warranted. The coin was issued by the "famous" Brutus, the co-leader of the assassination of Caesar, when he was in the early days of his political career. Neither side however actually depicts him. Both recall long-ago ancestors, the BRVTVS side a paternal forebear, the AHALA side a maternal. Both ancestors were renowned as tyrannicides, so "our" Brutus was already displaying beliefs he would put into action ten years later.

[expat]

1 minute ago, Phil Davis said:

Thanks. We can't really know the answer of course, but to my eye they look to be both from the same hand. I know you're "new" to ancients, so maybe a bit of explication is warranted. The coin was issued by the "famous" Brutus, the co-leader of the assassination of Caesar, when he was in the early days of his political career. Neither side however actually depicts him. Both recall long-ago ancestors, the BRVTVS side a paternal forebear, the AHALA side a maternal. Both ancestors were renowned as tyrannicides, so "our" Brutus was already displaying beliefs he would put into action ten years later.

Thanks for that, good info I was unaware of

[Roman Collector]

B is for Berenice II:

Both are from Marathos in Phoenicia, struck under Ptolemy Philometer, 180-145 BCE.


20.8 mm; 8.73 gm
Obv: Veiled head of Berenice II, r.
Rev: Stylized Marathos standing, head l., holding apluster and leaning on column. Phoenician Aramaic legend.
Refs: Sear 6037; SNG Cop 163-166; BMC p.121, 10.


21.1 mm; 8.90 gm
Obv: Veiled head of Berenice II, r.
Rev: Asklepios-Eshman standing l., leaning on column. Phoenician Aramaic legend.
Refs: BMC 26, pl. XXXIX, 3.

 

 

[DonnaML]

How about a Boeotian shield?

Boeotia (Boeotian League, including Thebes), AR Stater 379-338 BC. Obv. Boeotian shield / Rev. Amphora, ΔΑ-IM (Daim-, magistrate [=Daimachus?]) across fields. BCD Boiotia 523 [Classical Numismatic Group, The BCD Collection of the Coinage of Boiotia, Triton IX Auction, Session 1, Lot 523 (not this coin) (10 Jan. 2006, New York)]; Hepworth 18 [Hepworth, R., "The 4th Century BC Magistrate Coinage of the Boiotian Confederacy" in NK 17 (Hungarian Numismatic Society, Numismatic Gazette (Budapest)) (1998)]; BMC 8 Central Greece 126 (at p. 81) [Head, B., A Catalog of the Greek Coins in the British Museum, Central Greece (Locris, Phocis, Boeotia, and Euboea) (London, 1884)]; Head, Boeotia p. 64 [Head, B.V., On the chronological sequence of the coins of Boeotia (London, 1881)]; Myron Hoard pl. D, 13 [Svoronos, J. "Θησαυρoς νoμiσματων εκ τoυ χωριoυ Mυρoυ Kαρδιτσης της Θεσσαλιας" in Arcaiologikon Deltion 2 (1916)]; SNG Copenhagen 323 [Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum, Copenhagen, The Royal Collection of Coins and Medals, Danish National Museum (Copenhagen, 1942-1979)]. 18.5 mm., 12.19 g. [Purchased from Harlan J. Berk, Ltd., 214th Buy or Bid Sale, Dec. 2020, Lot 59.]

Link to Vimeo video of this coin: https://vimeo.com/487429280.

So now I guess we'll have three games ongoing at the same time. We're a veritable casino!

[expat]

4 minutes ago, DonnaML said:

How about a Boeotian shield?

Boeotia (Boeotian League, including Thebes), AR Stater 379-338 BC. Obv. Boeotian shield / Rev. Amphora, ΔΑ-IM (Daim-, magistrate [=Daimachus?]) across fields. BCD Boiotia 523 [Classical Numismatic Group, The BCD Collection of the Coinage of Boiotia, Triton IX Auction, Session 1, Lot 523 (not this coin) (10 Jan. 2006, New York)]; Hepworth 18 [Hepworth, R., "The 4th Century BC Magistrate Coinage of the Boiotian Confederacy" in NK 17 (Hungarian Numismatic Society, Numismatic Gazette (Budapest)) (1998)]; BMC 8 Central Greece 126 (at p. 81) [Head, B., A Catalog of the Greek Coins in the British Museum, Central Greece (Locris, Phocis, Boeotia, and Euboea) (London, 1884)]; Head, Boeotia p. 64 [Head, B.V., On the chronological sequence of the coins of Boeotia (London, 1881)]; Myron Hoard pl. D, 13 [Svoronos, J. "Θησαυρoς νoμiσματων εκ τoυ χωριoυ Mυρoυ Kαρδιτσης της Θεσσαλιας" in Arcaiologikon Deltion 2 (1916)]; SNG Copenhagen 323 [Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum, Copenhagen, The Royal Collection of Coins and Medals, Danish National Museum (Copenhagen, 1942-1979)]. 18.5 mm., 12.19 g. [Purchased from Harlan J. Berk, Ltd., 214th Buy or Bid Sale, Dec. 2020, Lot 59.]

Link to Vimeo video of this coin: https://vimeo.com/487429280.

So now I guess we'll have three games ongoing at the same time. We're a veritable casino!

And everyone is a winner. That is stunning, to me. Didn't know of its existence, thanks for sharing.

[kirispupis]

Will stretch with this one.

Batis, who was (probably) the ruler of Gaza when this coin was minted.

 

PHILISTIA (PALESTINE), Gaza
Circa 353-333 BCE
AR Drachm 14mm, 3.94 g, 12h
Imitating Athens pi-style coinage. Helmeted head of Athena right, with profile eye and pi-style palmette, Aramaic M horizonally on cheek (only traces visible) / Owl standing right, head facing; olive sprig and crescent to left.
Gitler & Tal V.25D; HGC 10, 542
Ex CNG

[John Conduitt]

B: Batu Khan

Batu Khan Dang, 1249-1250

Bulgar, Golden Horde. Silver, 15mm, 1.19g. Mengu Khan / (Tamga) / Supreme. Struck at/ (Tamga) / Bulgara (Sagdeeva 4). A tamga is a symbol used by Eurasian nomadic tribes and clans.

[Prieure de Sion]

B = (another) Brutus (and tyrannical murder)

Decimus Iunius Brutus Albinus (born c. 81 BC; died September 43 BC) was a Roman politician and soldier. He was a long-time officer and close confidant of Gaius Iulius Caesar, under whom he made a career. For reasons that are still disputed today, he joined the conspiracy against the dictator and was one of Caesar's most prominent assassins. Soon after the successful assassination (15 March 44 BC) he went to his province Gallia cisalpina and towards the end of the year refused to hand it over to the consul Marcus Antonius. He was then besieged by the consul in Mutina and freed by the new consuls and Octavian (later Emperor Augustus) in April 43 BC. He pursued the defeated Antonius, but Octavian changed his political course and had him outlawed like all Caesar murderers. On the run, he was captured and killed on Antony's orders.
 

Denarius of the Roman Imperatorial Period 48 BC

Material: Silver

Diameter: 20mm

Weight: 4.13g

Mint: Rome

Reference: Crawford 450/3b, HCRI 27, Sydenham 943a, Postumia 14

Provenance: Ex Peter Corcoran Collection

 

 

[Prieure de Sion]

B = Basileus

Basileus, Ancient Greek Βασιλεύς Basileús (genitive Βασιλέως Basiléōs), Modern Greek Βασιλιάς Vasiljás, English 'king', was the title of several Greek rulers as well as the emperors and kings of the Byzantine Empire. The feminine form is Basílissa, Ancient Greek Βασίλισσα, and was used both for consorts of a king and for monarchs ruling themselves.

The etymology of the word "basileus" is unclear. Most linguists assume that it is a non-Greek word that was adopted in the Greek Bronze Age from languages already existing in the eastern Mediterranean. The term "basileus" (qa-si-re-u /gwasileus/) was already found on tablets of linear script B from the 13th or early 12th century BC found in several Mycenaean palace archives. Originally, "qasireu" was the designation for certain officials. The exact function and position of "gwasileus" is unclear and disputed among historians. The only certainty is that the term did not designate a monarch. The meaning of the word later gradually developed into "king", as Homer's epics suggest, in which a "basileus" was not yet an "autocrat" ("monarch"), but a "big man", whereby there could certainly be several such big men in a community. In archaic times, basileis are attested as elected officials in several places.

Not every sole ruler was allowed to call himself "basileus"; "basileus" was possibly a title reserved for dynastically legitimised rulers. In democratic classical Athens, the title "basileus" was used for one of the archons, but here only symbolically in the priestly function ("archon basileus"). The meaning of "basileus" as monarch finally prevailed in Hellenism. The title "basileus" was used by Alexander the Great and his successors in Egypt, Syria, Asia Minor and Macedonia, the Diadochi. When the Romans conquered the Hellenistic East, the designation "basileus" was quickly transferred unofficially to the Roman emperor there as well.
 

Basileus Antiochos VIII Epiphanes Philometor Kallinikos (Grypos)

Tetradrachm of the Seleucid Empire Period 121/114 BC

Material: Silver

Diameter: 29mm

Weight: 16.44g

Mint: Antiochia ad Orontem, Seleucid Empire

Reference: SC 2298.2e, HGC 9 1197e

 

[John Conduitt]

Bahram V Drachm, 420-438
Aspanvar, Sassanid Empire. Silver, 28mm, 4.20g. Bust right, wearing mural crown with korymbos set on crescent. Fire altar flanked by two attendants, ’s to right and vrhr’n to left (SNS I/1).

Edited September 7, 2022 by John Conduitt

[kapphnwn]

Kingdom of Syria Ar Drachm of Alexander I BALAS Antioch 147-146 BC Obv Head right diademed Rv Apollo seated on Omphalos holding bow and arrow. SC 1785.13 var 4.25 grms 17 mm Photo by W. Hansen

Balas claimed to be the son of Antiochos IV and his cause was taken up by both Attalus the King of Pergamon and  Ptolemy VI King of Egypt. Ptolemy came to regret his decision as he later supported another claimant to the Seleukid throne and died in battle when his forces clashed with those under the command of Balas

[TuckHard]

B for Bangka

Mining Gongsi of Bangka
Circa 1710 to 1816 AD
Issued anonymously by the Chinese tin mining Gongsi community located in Layang (Lazang) in Songai Liat, Bangka Island
Tin cash | 2.74 grams | 26mm wide
Obv: Quasi floral pattern above and below, set of interlocked rings left and right
Rev: Shun Ji (right-left)
Ref: Hartill GCC#3.268