Oops! I did it again.

[kirispupis]

I purchased both of these coins around the same time, when I was looking for "snacks" at auctions. The first one I picked up was this.

Karia, Myndos 4th century BCE
1.2g, 12mm, 1h
Laureate head of Poseidon to right / Dolphin to right over trident; MY above.
SNG Copenhagen 1022 (Ionia); SNG Kayhan 847-848
Ex Roma 2018
Ex Roma 2020
Ex Roma 2022

 

Myndos lay near Halikarnassos, and was made infamous in being one of the few cities to actually repel Alexander. It was taken later by one of his generals. Before I received it, I noticed this other one at a different auction.

IONIA. Myos
4th century BCE
Chalkous AE 9.5 mm, 1.08 g, 1 h
Laureate head of Poseidon to right. Rev. MY Dolphin leaping to right; below, trident right.
SNG Copenhagen 1022. SNG von Aulock 2115
Ex J. Metzger Collection
Ex Nomos

 

Wow! Another dolphin coin! I won both and was thrilled. Myos was a tiny place in Caria. I happily received both coins, put them on my website, and added them to my albums.

Some time later, as I admired them, I thought "wow! the coins of Myos look so similar to Myndos!" When I looked further, I couldn't find much of a difference. I then noticed that both were labeled as SNG Copenhagen 1022.

Oh... A check on acsearch confirmed that there seems to be little agreement on which My-- it is. Roughly half the coins list Myndos and the other half list Myos. Personally, I suspect Myndos since AFAIK it was a larger town. What is more certain is I purchased the same coin twice.

So, now that I've fessed up, let's see your duplicates that you didn't intend to be duplicates. I certainly hope I'm not the only one...

[Phil Davis]

To me, these aren't precisely duplicates. I think the quite different styles complement each other nicely. I know its not your collecting strategy, but imo at least a touch of that sort of depth enhances any collection. Anyway, dolphins are social critters and now they won't pine away, even if they are still a few flippers short of a whole pod.