Antimachos Tetradrachms Possible Die Match?

[Cordoba]

Recently my Leu wins finally shipped and after looking at my tetradrachms in hand, I think I have two Antimachos Tetradrachms with obverse die matches. I'm not sure if I'm imagining it, so I added a gif of the two coins overlaid on top of each other, and a side by side comparison. I've noticed the clumps of hair have the same shape and number. I compared them to different tetradrachms of Antimachos, and the hair clumps are different. The tip of the kausia touches the dotted border in both coins. I also think the ear, brow shape, forehead wrinkles, nose, and mouth look the same.

I did not plan on winning both of these coins, since they both have the same monogram, but it would be pretty neat if they were indeed a die match. Are die matches rare to find? I've compared about 10 other tetradrachms with these and they all have slightly different dies.

 

Greco-Baktrian Kingdom, Antimachos I Theos. 174-165 BCE. AR Tetradrachm, 31 mm, 16.68 g.

Diademed and draped bust of Antimachos I to right, wearing flat topped kausia / ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΘΕΟΥ ΑΝΤΙΜΑΧΟΥ Poseidon, nude to the waist, standing facing, holding long trident in his right hand and filleted palm branch in his left; to lower right, monogram

Bopearachchi 1D

 

[zadie]

Those are definitely from the same die. Finding die matches varies greatly between different types of coinages. Some series are smaller and thus used fewer dies, making it more likely to find matches between two different coins. I'm not very familiar myself with the Greco-Bactrians or how large Antimachos emissions were, however judging by the amount of obverse die matches found on acsearch I would venture to say that this die is quite prevalent in the series as a whole.

[Cordoba]

40 minutes ago, zadie said:

Those are definitely from the same die. Finding die matches varies greatly between different types of coinages. Some series are smaller and thus used fewer dies, making it more likely to find matches between two different coins. I'm not very familiar myself with the Greco-Bactrians or how large Antimachos emissions were, however judging by the amount of obverse die matches found on acsearch I would venture to say that this die is quite prevalent in the series as a whole.

Thanks for searching, makes a ton of sense. Turns out the 2nd coin in that list is one of my tetradrachms too! Not sure how they measured it to be 33 mm, it's slightly smaller than the 31 mm antimachos tetradrachm i have

[zadie]

17 minutes ago, Cordoba said:

Thanks for searching, makes a ton of sense. Turns out the 2nd coin in that list is one of my tetradrachms too! Not sure how they measured it to be 33 mm, it's slightly smaller than the 31 mm antimachos tetradrachm i have

Oh? That is a very decent provenance to add to the coin, congrats!

[velarfricative]

3 hours ago, zadie said:

I'm not very familiar myself with the Greco-Bactrians or how large Antimachos emissions were, however judging by the amount of obverse die matches found on acsearch I would venture to say that this die is quite prevalent in the series as a whole.

They're not all die matches there; the Hess Divo coin is a drachm. I wouldn't put too much stock in acsearch's premium search, I've seen very poor results from it especially from Baktria. In the recent die study, there were 354 tetradrachms for Antimachos I, so this is just a small proportion of his output.

[Cordoba]

3 hours ago, velarfricative said:

They're not all die matches there; the Hess Divo coin is a drachm. I wouldn't put too much stock in acsearch's premium search, I've seen very poor results from it especially from Baktria. In the recent die study, there were 354 tetradrachms for Antimachos I, so this is just a small proportion of his output.

just curious, where did u find that study? would like to read more about it

[kapphnwn]

Simon Glenn in his book Money and Power in Hellenistic Bactria records some 60 Obverse dies for Antimachos I. If @zadie is correct your coin appears to obverse 43 which is associated with reverse dies 139-144. This is an illustration of the book

and my coin 

Antimachos I Ar Tetradrachm Baktra 174-165 BC Obv Bust right wearing Kausia Rv Pseidon standing facing holding scepter and fileted palm frond HGC 106 Glenn 248 O 27/ R 98 This coin illustrated.  16.61 grms 30 mm Photo by W. Hansen

I too want to commend @zadie for his work. Many of these dies are very close and there are a lot of them with that monogram found on the reverse O 23/R 76 to O45/ R 148

[zadie]

9 hours ago, velarfricative said:

They're not all die matches there; the Hess Divo coin is a drachm. I wouldn't put too much stock in acsearch's premium search, I've seen very poor results from it especially from Baktria. In the recent die study, there were 354 tetradrachms for Antimachos I, so this is just a small proportion of his output.

You're right of course, it's unfortunate that you can't filter out single results with the image search. I'd like to highlight that all other hits from this search are obverse die matches to OP's coin. I've actually been pleasantly surprised by the capabilties of the image search function, having used it throughly during the last year due to the five free searches you get every day with premium.

[velarfricative]

5 hours ago, zadie said:

You're right of course, it's unfortunate that you can't filter out single results with the image search. I'd like to highlight that all other hits from this search are obverse die matches to OP's coin. I've actually been pleasantly surprised by the capabilties of the image search function, having used it throughly during the last year due to the five free searches you get every day with premium.

I wish they would give use free users some of those searches... would certainly be a nice tool to have.

 

12 hours ago, Cordoba said:

just curious, where did u find that study? would like to read more about it

Outside of the die study, if you don't have them already I would recommend HGC 12, published by CNG, and Michael Mitchiner's "Indo-Greek and Indo-Scythian coinage" as references.

Edited January 21, 2023 by velarfricative