wondering about this cool scorpion countermark on Athenian imitative owl

[Nerosmyfavorite68]

I hope I'm not jinxing my coin to come, but I rolled out the writeup early.  I want to acquire as much information as I can about this probably imitative owl tet.  Can anyone decipher what the graffiti on the reverse says?  The writing looks Phoenician to my untrained eye.  The coin also resembles vcoins tets advertised as probably being Egyptian.  Also, many thanks to robinjojo for helping out.

I was struggling to pick a coin for my buy, when I happened to see this inexpensive 'Athenian' owl.  It was on page three of the dealer's recent list, so presumably it had been around for a little while.  People had snapped up inferior examples, but my coin was there,waiting for me.

 

   The countermarks and graffiti, which perhaps scared other buyers away,were the factor that convinced me to make my purchase.  The obverse scorpion countermark is pretty cool!

  I know relatively little about Athenian tets, mostly what I've read on this forum.  Robinjojo was kind enough to add his opinion, and here are the relevant passages,

Quote

 

"That's a very nice owl, and I think it is an eastern type, possibly Egyptian pharaonic, Flament style B, but I need to do more research on that.

Also, that's a wonderful obverse countermark, very clearly a scorpion.  That's the first countermark with that design that I've seen on an owl or any other ancient coin - a very worthwhile addition to your collection.....

....I really think the countermark is quite remarkable, possibly made by a banker, but who knows?  That part of the fun collecting and researching these coins.

The style of your owl is quite distinct, which points in the direction of an Egyptian origin.  This is a point of debate among scholars.  The theory behind the Egyptian link is the discovery of dies in Memphis, presumably from Athens.  As these coins were produced over the ensuing period, into the 4th century BC, these dies were copied with increasingly "local" styles of the owl design.  By that time Athens was producing the intermediate frontal eye owls, which were also copied in the East. "

 

    I had suspected that my budget owl (and this example is pretty nice for the price) was an eastern imitation, and the style was similar to vcoins listings listed as Egyptian-origin owls.

    Robinjojo seems to share my opinion that the learning process is one of the most fun and personally enjoyable aspects of collecting.

    Add-on coins are also a habit of mine,so I chose a couple of very inexpensive add-ons.

    This very worn (and super cheap) Trajan sestertius went into the cart for that very reason, the extreme wear.  I found it intriguing that it was that worn; a good learning tool.  This coin probably circulated into at least the time of Postumus. 

    This rather decrepit Demetrios I Poliorketes hemidrachm was another throw-in.  The expensive tetradrachm version is generally beyond my budget, so this will have to do as a box-checker.  I wasn't aware that smaller versions were available, nor did I know that he controlled Tarsus.

 

Edited March 14 by Nerosmyfavorite68

[AETHER]

It's beautiful, the counter marks, the test cut, after all she has been through and went, still has a smile on her face! Enjoy her!

[robinjojo]

The reverse graffiti is tough to decipher, but here's a stab at it.  From left to right there's a Phoenician N, then a W, then a P (?), perhaps a H on its side due to space limitations, ending perhaps with a Z.  The characters could be Aramaic, but Phoenician seems a better fit.

I'm almost totally ignorant when it comes to ancient languages and alphabets.  I rely on what I can find using Google, which is by no means the best source.

Here's a table of the Phoenician alphabet, courtesy Wikipedia:

Edited March 13 by robinjojo

[Nerosmyfavorite68]

Thanks!!  Did the Egyptian owls circulate in Judea/Phoenicia?

[Nerosmyfavorite68]

I will be rather excited if it is an Egyptian issue.  Perhaps someday I'll get a 'real' owl, but the opportunity cost is a killer.  I'm not super excited about the pi-types, and 500+ is too much to pay for such a common issue. 

Although the owl is very nice for the price, the main reason I bought it was for the scorpion countermark.  I was also pretty undecided about what to buy this time.  I could either go for the oversized, but overpriced, Philip, or this.

[robinjojo]

3 hours ago, Nerosmyfavorite68 said:

Thanks!!  Did the Egyptian owls circulate in Judea/Phoenicia?

Yes, hoard evidence points to the circulation of pharaonic owls in what is now Syria (1989 Syria Hoard) and Iraq (1973) to name two major groups.  Owls issued under the Persian satraps Artaxerxes, Sabakes and Mazakes were included, along with Athenian intermediate owls and I think a few Athenian classical owls and non-owl coinage as well.

My experience collecting imitative owls indicate a wide circulation area that includes Anatolia (roughly present day Turkey), Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Iran (Persia) the Arabian Peninsula, Bactria and India, although I don't have a documented owl from that country/region. 

Here's a link to a PDF for Peter G. van Alfen's article MECHANISMS FOR THE IMITATION OF ATHENIAN COINAGE : DEKELEIA
AND MERCENARIES RECONSIDERED.  It's well worth reading and bookmarking for future reference.  I believe the article can be saved as a PDF file.

http://www.numisbel.be/2011_4.pdf

 

Edited March 14 by robinjojo

[Nerosmyfavorite68]

Many thanks for the additional help!

[Nerosmyfavorite68]

The coin arrived.  If anything, the Demetrios is uglier in person, but I was pleased with the owl, the 'star' of the order.  Ugly or not, I didn't think I'd ever own a Demetrios.

Like GinoLR pointed out, a point which I initially missed, there are two countermarks on the obverse,one on top of each other. The 'bottom' one still seems to me to be a scorpion.

[Nerosmyfavorite68]

So, assuming this was of Egyptian origin, was this from the c. 400 BC revolt?