Boiotia counterstrikes back! An eery looking counterstrike over Antigonos Gonatas. Share your overstruck coins!

[Ryro]

Today I won this creepy (might be seeing this one shortly in this years Coins That Go Bump In The Night), eerily beautiful counterstrike. I do love the image of Demeter/Persephone and their heart wrenching story. But, look closely and you'll see, this coin clearly has a story of its own:

BOIOTIA, Federal Coinage. 220's BC. Æ (18mm, 5.50 g, 3h). Head of Demeter or Kore (Persephone) three-quarter face right, wearing corn-wreath / Poseidon, naked, standing left, resting right foot on rock and leaning on trident; to right, BOIW[TWN] downward. Head, Boeotia p. 86, pl. VI, 6 = BMC p. 41, 81, pl. VI, 8; SNG Cop. 384. VF, light brown surfaces. Overstruck on Æ of Antigonos Gonatas of the type SNG Cop. 1214-1221, with much of the undertype showing

The wild thing about this coin type, much like Kassander's Athena type over Philip Arrhidaios MSCs, is every example I can find is over the Antigonos Gonatas. My example of the under type below:

Antigonos II Gonatas

Amphipolis, circa 271-239 BC. Head of Herakles right wearing lion skin headdress / Β-Α, rider on horse walking right, with raised hand in salute, monogram below, wreath to right. SNG Alpha Bank 993. 5.07g, 16mm, 1h.

Very Fine.

Which then begs the question, what did Boeotia have against Gonatas?

The dating appears to show that these coins were struck after the grandson of Antigonos Monophthalmus and son of Demetrius Poliorcetes, was dead, 239 BCE.  So is the more appropriate question, why did they have all these bronze Gonatas coins lying around?

Anyways, here are a few more over struck ancients.

Here are shield coins of Philip Arrhidaios that Kassander "recycled" in the name of snuffing out the Argead line:

The type Kassander was striking over:

Here's a strange little one that you can call both a countermark and a overstrike:

And here's the much more rare version without the overstrike:

★ Rare ★

(11.92g 26mm Bronze) LYDIA, Sardes. Germanicus and Drusus, Caesares. 23-26 AD. AE Asinius Pollio, Proconsul.

Togate figures of Drusus and Germanicus seated left on curule chairs,

Rev.ΔΡOΥΣOΣ KAI ΓEΡMANIKOΣ KAIΣAΡEΣ NEOI ΘEOI ΦIΛAΔEΛΦOI around KOINOΥ AΣIAΣ in two lines within wreath; ΓAIΩ AΣINNIΩ ΠOΛΛIΩNI ANΘΥΠATΩ around.

RPC I 2995

And here Heraclius overstrikes, one over a Phocas:

 

Thanks for taking a look with me.

We'd all love to read your theories and see your overstruck ancients!

[Nerosmyfavorite68]

Wow, it is kind of delightfully creepy.  Cool addition!

A low-grade MSC was my co-first coin.

Here's the first one which comes to mind.  Misattributed as a Constans II from Syracuse, it's a Phocas (overstruck on something else), with a failed S805 on top of that.

[Roman Collector]

What a cool coin, @Ryro! It interesting that all the specimens you've seen are overstrikes, too. Informative and entertaining write-up, as always!

I have only one overstrike in my collection.
 

Faustina Sr, 138-140 CE.
Roman AR denarius. 3.83 g, 18.2 mm.
Rome, 150 CE.
Obv: DIVA FAVSTINA, draped bust, right.
Rev: AETERNITAS, Fortuna standing left, holding globe and rudder.
Refs: RIC 348; BMCRE 360; Cohen 6; RCV 4577; CRE 96.
Note: Overstruck on previous issue, perhaps a CONCORDIA seated issue of Sabina.

If I rotate the reverse 90 degrees counterclockwise, you can see a throne and what is likely a cornucopiae beneath it. Coming down from Fortuna's face is a roughly spiral-shaped vertical object I think is a goddess's shin:

I postulate it was a CONCORDIA AVG issue of Sabina:

 

[taja1948]

Bagadat overstrike, possibly struck on Seleucus I SC 173

 

SC 173 Seleucus I Susa.docx

[Sulla80]

Great overstrikes @Ryro - this one is a fairly common overstrike Mysia Kyzikos over Kyzikos - the face of Kore still visible under the prow and the oak wreath strengthened by the bull underneath.

MYSIA. Kyzikos. 3rd century BC. AE. Prow to right. Rev. K-Y/Z-I Boukranion; all within oak wreath. SNG Paris 438. Von Fritze III, 11. Overstruck on an earlier issue from Kyzikos of the ‘Kore Soteira/Bull butting left’ type (SNG Paris 436).

[Nerosmyfavorite68]

An extremely failed overstrike, S 1867 over 1866.

[-monolith-]

Here are some of my overstrikes. I plan on doing a future post detailing each coin with it's base coin. 

 

[mc9]

This one came in today. A strange looking Gordianus. I think this is an overstrike. Looking at 3 o'clock under the S T there is something like a stick with pearls and near the right leg i see 2 other short legs. No idea what happend with the head of Gordianus.

[PeteB]

KINGS of THRACE. Seuthes III, king of the Odrysai. Circa 323-316 BC. Æ (29mm, 5.84 gm, 12h). Obv: Laureate head of Zeus right. Rev: Horseman riding right; star below left leg of horse. Overstruck on a coin of Alexander III, club, bow and quiver reverse type, obliterating rider here. Peter p. 182; Topalov 116; Dimitrov group B; SNG Copenhagen 1073