Show your bizarre coins

[expat]

For a bit of fun show your coins, tokens, medals with a bizarre image. Again, age or country is not important, just weird.

To start off, this image is the frontispiece of his book called Simplicius Simplicissimus, written in 1668 and which at the time was a bestseller. Anyone interested in an amazing character, read here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simplicius_Simplicissimus

 

 

[Ryro]

As one who has always been drawn to the Strange....

This coin was minted by Vlad the Impaler's (Dracula's) grandpa:

Poor hogsmouth. His life sounded miserable. Though that's what generations of inbreeding will do:

An Arab with a freshly severed Christian's head!

Bes has been around since the old kingdoms of Egypt. Dudes both a freak and he and his wife are God's of the freaky deaky:

Whatever creatures that inspired the Celts to mint this coin is nightmare fodder:

 Of course a wheel of human legs *triskeles might've seemed normal to the Greeks... but it's not:

And lastly, I just really love the way the griffin on this type looks more like a certain modern monster that rhymes with shmodshmila:

 

I hope we get more word coins up in here. I really like this theme🥸

[expat]

6 minutes ago, Ryro said:

As one who has always been drawn to the Strange....

This coin was minted by Vlad the Impaler's (Dracula's) grandpa:

Poor hogsmouth. His life sounded miserable. Though that's what generations of inbreeding will do:

An Arab with a freshly severed Christian's head!

Bes has been around since the old kingdoms of Egypt. Dudes both a freak and he and his wife are God's of the freaky deaky:

Whatever creatures that inspired the Celts to mint this coin is nightmare fodder:

 Of course a wheel of human legs *triskeles might've seemed normal to the Greeks... but it's not:

And lastly, I just really love the way the griffin on this type looks more like a certain modern monster that rhymes with shmodshmila:

 

I hope we get more word coins up in here. I really like this theme🥸

Yep I am drawn to weird also. You have some great ones there

[Ronalovich]

Here's a bizarre Aurelian trachy. It looks like you can see the remnants of the reverse's bead border, but I can't even start to identify what the reverse was.

[Furryfrog02]

53 minutes ago, expat said:

For a bit of fun show your coins, tokens, medals with a bizarre image. Again, age or country is not important, just weird.

To start off, this image is the frontispiece of his book called Simplicius Simplicissimus, written in 1668 and which at the time was a bestseller. Anyone interested in an amazing character, read here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simplicius_Simplicissimus

 

 

This is one of my favorite German commems.

[Furryfrog02]

Just now, Ronalovich said:

Here's a bizarre Aurelian trachy. It looks like you can see the remnants of the reverse's bead border, but I can't even start to identify what the reverse was.

Why? Was it mistruck?

[Ed Snible]

Egyptian commemoratives can be very interesting.

Egypt 1406 (1986) ١٩٨٦, 5 Pounds, Silver (.720), 17.5g, 37.1mm
Obverse: inscription, atomic symbol, two facing ancient Egyptian figures (representing Sema Towy) with the torso shown frontally but head and legs to the side.
Reverse: جمهوريه مصر العربيه (Arab Republic of Egypt.)
KM# 615, numista
Non circulating issue / Commemorative issue
mintage 5000
30th Anniversary of the (Egyptian) Atomic Energy Organization.

Sema Towy was an ancient Egyptian scene symbolizing the union of upper and lower Egypt. depicted by knotted papyrus and reed plants. The binding motif represents both harmony through linkage and domination through containment.   (Ancient Egyptian alchemy represents atomic power.)

Cairo first declared its intention to build a plant at Dabaa in 1983 under President Hosni Mubarak, and the Australian government agreed to provide uranium two years later. These plans were canceled following the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. The plant was never built.

[Ronalovich]

6 minutes ago, Furryfrog02 said:

Why? Was it mistruck?

Definitely, it must have been some bizarre minting error.

[TheTrachyEnjoyer]

13 minutes ago, Ronalovich said:

Definitely, it must have been some bizarre minting error.

Seems impossible. You cant strike a scyphate coin with flat dies or vice versa. As the US collectors would say, this is “PMD”

[Ronalovich]

2 minutes ago, TheTrachyEnjoyer said:

Seems impossible. You cant strike a scyphate coin with flat dies or vice versa. As the US collectors would say, this is “PMD”

Thanks for the correction! You definitely are a scyphate coin enjoyer.

[TheTrachyEnjoyer]

 

I had a similar coin. This is a solidus of Maurice Tiberius which is scyphate for whatever reason. If I remember correctly, it was @dougsmitwho educated me how modern jewelers could do something similar. I sent to CNG for authentication and they determined it as fake. I returned it shortly thereafter 😐 

[Furryfrog02]

6 minutes ago, TheTrachyEnjoyer said:

Seems impossible. You cant strike a scyphate coin with flat dies or vice versa. As the US collectors would say, this is “PMD”

But how?
Did someone take the coin and beat it into a cup shape well after it was minted? Would there be a reason for it or just someone just being destructive like today's PMD?

[TheTrachyEnjoyer]

1 minute ago, Furryfrog02 said:

But how?
Did someone take the coin and beat it into a cup shape well after it was minted? Would there be a reason for it or just someone just being destructive like today's PMD?

Jewelry. Perhaps it was aesthetic? Either way, there is no way it was done at the mint and sadly no evidence it was done in antiquity.

[Furryfrog02]

1 minute ago, TheTrachyEnjoyer said:

Jewelry. Perhaps it was aesthetic? Either way, there is no way it was done at the mint and sadly no evidence it was done in antiquity.

Didn't thing about jewelry! Shame there is no way to tell when it was done. Just like most PMD on modern coins. Usually someone who is bored and has access to the "tools" to do the job.

[TheTrachyEnjoyer]

Does this count as a wacky coin? The emperor and Saint Demetrius are holding an unsheathed sword by the blade (ouch)! From above, the hand of God blesses them. Kids, don’t try this at home. All Byzantine emperors are trained professionals 

Edited May 28, 2022 by TheTrachyEnjoyer

[Furryfrog02]

1 minute ago, TheTrachyEnjoyer said:

Does this count as a wacky coin? The emperor and Saint Demetrius are holding an unsheathed sword by the blade (ouch)! From above, the hand of God blesses them. Kids, don’t try this at home. All Byzantine emperors are trained professionals 

Those are cool! I've never seen that before. 
Granted, I have maybe 5-10 trachys so my experience is limited. 

[velarfricative]

Uniface silver horse unit from Samarqand; this one's 1.12g. Hilariously, this is in origin an imitation of Antiochos I's famous horse drachms; they were issued for such a long period of time that the obverse got totally obliterated and all that was left was some abstract horse shape.

Edited May 29, 2022 by velarfricative

[noname]

I have two abnormally overweight antoninianii, which I find interesting. The Gordian III is 6.55 grams, and the Tetricus I is 5.97 grams. Most Gordian III ants range between 3.5-4.5 grams, and most Tetricus I ants are around or under 3 grams.

Gordian III

AR Antoninianus

240 CE Rome mint

IMP GORDIANVS PIVS FEL AVG, Bust of Gordian III, radiate, draped, cuirassed, right

VIRTVS AVG, Virtus, helmeted, in military attire, standing front, head left, holding branch in right hand and spear in left hand; against right side, shield resting

24mm, 6.55 grams

RIC IV(III) 71, RSC 338

---

Tetricus

AE Antoninianus

271-274 CE

Cologne mint

IMP TETRICVS P F AVG, Bust of Tetricus I, radiate, cuirassed, right

LAETITIA AVGG, Laetitia, draped, standing left, holding wreath in right hand and anchor in left hand

21mm, 5.97 grams

RIC V Tetricus I 88

[expat]

My appreciation for all the great posts. Sadly, the world time zones didn't allow me to enjoy them as they were posted. Thanks for sharing everyone

[UkrainiiVityaz]

Casting spurs that were never removed from the blank flan:

This coin is a hemi litron from ca. 405-395 BCE. Curiously this is a cast piece, and the casting spur was never removed from the coin, making for a very dramatically formed coin which probably did not circulate for long, but may have been saved as a curiousity or perhaps never circulated at all. This piece has a portrait of Arethusa on the obverse and a dolphin and clam shell on the reverse.

 

 

Circa 410 BC. Hemilitron (3.21 gm; 18 mm x 14 mm). Head of Arethusa left, hair in ampyx and sphendone, in field right, laurel twig; whole in linear circle / ΣΥΡΑ Dolphin right, below, pecten. Calciati II, 55, 24. SNG ANS 418. This piece, though unsigned, may have been created by one of the greats of Syracuse minting, as it displays superior skills in artistic approach and engraving.

[UkrainiiVityaz]

A winged thunderbolt:

 

This hemi-litron was issued during the reign of Agathokles from ca. 317-289 BC and portrays an image of Artemis or Diana, the Goddess of War -notice her quiver of arrows behind her neck. The legend Soteira translates as "saviour" The winged thunderbolt on the reverse with the monarchs' Agathokles name and title is a famous design.

[Kamnaskires]

Here's a used-to-own coin (a Phraates II tet from Parthia - since sold off), with my favorite bit of bizarreness from ancient numismatics. I wrote about it some years ago at that other place that most of us recently migrated from.

 

My former coin (and my photography), above, don't quite do the bizarreness justice, so here are a couple spotted online that make the oddity clearer. Take a good look at the renditions of Tyche...a detail is provided to assist.

As Vesta Sarkhosh Curtis points out in Religious Iconography on Ancient Iranian Coins, "The religious iconography of the Hellenistic Tyche figure was clearly unfamiliar to the Arsacid court and the (Parthian) die engraver at the end of the second century BC, as otherwise the attributes of a female goddess would not have been used for a clearly male figure."

As CNG states it, "The god depicted on the reverse of these tetradrachms appears on no other Parthian coin, and apparently nowhere else...Such a representation of a transgender pantheistic deity is very unusual in ancient art. One wonders if the artist...simply misunderstood the types he was copying."
https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=131058

 

The Parthians had supplanted the Seleukids in that part of Western Asia and, at least early on, tried to copy the regional Greek archetypes for the coinage. The Parthian engravers working on these early tets were no doubt referencing Seleukid coin reverses like the Tyches of Demetrios I Soter and the Zeuses of Alexander I Balas. Whether they intended a mash-up, or whether what resulted was, as CNG suggests, based on a misunderstanding - who knows? But it is bizarre!

 

Edited May 31, 2022 by Kamnaskires

[Ryro]

2 hours ago, UkrainiiVityaz said:

Casting spurs that were never removed from the blank flan:

This coin is a hemi litron from ca. 405-395 BCE. Curiously this is a cast piece, and the casting spur was never removed from the coin, making for a very dramatically formed coin which probably did not circulate for long, but may have been saved as a curiousity or perhaps never circulated at all. This piece has a portrait of Arethusa on the obverse and a dolphin and clam shell on the reverse.

 

 

Circa 410 BC. Hemilitron (3.21 gm; 18 mm x 14 mm). Head of Arethusa left, hair in ampyx and sphendone, in field right, laurel twig; whole in linear circle / ΣΥΡΑ Dolphin right, below, pecten. Calciati II, 55, 24. SNG ANS 418. This piece, though unsigned, may have been created by one of the greats of Syracuse minting, as it displays superior skills in artistic approach and engraving.

I'm in love!

I, I, I mean, 

 

I literally received a warning on a prior site that rhymes with schmoin schmock for referring to a spur as having a nipple... which it did! They just jumped right to thinking I was talking about lady lumps. 

Anyways, the 🪙 I'd mentioned:

 

And it's upgrade:

Edited May 31, 2022 by Ryro
Love

[Alegandron]

LAKSHMI


Sri Lanka, excavated in Anuradhapura
Anonymous, 1st C. BCE
PB 1/8 Lakshmi
1.1g, 14.1mm x 7.8mm
RARE
OBV: Hindu Goddess Lakshmi facing. She is the goddess of wealth, fortune, and prosperity. She was a beauty and the wife of Vishnu
REV: (blank)
Comment: "Lakshmi (Sanskrit: लक्ष्मी, lakṣmī,ˈləkʂmiː) is the Hindu goddess of wealth, fortune and prosperity. She is the wife and shakti(energy) of Vishnu, a major god in Hinduism.[2] Lakshmi is also an important deity in Jainism and found in Jain temples.[3] Lakshmi was also a goddess of abundance and fortune for Buddhists, and was represented on the oldest surviving stupas and cave temples of Buddhism.[4][5] In Buddhist sects of Tibet, Nepal and southeast Asia, goddess Vasudharamirrors the characteristics and attributes of the Hindu goddess Lakshmi with minor iconographic differences." -Wikipedia.org

[Severus Alexander]

On 5/28/2022 at 7:21 PM, velarfricative said:

Uniface silver horse unit from Samarqand; this one's 1.12g. Hilariously, this is in origin an imitation of Antiochos I's famous horse drachms; they were issued for such a long period of time that the obverse got totally obliterated and all that was left was some abstract horse shape.

Here's a slightly earlier version with rather more realism:

1 hour ago, Kamnaskires said:

OMG that is so awesome!!!

Some coins that came to mind include my Gallienus Salus-beard flip-over double strike:

For imagery, the child-eating dragon of the Visconti (called a "biscione" and still featured on the Alfa Romeo logo) fits the bill I think:

(The coin is a grosso of Gian Galeazzo Visconti, 1395-1402)

A Lilavati (1197-1212, Sri Lanka):

How about Julius Caesar on a coin from the 12th century?!?

Details: FRANCE, Sancerre: Etienne (Stephen) I (1152-1191), AR denier. 0.8g, 20mm.
Obv: IVLIVS CESAR, Mitred and bearded head of Julius Caesar right
Rev: STEPANVS COMES, Short cross pattée; pellets in lower quarters. 
Dupl. Féodales 641.
From the @Orfew collection.

One Romanus IV anonymous follis overstruck on another, showing Mary emerging from the head of Christ, like Zeus--Athena:

Some Merovingian portraits are pretty bad, but this fourrée chicken head takes the cake:

What the heck happened here?? 🥴