Of course, that make much more sense. Thank you for clearing that up. I'm updating the description accordingly.
Regards,
EB
Indeed,
part of a
thunderbolt wing end seems to be visible near the
head of the
lion.
Syracuse recycled several bronze coin
types and many overstrikes have traces of 'thunderbolt' undertypes. A
bit mysterious that the Soteira/thunderbolt
type with Agathocles name right on it became re-struck as the Heracles/lion
type that is also said to be an issue of Agathocles. The more mysterious
that, as organized in
SNG ANS 'Syracuse', both
types are from the same brief 6-year period near the end of Agathocles reign. Why not just
countermark the 'name' coins ... unless... re-striking deliberately removed the name? The Soteira/thunderbolt
types do not mention 'Syracuse' on them while the subsequent
types do - suggesting the former is 'personal coinage' and the latter might be 'city coinage'. Many original and
overstruck examples are very common today, giving us
plenty of material for study.
The
overstrike phenomenon in Greek
numismatics is so important; sometimes the only physical evidence of temporal succession of coin
types comes from overstrikes. Mac's book is *the* resource on the topic. Can't recommend it enough:
Overstruck Greek Coins by David
MacDonald, published by
Whitman.
PtolemAE