King Philip II AE Units: Horseman reverse

[peterpil19]

Dear All,

As I have previously shared, I have a particular fondness for coins of this type. They were some of the first ancient Greek coins I owned.  Also, I perceive that they are often overlooked and too often sold without being fully attributed.

In this thread, I will share coins of this type from my collection which I particularly like and which merit Coin of the Day status.

Peter


First coin:

Philip II; Macedon, uncertain mint; AE19; 359-336; Young male head, hair bound with taenia, facing left; ΦΙΛΙΠΠΟΥ, Naked youthful horseman advancing right: goat's head control mark beneath horse; 18.75mm, 6.0g, 4h; Choice gVF, boldly struck, reverse slightly off centre, attractive light green patina, smooth surfaces, light scrapes; SNG ANS 876; Drama 37; HGC 3, 884; SGCV II 6699 var. (control mark); SNG Copenhagen -; SNG München -; SNG Alpha Bank -

[ickster]

Is that control mark an ear of grain?

Nice coin. I too like these coins.

[peterpil19]

Thanks,

I'm fairly confident it is a goat's head. The previous two auction firms which previously sold this coin also identified it such. I still carefully check attributions for these coins against as many published examples as I can find because it is easy to make an error in interpreting some of these control marks. By way of example, I have one which I am convinced is a bucranium, but the seller I bought it from thought it was a bunch of grapes.

Peter

[Randygeki(h2)]

It's a very nice example!

[peterpil19]

Thanks Randy!

Peter

[stevex6]

very cool coin, congrats Peter

=> yah, I'm pretty sure that your left-facing face is a bit more rare/scarce than my right-facing example ... but that's never stopped me from posing-down, so here is my mighty-righty!

cheers

[peterpil19]

Very nice Steve!

The spearhead control mark is one of my favourites!

Peter

[okidoki]

very nice Peter and Steve 

[peterpil19]

Thanks Okidoki 

Peter

[peterpil19]

Here's my coin with the spearhead control mark. I like this one especially because of most of the dotted border on the obverse made it onto the flan!

Philip II; Macedon, uncertain mint; AE19; 359-336 BC; Young male head, hair bound with taenia, facing right / ΦΙΛΙΠΠΟΥ, Naked youthful horseman advancing right; Spearhead control mark beneath horse; 19.35mm, 7.5g, 10h; Choice gVF, well struck, wide flan, high relief, attractive dark green patina with yellow highlights; SNG ANS 850-851; SNG Alpha Bank 355; SNG Copenhagen 602; SNG München 150-155; SNG Saroglos 76; SNG Manchester 643; Drama 23; Müller 173; Mionnet 750; BMC Online THO.588; HGC 3, 882; SGCV II 6696-6698 var. (control mark); SNG Saroglos -

Peter

[stevex6]

yup, that's another total winner (congrats)

 

  -  

[peterpil19]

Thanks Steve

Peter

[stevex6]

No problemo, Peter

Hey, am I also allowed to post one of my big, silver beauties?

Philip II AR tetradrachm
Date: 336-328 BC
Diameter: 23.9 mm.
Weight: 14.0 gr.
Obverse: Laureate head of Zeus.
Reverse: Youth on horse, holding palm; club below.
References: Cf. Le Rider 379 (Pella mint)
Other: Lovely style, deep toning ... yummy-yummy

Awww, crap ... the date might be wrong on this baby (or maybe this isn't the same dude?) ... or everything may be good?

=> yah, I'm awesome at buying and adoring my coins, but I'm the first to admit that I am a bit shy on actually researching the skinny associated with my coins (my bad)

... but OMG, this coins feels sooooo good in-hand (and wow, it has such amazing toning => it's not its fault that the owner is such a dope)

=> please put your hands together for "Steroid Horse"!!!

[peterpil19]

That is one buff horse!

The die-engraver must have been a gym-junkie!

Thanks for sharing.

I ordered a Philip II tetradrachm recently and looking forward to it arriving in the post.

Peter

[peterpil19]

Here is one with the "prow" reverse.

The obverse is nothing much to look at - struck well off centre.
But the prow control mark is one of the best I have seen. For such a tiny control mark it clearly looks like what it is meant to (not often the case in this series!).

Ref: SNG ANS 854; SNG Copenhagen 609; SNG Alpha Bank 365; SNG München 156-157; Drama 26; Müller 185; HGC 3, 882; SGCV II 6696-6698 var. (control mark); SNG Saroglos -

[n.igma]

This one was found in Pakistan, over 3,000 miles from Macedonia!

https://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-115223

[ickster]

I figured I take a quick  look around at more examples of these on the net.  Most have the horse and bust going to the right, fewer have horse and bust left, while the coin the OP posted seems rare with bust left and horse right.

My example is opposite this with bust right and horse & rider left. Is my observation correct in that opposite bust/horse & rider combo's are more scarce?

[peterpil19]

Nice example n.igma!

Thanks for sharing - out of interest, how did you know where it was found?


ickster,

Yes in the sense that most of the types are head right / horserider right. Most of the types in the Drama hoard are of this kind.

But that is only a general observation:

1. There are plenty of right / right types with control marks which I cannot find for sale anywhere.
2.  There appears to be an abundance of right / left  types with the N control mark. I have several.
3. I have no difficulty in acquiring the left / left ones with the (helios / lion's head / thunderbolt / crab / unknown symbol - depending on the reference you read) control mark.
4. I have also had no difficulty in acquiring the left / right ones with the bull forepart control mark despite vendors often claiming this type is rare.

Peter

[n.igma]

Thanks for sharing - out of interest, how did you know where it was found?

In the past I have been involved in a bit of numismatic research with Pankaj Tandon from whom I acquired the coin. He noted the unusual find location and I have no reason to doubt him. He sourced many of his coins in his virtual museum http://coinindia.com/  from that part of the world.   

[peterpil19]

That's incredible, thanks for sharing!

Unfortunately almost all coins I buy or see for sale, lack information about where they were found.

Peter

[ickster]

Peter,

Thanks for that excellent breakdown. I sounds like you may have a small study ongoing.

[peterpil19]

You are welcome, Ickster,

I would not call it exactly a study, more of an interest!  This interest does involve me scouring all dealer and auction sites for coins in this series so I am developing an instinctive feel for availability of different kinds. Overall I am disappointing that there is not a significant number of these for sale (other than on eBay and mostly in horrible grades).

Out of the many I own, my favourite is the one below. All details are sharp, the (young) portrait of Apollo is of fine style and the patina is stunning.  Compare it to the other 2 examples I own below and you will see why it stands out as an incredible example of its type.

BTW, I bought it right here on FORVM (Joe, please stock some more!!!)

Peter

[stevex6]

JA (John Anthony, a dude that is on CoinTalk) also has a good handle on these types and their relative rarity ... you may want to give him a shout (I remember that he had collected several combinations and I'm sure his info would compliment your info)

Cheers, Peter

[peterpil19]

Thanks Steve,

Great to have you back!

Peter

[RL]

Hi Peter

I have been meaning to contribute to this post for a while and took the opportunity today as I have been playing with developing a photo rig based on your and Doug Smith’s exchange here (https://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=109945.0).

Although I’m still working on it (and my iPhone is only good for so much) the photos are much better than my usual fare so I thought as a thank you for sharing your knowledge (to you and Doug) I thought I would finally get around to sharing my Philip II coins!

A bit of a mixed bag and I’ve never gotten around to fully attributing them. I haven’t quite captured the detail and colouring of the one with the green patina (lighting needs work) but it’s great in hand (probably the most attractive ae in my collection). The one with the off center obverse has a soft spot for me as it was my first Greek ae (not a focus of my collection). The final one with Heracles on the obverse caught my eye recently just because I had never seen a Philip II ae horseman which didn’t feature Apollo. It wasn’t going for much and I had already won a coin off of the vendor in that particular auction so I picked it up on a whim.

I hope they are of interest.

Cheers

RL