What dose the edgde / rim tells on this coin?

[Smulan]

Hi there
Trying to increase my understanding on coinage a little. This small coin of mine ha a rather special rim and I guess it tells something on how it was minted etc? One side is a classical owl and the other Athena facing right i think. // Thanks

[shanxi]

Possibliy a Seleucid coin of Alexander Balas with serrated rims, similar to:

https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=4201724

You can read ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ

About serrated coins:

https://www.forumancientcoins.com/numiswiki/view.asp?key=Serrated

[Smulan]

Tanks you! Yes it very similar to that coin except for text in relation to owl. Interesting about the edge, I thought it might be a flaw in moulding process. //My best

[shanxi]

Tanks you! Yes it very similar to that coin except for text in relation to owl.

Maybe the acsearch example wasn't the best choice because it shows only half of the inscription.
The complete inscription is BAΣIΛEΩΣ (in the right field, readable on you coin)  AΛEΞANΔPOY  (in the left field, readable on the acsearch example)

[Altamura]

Here is an example with both lines of the legend: https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8568303q.r=alexandre%20i%20balas%20-argent?rk=1008588;4

And there seem to be ones with engraving errors, here the legend is mirrored: https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b10307653k.r=alexandre%20i%20balas%20-argent?rk=2060096;0
(whereas the owl is looking onto the right direction).

This kind of serration began with coins under Philip V of Macedonia and has been taken over by the Seleucids. It is usually estimated to be a matter of fashion, see e.g. here:
https://books.google.de/books?id=U_5Ez0kAOuIC&pg=PA13&lpg=PA13&dq=seleukids+serrated+coins&source=bl&ots=RoxIStZ90r&sig=TFIsg4CvLF4waoJ7jXSg61AyrKY&hl=de&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjS-cGugcrfAhUG_aQKHbvgBWs4ChDoATABegQICRAB#v=onepage&q=serrated%20&f=false

Regards

Altamura

[Joe Sermarini]

See the NumisWiki serrated page - https://www.forumancientcoins.com/NumisWiki/view.asp?key=Serrated