Hello all,
I bought a "
Byzantine" coin from a website that sold mostly
Roman and some
Greek coins, the
Byzantine coins, like the rest, were not selectable. Fast postage though. Anyway, this coin arrived today, it looked like a
Byzantine "
cup" coin, though there were no discernable
Byzantine marks, such as an emperor.
I soaked the coin in a mix of lemon juice and vinegar. In the evening I brushed it up, gradually revealing what markings there were.
Most striking, excuse the pun, was the
obverse with the overstrikes in Latin numerals. And after a final clean at night the coin seems to be showing all it has, and it is clear there is an Arabic
inscription on the
reverse side.
This is what I can make out so far...
Obverse: Three counter marks/ overstrikes "B" over "IIII", "dot" over "VI" and "II"
Reverse: ﮐﺭ___و
In the photos I have circled out in crimson
red, breaks or punctures in the coin. It seems the coin was not originally made to have these faults and they are the result of it being
overstruck.
If it was a
Byzantine coin originally it might be a legacy of the Crusades bearing the marks of the Latins and the Saracens.