North African or Asian AE overstricke?- Obverse-? Re-Winged Diety(Nike)?

[basher_boy]

Thank you for the help on the coin yesterday.

https://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=97517.0

I have been looking at four or five coins for several months that have me stumped.  #1, above, was easy for you guys.  My hope is at least one will be hard enough to warrant my requests for assistance.

I have been working on a box of "greek" coins my late father had stashed away.  Some my father or grandfather had attributed, many they had not, many incorrectly, but I can't blame them it must have been super hard before the internet.  These coins were almost certainly from my grandfather who was a civil engineer all through Europe and Africa in the 1910 and 1930s.  Most of the coins were found on the job site but some were bought in Vienna when he retired in the 30's.

Here is 2 of 3 of my stumps

It is a bronze 12.4 grams 26.2mm  Looks Roman to me on the obverse with some writing but is too worn to be obvious to me.
The reverse has a phonetician/Egyptian looking character on one knee with wings behind and at the feet.

The more I look at it I think it is some type of overstrike, becasue the style of the obverse and reverse are so dissimilar.  The coin is also among a bunch (6) Ptolemaic coins.

The only attribution I have is "similar to LEU 6-300."  I can't find that catalog in the boxes of ancient coin cataloges I have which is the mentioned on many of the coins.

Thanks again for the expertise.

[Pscipio]

Your coin is from Melita, nowadays known as Malta. A rare and desirable type!

http://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=1215344

Lars

[basher_boy]

Lars,

How did you get that so quickly, did you just know, or is it the way you searched for it?  Since I don't know I tend to search for elements that I can identify.  If that fails I just start searching. I have make it through 6-12 coins a night off and on for the last 12 months.

Thanks again
Sebastian

Less than five minutes, whew.

[Manzikert]

It's just one of those things one gets to know: if it has Egyptian-style gods on it, often without a visible legend (and sometimes in Punic script if one is visible) it will almost certainly be Melita.

Now you've found that out, have a look at Wildwinds http://www.wildwinds.com/coins/greece/sicily/melita/i.html and you will quickly get used to the style, and will probably recognise the next one you see in much less than five minutes. In fact, the one at the top of that page is your coin, Sear 6588

Best wishes

Alan

[djmacdo]

The best way to get to know coins is look at lots of pictures in many books.  Many of the classic catalogues of the great collections are available on cd for a few dollars, essentially for pennies a book, I would suggest that is a way to build a library on coins that would have cost you thousands of dollars a few years ago.

[Meepzorp]

Hi basher,

Coins minted in Malta are unique and easily identifiable. As previous posters in this thread mentioned, when you see an Egyptian-style head on the obverse and a winged figure on the reverse, it usually means that it was minted in Malta, especially if it is that type of style.

I knew it was a Malta coin within half a second of looking at it. It is something that just comes with experience.

As the previous posters in this thread mentioned, you should look at photos in many books. It is a good idea to study auction catalogs, which are usually free once you have gotten on that dealer's mailing list. After a while, you will just develop a "feel" for where coins were minted. That's what I did in my early years of collecting. Of course, most people didn't have internet access back then, including myself.

Meepzorp