Don't yet have this one in hand.
29mm and 10.68 grams.
There appears to be a clear punch in the center of the coin but cant make out details. Sellers indicate this may be a helmet but I don't see it. At any rate, I don't recall ever seeing countermarks on these types. Two questions.
1) Can someone ID the coin
2) Can someone ID the countermark...or even confirm it is indeed a countermark.
Thanks in advance.
- Javier
Javier
Very very nice. This, from
style,
fabric, design of the prow etc. is certainly a semuncial as from 90 BC or thereabouts. If there is no lettering above the prow, then it is
Crawford 339/1, anonymous as. It is equally possible that it is an as of D. Silanus
Crawford 337/5, as they have the same
style, or possibly L.P.D.A.P,
Crawford 338/1 (
Lex Papiria de Assis Pondere). I show all three
types below for comparison: NB the
reverse prows vary randomly in small design details, but the same engravers worked on all issues so it could be any of the three unless you can see lettering above.
As to what the
countermark or other mark is, I suspect this may be a double strike or probably even an
overstrike. That would make it a very interesting coin because overstrikes are almost unknown in this era. As it happens, I have an
overstrike of this
type (either 337/7, 338/1 or 339/1) over a
semis, see beow, so it is possible, though
rare.
I also recall seeing one time an as of these
types with a circular
countermark, but the
countermark was much more obvious than on your coin, where I feel sure that the mark is a relic of something underneath rather than something over it.
But if in hand you think it is a
countermark on, rather than an understrike under, then let is know.