A coin friend of mine recently sent me this rather puzzling coin, apparently from Ankyra,
Galatia.
The
obverse shows the
radiate,
cuirassed bust of
Elagabalus and is near as dammit a die match for
Elagabalus,
SNG France III, 2531 (
Tyche seated
reverse).
The problem
comes with the
reverse legend, "
CEB TEK MHT ANKY" around, then three letters in the
exergue which resemble a Latin L, then an A or Lambda, then an Epsilon, not RAC as one would expect for ANKYRAC. The first of those letters is definitely not a Rho and the third is clearly an Epsilon. These three letters in the
exergue do not correspond with the usual -RAC, as one would expect for ANKYRAC. The first of those letters is definitely *not* a Rho and the third is clearly an Epsilon.
As far as all my books, lists, pdfs etc. go, including all of
Arslan's wonderful articles and
catalog of the coinage of Ankyra, only the Severans used the "
CEB TEK"
part of the
reverse legend. My
Isegrim xls file lists only three - one for
Geta (
Artemis,
Arslan Ancyra B100); one for Sept.
Severus (
Asklepios,
SNG France III, 2467) and one for
Caracalla (longer
obv. legend,
Tyche, wwxls 41267;
CNG auction 91, Lot 565, Sept. 2012). All these have the
rev. legend "
CEB TEK MHT ANKYRAC".
If you zoom in, you can see that the letters at top right of the
obverse appear to have been overcut. The first N of ANTWN.. resembles an M. Immediately after that are the remains of an Epsilon. The next letter ("I") is over yet another N - (the \
part of that N is visible before the N of NOC).
There are also traces of smaller letters around the outermost edge of the
reverse. I can see TV at top left, for example.
The brassy material is highly unusual for coins of
Galatia, which are usually of
good quality bronze.
The three letters in the
exergue appear to be LAE, not RAC as one would expect for ANKYRAC. The first of those letters is definitely not a Rho and the third is clearly an Epsilon.
It is in any case not in any of the lists, catalogs, pdfs and books in my massive
collection, including
BMC,
SNG Cop,
SNG France,
Arslan's Ankyra
catalog, various articles about Ankyra coinage by
Arslan,
Rhousopoulos, Imhoof, Naury Bey,
Mionnet V and Supp
VII,
Paris, various
SNG Turkey volumes, the Cankirikapi
hoard (the largest
hoard of Ankyra coins known to date), Righetti coll,
SNG Righetti etc etc.
I have a feeling that, because of the above, this is possibly an imitation. What do y'all think ?
Fake Coins and Notorious Fake Sellers
