Here is a coin I asked about fifteen years ago before my hiatus, a strange
overstruck coin, and I understandably only got some general guesses as to what it might be. I’m not giving up on it, and I think I’ve found a new and very fruitful line of attack.
I’ve learned of the
Celtic Strymon/Trident coinage from the late 2nd/early 1st c. BC, always
overstruck on plundered Macedonian coins, and imitating a Macedonian original of Philip V or
Perseus showing the
river god Strymon and a Trident
reverse (sometimes ornate and nearly like the original; sometimes crude). I could be barking up the wrong tree, but it seems reasonable to me.
The question is whether I can narrow down what coin it
overstruck. In hand, the coin is black, 20 by 25mm, and 6.7g, distorted, stretched, and cracked by the
overstrike. Last time I thought the
obverse might be a helmeted
Athena, but now, focusing on Macedonian coins of that period, could there be a resemblance to some helmeted
Alexander IIIs (seeing either some design or hair under the apparent helmet crest), or does that detail come from the Strymon
overstrike?
On the
reverse, you see the large, plain trident. But it almost looks like it was triple struck (at least). In the lower right there are
horse’s
hind legs (that I thought could be a
pegasus flying left when I was focusing on
Athena and
Corinth, but haven’t found that
reverse in the right time and place). Lower middle kind of looks like a stick figure soldier holding a spear. But I think the “spear” could be an
exergue line with a slanted Σ beneath (left) of it. At the upper middle I see a wheel? (
Circle with four spokes). Also a couple >s at the right edge on the tip of the trident (only one seems visible in the photo).
Even if you can’t
help me with the understrike, just letting me know if I’m on the right track with the
Celtic plunder coins would give me something to put on the coin label.
Thanks in advance.