Any hope with this worn 30mm coin?

[saholz]

This heavy 30mm sestersus is badly worn and shows some corrosion.  The obverse is a bust facing right, the reverse is a standing figure facing left.  The few remaining letters of the rear legend are too obscure for me to recognize.  Does anyone recognize this coin?  Any help would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks.

Stan

[featherz]

Elagabalus provincial, most likely moesia (Nikopolis ad istrum or Markianopolis), Demeter standing left on reverse. Maybe auto can piece out more of the legend for you, but I just woke up and my eyes are still fuzzy.

Here's a similar coin, but from Severus Alexander:

[Automan]

I'm practically 100% sure that the coin is from Philippopolis in Thrace! Two reasons, on the rev I think I can read "...POLEOC" which rules out Nikopolis and Markianopolis, and makes Philippopolis the prime suspect. Also I think I can read "NE" after  "POLEOC" which is the beginning of Neokoron, a title which Philippopolis held. The second reason is the portrait style, which very much matches an Ela from this city that I happen to own. So, 100 to 1 that it's from Philipppolis...

Auto

[featherz]

Yep, I had also briefly thought of phil-portrait style is similar, but I couldn't read the legend at all right when I woke up with my usual bleary eyes  . So that sounds like a plan to me!

(now figure out MY Ugly coin! )

[saholz]

Just amazing.  I spent hours looking through every portrait in Sears and Van Meter and couldn't come up with anything even close.  I'm surprised you could get that much out of the reverse legend.  Well done!

I've got two more sestersii that have defied attribution and will post them soon.  If you guys can ID those I will be totally humbled....I bow to your superior intellect.  (Ala Ben Stein).

Thanks again.

Stan

[featherz]

Sear (assuming you mean the Roman coin edition) and Van Meter won't help much here as it's a provincial (greek imperial) coin, not a roman sestertius.
Sear's Greek Imperial book can be very helpful -- even though it only has a coin or two from each city it can help a bit to narrow it down.

This one was easy to narrow down to at least Elagabalus, as he has that typical chipmunk cheek look here.


Heather

[Automan]

I should perhaps also point out that the coin is not a sestertius, it's a 4 assaria. Only Moesia superior used the Roman nominal system, not Moesia Inferior or Thrace.

Auto