very small , is there enough for ID?

[Marvin D]

is there enough of this coin features left for identification? it is a very small coin , dime is used for comparison

[Mark Fox]

Dear Marvin and Board,

Yes, your coin is most certainly identifiable and is a fascinating piece to boot!  It was struck for King Philetaerus of Pergamum (282–263 B.C.), as can clearly be seen by the last six letters of "ΦΙΛΕΤΑΙΡΟΥ," on the reverse between a bowcase and what may be a spearhead.  Here is another specimen, but incorrectly described and therefore most likely misattributed:   

https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=9679184


There are no matches on the Corpus Nummorum website yet, which could be used as further evidence that this wee coin type may be possibly unpublished:
 
https://www.corpus-nummorum.eu/mysia/search/coins?type=quicksearch&q=Pergamon+Athena&diameter_min=7&diameter_max=14

A great find!


Best regards,

Mark Fox
Michigan

[Marvin D]

i am realitively new to collecting ancient roman and greek coins. i am trying to put a detailed portfolio together of the coins as i acquire them. i do my best to search the coins out on my own, but i am running across several that i can find no details on whatsoever.

those i post here on the forum , hoping someone is able to identify them for me. 

you mentioned, my coin might be "unpublished". what exactly does that mean?

[Mark Fox]

Dear Marvin,

By "unpublished," I mean it is a coin type (or variety) still largely unknown to numismatics, not yet published in the current literature (such as a coin catalog) or academic databases (such as Corpus Nummorum, RPC Online, etc.).  Even now, with the flood of new coin types hitting the market, many more remain to be discovered.  This is especially true with Roman provincial coins, but also with very small Greek bronzes such as your piece, which has apparently slipped through numismatic history to the present mostly unobserved, precisely because the coins were so small in size and easily overlooked.         


Best regards,

Mark Fox
Michigan   

[Altamura]

This type in fact has been published in Jérémie Chameroy, "Chronologie und Verbreitung der hellenistischen Bronzeprägungen von Pergamon: der Beitrag der Fundmünzen", Chiron 42, 2012, pp. 131–182: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02451400/document
It is described in the table on page 171 as number 14 and shown on page 174, but there are no more comments about this type.
It seems that this specimen has been found during the excavations and surveys at Pergamon 2006, there are no other references given.

In my eyes the spearhead on the reverse is more likely a club. In any case this type seems to be very rare .

Regards

Altamura