Lysimachus tet unlisted on wildwinds

[Salaethus]

hello,
A Lysimachus tet I bought recently is not listed on wildwinds.  The closest I could find was Tresors 1.51, also with a lion's head in ex.  http://www.wildwinds.com/coins/greece/thrace/kings/lysimachos/Tresors_1-51.jpg  It says the mint is Lysimachia.

This coin was sold as mint: uncertain.


Thanks in advance!

[areich]

It's perfectly normal to not find a coin online, especially if you only search a single site. 'Unlisted on Wildwinds' means nothing.

[Salaethus]

I know, that's why I've come here to ask if anyone has seen a similar coin, or knows more about it than I do. The main question I have is where it was minted- is the lion's head in the exergue the control symbol for Lysimachia?  I've seen that a crescent there means it was minted in Lampsacus.

[areich]

If I was you, I'd look on acsearch.info.

[Salaethus]

Thanks areich!  I'm surprised I haven't stumbled across that site before.  The layout is actually a lot more user-friendly than wildwinds.

[areich]

It's also more reliable. Wildwinds data comes from Ebay (though it is checked somewhat), acsearch.info from auctions. There you can judge for yourself who to believe when you find different information, e.g. for where a coin was minted. Often you'll also find some additional info, some auction houses take a little more time to descibe their coins than others.

[cicerokid]

Also CNG research, since CNG coins do not feature in ac search.  I do find that CNG descriptions are mostly very accurate.

Good hunting!

Cic

[cicerokid]

I found this in CNG research under Lysimachos ( spelling makes a huge difference).

KINGS of THRACE. Lysimachos. 305-281 BC. AR Tetradrachm (26mm, 16.62 g, 12h). Lysimachia mint. Struck 297/6-282/1 BC. Diademed head of the deified Alexander right, with horn of Ammon / Athena Nikephoros seated left, left arm resting on shield, spear behind; monogram to inner left, lion’s head in exergue. Thompson 11; Müller -. Near VF.,



Cic

[Joe Sermarini]

The monogram is not a match and the references are not valid for the coin.

[Salaethus]

After scrolling through countless photos of lysimachos tets, I want to ask, what is the best reference book for these coins? Im wondering what the significance of the item in the exergue is, is it a mint identifier? Same with monogram on the left- is there a consensus on what these mean? Are they the initials of a magistrate, or something else?  Thank you guys for the interest, this forum is really the best resource online!

[rover1.3]

After scrolling through countless photos of lysimachos tets, I want to ask, what is the best reference book for these coins? Im wondering what the significance of the item in the exergue is, is it a mint identifier? Same with monogram on the left- is there a consensus on what these mean? Are they the initials of a magistrate, or something else?  Thank you guys for the interest, this forum is really the best resource online!

Thompson's “The Mints of Lysimachus” (click: Essays Robinson) is the primary reference for this coinage.
These field marks, symbols, letters and monograms are one of the mysteries of Greek coinage.
It is believed they are initials of moneyers, magistrates' names, symbols associated with the magistrates, sequence marks, or even mintmarks sometimes.
Nobody really knows what these monograms, letters or symbols really are and even if we found out an explanation in one case, we wouldn't be able to know about the others.
In general, the subject is extremely complicated; there is not a standard, safe and definite answer to cover it successfully.
Collectors specialized in the type will probably be interested in collecting as many of these various symbols and monograms as possible for the sake of completeness, and dig more into their meaning.
For the collector who simply wants to own one example of the type, these symbols and monograms should not be important to him, in my opinion.

[areich]

I only have Müller "Die Münzen des Thracischen Konigs Lysimacus"(sic).
He says the lion (both head and forepart) must be the symbol of the mint, as it makes no sense that they are Lysimachos' symbol here and the monograms are also found in neighboring Thracian cities.
It's an old reference and not sufficient on its own but it is still used. Your coin is Müller 45:

http://www.acsearch.info/record.html?id=200560

[djmacdo]

Thompson's work only deals with the life-time issues of Lysimachus, and his coinage was continued posthumously for about two centuries, so there are many, many varieties not mentioned by Thompson.  Muleer's work is very old and many of his attributions are little more than wild guesses.  About the best you can do identification of specific issues in look in high quality auction catalogues which are indexed by several of the on-line services, but even then the auction catalogue identifications are sometimes mere speculations.  There is just no really good comprehensive guide to Lysimachus-type tetradrachms.  The Byzantium mint alone, for example, was still making these types, although in wildly different style, down into the first century B.C.!

[Salaethus]

Thanks for the input everyone.  Love to learn new things about my coins.  So it seems like we have a very close match with Müller 45, in fact I think the coin areich posted shares an obverse die with my coin.  The reverse also is very similar style, and has the same monogram and the lion's head in ex. The reverse might actually be a die match as well.  Thanks so much for your help, I'll probably use the Müller identification Lysimacheia mint

[helvetica]

In case the owner is still an active member and now that my Lysimachos/Athena tetradrachms xls Liste (with over 1,300 varieties) is finished (unless new varieties come along), this coin with FL monogram in the left field and lion's head left in the exergue is
Lysimachia   Müller 45; SNG Cop 1130; BM TC,p107.9.Lys.