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Author Topic: Anaximander's Gallery  (Read 20417 times)

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Offline Anaximander

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Anaximander's Gallery: Two Demetrius I Sotor Coins added
« Reply #100 on: January 16, 2022, 11:22:42 am »
I've added a tetradrachm and a bronze of Demetrios I Sotor (162-150 BC) to my Seleukid gallery.
AE20 of Tyre.
AR Tetradrachm (Tyche enthroned) of Antioch.

Offline Ron C2

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Re: Anaximander's Gallery
« Reply #101 on: January 16, 2022, 11:31:53 am »
Nice additions. I really like the nautical reverse on the AE.
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R. Cormier, Ottawa

Offline Anaximander

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A 25 year enigma no more. At last, an attribution.
« Reply #102 on: February 13, 2022, 06:54:16 am »
Before the turn of the millennia, my local coin shop literally gave me this non-descript (literally) coin. A hawk-nosed woman's head, facing right. The reverse looked to be a quadruped, probably a horse.  Literally, heads and tails.

It is bronze-ish, green and encrusted. And it is small: under 11 mm in diameter, at its widest. It weighs just 1.23 gm. It's condition qualifies as "Fine." It not the kind of coin one sets out to buy, unless you're one for 'uncleaned coins.' 

Unsalable, it remained an enigma, until now. As I reached the bottom of the barrel, figuratively speaking, in poring over the coin collection, the little bronze coin resurfaced. A puzzle, unsolved. A lot has changed in the past 25 years. And yet, nothing answered the riddle, not all the reference works, my visits to coin shows, the online viewing of collections and blogs, or the heft of coin catalogs.  Time to fix that.

Under the right light, at certain angles, there was the hint of features unseen in usual viewing. Some identifying features, and some lettering, perhaps?  Under magnification, the key jumped out: isn't that a quiver over the woman's shoulder?  Who in Greek and Roman mythology would have that... but Artemis, goddess of the hunt. Her familiars include stags.

Off to the ancient coin search engine, "AE Artemis stag" where I got a lot of results. Parsing for weight and size, I landed on the answer. Lycia, Bubon. SNG von Aulock 4286.  Too easy? So I thought, so I widened the search, found some alternative attributions (Caria, Amyzon; Lydia, Thyateira), but kept coming back to the same results. I looked for more examples, and I found them.  The search term "stag" pointed to a feature around which there was no consensus. I ultimately found citations of stag, deer, and goat. Best of all, the "goat" appears to be a die-match, with a nice coin grade of Very Fine.  Seeing the examples, I could then manage to see faint lettering of the ethnic, BOY, above the "goat" on my coin, but only when viewed at an angle, in the right light.  I welcome any comments and any confirmation of the von Aulock and Lindgren citations.

UPDATED: Asia Minor. Lycia 2nd-1st C. BC. AE 10 mm (1.23 gm) of Bubon. Draped bust of Artemis right, bow and quiver over shoulder. / Stag standing right. [BOY] above.  Fine.  Gables Coin, c. 1997.  SNG von Aulock 10 (Lykien) 4286; Lindgren III 626; Sear Greek II #5261.  cf. Leu Numismatik Web Auction 16 #1091; Künker 133 #7677.




Offline shanxi

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Re: A 25 year enigma no more. At last, an attribution.
« Reply #103 on: February 13, 2022, 09:35:26 am »
Goat standing right. [BOY] above. 


Although your reference calls the animal on the reverse a goat, I think it is a stag.

The antlers are long (also visible on your coin),  and the body looks more like a stag.

More important is that there are a lot of coins with Artemis from Bubos which clearly show a stag, e.g.:

https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=2223998
https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=8100961
https://tinyurl.com/9h7jytt6
https://tinyurl.com/46mk77ve


even on this coin which Leu calls goat it's clearly a stag

https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=8100960




Offline Altamura

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Re: Anaximander's Gallery
« Reply #104 on: February 13, 2022, 11:09:43 am »
... I welcome any comments and any confirmation of the von Aulock and Lindgren citations. ...
I have neither SNG von Aulock nor Lindgren, but I have SNG Tübingen. There this smaller denomination (there is also a larger one) is described as numbers 4226 and 4227, they date it to the first century BC and refer to SNG vAul 4286  :).

This coin is also mentioned and pictured in Ahmet Tolga Tek, "Hellenistik ve Erken Roma İmparatorluk Dönemlerinde Likya'da Basılan Otonom Şehir Sikkeleri", in "The IIIrd Symposium on Lycia, Symposium Proceedings pp. 769-787, AKMED Antalya, 2006:
https://www.academia.edu/335124/Hellenistik_ve_Erken_Roma_Imparatorluk_Donemlerinde_Likyada_Basilan_Otonom_Sehir_Sikkeleri
(with the help of some translation software you can read it :)).

And yes, the animal is with no doubt a stag and not a goat.

Regards

Altamura

Offline Anaximander

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Re: Anaximander's Gallery
« Reply #105 on: February 13, 2022, 05:44:27 pm »
A hearty thanks to you both, Altamura and shanxi.  Great insights and information.  A stag it is.  The references cited are all spot-on, and some are rather obscure. I hadn't used the Internet Archive Wayback Machine in that manner in simply ages; and a Turkish journal with photos of this rare (if unexciting) coin type, well that's both simply amazing and exactly what I needed.

For clarity: I have updated the original post to say "stag standing right" instead of "goat standing right."

Offline Anaximander

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Latest additions to Anaximander's Gallery
« Reply #106 on: March 04, 2022, 07:56:03 am »
I picked up five coins on my second visit to the Annual Upstate South Carolina Coin show, hosted by the Greenville & Parker Coin Clubs.  Three of the five are obols, or fractions thereof.

1. Sicily. Himera. 530-483/2 BC. AR Obol. Cock standing left. / Mill-sail incuse.  An early coin from Himera, sometimes described as a litra. It's ex-D. Alighieri Collection. Came with a Rudnik Numismatics tag.  I've seen several mentions of the D. Alighiere Collection in sales catalogs, but can otherwise find nothing. Has anyone heard of this collector?

2. Baktria. Eukratides I. 171-145 BC. AR Obol (0.66 gm) of Baktra. His bust right. / Piloi of the Dioskouri.

3. Roman Empire. Manlia Scantilla, Augusta, 193 AD. Wife of Didius Julianus, who reigned for 66 days, and mother of Didia Clara.
AR Denarius of Rome. Her draped bust right. / Juno standing left. She was no beauty, unlike Didia Clara.

4. Roman Empire. Britannicus. 50-54 AD. AE16 of Ionia, Smyrna. His bust right. / Nike advancing right with trophy.

5. Macedon. Tragilos. Circa 450-400 BC Hemiobol. Grape bunch. / Quadripartite incuse square.  An impossibly small coin of 0.2 gm.

Offline Jay GT4

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Re: Anaximander's Gallery
« Reply #107 on: March 04, 2022, 08:19:42 am »
Good finds Chris. I really like the Baktrian and Britanicus

Offline Steve Moulding

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Re: Anaximander's Gallery
« Reply #108 on: March 04, 2022, 09:08:34 am »
All very nice, Chris, though Himera would get my vote :laugh:.

Cheers,

Steve
Steve Moulding
New York

Offline Steve Moulding

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Re: Anaximander's Gallery
« Reply #109 on: March 04, 2022, 10:04:11 am »
Chris, for your Aligheri question, check CNG Triton XII (2009) - it has many lots "From the D. Alighieri Collection".  The Triton catalog may say something. I only have lot descriptions immediately on hand. Maybe it's a real person? Maybe it's a CNG collection code-name like '"The Leonardo da Vinci Collection".  Dante Alighieri? Don't know. Let me know if you find out.

Cheers,

Steve
Steve Moulding
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Offline Anaximander

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Re: Anaximander's Gallery
« Reply #110 on: March 04, 2022, 12:38:51 pm »
Steve, thanks for the suggestion. Very on-target. 

I thumbed through my Triton XII catalog (unusually, no PDF is available anywhere online) and saw the provenance "From the D. Alighieri Collection" on a number of ancient coins. However, this catalog had no introductory remarks about the collections being auctioned beyond the initial page (shown below), and there is no reference to D. Alighiere even there.  I searched the auctioneer's site and found some two thousand lots being auctioned from that collection, bunched into 2009, including large lots, and some now reauctioned. 

Person or pseudonym, D. Alighiere remains a mystery.


Offline Steve Moulding

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Re: Anaximander's Gallery
« Reply #111 on: March 04, 2022, 02:39:15 pm »
Chris, I've seen speculation elsewhere that it was Cornelius Vermeule's collection. He was curator at the MFA in Boston and a well-known numismatist. He died in 2008 so the timeline would fit. I have no other proof as yet, so just speculation at this point.

Steve
Steve Moulding
New York

Offline Ron C2

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Re: Anaximander's Gallery
« Reply #112 on: March 04, 2022, 03:19:56 pm »
I'm thinking the manlia scantilla is likely quite a rarity. I've not looked it up, but didius julianus coins in general are rare and desired.
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R. Cormier, Ottawa

Offline Steve Moulding

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Re: Anaximander's Gallery
« Reply #113 on: March 04, 2022, 05:30:06 pm »
Hi Chris. On further reflection, 'D.Alighieri' = Vermeule seems very unlikely. Some of Vermeule's collection was sold by Stacks in 2010 and his name was used. The catalog including his biography are on archive
https://archive.org/details/2010_01Stck_NYInternational_LR/2010_01Stck_NYInternational_LR/page/n5/mode/2up.
Earlier CNG sales (eg CNG50) sold some of his coins and used his name. There doesn't seem to be a need for a pseudonym.

So, the Alighieri mystery remains.

Steve
Steve Moulding
New York

Offline Anaximander

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The mysterious D. Alighieri collection
« Reply #114 on: March 05, 2022, 06:16:16 am »
Steve, thanks once again.  With coins "From the Estate of Cornelius C. Vermeule" in the Stacks auction catalog, we can put to rest the thought of Cornelius Vermeule III as the mysterious D. Alighieri.  Vermeule was prone to pseudonyms (Wentworth Bunsen, Isao Tsukinabe and Northwold Nuffler), so not a bad hunch.  It could just as easily be a nefarious character whose name could tarnish the coin, someone like (just say) Ken Lay of Enron, who died awaiting his prison sentence in 2006 (ANS Pocket Change blog post). Good catalog, by the way.

Offline Anaximander

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Re: Anaximander's Gallery
« Reply #115 on: April 07, 2022, 02:49:31 pm »
    Two Cilician coins added to my Asia Minor gallery:

    • 1. Soloi. 410-375 B.C. AR stater. (10.67 gm, 19 mm). Amazon (Antiope?), wearing pointed headdress, nude to the waist and kneeling l., stringing her bow, with drapery & gorytos (bow-case) at her waist. / Bunch of grapes on vine; ankh to lower right (partially off flan); ΣΟΛΕΩΝ - Θ.  Large test cut on ℞.
Blindado a stater one in his collection (with a few notes on the coin, the city, and the Amazons); as do shanxi and Jay A2J.B. has a hemi-obol (!).
  • 2. Kelenderis. 410-375 B.C. AR stater. (10.68 gm, 20 mm). This one is a classic and, yes, generally quite common. A youth dismounting from horse rearing r.  Less common: large plume on horse's head. / Goat kneeling right, head left; KEΛE-[N] above.
The 'Best of Type' is noneother than FAC's own Joe Sermarini, while Jason T has a really exemplary one with some concise notes.

Offline Anaximander

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A trio of Macedonian kings
« Reply #116 on: July 25, 2022, 07:16:36 am »
I've added three coins of Macedonian kings to my Macedon gallery...

Perdikkas II. 451-413 BC. Tetrobol of Aigai? heavy Thraco-Macedon stdd. Mounted horseman wearing petasos, with two spears on horse walking r. / Forepart of lion in incuse square.  Two things drew me to this coin: the obverse variety with the horse walking (so I now have one of each, horse prancing and walking), and the unusually good strike of the lion on the reverse (for the type) with little of the usual flatness.

Philip II. 359-336 BC. Tetradrachm of Amphipolis. Laureate head of Zeus r. / Philip on horseback l., wearing kausia & chlamys, raising hand. ΦIΛIΠ-ΠOY, M below raised foreleg.  Large test-cut on the reverse.  My early acquisitions of Philip II turned out to be posthumous or imitative, so here we have a lifetime issue. 

Alexander III. 336-323 BC. Drachm of Miletos, struck under Philoxenos, 325-323 BC. Head of Herakles clad in lion skin headdress, r. / Zeus Aëtophoros enthroned l., holding sceptre and eagle. ΑΛΕΞΑΝΔΡΟΥ, ΔH monogram in l. field.  A common-enough type, for a lifetime issue.

Offline Virgil H

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Re: Anaximander's Gallery
« Reply #117 on: July 25, 2022, 03:44:30 pm »
Nice additions.

Virgil

Offline Anaximander

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A lion, an elephant, and a goat go into a Roman colosseum...
« Reply #118 on: July 30, 2022, 02:12:55 pm »
Thanks, Virgil.  Not sure I can top that today, but I'll share my latest Roman gallery additions:

Three Antoniniani of Rome, 248-249 AD: Ludi Saeculares (Secular Games), commemorating the 1000th anniversary of Rome, from Philip I and Philip II.  Celebrated every hundred years! The reverse legend SAECULARES AVGG = 'Saeculares Augustorum' lion, elephant, and a "goat" that could really be an elk (aka moose).  Not the best examples, but serviceable.  You can follow the links above, or head on over to my Roman gallery for the period, Military Anarchy & Revival, 235-285 AD.

Lastly: here is an Advent coin of Trajan Decius. Adventvs Augustorum is the arrival of the emperor to a city. This antoninianus has a nice portrait and some lovely toning.

Post scriptum: Here is a much-awaited denarius of Hadrian with a galley reverse.

Offline Virgil H

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Re: Anaximander's Gallery
« Reply #119 on: July 30, 2022, 06:18:07 pm »
Those are all beautiful.

Virgil

Offline Anaximander

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Tarantine horseman and dolphin rider nomos addition to my gallery
« Reply #120 on: November 22, 2022, 08:03:20 am »
While I have been poring over my ancients to add diameter and die axis, I took a moment to add a new nomos to my Greek Italy gallery.

Calabria. c. 272-240 BC. AR Nomos (6.58 gm, 19mm, 3h) of Tarentum. Euph.., Ariston, and Zop…, magistrates. Nude warrior wearing crested helmet riding left, holding reins & ornamented shield; EYΦ to left, API-ΣTΩN below. / Phalanthos astride dolphin left, holding hippocamp and trident; ΤΑΡΑΣ below, 𐊈ΩΠ to right. 

Offline Anaximander

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Romans in 2023? Yes!
« Reply #121 on: November 06, 2023, 11:34:24 am »
I continue to add Roman coins to my member gallery (see the link on my signature block), but I have not announced them on the discussion board in 2023. Here we are, near the end of the year, so I thought I would present the year's additions as a Virtual Tray. Several of these are upgrades, picked up while at last week's Richmond Coin & Currency Show, sponsored by the Richmond Coin Club.  It's not Coinex, but you will find dealers in ancient coins.

One of the fun things about coin shows is that you can explore new cities. I took in Thomas Jefferson's Monticello, near Charlottesville and stayed at the historic Jefferson Hotel in Richmond.  Makes me wish I had gone to the Worlds Fair of Money show in Pittsburgh last summer.


Offline Tracy Aiello

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Re: Anaximander's Gallery
« Reply #122 on: November 06, 2023, 07:29:35 pm »
Anaximander,

Wonderful additions. Nice to see you posting about your gallery.

All the best,

Tracy

Offline Anaximander

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Virtual Tray of Greek Coins (2023 edition)
« Reply #123 on: November 07, 2023, 04:09:19 pm »
Thanks, Tracy! I'm really very fond of the Greek coins of Corinth, Akarnania, and the myriad Italian colonies. I do move into related fields. Here's a few I picked up in 2023...

Offline Anaximander

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Virtual Tray: Seleukids + Thrace
« Reply #124 on: November 07, 2023, 04:38:59 pm »
Not an especially active year for collecting Seleukid or Thracian coinage, but several tetradrachms - my favorite denomination - did make their way into my collection.


 

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