Hi Jay,
Your coin has captured my interest. I decided to look in
SNG ANS again, and I noticed something that I hadn't noticed the first time I looked in it. There are more examples of this
type in that reference book. The
SNG ANS 72-84 examples have no
fulmen on the
obverse. However, there are several
SNG ANS examples with a
fulmen on the
obverse. These are
SNG ANS 94-101. They range in
weight form 14.05g to 18.56g. For some reason, ANS didn't consecutively include them with the others. Maybe they felt that the time period is different?
Your example has a
fulmen on the
obverse. I hadn't noticed it the first time I looked at it. It is sort of faint.
So, that means that I would attribute your coin as:
SNG Cop. 1631
SNG ANS 94-101
var.
It is not
SNG ANS 72-84
var. because those have no
fulmen on the
obverse.
I also noticed something else interesting. I examined your coin more closely. On the
reverse, under the
shield, there is probably no symbol. However, there is something there that is very faint. It sort of looks like a semi-curved vertical line. In all likelihood, it is probably not
part of a symbol. But there is a remote possibility that it is
part of a symbol that is now worn. In case that is the situation, I looked in
SNG ANS and
SNG Cop. again. I
still couldn't find any symbol that even remotely looks like that. However, I did find something interesting. There is a coin
type that is similar to yours. It has basically the same
reverse, but a different
obverse. It has
Herakles on the
obverse instead of Ares. On one
SNG ANS example of that
type (the
Herakles type), there is a plow symbol on the
reverse. There is a remote possibility that the
reverse of your coin has a plow symbol below the
shield, but I
still think it is more likely that it never
had any symbol at all. The problem is that that specific
area of your coin (the 5:00 position on the
reverse) is so worn.
I have an example of that
type (the
Herakles type). It is in the same page as the link in my post above. My example has a plow symbol, and it is also faint. It is not even clearly visible in the photo.
Meepzorp