The attached photo shows an
AE25, 4.69g. bronze of
Nicephorus II Sear Byzantine 1782. As usual for these, the coin was
overstruck on an earlier bronze. The seller IDed it as
Leo VI but I am having trouble separating out the Leo parts and convincing myself that there is not a trace of a third
type (under-undertype). My group photo shows the coin shot with directional light (top row) and a ring light (bottom row) with both sides oriented to favor both the over strike and under. The top image is a crop from the ringlight image that I believe might show a trace of a
face at the top as well as letters from the
undertype which I can not read with certainty but strike me as IhSUS but that is more of a guess than anything. The
obverse of the overtype shows a sign of doublestriking which places the right edge of the design closer to the center that the left and confuses Nicephorus'
face a
bit.
I am not a
Byzantine specialist. I would appreciate someone familiar with the subject could walk me through what parts of the
undertype(s) seem identifiable and how to tell if there are two or just one coin below the final
type. I have identified the coin as SB 1782 which is not well represented in the easily accessed online material. It clearly shows the
labarum at left and
globus crucifer just left of the bold M (which is supposed to be on 1782 but not on 1783). More than one of the coins I found online identified as 1782 were actually 1783 (with
cross and globe with trefoil). I only have the older 1974
Sear. Does this number difference remain the same in the newer edition? Is there an online reference that shows a number of specimens of this coin? As usual, it is easier to find photos of
rare and
gold coins than common bronzes.
Thanks in advance.