Alexander The Great

Thanks for the comments,jw can't wait till we see your new coins too..

Sweet Alexander Tet! Nice details and eye appeal IMHO!:)

You know we call these Alexander the Great Coins- These are really Alexander the AWESOME coins! The cut just adds to the history and authenticity of the coin IMHO!

Well it does depend- Test cuts are very common on the Heavily circulated standards of the ancient world.. Mainly Athens Tetradrachms and the coins of Alexander he great although less so-The do effect value unfortunately-everyone wants mint state or as close to it as possible. I would say 20% to not at all. Ancients are funny coins, the same coin posted could sell for $300 bucks at an auction but could be had with some hunting for half that. It depends on who is selling it and who is buying it. I have seen test cut Athens tets sell for $800 yet I bought and a non-test but EF one for a small fraction of that, with a little haggling. The cuts effect the value but some people like having the complete history of the coin and thus at the end of the day doesn't really deter from the coin. Some people might disagree, but people often collect ancients for different reasons. People like different stuff- some like Legends-some like Faces others wont settle for less then Mint (and will pay for it) others would be happy happier if it where crusty!

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and much of ancient coins is a matter for interpretation. Personally a test cut is fine in my opinion if it doesn't obliterate key details. SO on the OP's coin or my Tet the tet cut are in a good place to the left of the portrait and nothing is really lost by having it there. However a test cut through the owls face on an Athens Tet would be a big minus for me since the owls face is key to that type of coin.

Just went through all of Price and did not find the thing (hard to tell what the monogram is) Given the obverse style I would tend to think that it could be from Magnesia, but really not sure

Nice coin

Anoob, could be a [monogram looking like a] M, but not sure. And if it was it would more likely be Abydus, but they also all have something under the throne. First thought I had is that it was a Π with a dot in it

Generally speaking, the drachms from Abydus are more commom but the most commonly seen "lifetime" drachm is from Miletos...