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 Replies: 38 / Views: 5,307 |
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Pillar of the Community
 Spain
2752 Posts |
Ok Thanks for the explanation Bob. Decorative they are  Over here the kids play "Shout as loud as you can down the lane"!  Great thread thanks ...Paul |
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Valued Member
New Zealand
292 Posts |
 Hi Bob, Awesome coin pick up. Congrats they awesome,nice coins too. |
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
7066 Posts |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
7066 Posts |
Thought I'd update this thread since I'm now up to my 5th and 6th fourth, so to speak. But that just doesn't sound as clever as "My 4th 4th"... Last month I won a lot that included the following two, and just now found a bit of time to photograph them. Vologases IV tetradrachm Sellwood 84.18-19 Struck 155 AD:  Vologases IV tetradrachm Sellwood 84.47 Struck October 172 AD:  Quote:
...one of these days I'll get a least one of this type. So, how's that going, Ron?  |
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Moderator
 United States
34426 Posts |
@bob, nice pick-ups. Is that most likely a banker's mark on the rev of #5?
"If you climb a good tree, you get a push."
-----Ghanaian proverb
"The danger we all now face is distinguishing between what is authentic and what is performed."
-----King Adz
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Pillar of the Community
United States
7066 Posts |
Banker's mark or test punch, Dave. These have their blemishes, but I like them especially since the bottoms of the obverse beards are preserved. Often the bottom of the beards get cropped off with these issues.
Edited by Kamnaskires
05/17/2017 8:42 pm
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
1269 Posts |
Wonderful coins Bob. Thanks for the work you put into the inscriptions. you are getting me more and more interested in these coins.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
7066 Posts |
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Moderator
United States
23731 Posts |
I like this coin type as you know, I have several of them in my collection.
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Pillar of the Community
Spain
2752 Posts |
Lovely coins Bob Especially like the first one...nice detail. Whats the diameter of the coins? Thanks for sharing Paul |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
7066 Posts |
Quote:
Whats the diameter of the coins? Paul, these two new ones measure 26mm and 27mm, respectively. Thanks for the comment! |
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Moderator
United States
34426 Posts |
@bob, I'm sorry to reanimate this old thread, but I recently picked up a Volo IV of my own. As I'm researching it further, I have stumbled upon a conundrum. Specifically, I find it quite odd that while the coins in this thread can be attributed to various different years, 5/6 were minted in the same exact month (October). Mine is attributed to October 183, which seems like a pretty astronomical coincidence when coupled with your coins. Any thoughts about why this month was so prolific for the Parthian mints?  "If you climb a good tree, you get a push."
-----Ghanaian proverb
"The danger we all now face is distinguishing between what is authentic and what is performed."
-----King Adz
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Pillar of the Community
United States
549 Posts |
"Any thoughts about why this month was so prolific for the Parthian mints?"
Coins minted at the same time probably left the mint together and entered savings hoards together. Most accumulations of coins ("hoards") were utilized by their owners or their heirs in ancient times. The mint issues that entered those short-lived accumulations were well-mixed into the population of coins in antiquity. The accumulations that remained unrecovered until recently (what we now call "hoards") may have accumulated their coins over time and have a mixed sample of coins, but often hoards have one issue vastly overrepresented.
For example, there was a hoard of Gallienus coins found with 5000 coins from one pair of dies. It is not that that issue was larger than usual, just that they left the mint together were hoarded together, and were eventually found together.
I imagine that some time in the past there was found an ancient hoard with many tetradrachms of Vologases IV tetradrachms struck October 172 AD. By chance, the mint output from September and November didn't make it into a hoard discovered in modern times.
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Moderator
United States
34426 Posts |
@augustus1, thanks for the reply and yes when you factor in hoards, weird things happen to the otherwise normal distribution of things. However, in this case, @bob has listed tets minted in: October 153, October 155, and October 172 while my coin was minted in October 183. I didn't want to hijack this thread by posting pics of my coin, but it shows much heavier wear than these other (earlier) coins, so it would be odd for all four to have been hoarded together. Also, I don't see why someone would hoard coins from different years, but the same month. It seems more likely to me that perhaps either die engraving was done during a fairly narrow window during the year or else we are mis-reading the word "October". Or you could be right...  "If you climb a good tree, you get a push."
-----Ghanaian proverb
"The danger we all now face is distinguishing between what is authentic and what is performed."
-----King Adz
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Pillar of the Community
United States
7066 Posts |
How interesting, Dave. Please feel welcome to post the coin here. I'd love to see it.
I don't believe I've seen any studies comparing the frequency of emissions - one month versus another. But it is an interesting coincidence.
Our sampling is certainly too small to conclude anything definitive. However if there are indeed more Octobers (ΔIOV) among the Sellwood 84's than other months, I wonder if that might have something to do with the fact that in the Seleukid calendar - which the dates on Parthian tets are based on - each new year starts in October. (Seleukid Era years run from October through the following September) Could it be that there was a tradition of striking an abundance of new tets at the start of each new year - and then easing off in subsequent months?
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Replies: 38 / Views: 5,307 |
First Page
Posted 12/30/2016 8:28 pm
