My Top 25 Coins (Maybe)

Doug, that's very interesting! Probably no one on ancients knows, but I specialize in collecting overdates, but from a much later period. That is the earliest overdate I've ever seen! I don't see many owl fourees either, but I hope to get one sometime.

I'm certainly enjoying this thread.

Hmmmm, I'm not 100% positive, but I'm pretty sure that I made a similar coin in my grade three craft class?

Interesting

Man! Doug you are a wealth of information when it comes to ancient coins. Been busy with life and haven't been keeping up with the thread.
Just got back in touch and the last three coins have been totally educational and instructive!
Very nice!

Yes, Randy, that is my philosophy of collecting. I see a major problem in the hobby that too many beginners get cheated by so-called dealers who take advantage of the mindset that anything 1700 years old has to be valuable. When they later discover that detail deficient slugs are not worth $19.95 + postage they might just drop the hobby or at least have the idea that the lot of us are crooks rather than firends with similar interests. When I was new to the hobby in the 1960's it was common to find dealers who were willing to give information freely and coins priced fairly rather than what the overfunded uninformed masses might pay. I'm all for paying good money for good coins but believe none of us benefit when new collectors are led to pay VF prices for culls.

That's a very cool ancient error! It looks like the brockage of Hadrian spread out--possibly from multiple hammer strikes? If you don't mind, I flipped the brockage to suggest how the coin spread out.

#11 Syracuse AR hemilitron 10mm 0.3g 440-430 BC (and friend)

That last coin obviously bombed with the group showing that my favorite coins are not everyone's cup of tea. We will see if #11 meets more general approval. Silver coins of 5th century Syracuse are among the most popular of all 'Greek' issues (Syracuse was a Greek colonial city in Sicily). Most common are the large silver tetradrachms. I like the couple I have but they are really nothing special and did not make the top 25. Most popular are the huge decadrachms but they always sell for more than I can pay for a coin (even in poor grade). My favorite coin here could be one of two coins but I am pandering to popular opinion and selecting the one in better grade even though it is relatively massive and I like little coins. While we call Syracusan silver by the Athenian denomination names I believe the man on the street would have thought of the decadrachm as a 50 litra piece and the tetradrachm as a 20. The base unit was a litra about the same size as the Athenian obol (but, oddly, usually called litra in the trade rather than forcing the Athenian name on this one, too). Litra are relatively common.

Fractions of the litra is where things get interesting. Coin #11 is a half litra (hemilitron). It's value is clearly marked on the reverse by six dots. In several towns of the region a dot was used to indicate one uncia or 1/12 of the unit. Early Romans made them in bronze. Syracuse in the early years used silver until they finally realized that such small coins were not practical. Here we have a 6/12 piece. What makes the coin worthy of the #11 rank in my mind is the quality of the die engraving on such a small flan. The die was made in the same shop (by the same hands?) as the popular larger coins. This is 1/100 of a decadrachm. I consider the die work on the portrait truly wonderful. 6/12 coins are rather rare. I'll ask you to show me others you find illustrated online and ask how you consider mine in comparison. The difficulty you may have here might explain why I bought this coin when it became available in 2000. Its position as #11 id very precarious since all I'd have to do is get a coin of the series with finer art and smaller.

Unranked but shown here is another coin of Syracuse that almost fits the bill. It is a few years earlier, several times more rare and, unfortunately, too ugly to tell just how good the die work once was. Two dots and 5mm makes it a hexas or 1/300 of a decadrachm. Unfortunately it has peeled quite a bit and fails to unseat #11 due to lack of beauty. Because of the peeling silver, the coin weighs only .05g but that is considerably less than it should in theory. On the other hand, just how exact do you expect the mint to be able to control a coin with a target weight of a hair under a tenth of a gram? While you are seeking comparison coins for the 6/12 coin, keep an eye out for other examples of the 2/12 type or anything Syracusan silver and dot denominated. I bought the hexas in 1992 and have since seen one other in a photo. I find it a bit amazing that even two coins of that size somehow managed to survive the two and a half millenia since their issue. Perhaps they do exist but are just not in demand like their big brothers. Perhaps they are all owned by people like me who like them just as small as they are so each will not be sold more than once in a generation.