Help Identifying This Ancient Greek Coin

to the community

Greek coins are not my area, but we have several knowledgeable Greek coin collectors here that I'm sure will be able to answer your question. Just wanted to welcome you to the group.

Is the coin silver ? What is the diameter and weight (if possible) ?

You're lucky that I'm so stubborn, not an easy one

Not in the best condition, but it's a very rare drachm from Argolis...

http://www.cngcoins.com/Coin.aspx?CoinID=105865

Two identical ancient coins would definitely not be a good sign

Yeah I saw that One of Eleven. Even more reason why I want to keep it. I'm not interested in selling it. How would I confirm that that is the coin?

Thanks Dionysos for your help on this

I definitely would like to have it authenticated. Thanks

Holy Hecks! What a coin! 11 becomes 12 - its condition means its not worth $14.5k but its still worth quite a lot I reckon. Oh - and as you've got an unregistered example - that makes it 1 of 12 of these known. I dont think that will devalue it at all though.

I think its an obverse die match to the CNG one, but the reverse is definitely a different die.

Well, Dionysos knows his Greek coins so I'm certain he is correct on this. That is really all the evidence needed for us and you to know what it is.

It may however be worth getting the coin appraised by a professional service (I think what you were implying) for the future just incase you ever decide to part with it or even leave it to somebody else. It would be a shame if it became an 'un-known Greek' again and found its way onto ebay to be sold for buttons.

If you did this you would also get a nice 'certificate' to go with the coin, always cool to show to other people. I dont really know Greek coins but for Romans David R Sear offers the kind of service I would recommend for about $50. Hopefully one of our Greek collectors can let us know if a similar service exists for Greeks and if they think it is worth the expense

Rarity is an odd thing with ancient coins, most beginners and non-collectors think everything is rare as they are so old, as you continue collecting you realise that probably 99.9% of ancients are not that rare at all, all different, all beautiful but not that rare. I would put your coin in the remaining 0.1% that is truly rare, not many ancient collectors have these coins and they are very difficult to find for sale.

Valuing these coins is even harder, almost impossible to be honest, if you sold your coin as an 'Un-known Greek' ending at 4am on a Tuesday on ebay you may only get $0.99 for it. Sold through a 'proper, bricks and mortar' Greek coin auction house who might be able to find two collectors who knew about this coin and its rarity then even in this condition you might be surprised what a collector would be prepared to pay for it.

Look forward to hearing what the Greekophiles think