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Help In Identifying Two Old Greek / Roman Coins

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New Member

United States
2 Posts
 Posted 09/24/2010  10:12 pm Show Profile   Bookmark this topic Add FTF9 to your friends list Get a Link to this Message Number of Subscribers
Howdy,
I have little to no coin knowledge, especially ancients. I found a pair of cufflinks that I paid a couple of bucks for at an antique mall. They are marked Sterling & Merrin. Merrin used old coins in some jewelry over the years so I thought the coins to be authentic, but have no idea. They are approx 7/8 of an inch in diameter.

Help-In-Identifying-Two-Old-Greek-/-Roman-Coins

Help-In-Identifying-Two-Old-Greek-/-Roman-Coins

Help-In-Identifying-Two-Old-Greek-/-Roman-Coins

Help-In-Identifying-Two-Old-Greek-/-Roman-Coins

Any help with ID'ing these would be greatly appreciated.
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Sap's Avatar
Australia
16810 Posts
 Posted 09/24/2010  11:18 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add Sap to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
Hello and welcome.

Those are definitely Roman-style portraits. Are they both as thick as the side-view of one of them that you've posted? Ancient Roman coins generally aren't that thick for their size. Late-period Romano-Egyptian tetradrachms are an exception, so that's probably what these once were. Unfortunately, there's not enough of the legends surrounding the portraits that survive for me to even tell whether the language written there is Greek or Latin (Roman provincial coins such as those from Egypt were often inscribed in Greek).
Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis
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maridvnvm's Avatar
United Kingdom
2099 Posts
 Posted 09/25/2010  05:51 am  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add maridvnvm to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
I agree for the most part. They certainly look like Alexandrian tetradrachms but I think that they are earlier than late Roman. The first coin shows a bust of the personification of Alexandria in an elephant headdress like the one illustrated below. So I believe that coin is issued by Nero at some point between 54-68 A.D..

Help-In-Identifying-Two-Old-Greek-/-Roman-Coins

The second coin is more difficult to narrow down but would also seem to be a 1st century billon tetradrachm from Alexandria. It could well be a bust of Tiberius as on the following coin (also issued by Nero).

Help-In-Identifying-Two-Old-Greek-/-Roman-Coins

Regards,
Martin
Edited by maridvnvm
09/25/2010 05:54 am
New Member
United States
2 Posts
 Posted 09/25/2010  09:37 am  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add FTF9 to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
I greatly appreciate the info concerning the coins. You for sure answered my questions as to them being authentic.

To Sap - the thickness is pretty much the same for each coin.

To maridvnvm - I do think you nailed the id of each coin because they sure do look like your examples. I had searched several online sources before posting here and I could not find anything close. An elephant headdress blows me away...I could tell there was something sticking out over his head but had no idea what it was.

Being a pure novice of ancients I am awed by thinking of who held these coins in their hands that long ago.

Again, many thanks for the info. I think my couple of dollars were well spent.
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CanadianCoinGuy's Avatar
Canada
54 Posts
 Posted 01/12/2011  7:06 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add CanadianCoinGuy to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
They're not really coins,so there is nowhere to look for attributions
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