Ancient Marathos imitate of Alexander Gold Drachm? 1 1

[Tobias J Reily]

Hi all,

I posted on CC a week ago or so and had the helpful reply: Maybe a Marathos/Marathus imitative type drachm, perhaps unpublished (?), modeled on the AV staters of Macedon? If you don't pin it down, I recommend contacting George Halabi via Academia.edu. See his article on the series there. Yours seems to have a trident in the reverse left field. I've seen staters with that symbol, but haven't spotted any drachms from Marathos/Marathus with it.

I have contacted him but have had no response thus far. I was simply wondering if anyone else could realise what this coin could be? It certainly seems like it could be imitative type drachm from Marathus or the port of Phoenicia. The coin weighs 3.55grams and feels like silver, and magnet tests like silver. Diameter is 17mm. The same design is on the Alexander Drachms with Nike standing left, made of gold. Do you think it would be worth sending in to NGC to be slabbed and researched, I can't find a single coin like it anywhere on the internet. If I was to submit it to NGC ancients, would I just put unknown in the descriptions?

Thanks in advance for any replies.

[RWB]

No TPG is going to do the kind of research you want for this piece. Also, what is "magnet tests like silver" supposed to mean?

Edited June 8, 2021 by RWB

[Tobias J Reily]

Thanks for the reply. You don't think they would know what it is? I mean they are NGC...surely they wouldn't say oh sorry we cannot ascertain what coin this is and send it back to me?

I have found one of the most reliable ways for me to test if a coin is silver is to slide a small magnet from the top of a coin held at a 45 degree angle. If it moves with a bit of friction it usually passes for silver. The magnet moved at the same speed as it does for my morgans, bullion, etc etc. I'm pretty confident that the coin is silver as that is what coins of this period were mostly made from.

[JKK]

38 minutes ago, Tobias J Reily said:

I'm pretty confident that the coin is silver as that is what coins of this period were mostly made from.

If it's authentic.

Here's my question: it's got Alexander's name on the reverse and Athena on the obverse. Why do you think it couldn't simply be Macedonian?

[Tobias J Reily]

Hi,

I checked all of these on wildwinds and it seems that the exact design is only on the gold coins that weigh about 8 grams or more. All the others are outside-affiliatelinksnotallowed That's what has me confused. I believe that's why the other person on cc mentioned that it may be a later imitation in the style of those specific gold coins? Or if not, maybe it is a Macedonian like you say. 

 https://www.wildwinds.com/coins/greece/macedonia/kings/alexander_III/t.html

[Tobias J Reily]

All of the others are sitting down. 

Edited June 8, 2021 by Tobias J Reily

[JKK]

I see. Seems reasonable. One thing I note is that most of Alexander's coins bearing his name say Alexandrou, which I believe means "of Alexander." This one doesn't include the inflection. That seems a little odd to me, and suggests a colonial coin of the Hellenistic era but perhaps not in a Greek-speaking area. Odd combination, I agree.