HELP IDENTIFY THESE 3 COINS!
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Noah_D
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- Dec 14, 2017
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It's all Greek to me...
No really, they look like Greek coins but whether they are reproductions or not I can't say.
No really, they look like Greek coins but whether they are reproductions or not I can't say.
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Red-Coat
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Welcome to Tnet.
My feeling is that these are modern fantasy pieces, largely taking their cues and inspirations from early Celtic coinage and later Celtic art. The early Celtic culture didn’t have its own writing system, but often adapted characters from Latin (Roman) and Greek (Macedonian) coins in circulation at the time. The mish-mash of characters looks very much like borrowed imagery of the latter (Macedonian) kind, commonly used on coins from the Eastern Celtic territories.
One of them has a broad similarity to ‘horse and rider’ reverses frequently seen on early Celtic coins, but with an obverse design that isn’t contemporary with that kind of imagery.
The larger piece has an obverse design composed of four ‘triquetra’ motifs (often referred to inaccurately as a ‘Celtic knot’). However, it’s presented in a form not seen in Celtic art until the latter part of the 5th Century AD. Again, that wouldn’t be contemporary with whatever that obverse design with its pseudo-Greek lettering is meant to be.
That piece also has what is clearly modern plating applied to it, which has begun to flake away.
The general verdigris patination on all of them has the indications of being produced by a brief chemical dip rather than gradual corrosive accumulation over centuries. I have no idea what these things might have been produced for, but don’t believe them to be ancient coins, not faithful reproductions of such coins.
My feeling is that these are modern fantasy pieces, largely taking their cues and inspirations from early Celtic coinage and later Celtic art. The early Celtic culture didn’t have its own writing system, but often adapted characters from Latin (Roman) and Greek (Macedonian) coins in circulation at the time. The mish-mash of characters looks very much like borrowed imagery of the latter (Macedonian) kind, commonly used on coins from the Eastern Celtic territories.
One of them has a broad similarity to ‘horse and rider’ reverses frequently seen on early Celtic coins, but with an obverse design that isn’t contemporary with that kind of imagery.
The larger piece has an obverse design composed of four ‘triquetra’ motifs (often referred to inaccurately as a ‘Celtic knot’). However, it’s presented in a form not seen in Celtic art until the latter part of the 5th Century AD. Again, that wouldn’t be contemporary with whatever that obverse design with its pseudo-Greek lettering is meant to be.
That piece also has what is clearly modern plating applied to it, which has begun to flake away.
The general verdigris patination on all of them has the indications of being produced by a brief chemical dip rather than gradual corrosive accumulation over centuries. I have no idea what these things might have been produced for, but don’t believe them to be ancient coins, not faithful reproductions of such coins.
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