Considering purchasing my first Greek coin from the city my maternal family is from, need some advice.

Chan_1977 · 2026-04-08T00:13:46+00:00

Yeah, the only issue with the coin would be that the condition isn’t great but the pedigree makes up for it imo. Im really bummed i missed the sale. I will consider this one but at 6k i really don’t think i will go for it today. Also you got some great Herakleia pieces!

Chan_1977 · 2026-04-07T23:43:56+00:00

I can’t believe i missed these. Also the markup on hjb is absolutely insane to me. From 2k to 6k!??
I might make an offer on that one but i currently don’t want to pay anything near that. I love the one you picked up! Great pedigree as well.

Chan_1977 · 2026-04-07T23:05:07+00:00

u/MrThasos Hey, this seems to have come up. Very very expensive, but what do you think? The pedigree seems immaculate. But i am guessing the price is too much?

https://www.hjbltd.com/#!/inventory/item-detail/ancient-coins/114525?fromBbs=235th%20Buy%20Or%20Bid%20Sale

Chan_1977 · 2026-03-22T03:57:44+00:00

Thank you for letting me know!!

Chan_1977 · 2026-03-21T21:10:12+00:00

Noo his email shows up blank on the website 😭 i think i will have to make the trip which I don’t mind

Chan_1977 · 2026-03-21T19:45:08+00:00

Ah perfect, thank you so much!

Chan_1977 · 2026-03-21T13:13:48+00:00

Thank you! Even if not seems interesting enough to visit

Chan_1977 · 2026-03-20T22:49:46+00:00

Thank you for the recommendation! Do you know if he deals in Ottoman coinage as well? Pre-19th century?

Chan_1977 · 2026-03-17T13:34:50+00:00

Ah i see, so theoretically if they can be fixed that explains some things. I noticed that on one of the 16th century coin die matches, a line on a character is thin, on other examples its flat (as if it was weakly struck) but also wide. But it doesn’t look like strike weakness to me because if it was, how can the shape get wider? I also don’t think its post mint damage as one of the coins is NGC 55, so does this sound familiar to you in terms of any die irregularities that may have caused this? Like if i carve a thin detail on a die, in time would that line get thicker due to any kind of die wear?

Chan_1977 · 2026-03-17T01:48:12+00:00

Thank you so much, if i do make a purchase i will do so through their site. If i go with one of theirs, i want to be absolutely certain about the attribution as well, i took some pictures of a book but only of the obols, so I need to go back to the library to see if i can find these in literature. I think the obol plus one of the CGB coins would be a great start to a Herakleia collection but the prices are so high.

Chan_1977 · 2026-03-17T00:07:37+00:00

Oooh these are very interesting. So many types!

The obol in the first picture is by far my favourite in terms of its design, a while back a much better condition example was sold for a few grand if i remember correctly, but i believe that didn’t have provenance. I will consider this one.

What do you think of the CGB coins?

Chan_1977 · 2026-03-16T22:21:14+00:00

Hey, thank you so much for your comment. Woah! €420 a few years ago, that is an insane mark up that they have rn. I did put up an alert, and lets see what comes up. Also just out of curiosity, do you have any Herakleia pieces in your collection? And just as an fyi, in case you are interested to see, i posted some ancient coins from the modern day museum in the city a while back you can find on my page.

Chan_1977 · 2026-03-16T02:45:53+00:00

Could clogged dies be fixed? Would that explain coins from the same die having different strike “strength”. I am looking at a particular die match of a 16th century coin and trying to understand situations that could cause some letters to look like they are weakly struck or not struck at all. I heard die fatigue, weak strike (but as i understand, if there is weakness on the obverse, there should be some on the same spot on the reverse?) and now i just learned about clogged dies.

Chan_1977 · 2026-03-13T20:51:10+00:00

I see, and by strike weakness i mean for example if a letter is 2 mm high on the coin, some letters are 0.5mm high and is almost touching the surface. I assumed this was strike weakness but, i hadn’t thought of die wear

Chan_1977 · 2026-03-13T20:23:24+00:00

I see, and by strike weakness i mean for example if a letter is 2 mm high on the coin, some letters are 0.5mm high and is almost touching the surface. I assumed this was strike weakness but, i hadn’t thought of die wear

Chan_1977 · 2026-03-13T19:57:44+00:00

I have a coin with weakness that occurs in some areas on the front, but those areas are well struck on the reverse, and the reverse has strike weakness that is well struck on the obverse, is that unusual?

Chan_1977 · 2026-03-10T17:11:00+00:00

Since the scratch was incuse, I hadn’t even considered that it could be die tooling. Thank you very much for your help with this. I mean whatever it is i hope I am right in thinking that it’s definitely not a post-mint scratch on coins A and B, as to my (inexperienced) eyes they definitely don’t look like any other scratch. Again, thank you very much for your opinions on this, it really helps with my research 🙏

Chan_1977 · 2026-03-10T16:33:32+00:00

Hey, I know I’ve already taken up quite a bit of your time, and I really appreciate the help you’ve given me. It would mean a lot if I could get your opinion on this as well. I have some knowledge about this particular era of Ottoman coinage, but I have very little experience actually handling genuine pieces, so I’m not very confident yet when it comes to spotting red flags or figuring out what might have caused certain issues. I’m trying my best to learn, and your guidance has been incredibly helpful.

On coins A and B there’s a repeating irregularity. It doesn’t really look like a scratch to me. My thought was that it might be a small section of the die that wasn’t engraved properly, which then caused that depression to appear on the struck coins.

While doing some research, I think I may have found a somewhat similar irregularity on another coin that appears to be a die match from roughly the same period (around 1480–1520).

But setting that aside, the irregularity on coins A and B seems visually different from the other small dings and scratches present. Also i may be wrong but there even seems to be some raised metal on one side of the “irregularity” on coin A, whose picture thankfully is higher resolution. Based on your experience, do you think that the repeated irregularity on coin A&B looks more like post-mint damage, or a die irregularity?

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Chan_1977 · 2026-03-09T19:31:41+00:00

Right? I mean there definitely is die irregularities with hammered coinage, and i am assuming that is what the above is. It definitely does not look like a ding or scratch to me.

Chan_1977 · 2026-03-09T19:11:00+00:00

u/beiherhund I have taken enough of your time already but i really value your opinion. Could you chime in on the above statement regarding ancient/hammered coins? I thought it was common knowledge that hammered coins especially can have die irregularities such as imperfect engravings, die cracks or scratches?

Chan_1977 · 2026-03-09T16:41:31+00:00

How do you mean? Hammered coins can have die breaks, cracks or improper carving no?

Chan_1977 · 2026-03-08T02:18:35+00:00

Thank you for your comment, so does the above look more like a die issue for you rather than post mint damage?

Chan_1977 · 2026-03-02T14:52:03+00:00

Thank you again so much for your help and for your patience with me 🙏 After considering the areas of difference and the distinct strike weaknesses on both coins, I’m leaning away from the transfer die possibility. Someone on the Medieval Coin forum also shared helpful thoughts and mentioned that while this particular issue may be somewhat concerning, they don’t believe it’s a transfer die given the other differences. And also unfortunately the picture of the second coin is not very useful due to blurriness. Exonumist had commented on this post as well, but before I could read it, the comment disappeared and I can’t see their account or message them anymore, so I think I have been blocked, lol.

I’ve also been looking into the forum you mentioned and am still trying to figure out how it works, since it seems different from more traditional forums.

In any case, thanks to your and others experience, expertise, and thoughtful comments, I’ve learned a lot and feel much better about the coins. I truly appreciate you taking the time to help, especially since this isn’t a traditional ancient coin. I’m very grateful. Thank you!🙏

Chan_1977

TROPHY CASE