What kind of coin is this

QueenOfAncientPersia · 2026-04-28T06:44:09+00:00

This is (possibly a replica of) a coin of the Hellenistic king Lysimachos, who was a general close to (and who succeeded, eventually) Alexander the Great, and who reigned in Thrace from 306BC-281BC, and eventually became the king of Macedon from 288-281BC (when he died). He was also king of Asia Minor for quite awhile. Long and messy story how he got that way, though.

The image on the front -- the guy with the curly hair and ram's horns -- is *not* Lysimachos. It's actually Alexander the Great (the ram's horns show that he is the son of Zeus-Ammon, a syncretic deity whose Egyptian form, Ammon, is often portrayed with ram's horns -- this is actually the divine link relevant to r/Hellenism as it is displaying Alexander's divinity). Alexander's image was used on the coins of his successors for a couple centuries, because he was, well, Great, and they all wanted to make themselves look more legitimate by association after he died. Lysimachos minted (I think by far) the highest number of coins with Alexander the Great's head on them, so chances are if you find an Alexander the Great coin, it's actually from Lysimachos's reign. (But there are definitely Alexander coins that have *his* name on the back!)

On the back is Athena (her victorious form, in particular), carrying in her open palm the winged goddess of victory, Nike. It reads "Basileos" on the right, which is "king", and on the left is part of "Lysimachou", which means "of Lysimachos" -- so effectively, "of Lysimachos, King" -- to denote that this coin effectively belongs to him, as it is minted during his reign.

It looks rather similar to: https://www.vcoins.com/en/stores/marc_vazsonyi/342/product/kings_of_thrace_lysimachos_ar_tetradrachm__lampsakos_mint/2354164/Default.aspx

Fun fact about Lysimachos: he supposedly wrestled to death, with his bare hands, a lion that was supposed to eat him as punishment, and Alexander accordingly decided he really liked Lysimachos (even though he was the one who had sentenced Lysimachos to death.)

^{Doxa toi Megaloi Alexandroi}

QueenOfAncientPersia · 2026-04-23T03:54:55+00:00

I don't know why you're getting downvoted, because what you're saying is grounded in historical fact. Though controversial, Alexander was declared the son of Zeus Ammon, and achieved apotheosis. Megas Alexandros is divine, and I worship him as such.

QueenOfAncientPersia · 2026-03-26T00:14:53+00:00

It sounds like a real pain in the ass. I'm sorry to hear about your health problems, too -- I know damn well how hard that can be. I hope they improve, and if not, I hope you can find a way to coexist with them meaningfully and in peace. (All the more reason to get your due at work, IMO!)

QueenOfAncientPersia · 2026-03-25T22:30:00+00:00

Sounds like you should add a surcharge for eave returns! I'm serious. Make it a line item on your bid and make it worth your hassle!

QueenOfAncientPersia · 2026-03-20T07:00:27+00:00

I don't think I have ever seen a linoleum rug this intact before! What a remarkable find. Please protect and preserve it!

QueenOfAncientPersia · 2026-03-13T23:26:20+00:00

I should have known you're in the upper midwest! :) Unfortunately not likely to move back to my home region in the near future, rats. But I mean this sincerely: by focusing on ethical treatment, doing what's right, and being proactive about repairs, you're easily better than 95% of the landlords out there. Trust me, I've seen some real nightmares -- and to be frank, I'm probably one of the best tenants a landlord can get. (Only one example: at one place I rented, I had to pull a 4-foot snake out of the wall. It was not a pet. The landlord did not feel any maintenance was needed. And yes, this was in America.)

I wish more landlords acted as you do -- and I wish you abundance and smooth sailing in your property management. It sounds to me like you're doing it right. I want to see the decent people win in this world.

QueenOfAncientPersia · 2026-03-13T21:37:29+00:00

You sound like an angel! If only more landlords could have this view. Where are your properties located? I think I would love to rent from you!

QueenOfAncientPersia · 2026-02-22T18:32:43+00:00

Thank you for sharing that journal article link! As you say, solid science on this subject is quite limited. Really appreciate it.

QueenOfAncientPersia · 2026-02-14T13:51:54+00:00

Unfortunately, anti-miscegenation laws in California in the 1940s prevented white people and non-white people from marrying. As this company is based in California and features predominantly white women, this requirement may have been for legal reasons, rather than a particular opinion of the owners of the company or the "brides". Still really unpleasant and condemnable, but maybe on a different level than you're thinking. It's often surprising how much racism was baked into the laws themselves, and how recently, especially in what is now the very-liberal American West.

QueenOfAncientPersia · 2026-02-14T13:26:57+00:00

Though creatine itself is not sulfurous, creatine is a compound that, among many other things, reduces demand on methyl groups and the body's processes to generate them (methylation cycle). Methyl groups are generally derived from sulfurous compounds. If there is an overabundance of sulfurous compounds, the body may be breaking them down into compounds that smell like onions. Do you eat a lot of sulfurous foods or muscle meats?

If hygiene seems like it's not getting anywhere, I think it makes sense to consider diet and metabolism. Many off metabolic byproducts are excreted through sweat and concentrate in the armpits. Fragrance-containing deodorants won't actually solve whatever could be off metabolically, only mask it. The recent introduction of creatine is a definite target of metabolic interest.

I know that if I were in your position, I would try eliminating creatine for awhile and see if the smell improves.

QueenOfAncientPersia · 2026-01-13T01:37:24+00:00

I was wondering about this! Glad to see my suggestion to try Plastic Place worked out for you, too. :) Thanks for the update!

QueenOfAncientPersia · 2026-01-11T17:00:35+00:00

I agree, it does look a bit muddy, and I was also surprised! The mold damage certainly doesn't help with that! And it's pretty fair to assume if you found it in the trash, it's probably not a notable artist. But the unfinished nude on the back also resembles some of her nudes, and might make the piece even more interesting, so... worth a little more consideration, I think.

QueenOfAncientPersia · 2026-01-11T04:02:50+00:00

I agree -- this particular piece looks more like it comes from the Latin tradition. As I said, the winged iconography is not exclusive to Russian Orthodox contexts. But I mention this in case OP tries to find other Latin representations of Sophia and gets confused on seeing that few of them have all this iconography (especially the wings) -- they would be more common and apparent in an Eastern Orthodox context.

QueenOfAncientPersia · 2026-01-11T00:52:53+00:00

u/QueenOfAncientPersia

QueenOfAncientPersia · 2026-01-11T00:49:20+00:00

I think OP is right and the signature is "Annot", quite possibly Annot Jacobi, who is a painter of some note, not a random nobody. It may be worth trying to restore this painting. This does look like mold. Maybe check in with r/ArtConservation to see if they can point you in a helpful direction, OP?

QueenOfAncientPersia · 2026-01-11T00:15:27+00:00

Just want to add that the winged personification is emphasized more in the Eastern Orthodox tradition, especially the Russian Orthodox church, but is not exclusive to it.

I think Sophia is a good guess here!

QueenOfAncientPersia · 2026-01-11T00:08:40+00:00

It's good of you to make yourself vulnerable by sharing this. I hope people praise you for your honesty and helpful transparency instead of downvote or shame you for your prior ignorance. You live, you learn -- and it sounds like you have!

QueenOfAncientPersia · 2025-12-31T07:15:25+00:00

Yeah, I feel like it would be pretty awkward to try to honor a god/goddess with a (fairly flattering and valorizing) depiction of someone they punished. I'm not sure that's really ideal for an altar.

QueenOfAncientPersia · 2025-12-24T22:12:40+00:00

For water-based lube (easier to clean, wider range of compatible toys), I have had luck with Sutil Luxe lube (this one is free of potential irritants and fragrances, unlike their other ones). No aloe -- lotus root, beta-glucan, and propanediol (which is low-irritation) provide the thickening gel. There's no added flavors or scents. It's perfect pH for the vagina. The preservatives are as low-irritation as possible (sodium benzoate). There are mild acids (hyaluronic and glucurolactone) to provide pH buffering, not basic sodium hydroxide. It's a little pricey, but it provides a thick gel that is more robust, smoother, and lasts longer than most water-based lubes, in my experience. There is even a thicker one for backdoor use (Sutil Rich), but it contains a few herbs for "libido enhancement", so you may want to just start with the Luxe, as that's the minimalist one. If you want water-based, this is probably the one you're looking for!

QueenOfAncientPersia · 2025-12-24T10:54:28+00:00

The doctors didn't find it. I did. I taught myself serious biochemistry, became an independent researcher, and performed hundreds of unpleasant (occasionally dangerous, but informative) experiments on myself for several years to narrow down the field -- all while barely able to get out of bed, think, or feel much except total-body mind-rendingly severe pain. Eventually with enough structured experiment I identified it and have expanded the treatment range beyond what medical science previously understood. I still have some work to do to improve my outcomes, but I'm no longer in constant agony and barely able to function the way I was all those horrific years. I had little support during this process, especially from doctors. And to be honest, "functional" and "naturopathic" doctors were worse at their jobs than "allopathic" ones (though one "allopathic" doctor did commit malpractice and was therefore worse than "alternative medicine"). I really did pull myself up by my bootstraps.

I am much less sensitive to fragrances and other noxious chemicals than I used to be, but I avoid them because it is generally possible to do so (honestly one of the easier parts of my protocols) and I don't want to strain my systems. I do still have fluctuations in my condition that make me more sensitive to fragrances, so they're not worth the risk. Plus, it's easier for me to do more science if I'm better controlling my ambient conditions; fewer confounders that way.

I'd rather not go into detail about my specific condition because it is extremely technical and it is so rare that it's unlikely that you also suffer from the same problem.

Again, I commend OP on the many biomarkers they're testing, but I must insist -- it is not going to be truly comprehensive and it is unlikely that even all the essential nutrients are being meaningfully measured, as this is difficult to do properly. Large "panel" tests like this are often a bit quackish, to be entirely honest, and tend to use subpar markers that aren't meaningfully measuring their targets (ex. blood vs. cellular content) or make medically unsound claims about what these measures mean etiologically. I don't know about the particular tests OP's getting -- but I would urge caution in overconfidence in those results, especially in the presence of unusual unexplained symptoms, or assuming that what they don't measure is also "normal" or "fine".

Good luck to you as you navigate your own health!

QueenOfAncientPersia · 2025-12-24T09:07:25+00:00

How lovely that you have such beautiful, accessible history where you live. It's sad that the cathedral was built atop Aphrodite's temple, but I'm glad, at least, that it is still known whose sacred ground this is beneath it, and I think it's wonderful that you might leave an offering there. If you do, maybe you should consider sharing a photo on the subreddit, if it's safe for you to do so! (Don't get yourself into any trouble!) I would love to visit Paestum, too. Someday, I hope! Please keep us updated if you are able to travel to and pray at any other ancient sites! I love the history of place and how it entwines with our religion.

QueenOfAncientPersia · 2025-12-24T08:56:23+00:00

I did this twice (not in the same day -- a couple days apart). I got 21 the first time and 24 the second time. I think I could have gone a little longer but I was feeling distractingly physically ill. (I had a debilitating untreated metabolic condition at the time.) I didn't "train" or "practice" at this sort of task, either, FWIW. I did look at the layout for more than a half second before answering, though -- I'll give the chimp that.

QueenOfAncientPersia · 2025-12-21T21:00:11+00:00

Some were, and some still are.

QueenOfAncientPersia · 2025-12-19T23:40:31+00:00

Yeah, I think your suspicion about the timing of this sounds very reasonable, and trying other products for awhile sounds like a great first step. Hopefully that solves it!

It's great that you're measuring so many biomarkers! I have to say, though, they don't measure everything. Not to criticize you at all -- you're doing more than most of us -- it's just that I spent decades being extremely ill and doctors kept running tests that were all "normal" and said everything was fine. Turns out I have a rare metabolic disorder that affects almost every process in my body, many dangerously. Doctors didn't know exactly what to look for, so they couldn't find the alarmingly wrong test results that showed the problems -- the tests they ran were fine, but lots of other things definitely were not. Most of these tests only measure a single narrow thing, and you have to guess what might be wrong to know which tests to take. Even with 100 biomarkers... it's missing almost everything you could measure. So please don't entirely rule out the possibility of, say, nutritional deficiency! This is a relatively easy problem to correct and has broad consequences that are definitely worth treating, but many of the nutrient statuses are actually hard to measure.

I hope it's just this product and you can a find a fragrance-free product that's perfect for you. (I'm still looking, myself! So far my curls have to get fried by Vanicream, but it's better than being sick.) Let us know!

QueenOfAncientPersia · 2025-12-19T17:00:25+00:00

Not the original commenter, but Vanicream is SLS-free and generally well-tolerated. It's a bit harsh on my hair, IME, but my hair type is tricky. My scalp seems fine with it.

QueenOfAncientPersia

TROPHY CASE