Greek
11/19/2011 link back up to main Chapter 262 Coins
Ancient Macedonia
A God and his son.
This is a 323-317 BC silver drachm of Philip III whose claim to fame is being the half brother of Alexander the Great . Got it from an ebay Las Vegas coin shop where I had luck before. I returned it for money back suspecting a fake due to the filing marks on the edge (of the flan). Then I contacted a local expert I'd met at the coin show who advised me it was probably actually real, so I called Las Vegas and told them to ship it back to me. Turns out It had actually been among a set of coins that had all been previously authenticated.
On fake castings or die coins the edges may be filed down to remove the ridge. Original coins are hand struck, edges typically showing jagged cracking. But original flans were filed sometimes to get the right weight or perhaps someone filed to fit jewelry, or had dropped it and wanted to smooth the edge. It was silver, however, and solid, since someone gouged it previously. Even some of the originals are only plated. Many of the original coins are horrible looking and still going for hundreds of bucks. Could not find an exact reference match either, although sometimes you can't.
This series is popular for fraud, however. I have little spent very little, so there's little to lose and you gotta get your feet wet anyway. There are many guides to fakery: one, two, three , four , five . The ancients are crude and variable so it's hard to tell what's real or not. You can spend an extra $100 or more to have an authenticated one, still no guarantee. Even the best experts get fooled on occasion: you could have counterfeit bills in your wallet now and you wouldn't know it.
Philip III was the dim witted King of Macedonia, the center of the classical Greek Empire. I say that with no disrespect because his mother tried to poison him so he wouldn't be a threat to his half brother Alexander who was the prior ruler. I had thought their empire was merely Greece, but no it was vast and complex until Rome took over 146BC.
I don't want to be called a "coin collector", but if you collect coins you have to have one of these Greek coins. The real popular coins are for Alex and they have the same look.
Hercules (or Heracles), son of Zeus, on the front of the coin and on this ancient Boston Museum pottery is wearing the Nemean Lion skin as he was fond of doing. Lions did inhabit Greece and the environs in olden days.
The rear of the coin has Zeus (father of all Greek gods) sitting on the throne holding eagle and scepter royal staff. His largest monument is at the Temple of Zeus in Olympia . That held the 42 foot ivory and gold statue that was one of the 7 wonders of the world.
The Greeks really honored their Gods in the olden days. This beautiful Acropolis in Athens from hundreds of years BC honors many gods and goddesses including Zeus and his daughter Athena. The Persian Invasion destroyed much of this in 480BC. The Parthenon is just an amazing bit of architecture and construction which has been under restoration for the last 30 or 40 years. This was the center of the world back then and now Greece could have more impact on the world than it's had in thousands of years, for almost the opposite reasons.
Wildwinds Philip III coin variations
close match is Price P16: Philip III Arrhidaios. 323-317 BC. AR Drachm (19mm, 4.33 g, 12h). Lampsakos mint. Head of Herakles right, wearing lion skin / Zeus Aëtophoros seated left; buckle, crescent over A in left field.
other Lampsakos mint variations
F is for Fake just watched this wonderful Orson Wells 1974 movie about art fraud. If you are inclined to watch it, just dive in, don't read the whole synopsis first.
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