ID'ing ancient Greek coins

CoinCoins

Ancient Greeks. I think I read there are over 40,000 different types? oofda...

I've got a few here I'm curious about. I think they're Greek.

1. I can't find "POYHPOC" anywhere.
   
   

2.

3.

Looking forward to learning how to ID these... I've got around 80 more on the way

Sapyx

I shall attempt to document my ID process, with the aim of offering some insight into how it's done. Or at least, how I do it.

Coin 1: this is a Roman Provincial coin - the language is Greek, but the portrait and titles on the obverse are of a Roman emperor. The emperor has a beard; beards didn't come back into fashion in Rome until emperor Hadrian, so the coin must date from some time in the period 100-300 AD. The reverse names the city: it says (starting at 7 o'clock) "CIDHTWN". There are a couple of possible cities his could be; I first thought Sidon, in Phoenicia, but came up empty, so I ran "CIDETWN" through Google. Up came coins from the city of Side, in Pamphylia (in modern southern Turkey). Next, I load up Wildwinds and click on "Greek and Roman Provincial", then "Pamphylia - Side". I click on "show with thumbnails" to help find it, then scroll down to the Roman Provincial section. There is a coin on Wildwinds with your exact same reverse (the reverse figure is Athena), but the obverse is Commodus; your coin must therefore be from an emperor not too far away from Commodus on the timeline. Lucius Verus was joint-emperor with Commodus, but there are no coins for him in WIldwinds. However, coins from him from other nearby cities have the obverse legend AVT K L AYP OYHPOC - which as you can see is a match for the "POYHPOC" your coin. (Greek doesn't have an equivalent of "V", so they made do with "OU", pronounced kind of like an English W; OYHPOC would Anglicize to "Oueeros".

Your coin is, therefore, a Roman Provincial from the city of Side, Pamphylia, emperor Lucius Verus, AD 161-169, reverse CIDHTWN (Sideetoun), Athena standing.

Coin 2: this one is "proper Greek", not Roman - you can tell by the lack of obverse inscriptions. The reverse is upside-down - it's a lyre, the musical instrument - but it can be tricky to find out which way is up. However, there's an "ohm" over on the left of your pic, so we rotate that until it's an upside-down-U-shape, and that's now the text oriented correctly.

Read this way up, the text says "PHGI NWN" (Reeginoun). My first thought was Rhegion, a Greek city to the south of Rome, on the toe of the boot in Italy. Sure enough, there's a coin with this exact design in Wildwinds. Done. So your coin is: Rhegion, Bruttium, medium bronze, circa 270-203 BC, obverse Apollo, reverse RHGI-NWN to either side of lyre.

Coin 3: That poor thing's really melty. I don't even have much confidence that it's genuine, it might be a cast fake - once a coin gets this heavily ovecleaned, it can be hard to tell the difference. You've got Pegasus on the reverse; there's enough of what must have once been writing to indicate this may be a Roman Provincial coin rather than Greek, which should help narrow things down since the portrait is female (which would make it an emperor's wife).

sellitstore

@Sapyx That's an excellent description of the attribution process, an easy-to-follow, step by step description of how you do it and I've learned from it.
My first impression of the last coin was that the reverse looked like the eagle used on the bronze issues of Egypt but, I can clearly see Pegasus. When the detail gets so uncertain, one can start to see patterns that don't exist. What's that called? I've forgotten.
I also used to be pretty good with the more common Roman portraits but I've forgotten some of that from lack of practice, too. I dabbled in ancients and World coins for a decade about 30-40 years ago but became more active in currency. Both ancients and certain world coins still fascinate me and I'd like to become more involved again. Time seems to be the limiting factor.

CoinCoins

Coin 1: this is a Roman Provincial coin - the language is Greek, but the portrait and titles on the obverse are of a Roman emperor.

I was wondering about that. It's odd to me that it isn't on wildwinds. No catalog number. That reverse on the Commodus is the only one anywhere, yet has a different emperor on the obverse? Is that unusual?

Coin 2:

Sure enough, there's a coin with this exact design in Wildwinds. Done. So your coin is: Rhegion, Bruttium, medium bronze, circa 270-203 BC, obverse Apollo, reverse RHGI-NWN to either side of lyre.

Impressive.

Once again, thanks a million. I appreciate you taking the time to talk me through your process