"Numismatic Gladiator" XI - Aethelred vs. lordmarcovan - BATTLE of the BOVINES

dadams

Welcome to "Numismatic Gladiator" XI - (Aethelred vs. lordmarcovan) - THE EPIC REMATCH

To see how the earlier competitions went, Click Here

As you may recall, @Aethelred challenged @lordmarcovan to a coin duel which spawned the classic "Numismatic Gladiator" games. The result at poll's end of "Numismatic Gladiator" I resulted in victory for Aethelred.

Here now is our EPIC REMATCH!

Ye Dead King taking on The Holey of Holeys

1. Both contestants agreed to purchase a single coin from the assigned category of Ancient Greek or Greek Imperial coins
2. The coin had to cost no more than $25.00 US.
3. In order to avoid either contestant having an advantage, contestants agreed to buy their coins from the same venue at a fixed price.
4. Shipping was not included in the $25.00 limit.
5. You can now vote on which coin you like best without knowing which coin belongs to whom. That will be revealed at the end.
6. The person whose coin receives the most votes gets MAJOR bragging rights and a sigline trophy.

This cointest will run until JAN 2, 2017 ending at midnight CST.

Vote for whichever coin appeals to you most.

The coins are presented here in chronological order, in similar sized images (though note that the actual coins themselves may differ widely in physical size).

Hats off to our cointestants! May the "best" coin win!

BATTLE OF THE BOVINES commences NOW!

Coin A: Byzantion (Thrace), AR 1/10th stater, ca. 340-320 BC
bought at VCoins from Nomisma Coins for $ 25.00

Message from the gladiator who bought Coin A:

This coin was struck in Byzantion (later Byzantium, the famous location along the Bosporus). The obverse features a cow (or bull) standing atop a dolphin, with the archaic form of the letters "BY" above. Unfortunately the head and forepart of the cow as well as all of the dolphin was struck off the flan, so we do not see them on this particular piece, but aside from being a bit off-center, it is a nicely struck and toned example.

Many of the world's earliest coins had incuse punches on the reverse, and the quadripartite incuse punch on this one is in what is referred to as a "mill sail" pattern, perhaps due to its resemblance to the sails on ancient windmills.

To find ancient Greek silver within the modest price limit of this competition was challenging enough, but to acquire a piece of archaic silver from the 4th century BC was exciting.

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Coin B: Apollonia, Illyria AR17 Drachm. Cow standing left suckling calf / Double stellate pattern
bought, on sale, at VCoins from David Connors for $ 24.65

Message from the gladiator who bought Coin B:

This coin was described by the seller as being from the city of Apollonia, located in the region of Illyria. However, further research has shown that it is actually from the neighboring town of Dyrrhachium.

Dyrrhachium is one of the oldest sites in the region, having been founded by colonists from Corinth in 627 BC. The town depended on livestock as the basis of its economy in the early days, explaining why cattle are a prominent feature on much of its coinage. However, it came under Roman rule in 229 BC and a major naval base was built. In 48 BC during the Roman Civil Wars a battle between Julius Caesar and Pompey the Great took place here. Pompey won, but failed to capitalize on his victory and would lose his life just two months later.

The proper attribution of this coin is as a Silver Drachm of Dyrrhachium, Illyria issued from 229-30 BC. The obverse shows a calf suckling a cow and bears the name of the ancient Greek moneyer responsible for this issue “Meniskos.” It is 17mm in diameter with a weight of 3.2g, it is listed in “Greek Coins and Their Values” by David R. Sear as SG-1899v.

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Now please VOTE!

lordmarcovan

NG11: The Need to Stampede!

Watch as we do battle... with cattle!

There's more at stake than... steak!

It's gonna get scary in the dairy!

Someone's beef will come to grief!

Your coin's a dud- go chew your cud!

My cow is divine- on yours I shall dine!

My coin's the last word- yours can't join the herd!

... and so on. I could milk this for all it's worth.

Maybe I just did.

Aethelred

Just taking a peek at this thread, hope everyone will pick a cut of beef and vote for it.

ajaan

I vote

Aethelred

@ajaan said:
I vote

That is taking the bull by the horns!

dadams

Don, Thanks for voting !!!!

I just mentioned to the dueling Gladiators what BULL it is that, as of my writing this, there has been 141 views, 4 comments, and ONLY 20 votes. If your reading the thread and logged in it only takes a quick click to choose your favorite.

Theodosius

The score is currently tied 11 to 11! Pretty exciting.

lordmarcovan

Wow. Coin B is rapidly coming up from behind!

Coin A was way out ahead (like 75+% of the votes for the first several days).

While I cannot yet tip my hand and reveal which coin I bought, I will mention that I initially bought this Antandras, Troas AE for the contest. It was, however, stolen from the dealer at a show in Germany, so I got a refund and ended up buying one of the silver "cow" coins you see above, instead. I'm happy with the selection I ended up making (though it is not yet in hand as of this posting).

This one, however, would've been fun to enter in the competition, too, had it been meant to be:

(The pix were a bit small, though, but that didn't keep our new MC from winning the eagle in NG10!)

Bronze coin
Antandrus, Troas 400 - 284 B C Head of Apollo laureate r.
ANTAN
Lion's head r.; grapes. 1.40 gram
11.7 mm
Aulock 7580

lordmarcovan

I will also note the strange coincidence that @Aethelred and I each ended up choosing a silver coin with a cow on it, by random circumstance, since obviously neither of us had any foreknowledge of what the other would buy.

Note how in the original NG1 contest, a similar coincidence happened, when, in competing in <$20 Roman Imperial coins, we both ended up buying very similar looking bronzes with RESTITVTOR ORBIS reverses.

Apparently great minds think alike.

pmac

Tied up now! This could come to a cow-tipping contest.

Jackthecat1

Both coins are excellent, I liked 'A' a little more.

Stork

Another tough one. I suspect I might have liked A better if it was more centered...but then it may not have qualified for the contest by price.

B on the other hand is Illyrian, the region where my odd numismatic favorite Albania traces its roots. There is a version with a running hound beneath the calf too which would have clinched the deal.

All in all, I ended up with B as my choice...using my method of 'if I could keep one which would it be' (assuming I didn't already have one already).

Both are worthy as usual!

asheland

I voted

coinkat

I voted.

bkzoopapa

I voted

BS

I voted

lordmarcovan

Thanks for voting and keeping this thing MOOving along, y'all.

lordmarcovan

Dang, tied again. So it's to be a nail-biter after all.

(Was going to insert another meat-related one-liner here, but it seems I've used up my supply of them.)

ajaan

(Was going to insert another meat-related one-liner here, but it seems I've used up my supply of them.)

Thankfully.

Aethelred

@lordmarcovan said:
(Was going to insert another meat-related one-liner here, but it seems I've used up my supply of them.)

Good, you have been milking it for all its worth.

Maybe you need to beef up on your cattle references?

Stop being jerky.

Put those puns out to pasture.

JohnnyCache

voted

ajaan

Don't encourage him.

HandH

Voted for.......

Aethelred

One cow will be heading to the slaughter house in just a few hours!

ajaan

@Aethelred said:
One cow will be heading to the slaughter house in just a few hours!

Put through the grinder?

dadams

I think they are both prime cuts but who can resist:

Coin A:
Q: What do you call a cow with no front legs?
A: Lean Beef

Coin B:
Q: What do call a cow that has just had a calf?
A: Decalfenated

Vote, Vote, Vote.

-d

ajaan

@dadams said:
I think they are both prime cuts but who can resist:

Coin A:
Q: What do you call a cow with no front legs?
A: Lean Beef

Coin B:
Q: What do call a cow that has just had a calf?
A: Decalfenated

Vote, Vote, Vote.

-d

ugh!

dadams

Voting has ended - Coin A is victorious claiming 24 votes or 52% vs 22 votes and 47% for Coin B.

The winner is: @lordmarcovan

Congratulations!!!

lordmarcovan

Vindication is mine!! Yay!

'T'was quite the narrow victory, however! A real "squeaker"!

lordmarcovan

I will add that I broke my own "No Headless Critters" rule with this purchase. I usually avoid ancient coins that have significant design features off the flan (particularly part of any human's face or creature's head). And this one, Coin A here, was not only missing half the cow but all of the dolphin as well. Nevertheless, I liked it very much for the price, and it was really that mill-sail incuse punch that sold me on it. I'm a sucker for the early stuff with those archaic punches. Never thought I'd see one offered for $25.

Michael's Coin B was, as the voting showed, a solid selection. It's a much larger coin, too, so had the coins been on physically on a desk in front of everyone voting, who knows what the outcome would've been. I saw his coin during my VCoins shopping and even considered buying it myself. It was on my short list.

Andres

Congrats Rob, although the wind mill reverse of your coin is awsome, I voted for Michael's Illyrian coin.
I Just like those Illyrian cow calf coins. Here's mine:

Aethelred

Congratulations to Rob, you Beefy Hindquarters managed to beat Old Elsie across the finish line. I had enough fun that I might consider taking part in a future NG in the future.

Thanks are in order to dadams for doing a superb job of hosting.

TwoKopeiki

Congrats LordM!

asheland

Awesome!

lordmarcovan

Thanks, all, and thanks @dadams, for keeping NG alive.

I'm looking forward to seeing the future contests, and perhaps entering the arena in a few more.

Jackthecat1

Congratulations to Lord M on your victory.

Dawg144

Congratulations, LordM! And thanks to dadams for taking over the reins for these fun contests.

PatAR

I'm sorry I missed the event, but enjoyed reading through it. You too really share some brain waves with your selection of coins in both contests! Congrats to Lord M!

Swampboy

Congrats.
This was a well fought duel.
I voted A based on the wholesome look of the piece.
P.S. Never could understand how some folks base their ancient coin purchases on the total count of animal body parts.