Some Seleukid bronzes were struck on blanks that had been cast in molds with what some scholars call serrated edges. This term is, to this student, inadequate to describe the projections on the edge of these coins. Rather than being grooves cut into the edge as suggested by 'serration', these are three dimensional prongs protruding around the perimeter. There is probably no section of ancient Greek and Roman Coins that better shows the ignorance of this student than the Seleukid series. There is a vast amount of material from several mints.
Many issues have extensive legends written in tiny, hard to read letters.
Many Seleukid coins bear year dates in Greek numerals giving the years since the founding of the dynasty but these are lost on this specimen. The boy whose portrait was on the obverse was soon murdered leaving little of note besides a considerable number of coins including this 'elephant on a bottle cap'. The many words of this page only begin to describe these examples of Greek coins. While selected to represent each of their periods, these coins can hardly be called representative of such a varied group of coins. This page is the first in a series covering even more numismatic terms.