A Rare Didrachm, From Miletus As It Seems

[Rupert]

I was recently able to add this coin to my collection. I'll describe it as I see it and then discuss.

Didrachm, Miletus, about 410 BC
Obv. Lion's head or protome with open jaws to the left
Rev. M-(I) / (Λ)-H / Σ-(I) / Ω-N
Milesian-style floral or stellar ornament
15.5 to 19.5 mm, 6.59 g

This coin was offered as an unpublished half-stater of Hekatomnos, with the letters M-N-Ω, running from 11 to 8 o'clock, being part of his name retrograde. But the "normal" N in a retrograde legend would be odd, and the letters H and Σ at 4 and 5 o'clock are clear, and clearly not part of his name. Also, Hekatomnos' "lion and flower" coins bear the name, usually as EKA, above the lion's snout; and while the obverse is off-center, so we don't know whether it's a head or a protome, we see very clearly there is no EKA. Plus, most Hekatomnos coins have a circular incuse, and slimmer floral patterns.

The coin equals the third-century didrachms of Miletus in weight, and has six times the weight of the common archaic "diobols" or twelfth-staters. The style of the lion's head places it quite later than the diobols, so when could it have been struck? Miletus was a member of the Delian League; in 454 or 453, Athens forbade the other members to strike their own coinage. The League crumbled apart when Athens lost the Peloponnesian War, so striking could have resumed about 410 BC. To my mediocrily-trained eyes, the style of the head looks more like 410 than like 454 BC.

I'm eagerly awaiting your opinions about this coin.

Best regards,

Rupert

[Rupert]

Still eagerly waiting, and wondering: Is the coin so boring or so enigmatic that no one has responded so far?

I'm attaching an image with the remaining letters added as I would expect them in the die.

Rupert

[Altamura]

Should i repeat what I already wrote in the German forum?   

If you post a coin in both, it would be nice to state this (in both).

Regards

Altamura

[Rupert]

Sorry, I didn't expect that the link to the German board would be interesting for the readers in this board. We might resume what we have so far:

1. A legend reading MILESION is quite unknown for this period. Since the legend is not completely legible and certain, a legend in Carian letters might also be considered.

2. The obv. and rev. types are rather common under Hekatomnos, but the weight doesn't fit in his coinage.

3. My hypothesis: This is a short-lived intermediate independent coin emission, issued between the crumbling of the Delian League and the renewed Persian over-rule.

The coins of Hekatomnos come in different styles; some third-staters (http://hno.huma-num.fr/browse?idType=226, thank you Altamura for the link!) have a square incuse and a floral pattern which is quite similar to this coin. Since Hekatomnos also ruled Miletus (under Persian over-rule, I have found the information that it was given to him in 386 BC but don't know how secure this date is), Hekatomnos might have struck his third-staters of this type at Miletus, taking over the design of this coin, replacing the ethnic with his name and switching to the Carian coin standard. A coin like the one in discussion at 6.6 grams would then have been too heavy both for the Carian standard (a half-stater should be 6.3 grams, and only third-staters were struck) and for the Persian standard (a siglos should be about 5.4 grams), and being too heavy for common circulation, it would probably soon be melted down. This, and maybe the short period of independence (between Delian league and Persian rule), might be reasons why this type is so rare.

Rupert

[Joe Sermarini]

Interesting. I'm going to have to start looking for letters on these.