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Author Topic: Archaic Greek letters  (Read 1550 times)

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Offline JBF

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Archaic Greek letters
« on: February 12, 2020, 05:57:29 pm »
Archaic letters on Greek coins

One thing a collector of ancient Greek coins might collect is an example of a coin with an Archaic letter on it, either alone or in an ethnic or other inscription.
These letters include the vau or digamma  :Greek_Digamma: pronounced as a W as in the word Wanax or king, a word used in Homer, without the vau, but meter of Homer shows it was originally there.
Also the koppa  :Greek_Koppa: or Archaic 'Q' later replaced by the kappa.
Also the san, which is a sigma, but appears like  :Greek_Mu: not a  :GreeK_Sigma:

The vau is also called the digamma because it has not one but two arms extending to the right, (like an F), Elis has for its ethnic  :Greek_Digamma:  :Greek_Alpha:, also the incuse issues of Laus have a vau in the middle of the inscription starting on the obverse:Greek_Lambda: :Greek_Alpha: :Greek_Iota: :Greek_Digamma:, continuing the the reverse  :Greek_Nu: :Greek_Omicron: :Greek_Mu:  Also, some Poseidonia incuse coins have the inscription  :Greek_Digamma: :Greek_Iota: :Greek_Iota: :Greek_Mu:

The koppa is used on Corinthian coin as an ethnic, also it is found in the ethnic on the Archaic and early Classical for Kroton ( :Greek_Koppa: :Greek_Rho: :Greek_Omicron: or  :Greek_Koppa: :Greek_Rho: :Greek_Omicron: :Greek_Tau: :Greek_Omicron: :Greek_Nu:) in Southern Italy.  Also, early on, Syracuse used a koppa in its ethnic.

The san is seen on the coins of Sy[baris], Sirinos-Pyx[oes], Pos[eidonia] and some of those mentioned above. 
One variant of the san is found on the coins of Messembria, called a "disigma".  The 'double sigma' appears as a wide, short 'T' with tabs hanging from the arms of the T.  Around a wheel is the inscription
      E
M         'T'
      A

The "disigma", unlike the digamma represents a double letter combination, not a separate letter.

The vau or digamma represents the Greek number 6,
The koppa represents the Greek number 90,
The san is incorporated in the sampi, representing the number 900.

Another example of an Archaic usage of a letter is the consonantal  :Greek_Eta: which, if I accurately recall, Halartus (spelling?) in Boeotia uses the consonantal eta.

There are other nuances to the letters on Greek coins, strange letter forms.  There are classical letters that probably did not exist in the Archaic Greek, like the vowel eta, or probably the omega.  But that is an issue for another time.

Offline ZVdP

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Re: Archaic Greek letters
« Reply #1 on: December 08, 2020, 06:21:08 pm »
A bit of a late reply, but you've just described my collection !

Besides the cities you already mentiond you can also find digammas on coins of (W)Oiniadai, (W)Anaktorion, Aspendos (Estwedius), Thebes (Magistrates 'Werg', 'Wast', 'Euwara') and Perge (Pamphylian digamma)
Qoppa in Koroneia (Boeotia) and Tegea (in name of the Arkadian league 'Arkadiqon').
San in Sikyon
Sampi in Massalia and Perge (Pamphylian sampi)


And it's actually quite a viable collection topic if you expand it to also include archaic epichoric letter variants, i.e. R for rho, S for sigma, etc.

I've attached the variants I've managed to collect so far. But there's still a couple of rare variants hiding out there:

C for Pi (Crete)
Psi without stem for Chi (Chalkis)
:Greek_Lambda: for gamma (Crete)

Offline JBF

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Re: Archaic Greek letters
« Reply #2 on: December 09, 2020, 02:24:49 pm »
I don't know how you are, but for some letter variants, I don't even think of them as a variant, when I read them.  I once showed a friend who had no background in inscriptions a Metapontum (META) and said, "see! META for Metapontum!"  Only later did I realize that the mu, the epsilon and the alpha were slight variants.

But thank you for your lists of variants!  The "theta" for a phi on an early electrum Phocaea seal.  (seal as in 'ark! ark!' not as in a stamp.)

Offline ZVdP

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Re: Archaic Greek letters
« Reply #3 on: December 09, 2020, 07:55:50 pm »
I agree some are perhaps a bit of a stretch, such as the epsilon and alpha. There's always going to be some variation depending on the engraver, but if the differences are consistent on a type of coin I'll usually include it. Especially when there aren't many alternatives for a letter, as is the case for epsilon and alpha.

The alpha variant however is especially pronounced on the Sermyle coins and I would have to read it twice to see it's an alpha: https://www.wildwinds.com/coins/greece/macedonia/sermylia/Moushmov_6574.jpg.

I do however consider the raised Mu a significant variant, since it is required to distinguish it from a San.

On the other hand, I decided not to include the kappa variant where the two legs don't meet in the middle, because that seemed a bit too variable within the same coin series.

I also struggle a bit with the inclusion of :Greek_Theta: and :Greek_Pi_2:since they survive well into the classical period. But then I would have to get rid of the beautiful Athenian owl tetradrachm :(

Offline ZVdP

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Re: Archaic Greek letters
« Reply #4 on: December 12, 2020, 05:42:49 pm »
The "theta" for a phi on an early electrum Phocaea seal.  (seal as in 'ark! ark!' not as in a stamp.)

Wow. I just looked up this coin and it's absolutely stunning! https://www.sixbid-coin-archive.com/#/en/search?text=phokaia%20el%20seal%20%CE%98
Unfortunately it looks like it's a bit above my pay grade.

Do you happen to know more about this theta-phi?
There's no reference of it on the Poinikastas repository: http://poinikastas.csad.ox.ac.uk/browseGlyphs.shtml

Offline JBF

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Re: Archaic Greek letters
« Reply #5 on: December 13, 2020, 02:58:47 pm »
The creature to the left of the 1/2 seal is a dolphin (most likely), not a seal, which _does_ appear often as a secondary symbol in later Phokaian issues.  The seal is a canting pun  :Greek_Phi: :Greek_omega_small: :Greek_Kappa: :Greek_Eta:.  I seem to remember that Hill or Head talked about it, saying the letter was a phi, albeit looking like a theta.  I assume it was done by a punch.  You might look up on a pronunciation chart and see how close  :Greek_Theta: and  :Greek_Phi: are to each other (in their pronunciation of their position in the mouth).  Remember that phi is not really an "F", but more like a German pf combination as in pferde or pfennig.  I am not sure about the ancient pronunciation of theta.  Phi is actually a combination letter of  :Greek_Pi: :Greek_Eta:.  Remember that eta in the Archaic age was a consonantal H, not a long e vowel.

Of course what we call a theta-like phi may only be a bubble, at least on the first of the three (two) coins you show.  But it does seem like the later coin with the dot in the center of the 'O' is a letter, and must be a phi, for Phokaia.

 

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