Calciati published some specimens with three or four pellets listed as Trias (
Calciati I.234.3), and some with three pellets listed as Tetras (
Calciati I.235.4). It is
still an uncertain matter, because
weights do not
help much, as probably we are looking to older and later specimens, based on two different standards for the
Litra, the older heavier.
I would list all the coin posted above as
Calciati 3-4. I would not give any certain and definitive classification, if I'd give an opinion according to the current state of studies.
CNS calls type 4 Tetras.
c.rhodes
I.e, tetrantes or trionkia, as Hoover calls them, with three pellets.
The trouble is people confuse tetras (3 pellets) with tetrunx/tetronkia (4 pellets), as Head did in BMC Sicily (p. liv), so the tendency now is to use tetronkia/trionkia/dionkia etc, which makes things clear.
Actually, wouldn't trionkion (triple-ounce) be better for the name of the coin? - trionkia (three ounces) is its value.
Ross G.
This is a very complex and confusing matter, in particular because the
weight metrology of the
cast coinage of Selinous has not yet been established with certainty (the last who tried to make things clearer is Lorenzo
Lazzarini, "Note sull'
aes grave di Selinunte" 2009, but
his work has not completely cleared the
field from uncertainties, I post scans of
his work as attachments for those interested).
Some thoughts about your words Ross... Today people is confused because between the seventies and eighties there was a real reversal of terminology about the
weight system based on
litra.
Indeed, we must point out that
Head was right, he did not confused anything, in fact in the years he wrote
his work, the
denomination Trias was mainly used to define a coin with three pellets, so a trias = 3 onkiai (We know of scholars that used this classification
still in 1977, for an authoritative example see Enzo
Cammarata's relation at congress "Le origini della monetazione di bronzo in
Sicilia ed in Magna Grecia"). In the following years scholars have instead encoded a
denomination agreement based on the duodecimal system of
litra for which the name expresses the fraction of the
litra, not the amount of onkiai... so now the Trias is no more the minimum fractional multiplied for three (1 onkia X 3). Today the Trias is the maximum
denomination divided by three (1/3
Litra = 4 onkiai).
Summarizing:
The trias amounts to a third of
litra, a
litra is made of 12 onkiai; a third of 12 is equivalent to four onkiai. ie Trias = four pellets.
The Tetras amounts to a quarter of
litra, a
litra is made of 12 onkiai; a quarter of 12 is equivalent to three onkiai. ie Tetras = three pellets.
Today, since eighties, there is agreement among major scholars to use this system (in fact
Calciati was already using the correct system in
his work dated 1983)... although some of them are sometimes inattentive and
still use the old incorrect naming system, like here:
http://www.greekcoinvalues.com/introduction.php[/quote]
Actually, wouldn't trionkion (triple-ounce) be better for the name of the coin? - trionkia (three ounces) is its value.
[/quote]
Ross this would be not better in my opinion, cause it would be based again on the minimum fractional, and we could not understand the frame
weight system.
If you say: "Tetras" I can immediatly understand that you are talking of a coin from a duodecimal
weight system based on
litra (Tatras = 1/4 of
Litra = three onkiai).
If you say "Trionkion" I can only understand that the coin has a value of three onkiai, but I will not grasp anything about the frame
weight system. In fact in Greek
Italy we know of coinage standards of
litra, but based on a decimal system, not duodecimal. For this reason we use the term pentonkion just to name those coins with five pellets based on a decimal system.
Best regards
Nico
PS. those matters, among other interesting stuff on the coinage of Selinous, were already discussed on the
Italian forum at this link:
http://www.lamoneta.it/topic/128197-emilitra-almeno-credo-in-bronzo-di-selino/?hl=selinus
