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Sikyonia, Sikyon (Circa 431-400 BC)AR Drachm
23mm, 5.31 g
Obverse: Chimaira advancing left
Reverse: Dove flying left within laurel wreath.
BCD Peloponnesos 204; HGC 5, 207.
Sparta famously coined no money until well after the end of the classical period. However, because Spartans made up only a small part of the Peloponnesian army during the Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC) it still required coins to pay for mercenaries. The Peloponnesian mercenaries came largely from Arkadia (center of the Peloponnese peninsula) and would expect to be paid in money coined on the Aeginetan standard. Coins of Aegina were the dominant currency of the Peloponnesus but Aegina’s minting activities came to an end in 431 BC when Athens occupied the city and expelled its citizens. Corinth seemed an obvious solution for a communal mint but Corinth had its own weight standard and would not want to change it and complicate its trade interests in the west. Sparta was also probably distrustful of putting too much influence in the hands of Corinth by allowing it control of the bullion reserves.
That is where Sikyon comes in. At the time Sikyon was the wealthy capital famous for being a center for the arts as well as being known for its fruits and vegetables, its wines, and olives. The whole area was named “field of cucumbers” (Sikyonia) after the cucumbers that grew there.
Sikyon was small enough not to pose a threat to Spartan hegemony and yet close enough to Corinth to give that city a measure of influence. It has been suggested that the treasury at Olympia was used as a silver source to coin the money needed for the war (Persian money would only come late in the war).
This drachm depicts a chimera, a mythical, fire-breathing monster composed of parts of three animals: a lion with the head of a goat arising from its back and a tail that ends in a snake’s head, walking proudly to the left in an almost heraldic manner. According to Greek mythology, the chimera was slain by Bellerophon, and appeared on most of the major coinage of Sikyon. A dove is shown on the reverse, representing the main emblem of the city and a symbol of spirit.
Nathan PJan 06, 2023
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Calabria, Tarentum (Circa 280 BC)AR Nomos
22.5mm, 7.58 g
Obverse: Youth on horseback right, crowning horse; [ΣA to left, APE/ΘΩN in two lines below]
Reverse: Phalanthos, holding tripod, riding dolphin left; TAΡAΣ above [CAΣ below]
Vlasto 666–7; HN Italy 957
280 BC was the last year the original Tarentine weight standard of 7.8 g remained in place before being reduced to about 6.6 grams, perhaps to match the Roman weight standard of 6 scruples. Likely not coincidentally, this was also the year that Tarentum enlisted the help of the famous general King Pyrrhus of Epirus to fight against the Romans. King Pyrrhus had long dreamed of emulating his cousin Alexander the Great's conquests and saw the conflict with Rome as an opportunity to do so. He arrived in Italy with his army and several war elephants and defeated the Romans twice, but the second victory at Asculum came at such a high cost that he famously said, "If we win one more victory against the Romans, we will be completely ruined." Hence the phrase, a "Pyrrhic victory." He eventually left Southern Italy for Sicily. In the end, Rome won the Pyrrhic War (280-272 B.C.) and forced Tarentum to accept a permanent Roman garrison on its acropolis.
Taras coins minted between 425 and 209 BC typically depict a horseman on the obverse and a young man riding a dolphin on the reverse (Phalanthos, the half-Spartan divine founder of Tarentum supposedly carried to shore by a dolphin after a shipwreck). The horseman designs are believed to represent the worship of the Dioscuri, the twin deities Castor and Pollux (deities of horsemanship, athletes, and soldiers) worshipped in Taras' mother city of Sparta. This particular didrachm features a peaceful scene of a young man crowning a horse, which may commemorate a victory in an athletic contest.
Nathan PJan 06, 2023
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Aegina (Circa 480-457 BC)AR Stater
20mm, 12.26g
Obverse: Sea turtle, (the ridge of its shell ornamented with a row of dots and two smaller additional dots at the front)
Reverse: Incuse square divided into five compartments.
Milbank pl. I, 13; Sear 2594
Aegina is a rocky and mountainous island in the Saronic Gulf located about 25 miles southeast of Athens. Because of its limited availability of cultivable land, the inhabitants needed to leverage the sea for their livelihood. They became expert merchants and tradesmen, dominating the shipping industry early in the sixth century BC. Their success and near-monopoly brought the island great wealth and power.
During their travels, the merchants encountered the developing early electrum ancient coins in Ionia and Lydia. They recognized the potential to not only store their considerable wealth in the form of portable ancient coins, but also to optimize trade through a global currency. Aegina therefore became the first of the Greek city-states to issue coined money, starting in the mid-sixth century BC.
Their status as the first international trade currency was aided by the consistency of their designs, and their coins spread far throughout the known world. Throughout Peloponnesus the coinage of Aegina was, down to the time of the Peloponnesian war, the only universally recognized medium of exchange.
The earliest ancient coins types, like this coin, depict a sea turtle engraved in high relief with an incuse pattern on the reverse. The coin above is a Type II (of IV total), a period from 480-456 BC (based on hoard finds) when Aegina’s power was lessening and Athens was on the rise. Type II coins show a greater consistency and broadness of flan shape, the carapaces of the turtles’ shell decorated with pellets arranged in the form of a T, and a skew pattern on the reverse, which had become current in about 500BC but in a much more spacious form with thick bands separating the incuse elements of the design.
In 456 BC Aegina was made tributary to Athens; and in 431 BC the inhabitants were expelled en masse, and the island occupied by Athenian colonists.
Nathan PAug 02, 2021
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Persia, Achaemenid Empire. Darios I to Xerxes II (Circa 485-420 BC)AR Siglos
18 mm, 5.59 g
Sardes Mint
Obverse: Persian king in kneeling-running stance right, holding spear and bow, quiver over shoulder.
Reverse: Incuse rectangular punch.
Carradice Type IIIb (early)
Type III siglos (490-375 BC) all have the kneeling-running figure of the Great King right, transverse spear with point downward in right, bow in left hand, bearded, and crowned. They were possibly introduced in connection with the accession of Xerxes. Type IIIb is characterized by a heavier weight (5.55-5.6g vs. 5.3-5.39g for the earlier Type A) and often exhibits a cartoon-like large eye and aquiline nose (evident above).Nathan POct 05, 2020
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Carthage, Second Punic War (203-201 BC)BI 1½ Shekels.
25mm, 9.18g
Obverse: Wreathed head of Tanit left
Reverse: Horse standing right, head left, with leg raised.
MAA 81; SNG Copenhagen 390-3.
Billon is debased silver, an indication of the financial stress Carthage was under towards the end of the war. This particular coin would have been minted in Carthage right around the time of the decisive battle of Zama (southwest of Carthage) where the Roman General Scipio Africanus defeated Hannibal in 202 BC. Nathan PAug 25, 2020
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Bruttium, Brettii (Circa 211-208 BC)Æ24, 6.06g
Obverse: Laureate head of Zeus r.; behind, spear.
Reverse: Eagle standing l., with head r. and wings open; below in l. field, plough.
SNG ANS 133. Historia Numorum Italy 1994.Nathan PJul 30, 2020
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Campania, Cales (Circa 265-240 BC)AE 23, 6.52 g
Obverse: Head of Athena l., wearing Corinthian helmet. CAΛENO (CALENO)
Reverse: Cock standing r.; in l. field, star.
Sambon 916. Historia Numorum Italy 435.
Before the Romans, Cales had been the center of an earlier Italic population called the Ausones (Aurunci in Latin), a people that inhabited areas of southern Italy well beyond Campania by about 1000 BC. That people may have come from Greece, but there is also archaeological evidence of Etruscan origin or at least influence. The source of the name Cales may be the proper name Calai, mythologically said to be one of Jason’s companions aboard the Argo and to have founded Cales.
Livy (VIII.16.13-14) relates that a Latin colony, the first in Campania, was established at Cales in 334 BC. It was apparently part of the area conquered by Rome circa 313 BC after which Cales became the center of Roman rule in Campania. Similar coins were struck at Cales, Suessa Aurunca, Caiatia, Telesia, Teanum, and at least one other town, doubtless by permission of the Romans. This uniformity of types suggests a monetary alliance.Nathan PJul 29, 2020
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Sicily, Syracuse. Dionysius I (Circa 400-390 BC) Æ22 (7.48g)
Obverse: Head of Athena left, wearing Corinthian helmet.
Reverse: Hippocamp to left
Calciati 34. SNG ANS 434.
Dionysius began his working life as a clerk in a public office. Because of his achievements in the war against Carthage that began in 409 BC, he was elected supreme military commander in 406 BC. In the following year he seized total power and became tyrant.
Dionysius, who styled himself a poet, was fond of having literary men about him, such as the historian Philistus, the poet Philoxenus, and the philosopher Plato. Diodorus Siculus humorously relates in his Bibliotheca historica that Dionysius once had Philoxenus arrested and sent to the quarries for voicing a bad opinion about his poetry. The next day, he released Philoxenus because of his friends' requests, and brought the poet before him for another poetry reading. Dionysius read his own work and the audience applauded. When he asked Philoxenus how he liked it, the poet turned to the guards and said "take me back to the quarries."Nathan PJul 27, 2020
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Sicily, Akragas (480-470 BC)AR Didrachm
20.17 mm, 8.80 g
Obverse: Eagle standing left, AK-(RA)
Reverse: Crab within shallow incuse circle.
Westermark, Coinage, Group IV; HGC 2, 97.
The early designs of the coinage of Akragas remained consistent for nearly a century, depicting Zeus’ standing eagle on the obverse and a crab on the reverse. The fresh-water crab is a symbol of the Akragas river and an emblem of the city. This example has a die crack (obverse) and appears to be overstruck. Nathan PJun 23, 2020
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Celtic, Eastern Europe (lower Danube region), Imitations of Philip III of Macedon. (3rd-2nd centuries BC)Tetradrachm
25mm, 16.56g
Obverse: Head of Heracles right, wearing lion's skin headdress.
Reverse: Zeus seated left; monograms before and below. ΦIΛIΠΠOY (of Philip) to right.
CCCBM I 185ff. Göbl OTA 579.Nathan PJun 19, 2020
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Phoenicia, Arados. (Circa 172/1-111/0 BC). Dated CY 91 (169/8 BC).Drachm
18 mm, 3.98 g
Obverse: Bee; (qoppa)A (date, in monogram form - qoppa is 90, A is 1) to left, RE monogram to right
Reverse: Stag standing right; palm tree in background.
Duyrat 2706–17; HGC 10, 63; DCA 774.
Images of the bee as a symbol appear very early in the development of ancient Greek coinage. In particular, the prosperous city of Ephesus in Ionia (on the Aegean coast of Turkey) adopted the bee as its civic emblem. Ephesus was the location of a famous temple of the goddess Artemis (one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world.) The high priest of the temple was known as the “king bee” (living in a fiercely patriarchal society, Greeks believed the queen bee was male) and the priestesses were called melissae (honeybees). There are nearly a thousand different known types of bee-and-stag coins from Ephesus, and unpublished new varieties appear frequently.
In 202 BC, Ephesus established an alliance with the Phoenician city of Arados (now Arwad, a small island off the Syrian coast south of Tartus). Arados later marked this event by adopting the bee and stag design for its coinage. Coins of Arados can be distinguished by the name of city ARADION, inscribed in Greek on the reverse. This alliance evidently continued for decades.Nathan PApr 08, 2020
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Satraps of Caria. Hidrieus (Circa 351-344 BC)AR Tetradrachm
13.77 g
Obverse: Head of Apollo facing, turned slightly right, hair parted in center and swept to either side, drapery at neck
REverse: ΙΔΡΙΕΩΣ (IDRIEOS), Zeus Laubrandus advancing right, labrys in right hand over shoulder, spear in left; small E to right of feet.
SNG von Aulock 8046. SNG Lockett 2909.
As part of the Achaemenid Empire, Caria in the fourth century BC was under the rule of a family of semi-independent satraps known as the Hekatomnids after the dynasty's founder, Hekatomnos. Born in Mylasa, Hekatomnos was appointed satrap of Caria by the Persian king Artaxerxes II, ruler of the Achaemenid Empire . Interested in Hellenic culture (and possibly hedging his diplomatic bets), Hekatomnos sent his youngest son, Pixodaros, to Athens as part of a deputation; his older son, Maussolos, was bound by xenia, or guest friendship, with Agesilaus, king of Sparta. Hekatomnos died in 377/6 BC and was succeeded by Maussolos.
Hekatomnos second series of coinage has on the obverse the standing figure of the Carian Zeus of Labranda, carrying his distinctive double-ax, and on the reverse a lion with the name Hecatomnus above. Maussolos retained his father's type of the Carian Zeus but transferred it to the reverse of his coinage. For the obverse he chose a facing laureate head of Apollo. The immediate model for this type was the facing head of Helios on the Rhodian coinage; the choice was part of the policy of Hellenization in pursuit of which Maussolos built a new capital at Halicaranassus and commissioned for himself a monumental tomb created by leading Greek architects and sculptors. Known later as the Mausoleum, its size and elaborate decoration made it one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world.The types of Maussolos' coinage were retained by his successors, who ruled in southwest Asia Minor until the arrival of Alexander - Hidrieus (351-344, the coin above), Pixodorus (340-334), and Rhoontopates (334-333).Nathan PMar 27, 2020
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Attica, Athens. (Circa 454-449 BC)AR Tetradrachm
25 mm, 17.20 g
This is a transitional Owl tetradrachm that bridges the early classical owls (minted from 478-454) with the subsequent mass classical (standardized) coinage, which really got going in the early 440s BC to finance Pericles' building projects like the Parthenon and then later the Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC) vs. Sparta. The 454 date is critical in that it was the year that Athens moved the treasury of the Delian league (confederation of Greek states led by Athens to defend against the Persian threat) from Delos to Athens.
This coin shares many attributes of Starr V early classical coinage (465-454 BC). On the obverse, the olive leaves on Athena's helmet connect to her diadem with small stems (which disappear in the mass coinage). In addition, the palmette leaves on Athena's helmet are smaller, less decorative, and more realistic. Finally, Athena is smiling (she starts to frown as the war with Sparta goes badly) and is more beautifully depicted than in the more hastily produced mass coinage.
On the reverse, like with the Starr V coins, the incuse is quite noticeable and the AOE (short for AOENAION, or "Of the Athenians") is written in smaller letters (they are much bigger in the mass coinage). Also, the owl is stouter, has smaller eyes, and his head is at an angle rather than parallel to the ground like all later issues.
The only difference between the Starr V owls and this example is in the owl's tail - in Starr V it ends with three small feathers. On this coin and all subsequent coinage the owl's tail ends in a single prong. Given all the other similarities to Starr V it is likely this coin was minted soon after the Treasury's move from Delos to Athens - perhaps 454/453.Nathan P
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Kings of Thrace. Lysimachos. (Circa 305-281 B.C.)AE 18, 4.87 g
Obverse: Helmeted Head of Athena right
Reverse: BAΣIΛEΩΣ ΛYΣIMAXOY (Of King Lysimachos), lion leaping right, EAM monogram and caduceus in left field, spear head below.
SNG Copenhagen 1153-4; Müller 76
Lysimachos (360 BC – 281 BC) was a Macedonian officer and diadochus "successor" of Alexander the Great, who became a king in 306 BC, ruling Thrace, Asia Minor and Macedon. In 302 BC, when the second alliance between Cassander, Ptolemy and Seleucus was made, Lysimachus, reinforced by troops from Cassander, entered Asia Minor, where he met with little resistance. On the approach of Antigonus he retired into winter quarters near Heraclea, marrying its widowed queen Amastris, a Persian princess. Seleucus joined him in 301 BC, and at the Battle of Ipsus Antigonus was defeated and slain. Antigonus' dominions were divided among the victors. Lysimachus' share was Lydia, Ionia, Phrygia and the north coast of Asia Minor. He was later killed at the battle of Corupedium when fighting another of Alexander's successors, Seleucus, who ruled much of what was formerly Persia.Nathan P
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