Onkia of Syracuse

[antvwala]

Enigmatic little ounce of Syracuse.
This coin does not appear in any article and catalogue. However it appeared in two auctions: Bertolami and Roma Numismatics. On one side the octpus typical of Syracuse; on the other, a shell between two dolphins. They look like two matching backhands. Pound are 0.76 and 0.86 g and diameter are 9 and 10 mm
Anyone know anything about it?
Thanks

[antvwala]

Here the text of the two auction lists that proposed it:

[antvwala]

Although unpublished, it appears in the notes (also unpublished) of D'Arpa, a numismatist who died about ten years ago. In his notes, in fact, two specimens are cited weighing respectively 0.74 and 0.85 g.

[Brennos]

A very interesting coin !

In all probability it has to be placed between the Calciati Group II "reduced" tetras Head of Arethusa / Octopus  (Calciati 12) and the following unmarked serie Head of Arethusa / Dolphin and Scallop Shell (Calciati 24). It fits the 9-10g to the litra "metrology" and still has the pellet as a mark of value. Furthermore, there is no onkia known for the reduced type Arethusa/octopus .

So a dating in the range 420-15 BC makes sense and would tend to confirm that the Arethusa/Dolphin and Scallop Shell serie follows the Arethusa/octopus serie. It can't have been issued after 405 because there is no value marked coinage anymore at the time of Dionysios.

Interesting is the archive of Ignazio D'arpa. May i ask where you have found it ? To my knowledge, Alberto Campana collected  D'Arpa's archives from his family after he passed away. I can't read the hand writing text on the document, could you post a bigger photo ?

[antvwala]

Thanks. The source of the D'Arpa archive image is the one you mentioned.
Text write: “Questa potrebbe essere l’onkia della serie della quale è semilitron. Potrebbe essere … (?) posta alla fine del V secolo.  E’ da studiare, anche alla luce delle monetine d’argento.
Nota. Il R. di questa moneta è tanto simile al Rv. della moneta che segue che è difficile non ripensare opera dello stesso artista i coni rispettivi. Con questo ritengo che questa moneta sia da attribuire a Syrakusa. Tale attribuzione è avvalorata anche dal comune significato allegorico del Rv. di questa moneta e di quello della moneta precedente.”

[antvwala]

Friend Brenno:
in principle I would have placed this coin among the initial bronze issues of Syracuse, next to the Aretusa/octopus type, but the weights don't add up to me very much and I can't place it among the other denominations. On the other hand, as you say, the presence of the ounce value indicated with a circle suggests that it is a coin of the II democracy and not of Dionysius, although in the II democracy the value, when indicated, is always made with a globe and not with a circle.
I published a long article on the bronze coins of the Second Democracy, in which I initially also included this coin: however, writing the final version which was later published, I preferred to exclude it precisely because it did not fit into the succession of issues and reserve the right to write a specific note on this coin, which is what I am going to do now....

[antvwala]

Here are the histograms of the weights:

[Brennos]

Great !! It seems that you have already done a lot of work on the subject and I'm looking forward to read your article.

Based on my readings (mainly based on Chr. Boehringer, Calciati, Bérend, Morcom) here is an arrangement that looks coherent to me. I could argue a bit if interested.

Edit : You table frequency is especially interesting for your D G H I types. I will develop further later.


 

[antvwala]

Even though I've already written the article by now and it was published in the January-February issue of Monete Antiche, nevertheless I continue to be very interested in the topic. I have just submitted a second article to the editor of Ancient Coins concerning the signed tetradrachms of the Second Democracy: therefore a theme related to bronze coins.

This is the paragraph of my article that concerns the three hemilitra and their progressive weight loss.

[antvwala]

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[antvwala]

An example of my database

[antvwala]

The two coins sold by Bertolami and Roma Numismatics come from two different pairs of dies. The polyp in the left upper quadrant is very different in the two coinages.

[antvwala]

The presence of the circle to indicate the value of an ounce suggests that this small coin should be included among the issues of the second Syracusan democracy. However, its inclusion in the sequence of issues of that period is difficult.
On the one hand, all the bronze issues of the Second Democracy have Arethusa's face on the obverse; on the other hand, the dimensions of this ounce were not inserted either during the first period of issues (about 435-424 BC), a time of peace characterized by the minting of coins with a constant weight, or during the second period of issues (about 424 -405 BC), time of war (wars of the Peloponnese and wars with the Phoenicians) characterized by the minting of emilitres (and at the end also of a tetra) with gradually decreasing weight.
To be included in the first period, this ounce appears too light; instead it is too heavy to be inserted in the second period. It could be hypothesized to place it between the two periods, but in this case it has no multiples and appears to be too rare.
What do you think? What period would you attribute it to?