F. De
Callatay in the
American Journal of Numismatics, second series 3-4 (1991-1992), 1992, brought to the attention that in
hoards found in
Macedonia and Ancient
Thrace, now South
West Bulgaria whose composition included Athenian
New style tetradrachms, showed that certain issues were "over-represented" on compositional anaysis. The issues are
Eagle on
Thunderbolt (
Thompson issue 39), Tripod ( 40),
Dioscuri (41) and Prow of Ship ( 44).
It can be seen that they are not in
Thompson order, but it
had been suspected that the order was not quite correct and in "Thasos/New
style Hoard" 1996 by A R
Meadows a new order was published that shows that the "over-represented " issues are indeed consecutive.
So in my, as yet, un- published list of
New Style order collated from disparate sources, they are given new "
Thompson" issue numbers,
Eagle on
Thunderbolt (39), Tripod (40), Prow of Ship (41), and
Dioscuri (42). The displaced issues ,("
Nike "and "Three
Graces"), are re-assigned new places based on
work by
Mattingly who pointed out that the " Three
Graces" issue was intercalary because specimens were known with N on the
amphora but
had been placed in an "ordinary" year. These are now "
Thompson" issue 43 and 44 respectively.
The big puzzle is why are they over-represented?
It was posited that they were not actual Athenian minted coins but local imitations, however the many specimens have differing
amphora month marks and
mint control marks in various combinations. These would be unnecessary embelishments on imitations, also they are stylistically and die linked to undoubted Athenian minted issues.
So it appears there was around 126- 123 BC a big call for the importation of Athenian silver.
Roman closure of Macedonian silver mines and other
Roman control measures have been proposed but nothing so far has been satisfactorily fitted , but it opens a new horizon on Athenian influence in the 120's BC that was unknown until research on
New Style Athenian tetradrachms was undertaken.
It might have come to some
Forum members notice that a few dealers on V- Coins and definitely on UK
E-Bay have recently acquired quite a number worn examples of
Eagle on
Thunderbolt and
Dioscuri types . It can be confiedently stated that there must have been a
hoard find and that it most likely was from South
West Bulgaria.
That the coins are worn shows that they were in "local" circulation a long time and in mixed
hoards they are often found with late
Thasos type imitations , (dated by Propakov) and sometimes
Roman Republican denerii. So the
hoards must have been deposited in a later period of crisis.
Unlike many
Greek coins they are not mute: they have fascinating stories
still to tell.
Cicerokid
