Anyone into tiny Greek silver My friend gave it to me for Christmas. He didnt think it was going to be as tiny as it is though. I almost got it for myself because it reminds of my dog that passed away last year. Also if anyone has a Greek fraction to share, please do. Tarsus (?), Cilicia 4th c. BC , AR 3/4 obol .50g Baal seated left holding a scepter in his left hand, grapes and corn ears in his right. Forepart of a wolf right, crescent to upper left SGCV II, 5660
A. The coin is massive at .5g. B. It is a lovely coin. C. I love these things! http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/tiny.html
Ok randy I will post mine. My photo with a iphone and eye loupe, still rough pic to get. Ionia, Miletos 600 B.C. AR 1/12 Stater O: Lion forepart R: Star pattern .6g 9.5mm
I was kind of surprised how thin mine is, I haven found my ruler but I think its about 10-11mm. Glad you post yours Mat! edit: BTW Doug, the pic of the Phocaea, Ionia - Silver 1/8 obol ontop of the cent does a great job show some perspective of its size, and nicely photographed too!
I was gonna skip sharing this, but wth. a AE 12 from Corinth. My smallest bronze. Out of 25 or so shots, this was the best pic I could get :/
Different mints played by different rules. It is not unusual to find a 5mm coin that weighs more than another 10mm coin. What is amazing is how consistent the weights are within one type. Obols and Litra tend to weigh .6g -.7g but there were many towns on many other standards so you have to know what you have before you can tell what it should weigh. My want list includes an Athenian hemitartemorion (1/8th obol - under .1g) but I have never seen a real one actually sold. I have seen a couple Eastern barbarous fractions offered as real Athenian but they were not official in style. There were a lot of copies of Athenian minors from the Holy Land and Arabia, I believe.
I thought about getting an Athenian fraction but its hard to tell the difference between official and non, at least in the range of what I'm willing to pay When I was asking about the reference for this on another board, someone posted this which was pretty helpful for me. Greek is still "Greek to me."
Someone just asked about that pic of my dog, I guess I chose a bad photo. She's not dead in that pic XD
The imitation Athenian coins were made in Lebanon, Arabia, Egypt, and even as far as mesopotamia. Basically the whole what would be called the "roman east" used this prototype as "money" and if they didn't have any minted them. Btw Randy, I love Ba'al coins. Did you know he is where beelzebub, (word for the devil) comes from? Ba'al Zabul was a form of Ba'al, and was perverted later into beelzebub. Chris
I know Ba'al is refered to as demon by some Christians, but I didnt now they were one in the same, thats pretty interesting. I've seen Ba'al listed as a demon along side Beelzebub which which is humerus now. Its interesting, the ways the ancient culture gets distorted and changed over time.
Well the Christians got it from the Jewish people. Ba'al Zabul was the patron god of people living on the coast. Remember the Jews were an inland people, and didn't have a coastline. When the Jewish kingdom expanded westward toward the coast, they ran into these ba'al zabul worshipers. To me, this is what is cool about history. If you dig enough into a story, there is always more to it, most things are never "just because". There are just so many millions of little stories like this, no one knows them all. I find historical perversions like this all of the time. Another one is the phrase "parting shot". Its supposed to be "Parthian shot" due to the way Parthian horse archers would shoot at you while they were running away at full gallop, (usually leading you into an ambush).
Can you read the legend in the above countermark? LUY Recall that Imperial Aramaic of that day is read right to left and the letters changed a bit in the centuries following this 4th century BC coin of Aspendus. I would love to have certain understanding but always thought the countermark might have been placed on coins offered at a temple of Ba'al. These countermarks are relatively common but most are blurred making the letters hard to see.
This was a reoccurring topic in my Humanities class, but we couldnt not delve deep into because of time constraints. I did a paper just on Christmas and origins and in roots. One could literally write a book on the subject, if theres not already one. Its very interesting what is modern and what had evolved from ancient times.
In my ignorance, I had to go look up בעל Are different countermarks associated with other temples as offerings?
