Cilicia, Tarsos AR Obol - Little ancient coins of south-central (modern) Turkey

You may have recently seen this little coin posted by JA and offered in the weekly auction. I thought for sure it would receive some aggressive CoinTalker bidding but it went unsold! I think it is a wonderful little coin & it resides in my collection now.

CILICIA, Tarsos
AR Obol
379-372 BC

9 mm, 0.65 grams
Obv: Facing female head turned slightly
left, wearing single-pendant
earrings and necklace.
Rev: Bearded and helmeted male
head (Ares?) left wearing crested
Athenian helmet; 'HLK' in Aramaic
to left, no monogram to right.
Grade: aVF with good fabric and toning.
Attractive, well centered tiny coin with
only a portion of the reverse Aramaic
legend & some helmet crest off flan.
Other: Time of Satraps Pharnabazos and Datames.

 

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Does anyone else at CT have one of these little coins? A really nice example sold from Pecunem this month. Perhaps one of you folks was the lucky bidder. Let’s post some little ancient coins from this south-central area of modern Turkey.



Post ‘em if you got ‘em.

 

Nice addition. I just am out of funds for a while, so had to pass.

CILICIA, KORYKOS CITY COINAGE
AE 19
OBVERSE: Turreted head of Tyche right; A behind. Circle of dots
REVERSE: ΚΩΡΥΚΙΩΤΩΝ, Hermes standing left, holding caduceus, ΕΥ/ΕΠΙ/ΕΡ in left field
Struck at Cilicia 1st century BC (100-30 BC)
5.87g, 19.42
SNG Levante 792; SNG France 1075

 

Ya, it's a great little coin, but my budget has taken a hit. I'm headed to Greece in a couple weeks. I really like the reverse of these.

 

Yeah, I love that coin. It's the textbook example of charming little obol.

 

Almost forgot to ask-

The coin came with a previous tag. It states Casabonne Series 2, SNG Levante 90. I don’t believe my obol obverse includes flanking dolphins & I don’t have these references. Should I copy this information onto my label?

 

Hey Dan, the tag is mine, and going through my records, I seem to have made a mistake. Here is the corrected attribution...

Obv.: Facing female head turned slightly left, wearing single-pendant earrings and necklace.
Rev.: 'HLK' in Aramaic left, bearded and helmeted male head (Ares?) left, wearing crested Athenian helmet; monogram right.
Reference: SNG Levante 89

It's easy to look at the wrong listing in some of these catalogs where the information is densely packed. I'm glad you caught that!

 

Having seen this coin in hand- I must say anyone (including myself) who did not bid on it failed miserably.

 

On my OP label I stated no monogram to right. The SNGLev 89 example on Wildwinds clearly shows a TO monogram behind the soldier's head & I don't see a monogram on my coin. Is mine still SNGLev 89?

 

Hm. Well, it looks like Lev 93 has no monogram, but no HLK either. I guess you could say Lev 89 var? I have no other catalog for these, sorry!

 

I could not afford the big one. Mine is a hemiobol of .33g. At half price you get Aphrodite instead of Ares.

 

I just found this coin on acsearch - here.

Naville says Göktürk 21-2 var. (fish on obv.); SNG France 303; SNG Levante –.

I can't corroborate Göktürk or SNG France. The exact variety is not listed in Levante - if Naville's attribution is accurate, of course.

 

That is my coin (same coin). https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=2121458

 

Yeah, I didn't look it up earlier, so that adds a little provenance I guess. Not much, but a little.

 

Here's my tiny Tarsos obol, with a wolf:

CILICIA, Tarsos
4th century BC
AR 3/4 obol .5gm - 9 mm
Obv: Baal seated left holding corn-ear with bunch of grapes.
Rev: Forepart of wolf right, crescent in field ot left, all within dotted square

 

I regret I only have ONE Cilicia - Tarsos


Cilicia, Tarsos
Autonomous City Issue
Bow, Case, adn Arrows counterstamp
AE 19mm, 5.1g, 7h, After 164BCE
Obv: Draped, veiled, and turreted bust of Tyche r.; Bow-case-arrows counterstam to left of bust
Rev: TARSEON (Greek lettering); Zeus in himation seated left on throne, holding eagle-tipped scepter; Monograms to r.
Ref: Levante 918ff; SNG France 1285-1294
Ex: @John Anthony ubiquitous and eclectic collection...

 

Oops, sorry. Wrong coin.

 

cool little coin collect! i eyeballed that one, but had no coin cash at the time either.

i have a match with aleg (or close)...

 

Twins! Mine has a big birthmark!