Two of my recent acquisitions are small silvers of Kyzikos. I had one other one for several years. If anyone feels comfortable with these, please chime in. My old one was a 0.74g boar forepart / roaring lion. There is a retrograde K above the lion. Colosseum Coin Exchange in 1988 called it an obol and I believe that is correct. From my coin show last Friday came a 1.15g coin with no K and a tunny fish behind the boar. The flan of the previous coin makes it uncertain whether there was a tunny there or not. If you look at sales listings you will see coins of this weight called trihemiobols and/or diobols and coins closer to my 0.74g called obols and trihemiobols. I have no idea and am not aware of arguments one way or another. This example has a bold pattern of crystallization. The third coin is ex X6 collection and was sold as a hemiobol which is probably wrong since it weighs 0.24g which is closer to tetartemorion. It is just a well detailed tunny with no boar or lion. Considering the coin is only 7mm across, I don't think we could have fit on a big animal. It is dated 550-480 BC compared to the other two which were 480-450 BC. There have been many electrum coins from Kyzikos on the market lately. Who has something in any metal from the city?
Mine is a hemiobol suposedly, and closely matches the specs on Mikey Zee's coin, but mine has a star on top of the lion.
I've noticed the surge in electrum pieces as well - maybe somebody managed to smuggle a recent hoard find out of Turkey.
Not as old as those posted, But I thought it was an interesting coin. MYSIA Kyzikos ca 2nd Cent BC Æ15mm (4.99 gm) Kore Soteira Oak Wreath. MYSIA, Kyzikos. Circa 2nd Century BC. Æ 15mm. Head of Kore Soteira right, wearing wreath of grain / KU-ZI, legend and monogram within an oak wreath; second monogram below. See Æ 19mm Von Fritze 24, pl. ii, 7; SNG Copenhagen 71; BMC Mysia pg. 39, 150ff var. (same); SNG von Aulock 7353; Laffaille -. 4.99 gm.
I have one of the little tunnies (going left), but heavier and not quite as detailed as your ex x6 example. It's about twice the weight of yours, and is a type CNG lists as an obol and dates between 600-550 BC. Was is on a different weight standard compared to that used for the boar forepart / lion head obols? MYSIA, Kyzikos AR Obol. 0.57g, 9.3mm. MYSIA, Kyzikos, circa 600-550 BC. Von Fritze II 5; SNG von Aulock 7328. O: Tunny fish left. R: Quadripartite incuse square.
I only have a couple Kyzikos: Mysia Kyzikos AR Hemiobol 480-450 BCE 0.4g Boar-Lion Sear 3850 I believe I got this one from @red_spork as he was transitioning his collection to some high-quality coins! Mysia Kyzikos AE12 1.2g 400-3rd C BCE Kore Soteira - Tripod crown Tunny SNG France 430 BMC 141-30 Ex: @John Anthony , Mr Coin
In 2015 I heard from a dealer of a man who collected coins of Cyzicus, through all time. That includes all the types already posted here, Greek and Roman, and Byzantine too. I got this coin from his collection from that dealer who was selling (at least part of) the collection: Here is a Byzantine coin of Maurice (582-602) from Cyzicus (KYZ) year 7 (G = 6, plus I = 7) = 588/9 from that collection. Facing bust, cross above (a minor variety) Sear 518 variety. The possibilities for collection themes are myriad!
My two from Cyzicus. I have the .80gram listed as hemiobol. Mysia, Cyzicus. Hemiobol. Mysia, Cyzicus. Hemiobol. Silver, 0.80 grams, 10.49 mm. After 480 BC. Head of roaring lion left, retrograde K above, all within shallow incuse square / Forepart of running boar left, tunny fish swimming upwards behind. BMC Mysia, 121; Sear 3851. Mysia, Cyzicus. Gallienus AE22 Gallienus AE. Cyzicus, Mysia, as Neokoros. 253-268 AD. AE22, 6.8g. Obv: A K P L GALLIHNOC, laureate, draped bust right. Rev: KYZI-KH-NWN NEOKOP, altar between two serpent-entwined torches.
Great that you are giving attention to these fascinating archaic type of small change from Cyzicus, the peninsula town in the Sea of Marmara. I have two hemiobols (weighing .36 and .38 gr, 9 mm diameter) with the boar protome at one side and the roaring lion on the other. These coins are not rare, they came with dozens of the like in a few waves at auction, maybe 100 or 200 in 2017. I bought them because they are (in my eyes) great little works of strong art, 2500 years old, from our forefathers in their old world that is hard to imagine. The left one in my picture has a boar without any tunnies and a lion under a rosette. The right one has a boar with an inverted K on its side. But over its lion (that's a bit pitted) is a mysterious animal, called a panther in the description, but to me it looks more like a rodent. The rodent in detail:
I like the little tuna only coin in your third photo Doug. I have always wanted one of those. The two I that I have from Kyzikos. The boar and Lion coin is 9.5-12mm, 1.1g. It has a pretty good strike. The other, bronze with Persephone and tripod. It has a nice tuna below.
It's an obol. It is interesting that so many Greek cities minted tiny coins with the same types on different, hard-to-distinguish, denominations. With a scale we can tell a hemi-obol from an obol and tetartemorion (1/4 obol), but I wonder what the ancients did when paying for a few figs?
Makes a good argument that most coinage was kept local. I would have to get a bushel of figs for one of my tetartemorions.
STILL, inCREDIBLE how tiny an AR Tetartemorion was, and how difficult it would be transported and transacted for every day purchases! Ionia AR Tetartemorion 4mm 0.13g 530-500 BCE Rosette - Incuse sq punch 5 pellets SNG von Aulock 1807 Ex: @John Anthony , and this is his pic. It is possible that he is known as "Tiny Hands John"...
Wow, Doug => I love all three of those cool OP-examples Could you please tell me more about that fine tunny-fish example? (man, that is an amazingly-amazing example of an ol' fish) ... the expert that you scoffed it from must be a total imbecile for letting it go?!
