Over the last year I've had this tasty obol from Pisidia: Pisidia, Selge, 350 - 300 BC Silver Obol, 9mm, .86 grams Obverse: Facing gorgoneion. Reverse: Helmeted head of Athena right. SNGFrance1934 Despite being crystallized, it is a beautiful little coin with great artistry. And normally I'd be satisfied with just owning this one example. I said normally..... Pisidia, Selge, 350 - 300 BC Silver Obol, 8mm, 1.01 grams Obverse: Gorgoneion. Reverse: Helmeted head of Athena right, astralagos behind. SNGFrance1934 Yeah, I got another one. It is slightly different, with a more cartoonish Athena facing the opposite way. But what really sold me on this new coin is the cute squishy little face of the gorgoneion. Who knew a gorgoneion could be so adorable? He is almost as striking as this cute puppy, don't you think? I should add that I really like the contrast between both coins. One looks to be the serious work of a skilled celator. The other one looks like it was done by a 12 year old apprentice. Yes, they may be coins from the same time and place, but they are both unique enough that it is worth owning both of them. I do have to check the reference however. They both can't be the same. I do think the dealer botched that up. I got them from the same Vcoins dealer. PS: an "astralagos" is the knucklebone of a goat, which was used by ancients as a die in games of chance. So what you have here behind Athena is a gambling piece....a very gruesome gambling token. Don't tell PETA. Feel free to post both your cute and adorable gorgoneions, or not so cute and scary gorgoneions.
My cute gorgons from Parion Parion, Mysia Hemidrachm 4th century BC Obv.: Facing gorgoneion surrounded by snakes Rev.: ΠΑ / ΡΙ, Bull standing left, head reverted. star below Ag, 13mm, 2.41g Ref.: SNG von Aulock 1322 Parion, Mysia Hemidrachm 4th century BC Obv.: Facing gorgoneion surrounded by snakes Rev.: ΠΑ / ΡΙ, Bull standing left, head reverted. Monogram below Ag, 13mm, 2.27g Ref.: SNG France 1390
This is just one more example of why you can never 100% trust the references even from a good dealer. The dealer (whom I will not mention here to protect as many of you may know him) got the reference wrong. Not that I blame him as this is not an easy variation to find. Every online reference that I found from a dealer who had sold one was wrong. I even downloaded a PDF of a catalog from 1929 to check a reference given, and it turned out to be a different coin. Finally I found the correct reference in wildwinds. Pisidia, Selge, AR Trihemiobol c. 350-300 BC, 8mm, 1.01g. Obv: Facing head of gorgoneion. Rx: Helmeted head of Athena l., knucklebone at r. BM-7, SNG Aulock-5281 (Descibed there as barbarous) Note: Scarce with Athena facing left on reverse. It's not even an Obol, it is a Trihemiobol. And yes, it is a scarce coin....and could also be a barbarous imitation . Talk about interesting. See why it pays to hunt for the right references for a coin? I don't have barbarous imitations in my collection. This could be my first. That makes this coin way more interesting to me now than when I bought it with the incorrect reference. And here is the correct reference for the first one I got. And it is referenced as an obol, so at least the dealer got that part this time. Pisidia, Selge, 350 - 300 BC AR Obol, 9mm, .86 grams Obverse: Facing gorgoneion. Reverse: Helmeted head of Athena right. SNG von Aulock-5268
I really do like the juxtaposition of the 2. Coingrats! Here's my latest Gorgoneion (I really like the fangs on her): Apollonia Pontica - Drachma - Head of the Gorgon in front /R Still, in the shrimp field and letter A S. Cop. 456 (AG g. 2.57)
Nice pair! Matching official and unofficial types are a fun theme. (I'd recommend skepticism about "trihemiobol" for an unofficial issue with only a 0.15g difference.) Here's my favourite gorgoneion by far: She looks jealous of Aurora.
I need to reshoot my first one here. I made the common error of showing the reverse upside down. Greek anchors tend to be the opposite of US Navy ones and that makes the A in the field right side up. 1.2g I like this one better. 2.6g Even this 0.16g tetartemorion has a (weak!) A in the left field. I see I need a reshoot on this one, too, due to an uneven background. Sloppy work here.
Nice pick-up @Sallent ! Your follow up investigation now gives you 2 denominations from that series... cool! Bonus astragalos device is really nice. Here is one of my Gorgons Ionia Klazomenai 480-400 BC AR Drachm / Pentobol 3.5g 13mm Forepart winged boar r gorgoneion incuse sq Cf SNG Copenhagen 12 Rare Astragalus Roman Republic 269-240 BCE Aes Grave Uncia astragalus (Knuckle-Bone) 22mm, 10.1g, Cast bronze Obv: Astragalus (knuckle-bone) Rev: Astragalus (knuckle-bone) Olive-brown patina
These are fun coins, although I would shy from calling them rare - they show up fairly regularly in job lots of Asia Minor AR fractions. I'd also be hesitant to try to assign a specific denomination to them - the "drachm" from this part of the world ranged anywhere from 2.5g to over 5g, so how do we know which weight standard the city of Selge used, given that they pretty much only made silver fractions? Just some food for thought. Of the ~dozen I've handled, three spoke to me enough that I had to keep them; I still need to image the third. This was my favorite all around - the Gorgon has been tamed so much that some catalogs call her Helios here! This one is intriguing - Athena is shown with an archaic-style facing eye! That begs the question whether these were actually minted as late as 350 BC, or if perhaps they were minted for a much longer time frame?
