For almost a year now my oldest coin was my Athenian owl Tetradrachm minted between 440 BC and 404 BC. Well today I got an even older coin! This is what I got and the coin that now holds the title of “oldest coin in my collection”. It’s a teeny tiny baby coin! ^_^ But it’s definitely an old baby! This is an obol of Miletus. According to Polybius the average foot soldier made 2 of these obols per day during the 3rd century BC and so in the 5th century BC this would’ve probably been about a day’s wages for a laborer or common soldier. IONIA. Miletus. Ca. late 6th-5th centuries BC. AR 1/12 stater or obol (11mm). NGC XF. Milesian standard. Forepart of roaring lion left, head reverted / Stellate floral pattern with central diamond enclosing pellet; all within incuse square. SNG Kayhan 462-475. SNG von Aulock 2082. Miletus was an Ancient Greek city on the western coast of Anatolia, near the mouth of the Maeander river in ancient Caria. Left entrance of the Ancient Greek theater of Miletus The Ionic Stoa on the Sacred Way in Miletus Temple of Apollo in Miletus Thales of Miletus (624-545 BC) was a Greek mathematician, astronomer and pre-Socratic philosopher from the city. He is otherwise historically recognized as the first individual known to have entertained and engaged in scientific philosophy He is famous for proving that philosophers could become rich if they wanted. Thales used his knowledge of astronomy to predict that the olive harvest would be bountiful that year and rented out all the olive presses in Miletus several months prior to the olive harvest. He was right. The olive harvest that year did turn out to be extremely bountiful and he later rented out the olive presses for a much higher price than he paid and made a considerable profit thereby proving to the people who said philosophy was a pointless waste of time that philosophers could use their knowledge to become wealthy if they wanted to do so and that knowledge wasn't just a useless endeavor to pursue. Homer mentions that during the time of the Trojan War, Miletus was an ally of Troy and was city of the Carians, under Nestor and Amphimachus. Before the Persian invasion in the middle of the 6th century BC, Miletus was considered among the greatest and wealthiest of Greek cities. My next goal is to pick up a siglos or double sigloi of King Croesus but unfortunately those can cost a few thousand dollars so it’ll be a while . This is the coin I am referring too. I’ll never be able to afford a gold one.
Congratulations for your new old coin! and for the write-up. I also have one, worn but for the price of 10 EUR + fees I can not complain 7 mm, 1,07 g. Auction house described it as a diobol. I am not sure, but when I see these coins in auctions, most of them are with the lion facing left. Ratio I have observed is 1 to 4 or 5 but it could have been just random auctions where coins with lion's head left are more.
Nice one! €10 is definitely a good deal, I wish I got mine for €10. Lol! Yours also is much more centered than mine is. Mine has half of the lion off the planchet. I can’t blame the Miletus mint for that though because I imagine with such small planchets it would be incredibly difficult to strike dead center without significantly slowing down production. Especially trying to do so with the tools & technology available in the 5th century BC! Then again back in those days I don’t think people really cared how the coin looked as long as it had the correct silver weight and intrinsic value. I think that’s all that mattered since the silver in the coin is what gave it value but I could be wrong.
While I had a couple of ancient coins before, last year I bought this 1/12th stater, and this is the coin that really pulled me into the realm of ancients. Since then almost all of my budget for coins/bullion have been diverted to ancient coins, and I regret nothing! This one was 33 Euros from Biga Numismatics.
Yup! This coin was minted between 520 BC - 480 BC based on NGC’s dating of it. 6th century BC = 600 BC - 501 BC 2nd century BC = 200 BC - 101 BC 1st century BC = 100 BC - 1 BC 1st century AD = 1 AD - 100 AD 2nd century AD = 101 AD - 200 AD
Several years ago Frank Robinson had a large (huge?) group of these and was selling them with the line that they were the earliest, cheap Greek coin you could get. I never bought one from his group because I had already got this one from Harlan Berk (for $29 in 1990). Frank's prices varied according to the quality and number of them he had in stock. I liked mine for the centering. Many were less worn than mine but not as well centered. There are a lot of these (tens of thousands? - more???). Note that the correct description for my coin is lion forepart RIGHT with head reverted or with head facing left. Coins on small flans may disguise the fact that there is a body half and leg so they are listed as head right. Also there are coins with a mirror image as was the coin that started this thread. If you look hard enough, you might find one with full design on the flan and no wear. If you see that one, buy it. CNG sold this one for only $950 plus 20% plus shipping. You pay your money and make your choice. https://cngcoins.com/Lot.aspx?LOT_I...1&SEARCH_IN_CONTAINER_TYPE_ID_4=1&VIEW_TYPE=0
Nice one Doug! I paid like $120 for mine which is obviously a very high price but I find it difficult to buy ancient coins locally. People have told me about other auction sites but a lot of them seem to be based in Europe with the prices listed in Swiss Francs or Euros or British Pounds which is a bummer . I also am hesitant about international shipping because knowing my luck something would get confiscated by customs or something like that. So I’ve been sticking with HA mostly because of the wide variety of ancients even if it is more expensive. I do like yours though. The lion is well centered and clearly visible.
I am on the other boat - I live in Europe and I buy from Europe only because I'm thinking about confiscation/transport issues. Although the chance is probably 0.1%. About the currencies - my country doesn't use EUR. I don't have a bank account in EUR. On the auctions I participate in, most use EUR and some use other currencies, different than mine. I use PayPal and it converts the currency in 1 click. On my last auction the house did not accept PayPal, but offered credit card option. I used it (although I have a debit card and again, not in EUR). It worked. I paid the equivalent in my currency.
Yeah the biggest worry for me is the confiscation issue. Apparently the US has a “Memorandum of Understanding” with Italy so it’s possible that if I bought say a Roman denarius from Europe it could get confiscated as a “looted antiquity” and returned back to Italy and I would end up losing what I paid for it. I understand why they do this. Obviously it’s a bad thing when criminals loot archeological sites and sell the antiquities on the black market because it deprives scholars of information about that site but at the same time I don’t want to risk my own money hoping it will make it through customs.
