The Greek coin that followed me home from the show is this silver diobol (reduced standard 1.04g, 10mm) from Teos in Ionia, 320-294 BC. Your choice of the title for this thread depends on how much you like to translate Greek words. I've always been a fan of Gryphon for the beast. Lyre is a generic term for more than one stringed instrument. Today we might offend someone by calling their Viola a Violin but few now are that heavily into lyre correctness. The Chelys, as expected from the name, was made from the shell of a turtle as the sound chamber seen here as the round part at the bottom. Instruments made with wood for the chamber would be something else (I believe there were more than one style but I am not a musician). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teos I almost did not buy the coin due to the poor centering but the really good metal and pleasing contrast won me over. I regret the loss of the back end of the Gryphon but I have the whole outreached paw which often gets clipped. More regretted is the loss of all but a trace of the city name THI (of the Teans) at reverse top. The clear legend "Alypion" is the magistrate name. There are others available on similar coins of this type. I went to the show wanting more Greek but ended up buying Roman simply because the Greeks available were either too expensive for my tastes or things insufficiently different from things I have to make me want to buy minor type differences. I find myself buying more at shows according to what I see and like while mail order makes me search a hundred examples of a wanted type. I had no idea I wanted a small silver of Teos but I do like the coin. Besides, I feel I need to buy a critter coin so Steve and the rest of you can show others.
I too succumbed to one of these coins at CICF Apparently Victor England had a bag full and various dealers were buying piles of them (not sure if that was during CICF or at an earlier show). I picked through a dozen at one dealer's table and chose the one with the best obverse which, unfortunately, does not have a good reverse. IONIA, Teos AR diobol (reduced standard), 10 mm, 0.98 gm Obv: seated griffin right, paw raised Rev: lyre, THI, magistrate’s name
THRACE, ABDERA Tetrobol OBVERSE: Griffin springing left REVERSE: Magistrate's name around linear border, within which head of Hermes l., caduceus before; all in incuse square Struck at Abdera 411-385 BC 2.780g, 15mm May 279
I like both examples of the type very much - getting that much detail from a 10mm coin is always great, never mind the off-center strikes. The Teosians were evidently quite fond of the their griffins. And music. And drinking.
I have this Adbera Stater with a Gryphon: Thrace, Abdera, AR Stater, c.336-311 BC, Dionysados as Magistrate John
Here is a candidate for the smallest griffin: Ionia, Teos, c. 478-449 BC. 7 mm. 0.33 grams. Sear Greek -- (as 3512, but much smaller) SNG Copenhagen Ionia, Teos, 1442 has this design but is larger von Aulock 2258, 2259 have this design but are much larger DeCallatay Recueil Quantitatif A&C type 227 page 192 notes an academic study with 23 pieces of this size, calling it a tetartemorion.
My little tetartemorion from Teos shows only the griffin head, but at 4.7mm, I'd be surprised if a whole griffin could have fit. Valentinian's coin at 7mm is larger, but still tiny enough to make the fact that it shows the entire beast quite remarkable. IONIA, Teos Circa 540-478 BC AR Tetartemorion 0.14g, 4.7mm cf. CNG 63, lot 506 Shot for persepective next to a grain of rice:
This is a previously owned coin of Chios from the time of Augustus to 150AD. Sorry for the poor quality pics. Ionia, Island of Chios. Pseudo-autonomous AE14 Dichalkon, Civic Coinage of Chios, Ionia. Reign of Augustus - 150 AD Obverse: XI-W-N, Sphinx left, forepaw raised. Reverse: DIXA-LKON, amphora, dotted border. 14mm and 1.8gms BMC Ionia 114
Considering the standard in Teos was reduced to the point that a diobol was only 1.0g, I'd really suspect Valentinian's coin is nowhere near a tetartemorion. Zumby's would be that making the 3.3g monster at least a hemiobol assuming we only are doing half/double fractions. I could see it being even a smallish obol butwe need a thorough study of thousands of coins it someone is to rule out assumptions based on errors imported from other systems. We tend to force all these coins into words from Athens.
Doug is right that if a diobol is about 1 gram, my Teos coin (above), at 0.33 grams, could not be a tetartemorion (1/4 obol). DeCallatay (citing Balcer, SNR 47, for my Teos type in various sizes) has the modal weight of 47 staters (Sear 4576-7) at 11.9-11.99 grams and 29 "trihemiobols" at 1.30 - 1.39 grams. So, if the stater is a didrachm the drachm would be c. 5.97 grams and an obol c. 0.99 grams (This is heavier than an obol at Athens) and a trihemiobol 1.48 grams, heavier than the observed mode. Of course, none of these calculations allow for a per-coin seignorage (the charge for turning metal into coins) which would cause the smaller denominations to be lighter than their nominal fraction. The Balcer die-study catalog cites (only) one drachm at 5.28 grams and (only) one 2.60-grams coin he calls a triobol (= hemidrachm), which would make the obol about 0.87 grams. So, Teos in this time period did not use drachms as a major part of their system. As Doug said, "We tend to force all these coins into words from Athens." Do we know that Teos used "drachms" and "obols" (6 obols to a drachm) like Athens? If so, I think the original 1 gram coin is an obol (not a diobol) on the heavy standard used at Teos. My coin, of 0.33 grams, does not fit well using the most common Greek fractions. Balcer finds 4 pieces c. 0.30 grams like mine and calls them "tritemoria" (3 times 1/4 obol). That's an odd denomination! I think the denominations of the smallest coins from cities other than Athens are not really certain. Maybe they are well-known in some places, but not all. The reference works that named them are old and were, at the time, focused on the bigger denominations. Now that we have so many more small coins to study, it might be time to look at them again. Balcer seems to think Teos did not issue many obols (he finds 4 coins c. 1.1 grams), but did issue lots of "trihemiobols" at about 1.35 grams. That seems odd. I can't see striking 12 hemiobols from the same amount of silver as one drachm -- there must be some charge for the extra work in striking 12 coins instead of one and that charge, perhaps paid by striking 13 or 14 from the right amount of silver, should reduce the average weights. Given that all these denominations look quite similar (they have the same type, but different sizes, or, more importantly, weights), I can't see how the ancient man in the street (or dark tavern) could tell the small ones apart reliably. This interests me and I will look into it.
Things like this make you appreciate the little coins that were marked with their denomination. Syracuse hemilitron (six dots) Syracuse hexas (2 dots) Kolophon hemiobol HM ligate Kolophon tetartemorion TE reversed Kolopon tetartmorion TE (not reversed) I wonder if this Kolophon variation was issued in a locust year???
Wow, that OP-gryphon has fantastic eye-appeal (congrats Mentor) I have a couple of AR Ionia Teos examples ... Plus, I have a few more Lyre & Gryphon examples from other places ... ... fantastic coins, gang (gryphons => griffins => ROCK!!)
