I have this beautiful coin on it's way from one of my dealers: I don't have an attribution yet, and it is hard to attribute as this coin changed little for centuries, but based on the portrait, I believe this is close, if not it: GAUL, Massalia. Circa 350-215 BC. AR Obol. Youthful male head left / M-A, wheel with four-spokes. Depeyrot, Hellénistiques 10; SNG Copenhagen 723-727. So what was Massalia? Well, you may know it by it's modern name, Marseilles, but did you know that ancient Massalia was one of the biggest naval powers in the ancient Mediterranean? Originally founded by Ionian Greek settlers around 600 BCE, the Massaliots became a prosperous people due to sea commerce, and built a powerful naval fleet that challenged Carthaginian sea power. The Massaliots sided with Rome in the Punic Wars, and their navy assisted Rome in resting control of the Mediterranean away from Carthage. Massalia was one of Rome's oldest and most loyal allies, and remained an independent ally long after the rest of the areas around it came firmly within the grasp of Rome. Unfortunately for them though, they backed Pompey and not Caesar, and Caesar's armies defeated Massalia, annexing the city into the empire. Even then, Caesar was generous to the defeated Massaliots in recognition of their long loyalty and service to Rome, and spared the city from the worst outrages that would have come with defeat.
They churned out a lot of obols during this period - it seems to have been their go-to denomination, although there are bronzes. The bronzes of Massalia are actually quite difficult to find in better grades. Later (3rd to 2nd centuries BC) there are some drachms with very distinctive lions.
Good looking coin. Haven't expanded my collection into Gaul yet, but there are a lot of pretty coins tempting me to get into them.
Nice Massalia! Nice segue off the normal path of Roman coins, I really like that! I will have to cast about for one of these to capture into my collection.
Well, it's not my first detour off the Roman path. This is my 7th Greek coin, and I do have an Indo-Greek, a Parthian, two Islamic, and a hammered Engish coin in the collection too. So as it stands, it's 18 Romans and 12 non-Romans for me so far. I started collecting thinking I would focus on Romans, but there are far too many interesting non-Roman ancient and medieval coins out there.
That's a nice little silver! I love tiny Greek coins . And big Greek coins. And mid-sized Greek coins .
