If these coins are all staters - why does their weight vary so much....this little question turned into a deep dive into weight standards for Greek coins. My notes on this posted today on sullacoins.com could use a healthy dose of peer-review. For anyone interested & willing to provide input: https://www.sullacoins.com/post/weights-and-measures I would be grateful for any comments on what is here and key references that should be considered. The summary answer is that these were struck on various weight standards, but what does that mean and why? much more on this topic can be found at the link above. Hopefully the summary is a bit helpful in improving understanding of these standards, and any correction and suggestions for improvement are much appreciated. Standards are all illustrated with coins from my collection (for Rhodian standard coins I don't have many to choose from & Chian, none). Post a silver stater (or many) and name the weight standard (or standards) that your coin(s) was minted on.
I think "stater" means "standard unit". Of course it is not the same in all cities. It's like the dollar today : a US dollar is not a Canadian dollar...
It's my understanding that weight (ponderal) standards were different across Greece and the Magna Grecia as each Greek polis originally developed independently with its own coinage and weight standards. With the growth in trade, popularly accepted coins such as the Attic standard (which circulated not just in Athens but across Greece, the Levant and Egypt), and the Corinthian standard (which was also used in Sicily and Southern Italy) sometimes influenced ponderal standards in the regions they circulated in. In several city-states like Taras/Tarentum in Calabria, which has a long history of minting coins, ponderal standards also varied over time due to economic and military events (ie having to pay for condottieri and mercenaries to protect the city-state led to several devaluations and subsequent changes to ponderal standards). I'm still not entirely sure what the difference between nomoi and staters are but both were minted at Taras. Alberto D'Andrea did an excellent job methodically detailing the changes in ponderal standards of the coinage of Taras within his recent three-volume work. Some of this coinage is on the Eperiote ponderal standard when Alexander the Molossian supported the Tarentines in their regional struggles for power.
I am not an expert in Owls and woudl never claim that I can authenticate a coin by picture alone. However this one does look unusual to me. Something about the edges and overall look / fabric doesn't seem right.
