Thracian dolphins

So happy to come home from the hospital (my wife and I just had 2 baby boys!) and find in the mail my 1st coin of 2018! After being burned by eBay with fakes I listened to my CT friends and tried an auction, it was from Heritage (kinda pricey so I could only get 1), but am very happy with the result
It is listed as being from 463-411 BC, (though wild winds dates it from 500-465 BC, so I'm not sure which to believe) and it's 2 dolphins (how befitting with this being my 1st coin since my twins were born?!) jumping over circles or what many imagination tells me are stars in the night sky.
Does anyone have any idea about the date on this one? And what the circles actually signify?
Please post any thracian, dolphin or any other coins you find relevant!
THRACIAN ISLANDS. Thasos. Ca. 463-411 BC. AR 1/16 stater or obol (0.49 gm). VF. Two dolphins swimming in opposite directions; pellets around / Quadripartite incuse square. Le Rider, Thasiennes 9. SNG Copenhagen 1020-1.

 

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Nice coin and congrats on your twins!! The pellets could be celestial bodies even the twin dioscurii- yin&yang, Earth and sky etc. but I am not an expert.
My only dolphin(had a Calabrian stater once as a teenager but let it go):
Spain, Carteia AE Semis
Circa 1st Century BC
Obverse: Head of Zeus right
Reverse: Dolphin swimming right, S before, crescent above; CARTEIA in exergue
Rarity: Extremely Rare Right Facing Zeus Variety (Compare to AB 649 for similar type)
Size: 19mm, 6.32g
I am not sure how rare it really is, since the seller exaggerates sometimes to make the sale on these very beat up coins.
But I like the Dolphin jumping over the moon and it was inexpensive with the crude obverse and therefore so few bidders.

 

Thank you so much. My wife and I are "over the moon" excited about these 2 little dioscurii of ours. Yes, sellers do tend to do that. Though I am no expert either, I have not seen a coin like that. I really love the reverse. How cool would it be to have seen it right after it was hammered!?

 

Someone more expert here will probably bring us down to Earth and tell us that the pellets are some denomination/weight markers.

 

Probably...no pun intended right there! Haha. Down to earth. Nice

 

Congratulations! If you don't mind me asking, what are their names? Amazing coin too! Very fitting and I'm sure there is sentiment in this coin now.


Thanks,
Jacob

 

Congratulations on your Dioscuri!! Cool little coin too, with appropriately twinned design

Dolphins get a lot of love here on CoinTalk... Here's one that looks like it is trying to hitchhike:


CALABRIA, Tarentum
325-280 BCE
AR litra, 11 mm, 0.56 gm
Obv: scallop
Rev: dolphin right, trident below (I think it might be a bunch of grapes)
Ref: Vlasto 1530 (if grapes rather than trident, Vlasto 1527)
freed from an NGC slab

 

Thank you very much! Alexander (can you guess after which one?) and River. Our1st boy is named Forest.

 

Thanks TIF! I was hoping you'd chime in here. Any idea what those 3 dots\pellets signify, if anything?
And he is totally hitching a ride. "Hey man. Can I get a ride to the Shell station?"

 

Congratulations!

 

I think there are just two and I'm not sure if they are denomination signifiers or just design elements, but maybe someone else knows.

LOL! Perfect

 

Thank you Kasia!

 

The 1 on wild winds shows the bottom better. The 2ndv dolphin appears to be jumping over a 3rd dot. I've posted it below along with their description.
Thasos, Thrace; 500-465 BC; AR Obol 0,51 gr. Two dolphins swimming in opposite directions, three dots around / Quaripartite incuse square. BMC 18a.

 

Congrats on all three of the newest members of your family

Here's one of my favorites from EX-JAZ; Tarentum, Calabria:

 

Thanks! And, WoWiE!!! Would that be considered a masterpiece? It sure looks like one to me.

 

There is a lot that is simply not known and much of what is 'known' has a lot of assumption going on. We need to study thousands of coins to improve the scholarship but making assumptions based on a handful is easier and may be correct. My first one shows one dot and weighs a bit under 0.4g so may have had a second pellet when new. The second one is IMO older and weighs 0.2 showing no dot. If they made the things for over a century, it is quite possible that there were changes in standards and marking conventions. I see no reason to believe the original users of the coins used Athenian terms like obol and hemiobol so we should not go too far worrying about forcing labels on the coins or being upset if the ones we liked last week turn out to be old news later on. I'm calling both of mine 'Thasos' but we really do not know that other cities did not make such coins as well. If I am right about my second one being older (early 5th century???), the fact that the dolphin style (left with staggered lower fins?) is different does not mean the coin is or is not from Thasos. Between the two could have been a dozen die cutters and mint managers. I'd love to know more about these but that does not mean I am ready to accept detailed attributions and dating unless accompanied by evidence of new scholarship. Yours is a nice coin. I would love to have one like it and a bucket full of similar tiny treasures.

 

CONGRATS to the Two New Dudes @Ryro ! 3 Boys and you and your wife will be a bit busy for a while! How much did they weigh and their lengths?
Out of 6 Daughters, my largest was 9lbs...

I have no Thasos Dolphins, but like @Mikey Zee , I have a favorite Dolphin. This one is my largest of my pod:




RR 280-276 BCE Anon Aes Grave Triens Thunderbolt-Dolphin Rome Obv-US CENT Crawford 14-3 Thurlow Vecchi 3

 

Wow twins, congrats.
Only dolphin I can think of in my collection, but not Thrace.

Istros, Moesia.
AR Trihemiobol, 10mm, 1.1g; c. 380/350-330/280 BC.
Obv. Facing male heads, the right inverted.
Rev. IΣTΡIH, sea-eagle grasping a dolphin with talons.
Reference: SNG BM 250

 

Thanks! That's a good sized little lady (the daughter and the coin!) Yeah, the boys were 7 pounds 4 ounces and 7pounds 5 ounces, 20 and 20.5 inches, respectively. Not too bad for twins I'm told (he said proudly whilst trying not to sound smug).

 

As always, thank you so much for the knowledge. Very interesting. I assumed since they are labeled Thasos that they were all from there and it was just a matter of figuring out the time period between types. But, like you pointed out, just cause they look similar who is to say that some 2,500 years ago other neighboring cities didn't mimic the design. Any guess as to what the dots/pellets signify?