I have this tiny silver coin (Greek?) that I am finding most difficult to attribute and I am asking anyone for some assistance in that regard. The coin has (what I believe may be) a Corinthian Helmet in an incuse square punch, with, (on the reverse), the helmeted head of ??? (Athena?) The measurements are (5.4 x 8.2 mm.), 0.17 gm,.
Man... that's a tough one to search, as you undoubtedly discovered! The obverse is most likely Athena. Using search terms "Athena helmet AR" returned ten thousand hits because the word "helmet" is usually part of the description of Athena. Narrowing it down by using the minus sign with various terms ("Athena helmet AR -tetradrachm -drachm -owl" etc) still left too many hits for me to quickly scan. The helmet reminds me of coins of Himera but this isn't from there-- the similar Himeran coins don't have a crest on the empty helmet, the reverse punch isn't a square, and Athena isn't on the obverse. As for denomination, it's hard to know the original denomination (or our modern name for it) because of part of the coin is missing. Hemiobol? Other denomination word, perhaps [fraction]litra? The style is archaic (square incuse punch for the reverse; general style). Suspecting it was struck in Asia Minor, I tried searching asiaminorcoins.com but struck out there. I'll try again when I have some time, if no one else has nailed it.
Another odd thing about your coin: the obverse (head of Athena) looks too large for the reverse punch. Could the wrong die pair have been used?
Skione (in Macedon) issued some AR fractionals with empty Corinthian helmet within an incuse square but the only obverses I see are of a male head, unhelmeted. Perhaps you could see if any of the references cited for that type of coin is public domain, and browse that reference for a coin similar to yours.
@TIF Super 'thank-you' for taking the time. I checked Asia-Minor, and all of the other 'suspects', too, before posting the coin. The only (empty) helmet (obverse) coins I could find with busts on the reverse had 'right' facing busts. It is late (for me) on this side of the world, so I am off to bed, but I will be back in 7 or 8 hours. Thank-you, again.
The direction of the empty helmet probably isn't important, but did any of those coins you found have Athena on the obverse? I didn't find any with the Athena/helmet combo.
@pprp That is the closest so far - Very promising. (For those who do not speak German here is the description of that coin in English) description Greek Thrako-Macedonian coins. Derrones. Hemiobol. 5th century v. Chr. Vs: Athena's head with Corinthian helmet on the left. Rs: Corinthian helmet, including Delta; all in square incusum. 8 mm. 0.24 g. See Svoronos Taf. II, 15 (Rs.). Extremely rare, unpublished in the standard citation works. Very nice. Thank you @pprp Great help.
