A bit of lock down cheer me and the wife forget who is who Nothing to say except Thrace, Apallonia 450---400 BC AND the letter A stands for AKRA-CA-DABRA !!!
If you recognize the letter is an A, why show the reverse upside down? Even this 5mm, 1.6g tetartemorion shows the A if you use a little imagination. Many/most ancient anchors were shown what modern folks consider to be inverted. This Apollonia suffered a bad accident with a knife. When I got it in 1991, we were happy to find a coin not of the 'Black Sea Hoard' group of fakes. I wish I had one to illustrate here. Does anyone? Why yes they do: http://snible.org/coins/black_sea_hoard.html Read the story about how they came to be.
@Claudius 11, we all agree the reverse is upside down, but really, that's how an anchor is supposed to be displayed...it's like a horseshoe, if you hang it upside down all the good luck spills out, then what would you do?
Thrace. Apollonia Pontica 450-350 BC. Drachm. Facing gorgoneion / Upright anchor; A to left, crayfish to right. 15 mm. 2.84 g. Here's some information about the "Colossus of Apollonia," with comparisons to the "Colossus of Rhodes:" Founded in the 7th century BC by Greek Colonists from Miletus, the Black Sea port city of Apolonia Pontica was famous for its colossal statue of Apollo the Healer which was completed in 480 BC. The renowned Athenian sculptor Calamis was hired to design this monument in the town where Apollo was worshipped under the name Iatros (i.e. the Healer). Comparisons of the Colossus of Apollonia / with the later constructed Colossus of Rhodes, which represented the Greek titan-god of the sun, Helios: Date Constructed: 480 BC / 280 BC Time Standing at Location: 408 years / 54 years Height: ~13 meters / ~30 meters Construction: Fully cast bronze. / Bronze plate on iron framework. In 72 BC, during the third Mithradatic War (73-63 BC), Marcus Terentius Varro Lucullus captured Apollonia Pontica, seized the statue as a trophy, and had it taken back to Rome to be installed on one of the capital's historic hills. In 226 BC, the Colossus of Rhodes collapsed during a strong earthquake. Large pieces of the statue remained along the Rhodes harbor for centuries until these were broken up and sold as scrap metal by Arabs who conquered Rhodes in the 7th century AD. Although having only ~43% of the height of the Colossus of Rhodes, the Colossus of Apollonia stood much longer, and even after the more famous statue of Helios which was constructed two centuries later.
