From Heritage yesterday.... still need the 1/192 Stater. EL 1/96 Stater ND struck 600BC Ionia/ uncertain City State/ Mint 4mm. .18g. obv: Uncertain design rev. Punch
Wow @panzerman - what a great, and fantastically small, electrum coin from near the beginning of coinage!! It makes these sub-one-gram "tiny coin" contestants look like giants! 8 mm, 0.39 g 9 mm, 0.75 g 8 mm, 0.83 g
CT has had several tiny coin threads. Certainly the heavy weight of gold/electrum will make them 'smaller' than silver of the same size but there are many silver coins under 0.1g. There will never be agreement on which coin is smallest since thickness becomes a real consideration as well as erosion. My smallest diameter coin is thick and weighs twice as much as come coins with larger diameters. Then we have to ask when proto-coins became actual coins with designs. I would like to know if the maker of this electrum cut that 'uncertain design' trying to make a design or if it was just a way of holding the metal in place when striking as were some of the more evenly textured early coins. I have added on new tiny coins lately so you have seen mine. Left row: 1. Syracuse, Sicily, hemilitron 440-430 BC, .3g 2. Athens, Attica, tritartemorion (3/4 obol), 393-300 BC, .5g 3. Therma, Macedon, hemiobol (1/2 obol), 510-480 BC, .3g 4.. Kolophon, Ionia, tetartemorion (1/4 obol), 430-400 BC, .2g - This coin is unusual in the monogram 'TE' on the reverse (over the cicada) indicating the denomination. 5. Kebren, Troas, tetartemorion (1/4 obol), 400-350 B.C. .2g Right Row: 1. Phocaea, 1/8? obol discussed below 2. Mylassa, Caria, tetartemorion? (1/4 obol), 5th century BC, .1g 3. Hektatomnos, Satrap of Caria, tetartemorion 395-377 B.C., .2g 4. Syracuse, Sicily, Tyrant Gelon, hexas (1/6 litra or 1/300th of the popular dekadrachm), 485-478 BC, .05g? This is the lightest coin I have ever seen but the flaking surface of this specimen makes its weight lower than normal. 5. Rhegion, Bruttium, hemitatemorion (1/8 obol), 466-415 BC, .1g. Thasos, Thrace, hemiobol (1/2 obol), 411-350 BC, .2g http://www.forumancientcoins.com/dougsmith/tiny.html
My smallest; Aeolis, Kyme AR Hemiobol 8 mm 0.45 g 480-450 BC. Obv. Head of eagle left, KY below Rev. Quadripartite incuse square SNG Aulock 1623
I have several Tetartemorions. One of my smaller ones: Ionia AR Tetartemorion 4mm 0.13g 530-500 BCE Rosette - Incuse sq punch 5 pellets SNG von Aulock 1807
I have gotten a lot of tiny coins because I buy bulk lots to break up and sell, and I usually keep a few coins from each lot. Its interesting how 5mm is the limit that only a very few coin types seem to break through. A favorite of mine is a very common type, of either Miletos in Ionia, or else Mylassa in Caria. AR tetartemorion, 5mm, 0.18g. Despite the scrape on the lion's cheek, it is one of the best examples I have seen of the type, and difficult to properly enjoy except under magnification Grain of rice for scale
How the folks back then didn't manage to lose these tiny coins is beyond me. Nice example @panzerman.
4 mm! Don't drop it in a shag carpet! In his play, the Wasps, Aristophanes jokes about the habit of carrying small coins in one's mouth. A fraud is discovered when a character gives to another fish scales as small change: “For once Lysistratus, the funny fool, played me the scurviest trick. We had a drachm between us; he changed it at the fish stall, then laid down three mullet scales. I thought them to be obols and popped them in my mouth. Oh, the vile smell! I spat them out and collared him!”
Never taken this out of the flip. Hope you can read the detail. It is a bele and weighs in at .75 grains.
They have it in a special sealed flip. I have a tiny Maratha Confederacy AV 1/4 Fanam/ weight .08g. but is larger at 6mm.!!!! That 1/96 Stater must have been daily wage back then for a unskilled laborer. The HRE 1/32 Dukaten where also very tiny. John
Its pouring rain, sitting at home That new book I just got, "White Gold"....excellent. it really does a super duper job on electrum coinage/ Phanes/ Lydian/ Samos/ Miletus/ Kyzikos/ Phokaia/ Cimmerians/ Mytilene. Shows all known types/ numbers known/ provenance/ metallurgy. Studies of hoard finds.... Most are extremely rare.
