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<p>[QUOTE="Pavlos, post: 7039530, member: 96635"]As maybe some of you know one of my focusses is to collect coins from the Greek islands. What interest me about them is that these islands often have distinct traditions and mythology on their own, which is obviously reflected on the coinage. Some iconography on their coins stay unchanged for centuries (from the Archaic age all the way to Roman provincial coinage). Most islands did not produce that much silver, mostly fractions and bronze coinage. The bigger and more significant islands did strike large amounts of silver (depending on the time period), we can think of islands like Thasos, Aegina, Samos, and Rhodos.</p><p><br /></p><p>I wanted to give a small summary of each island I own a coin of right now, with the corresponding coin there. I ofcourse cannot show all my coins of the Greek islands, therefore I will make a selection of one coin per island.</p><p>I included a map if it makes it easier to locate the islands:</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1274083[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>Starting with,</p><p><b>Rhodos</b></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1274086[/ATTACH]</p><p><b>Islands of Caria, Rhodos. Rhodes. Circa 250-229 BC. AR Didrachm. Mnasimachos, magistrate</b></p><p><b>Obverse:</b> Radiate head of Helios facing slightly right.</p><p><b>Reverse:</b> Rose with bud to right; MNAΣIMAXOΣ above, P-O flanking stem; to left, Athena Nikephoros standing left.</p><p><b>Reference:</b> Ashton 208; HN Online 395; HGC 6, 1439.</p><p>6.70g</p><p><br /></p><p>Rhodian coinage pretty much always has Helios and a rose on their coinage. Helios is the sun god, is the creator of the islands. The mythology goes as follows, when the gods drew lots for the places of the earth, Helios being absent received nothing. He complained to Zeus about it and Zeus offered to make the draw the lots again. Helios received as he had seen a new island about to rise from the sea. Helios therefore claimed this new island, which was not yet risen from the sea and named it after his wife, Rhodos. The rose on the coinage is a pun on the name of the island, since 'Rhodon', ῥόδον means rose. Rhodos produced many different denominations of silver throughout the centuries. From hemiobols all the way to tetradrachms.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Samos</b></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1274085[/ATTACH]</p><p><b>Ionia, Samos. AR Drachm, ca. 210 - 185 B.C.</b></p><p><b><b>Obverse:</b> </b>Facing lion scalp.</p><p><b><b>Reverse:</b> </b>ΣAMIΩN; Forepart of ox charging right; krater, grape bunch, and grain ear below.</p><p><b>Reference: </b>HGC 6, 1241; Barron 2.</p><p>2.96g.</p><p><br /></p><p>Samos, a much forgotten island, but was the mightiest state in Greece during the days of Polycrates and a formidable rival of Athens. On their coinage two notable deities are visible, the lion scalp and the ox. Lions have been associated to the goddess Hera. In very rare instances the lion appears on monuments as the symbol of the Hera. In a line of Homer, Hera herself is called a lion. At Argos there was a statue of Hera with beneath her feet a lion’s skin.</p><p>The ox never appears complete on Samian coins but always his fore part only with two legs bent. It is possible that the bull may belong to the cult of Hera. At the temple, white cows were sacrificed to the goddess. And Io, who in many ways is her double, was consistently thought by the Greeks as a heifer. However, the bull is more closely connected with Artemis than Hera. There was a temple of Artemis Tauropolos at Samos, and the festivals held in honour of that goddess are not unknown on the island. In Samos, and in many parts of Asia, Hera and Artemis were not fully distinguished. Both were alike being called Chesia and Imbrasia, and both bearing many traces of oriental origin.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Tenedos</b></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1274084[/ATTACH]</p><p><b>Islands off Troas, Tenedos. AR Obol, circa 450-387 B.C.</b></p><p><b>Obverse:</b> Janiform head of Hera on the left and Zeus on the right.</p><p><b>Reverse:</b> Τ-Ε, Double axe within linear square within incuse square.</p><p><b>Reference:</b> SNG Copenhagen 509. SNG von Aulock 1587.</p><p>0.56g; 7mm</p><p><br /></p><p>On early issues, the janiform heads on the obverse referred to the mythological foundation of the city, but by the second half of the 5th century these myths had either been forgotten or were thought to be not quite correct. The coin users wanted a more comprehensible type so the heads were changed from those of locally important mythological figures to the more universal visages of Hera and Zeus.</p><p>The salient feature of all examples is the presence of a labrys located in the center of the exergue, a symbol which appears on the coinage of Tenedos at least as early as the end of the 6th century BC. A double-bladed ax, the labrys assumed a religious function as far back as the Minoan Period, and may be connected with the later Greek labyrinthos. Plutarch, states that labrys was the Carian word for ax and was associated with the Carian Zeus Labraundos. The janiform head on the obverse of pre-Alexandrine coinage of Tenedos, comprising bearded and beardless heads, reflects the two blades of the ax on the reverse, the labrys would then be the physical embodiment of the dual power of these two divinities.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Thasos</b></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1274065[/ATTACH]</p><p><b>Thrace, Thasos. AR Obol, circa 435-411 B.C.</b></p><p><b>Obverse:</b> Two dolphins above one another, swimming in opposite directions; pellet above and below.</p><p><b>Reverse:</b> Quadripartite incuse square.</p><p><b>Reference:</b> HGC 337. Le Rider, Thasiennes 9.</p><p>0.52g; 9mm</p><p><br /></p><p>The island was important in the wine trade and also controlled rich silver mines on the mainland. The coinage of Thasos is too diverse to talk about. The coinages mostly contain Herakles and Dionysos. The first coinages of Thasos mainly feature satyrs (which were Dionysiac creatures) and dolphins with an incuse square on the other side. Later on, tetradrachms in the name of Herakles the saviour were struck, with fractions featuring Dionysos and bronze coinage featuring Herakles and Artemis.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Lesbos</b></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1274067[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Lesbos, Mytilene. AR Hemidrachm, Circa 450-350 B.C.</b></p><p><b>Obverse:</b> Laureate head of Apollo right.</p><p><b>Reverse:</b> MYTI. Lyre.</p><p><b>Reference:</b> SNG Copenhagen 376-7; HGC 6, 1044.</p><p>2,81g;</p><p>15mm</p><p><br /></p><p>On Lesbos several mints were operating, but the most powerful cities of this beautiful and fertile island were Mytilene and Methymna, the mint-places of the great mass of Lesbian coinage. The two most important types of coinage on the island are types struck in Billon and Electrum, both of which doubtless had a general circulation throughout the island and were struck in great amounts. In the beginning animal types predominate, but later on they include many forms of different gods and mythology. Apollo was the god that was used most on the coinage of the island, with the lyra or kithara in association.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Kos</b></p><p><b>[ATTACH=full]1274072[/ATTACH]</b></p><p><b><b>Islands off Caria, Kos. EL Forty-eighth Stater, Phokaic standard. Circa 625-600 B.C.</b></b></p><p><b><b><b>Obverse:</b></b> </b>Crab.</p><p><b><b><b>Reverse:</b></b> </b>Incuse square.</p><p><b><b><b>Reference:</b> </b></b>Stefanaki Series I, unlisted denomination; HN Online –; cf. HGC 6, 1295 (1/96th stater).</p><p>0.34g</p><p><br /></p><p>The first coinage of Kos started in 625 B.C. and consisted of 1/6th, 1/48th and 1/96th Electrum stater fractions. On the obverse a crab is visible, on the reverse the usual incuse square characteristic for this time. The first silver fractions that appeared ca. 500 B.C. also bears the the same design, and even centuries later the crab was still used on the coinage of Kos. The precise signification of the crab as emblem of Kos is doubtful, but the symbol may have been connected with the cult of Herakles, as the later coinage of Kos always has the symbol of the crab constantly accompanied by the Heraklean club. The myth, according to Hyginus and Apollodorus, tells how a crab bit the foot of Herakles while he was struggling with the Lernaean Hydra.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Samothrace</b></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1274077[/ATTACH]</p><p><b>Islands off Thrace, Samothrace. AE Trichalkon. 3rd-2nd centuries B.C. Pythes, magistrate</b>.</p><p><b>Obverse:</b> Helmeted and draped bust of Athena to right.</p><p><b>Reverse:</b> ΣΑΜΟ / ΠYΘO Kybele seated left on throne, holding patera and sceptre.</p><p><b>Reference: </b>Schönert-Geiss, Samothrake 13. SNG Copenhagen 998.</p><p>5.43g;</p><p>20mm</p><p><br /></p><p>Samothrace is an island neighbouring Thasos island, but this island compared to Thasos actually barely struck any coinage. Samothrace was a mysterious island where a big cult of the Kabeiri was present, the citizens basically worshipped underworld deities. A massive PanHellenic temple complex was present on Samothrace, the so called "Sanctuary of the Great Gods". You can read more about it <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samothrace_temple_complex" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samothrace_temple_complex" rel="nofollow">here</a>. The above coin was the only more mass-produced for local use at Samothrace. Some thirty different magistrates’ names on bronze coins of Samothrace are know, all apparently of the same period.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Prokonnesos</b></p><p><b>[ATTACH=full]1274081[/ATTACH]</b></p><p><b><b>Islands off Mysia, Prokonnesos. AR Diobol. Circa 3rd century B.C.</b></b></p><p><b><b>Obverse:</b> </b>Head of Aphrodite to right.</p><p><b><b>Reverse:</b> </b>ΠPO/KON. Forepart of stag to right, turning head backwards; to left, oinochoe.</p><p><b><b>Reference:</b> </b>SNG Copenhagen 555. SNG Paris 2421. Thompson, Coinage, Series IV.</p><p>1.20g; 11mm</p><p><br /></p><p>Prokonnesos, an island on the top of the region Mysia in Asia Minor. It was situated in the eastern part of the Propontis, between Priapos and Kyzikos. Prokonnesos was renowned for its quarry of white marble, used in constructing the adjoining towns, particularly that of Kyzikos, and the tomb of Mausoleus at Halikarnassos, later of Constantinople during the Byzantine era. What makes the marble so special is that it is typically coarse-grained with blue veins. The coinage of Prokonnesos is small, containing only silver fractions and bronze coins, all featuring Aphrodite and the oinochoe. The portrait of the goddess is sometimes attributed as Aphrodite and sometimes as Cybele. However, the fourth-century bronzes of neighboring Placia, where the cult of Cybele was also strong, the Phrygian goddess is clearly identified by a turreted crown. In the absence of any definite attribute of Cybele on the coins of Prokonnesos, an identification with Aphrodite seems preferable.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Korkyra</b></p><p><b>[ATTACH=full]1274082[/ATTACH]</b></p><p><b><b>Islands off Epeiros, Korkyra. Roman rule, circa 229-48 BC. AE.</b></b></p><p><b><b>Obverse:</b> </b>Ivy-wreathed head of Dionysos to left.</p><p><b><b>Reverse:</b> </b>K-O Amphora; above, grape bunch.</p><p><b><b>Reference:</b> </b>BMC 428-30. HGC 6, 82 corr (kantharos).</p><p>5,78g; 18mm</p><p><br /></p><p>The long series of the staters of this wealthy and enterprising maritime state begins about B.C. 585, on the death of Periander of Corinth, Korkyra became independent of its mother-city. The coins of Korkyra featuring the cow suckling her calf differ in fabric from those of any of the other states in European Greece which issued coins during the same period (sixth century B.C.), i.e. Aegina, Euboea, Athens, and Corinth. Later on half-drachms and quarter-drachms were struck bearing on the obverse, in combination with the Star on the reverse, sometimes a Head of Hera and sometimes an Amphora or a Kantharos. In 229 B.C. Korkyra was already part of the Roman Empire, and was allowed to struck silver and bronze coinage like the coin above.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>
[QUOTE="Pavlos, post: 7039530, member: 96635"]As maybe some of you know one of my focusses is to collect coins from the Greek islands. What interest me about them is that these islands often have distinct traditions and mythology on their own, which is obviously reflected on the coinage. Some iconography on their coins stay unchanged for centuries (from the Archaic age all the way to Roman provincial coinage). Most islands did not produce that much silver, mostly fractions and bronze coinage. The bigger and more significant islands did strike large amounts of silver (depending on the time period), we can think of islands like Thasos, Aegina, Samos, and Rhodos. I wanted to give a small summary of each island I own a coin of right now, with the corresponding coin there. I ofcourse cannot show all my coins of the Greek islands, therefore I will make a selection of one coin per island. I included a map if it makes it easier to locate the islands: [ATTACH=full]1274083[/ATTACH] Starting with, [B]Rhodos[/B] [ATTACH=full]1274086[/ATTACH] [B]Islands of Caria, Rhodos. Rhodes. Circa 250-229 BC. AR Didrachm. Mnasimachos, magistrate Obverse:[/B] Radiate head of Helios facing slightly right. [B]Reverse:[/B] Rose with bud to right; MNAΣIMAXOΣ above, P-O flanking stem; to left, Athena Nikephoros standing left. [B]Reference:[/B] Ashton 208; HN Online 395; HGC 6, 1439. 6.70g Rhodian coinage pretty much always has Helios and a rose on their coinage. Helios is the sun god, is the creator of the islands. The mythology goes as follows, when the gods drew lots for the places of the earth, Helios being absent received nothing. He complained to Zeus about it and Zeus offered to make the draw the lots again. Helios received as he had seen a new island about to rise from the sea. Helios therefore claimed this new island, which was not yet risen from the sea and named it after his wife, Rhodos. The rose on the coinage is a pun on the name of the island, since 'Rhodon', ῥόδον means rose. Rhodos produced many different denominations of silver throughout the centuries. From hemiobols all the way to tetradrachms. [B]Samos[/B] [ATTACH=full]1274085[/ATTACH] [B]Ionia, Samos. AR Drachm, ca. 210 - 185 B.C. [B]Obverse:[/B] [/B]Facing lion scalp. [B][B]Reverse:[/B] [/B]ΣAMIΩN; Forepart of ox charging right; krater, grape bunch, and grain ear below. [B]Reference: [/B]HGC 6, 1241; Barron 2. 2.96g. Samos, a much forgotten island, but was the mightiest state in Greece during the days of Polycrates and a formidable rival of Athens. On their coinage two notable deities are visible, the lion scalp and the ox. Lions have been associated to the goddess Hera. In very rare instances the lion appears on monuments as the symbol of the Hera. In a line of Homer, Hera herself is called a lion. At Argos there was a statue of Hera with beneath her feet a lion’s skin. The ox never appears complete on Samian coins but always his fore part only with two legs bent. It is possible that the bull may belong to the cult of Hera. At the temple, white cows were sacrificed to the goddess. And Io, who in many ways is her double, was consistently thought by the Greeks as a heifer. However, the bull is more closely connected with Artemis than Hera. There was a temple of Artemis Tauropolos at Samos, and the festivals held in honour of that goddess are not unknown on the island. In Samos, and in many parts of Asia, Hera and Artemis were not fully distinguished. Both were alike being called Chesia and Imbrasia, and both bearing many traces of oriental origin. [B]Tenedos[/B] [ATTACH=full]1274084[/ATTACH] [B]Islands off Troas, Tenedos. AR Obol, circa 450-387 B.C. Obverse:[/B] Janiform head of Hera on the left and Zeus on the right. [B]Reverse:[/B] Τ-Ε, Double axe within linear square within incuse square. [B]Reference:[/B] SNG Copenhagen 509. SNG von Aulock 1587. 0.56g; 7mm On early issues, the janiform heads on the obverse referred to the mythological foundation of the city, but by the second half of the 5th century these myths had either been forgotten or were thought to be not quite correct. The coin users wanted a more comprehensible type so the heads were changed from those of locally important mythological figures to the more universal visages of Hera and Zeus. The salient feature of all examples is the presence of a labrys located in the center of the exergue, a symbol which appears on the coinage of Tenedos at least as early as the end of the 6th century BC. A double-bladed ax, the labrys assumed a religious function as far back as the Minoan Period, and may be connected with the later Greek labyrinthos. Plutarch, states that labrys was the Carian word for ax and was associated with the Carian Zeus Labraundos. The janiform head on the obverse of pre-Alexandrine coinage of Tenedos, comprising bearded and beardless heads, reflects the two blades of the ax on the reverse, the labrys would then be the physical embodiment of the dual power of these two divinities. [B]Thasos[/B] [ATTACH=full]1274065[/ATTACH] [B]Thrace, Thasos. AR Obol, circa 435-411 B.C. Obverse:[/B] Two dolphins above one another, swimming in opposite directions; pellet above and below. [B]Reverse:[/B] Quadripartite incuse square. [B]Reference:[/B] HGC 337. Le Rider, Thasiennes 9. 0.52g; 9mm The island was important in the wine trade and also controlled rich silver mines on the mainland. The coinage of Thasos is too diverse to talk about. The coinages mostly contain Herakles and Dionysos. The first coinages of Thasos mainly feature satyrs (which were Dionysiac creatures) and dolphins with an incuse square on the other side. Later on, tetradrachms in the name of Herakles the saviour were struck, with fractions featuring Dionysos and bronze coinage featuring Herakles and Artemis. [B]Lesbos[/B] [ATTACH=full]1274067[/ATTACH] [B]Lesbos, Mytilene. AR Hemidrachm, Circa 450-350 B.C. Obverse:[/B] Laureate head of Apollo right. [B]Reverse:[/B] MYTI. Lyre. [B]Reference:[/B] SNG Copenhagen 376-7; HGC 6, 1044. 2,81g; 15mm On Lesbos several mints were operating, but the most powerful cities of this beautiful and fertile island were Mytilene and Methymna, the mint-places of the great mass of Lesbian coinage. The two most important types of coinage on the island are types struck in Billon and Electrum, both of which doubtless had a general circulation throughout the island and were struck in great amounts. In the beginning animal types predominate, but later on they include many forms of different gods and mythology. Apollo was the god that was used most on the coinage of the island, with the lyra or kithara in association. [B]Kos [ATTACH=full]1274072[/ATTACH] [B]Islands off Caria, Kos. EL Forty-eighth Stater, Phokaic standard. Circa 625-600 B.C. [B]Obverse:[/B][/B] [/B]Crab. [B][B][B]Reverse:[/B][/B] [/B]Incuse square. [B][B][B]Reference:[/B] [/B][/B]Stefanaki Series I, unlisted denomination; HN Online –; cf. HGC 6, 1295 (1/96th stater). 0.34g The first coinage of Kos started in 625 B.C. and consisted of 1/6th, 1/48th and 1/96th Electrum stater fractions. On the obverse a crab is visible, on the reverse the usual incuse square characteristic for this time. The first silver fractions that appeared ca. 500 B.C. also bears the the same design, and even centuries later the crab was still used on the coinage of Kos. The precise signification of the crab as emblem of Kos is doubtful, but the symbol may have been connected with the cult of Herakles, as the later coinage of Kos always has the symbol of the crab constantly accompanied by the Heraklean club. The myth, according to Hyginus and Apollodorus, tells how a crab bit the foot of Herakles while he was struggling with the Lernaean Hydra. [B]Samothrace[/B] [ATTACH=full]1274077[/ATTACH] [B]Islands off Thrace, Samothrace. AE Trichalkon. 3rd-2nd centuries B.C. Pythes, magistrate[/B]. [B]Obverse:[/B] Helmeted and draped bust of Athena to right. [B]Reverse:[/B] ΣΑΜΟ / ΠYΘO Kybele seated left on throne, holding patera and sceptre. [B]Reference: [/B]Schönert-Geiss, Samothrake 13. SNG Copenhagen 998. 5.43g; 20mm Samothrace is an island neighbouring Thasos island, but this island compared to Thasos actually barely struck any coinage. Samothrace was a mysterious island where a big cult of the Kabeiri was present, the citizens basically worshipped underworld deities. A massive PanHellenic temple complex was present on Samothrace, the so called "Sanctuary of the Great Gods". You can read more about it [URL='https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samothrace_temple_complex']here[/URL]. The above coin was the only more mass-produced for local use at Samothrace. Some thirty different magistrates’ names on bronze coins of Samothrace are know, all apparently of the same period. [B]Prokonnesos [ATTACH=full]1274081[/ATTACH] [B]Islands off Mysia, Prokonnesos. AR Diobol. Circa 3rd century B.C. Obverse:[/B] [/B]Head of Aphrodite to right. [B][B]Reverse:[/B] [/B]ΠPO/KON. Forepart of stag to right, turning head backwards; to left, oinochoe. [B][B]Reference:[/B] [/B]SNG Copenhagen 555. SNG Paris 2421. Thompson, Coinage, Series IV. 1.20g; 11mm Prokonnesos, an island on the top of the region Mysia in Asia Minor. It was situated in the eastern part of the Propontis, between Priapos and Kyzikos. Prokonnesos was renowned for its quarry of white marble, used in constructing the adjoining towns, particularly that of Kyzikos, and the tomb of Mausoleus at Halikarnassos, later of Constantinople during the Byzantine era. What makes the marble so special is that it is typically coarse-grained with blue veins. The coinage of Prokonnesos is small, containing only silver fractions and bronze coins, all featuring Aphrodite and the oinochoe. The portrait of the goddess is sometimes attributed as Aphrodite and sometimes as Cybele. However, the fourth-century bronzes of neighboring Placia, where the cult of Cybele was also strong, the Phrygian goddess is clearly identified by a turreted crown. In the absence of any definite attribute of Cybele on the coins of Prokonnesos, an identification with Aphrodite seems preferable. [B]Korkyra [ATTACH=full]1274082[/ATTACH] [B]Islands off Epeiros, Korkyra. Roman rule, circa 229-48 BC. AE. Obverse:[/B] [/B]Ivy-wreathed head of Dionysos to left. [B][B]Reverse:[/B] [/B]K-O Amphora; above, grape bunch. [B][B]Reference:[/B] [/B]BMC 428-30. HGC 6, 82 corr (kantharos). 5,78g; 18mm The long series of the staters of this wealthy and enterprising maritime state begins about B.C. 585, on the death of Periander of Corinth, Korkyra became independent of its mother-city. The coins of Korkyra featuring the cow suckling her calf differ in fabric from those of any of the other states in European Greece which issued coins during the same period (sixth century B.C.), i.e. Aegina, Euboea, Athens, and Corinth. Later on half-drachms and quarter-drachms were struck bearing on the obverse, in combination with the Star on the reverse, sometimes a Head of Hera and sometimes an Amphora or a Kantharos. In 229 B.C. Korkyra was already part of the Roman Empire, and was allowed to struck silver and bronze coinage like the coin above.[/QUOTE]
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