I picked up these two today,one from Berytos (Beirut) which was part of the Phoenician empire and the other from Neapolis,modern day Naples which,at that time,was a Greek city-state.This was hundreds of years before the Romans got it together and kicked them out. :smile Because of the hole,I got it down from $45 to $15
Mikjo0, those are beautiful. I've always wanted to know, are you the one who mounts the coins in those holders or do you have somebody else do it. They are really good looking holders B
Bone,thanks They're a combination of 3 (or 4) ingedients; Harris 2x2 snap-locks for US coins (red=cents,gray=Sacagewea) Microsoft Word/paper Elmer's glue the foam ring is from an Airtight 15mm,fits the Sac holders perfectly. I did it all by myself..:smile
Well, they look awesome. :thumb: :thumb: :thumb: I've got to do something like that. My 2x2 flips are starting to look ragged.
Have to agree they realy are great looking thanks for taking the time to share them with us. De Orc :kewl:
Neapolis Camaniae was an important trading partner with Syracuse,and the didrachma is their invention, but this coin was actually minted in what is now Naples,Italy. Here are some more examples of the nymph/man-headed bull coins they produced: http://www.bio.vu.nl/home/vwielink/WWW_MGC/Campania_map/Neapolis_map/Neapolis.html
Are you sure about the didrachm originating at Neapolis? Not that I doubt you. I hadn't really thought about it at all until you mentioned it. Here's one of the two Gelan didrachms I have (from the period 490 -480 BC). Gela being an ancient greek city state in Sicily. Gelon, Tyrant of Gela kicked Syracuse's butt in war. As conqueror he decided to move his household and a vast swathe of the Gelan population lock stock and barrel from Gela to Syracuse. While this was to lead to greater things for Syracuse, it sadly proved to be the kiss of death for Gela.
Ian, The guy I bought it from is usually dead on with his attributions.Whenever I talk to him about ancient coins,I realize how little I know.If you look at the link I provided above,I think you will see that 90% of the coins from Neapolis have the same design,a female bust,alternately described as Athena,nymph or some other obscure goddess,and a reverse of either a half or full sized depiction of the man-headed bull.
Lol....i've just re-read my post and I can see that there's oodles of ambiguity there that I hadn't noticed when I wrote it. My apologies if i caused some confusion. It wasn't the attribution of your coin to Neapolis I was questioning but rather your comment that the `didrachma' was their `invention'. I had thought that didrachm coins had been issued in other locations long before Neapolis adopted it as a denomination for theirs. I could be wrong though, for (as i said) I hadn't given it much thought before now.
The "their invention" I was speaking of was Syracuse,not Neapolis.I can see that my post can be interpreted either way.Punctuation and sentence structure are not my strong points.:goofer: I read somewhere that the didrachm measurement has it's origin in Syracuse but who knows?I believe that Gela was founded only 45 years later and is only about 135 km from Syracuse,so you may well be correct.Most definitions just say that it's an ancient Greek coin with a value of 2 drachms.
Hmm. To be honest, I think the `didrachm' was in use long before Syracuse produced any of its own coinage. The term `drachm' (translates as `a handful') is based upon the weight of grain, the basic commodity of that era. There wasn't a `standard' for the drachm throught the greek world. It varied from region to region due to a number of factors, one of which was the availability of silver. For example, the Aeginetan standard was 96 grains per `drachm'. The Phoenician standard was 56 grains per drachm. The Aeginetan `turtles' were two standard Aeginetan drachms (ie a `didrachm'). The Aeginetan turtles are called `staters' rather than `didrachms' for some reason I don't claim to have knowledge of, but the word `stater' just means `a standard'. A standard what (you might well ask)?...Well, in the case of the `turtles' it's a standard two drachms weight of grain in Aegina. That's what.
OK,I did a bit of further "reserch" and it turns out that you are correct.Just read the first two paragraphs of this article.For those that don't like to read ,here is the condensed version: "The prevailing weight-standard of the earliest coins is the Aeginetic, the stater being a didrachm." The time of these was 6-7th centuries BC. http://www.snible.org/coins/hn/cyclades.html
