Ancients => Mini Bee => my new smallest ancient coin

This lil' honey is now my smallest ancient coin ...

=> 5 mm & 0.17 grams

bzzzzzzzzzzzz


IONIA, Ephesos, AR Tetartemorion
Circa 500-420 BC
Diameter: 5 mm
Weight: 0.17 grams
Obverse: Bee
Reverse: Head of eagle right within incuse square
Reference: Karwiese Series IV; SNG Kayhan 126–34
Other: 12h … toned, Exceptional for issue




... pretty fricken cool, eh?

=> please feel free to post any relevant coins!! (Bees, Ephesos, etc)

Cheers

 

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Nice pickup. Still need a bee coin too.

 

I've heard that these things always have one or two of these problems:
1. A weak strike.
2. A small flan.
3. An off center design.

When one of them doesn't, the price goes uuuuup!

I like it!

 

Once again you've outdone yourself lil bro. Outstanding coin!

 

"Go big small or go home".

Nice one, Steve!

 

Great pickup Steve!

 

Steve what a awesom coin...details off the chart, you can even see the stinger...way cool...

 

Exceptional! The obverse is nice but the reverse is really nice with that bold legend. The tiny stuff does not always have room for letters. Just to be technical, you should give two measurements on a coin that ovoid. Kayhan has photos of nine of these of which I'd call one about equal to yours. The others are inferior. If you are going to collect the little stuff, Kayhan (SNG Turkey 1) is a worthwhile book. Looking at the overall Ephesos page will put some things on your want list that you may never find including a super early EL with the double square reverse like we see on the lion/bull Croesids but with the bee obverse. Rosen (I believe I have recommended that book before) has one also but I never will.

 

Fantastic, Steve. One word of advice from experience: don't drop it!

 

=> yah, I hear ya ... if my dog accidentally eats this wee lil' coin, it may be too small to salvage later during a backyard scavenger-hunt!!

 

Thanks for all of the positive coin-comments, gang ...

=> I totally agree => I love this lil baby!! (it's very cool)

 

As John Anthony pointed out, dropping the coin could be a problem in more than one way. Obviously shag carpet (something we had in 1970 for the young among us) could eat a coin this size but the worrisome part to me is that the coin (and most coins of that period and region) has a crystallized texture which creates dotted lines on which coins can break. Not only would I not drop it on a hard surface but I would not press hard on it or sandwich it in a stack of 102 coins in a 100 coin box.

 

=> sadly, I know this to be true ... for this poor ol' octopus coin doesn't look quite as "complete" nowadays (*sigh*)



=> it got damaged on its journey to David Sears' farm (he stated that it arrived in that condition, so it must have been damaged in the journey from the North Pole to his California Ranch)

 

Okay => I asked you charmin' blokes to show-off your good ol' Ephesos-Bee-coins, but nobody manned-up, so I'm gonna show-off a couple of my own ...

IONIA - EPHESOS - AR DRACHM
202-133 B.C.
Diameter: 17
Weight: 3.2 grams
Obverse: E-Φ; bee
Reverse: BIANΩP; stag standing left, palm tree in the background
Other: very fine; scrape mark on reverse






IONIA, Ephesos, Æ19
Uncertain magistrate
Late 2nd-early 1st century BC
Diameter: 19 mm
Weight: 3.71 grams
Obverse: Bee in wreath
Reverse: Stag standing right; palm tree in background, monogram (faint) to right
Reference: SNG Copenhagen 299-303
Other: 12h … nice green patina.
From the JMG Collection





=> again => please join-in, my awesome coin-comrades!!

 

Noone wants to compete with your little beauty. Most people would consider my offering a small coin at just over 1 gram but it is many multiples of yours. Perhaps you know I am not terrible fond of using the coin names like diobol for mine or tetartemorion for yours because we are not certain of what standard was being followed but I suspect that my coin is about 8 times yours. Kayhan calls mine a Rhodian standard diobol and yours either a Milesian 1/64 stater or a Persic 1/48. The half century between the two seems to have had a currency reform but I am far from up on this matter.


I know even less about the little bronze or the countermark it bears.

 

awesome coins!! (*sweet*)

=> thanks for posting (so very cool)

 

Yah, before this new coin, my smallest coin was another fairly new purchase ...

ISLANDS off THRACE, Thasos
AR Sixteenth Stater – Hemiobol
Circa 500-480 BC
Diameter: 8 mm
Weight: 0.56 grams
Obverse: Two dolphins swimming in opposite directions; pellets around
Reverse: Quadripartite incuse square
Reference: Le Rider, Thasiennes 9; HGC 6, 337
Other: toned, light porosity






=> please fell free to post your wee ones ... people never get tired of seeing sweet coins!! (ummm, who else is gonna look at 'em except for us coin-geeks??!!)

=> Bring 'em!!

 

Tiny but packs a punch. Awesome coin Steve!

I have been sitting here trying to think of relevant bee puns for longer than I care to admit but came up with nothing hilarious.

 

What a honey, Steve... a coin you can really bee proud of!

Darn it, Whizb4ng, now I've gone and used up my corny pun quota for the day.

 

Steve, great coin!!!!
I have an Ephesos but I still need to get pics.
I will have to share it latter