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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;John Anthony, post: 2230986, member: 42773&quot;]Much of the coinage of classical Ephesos is readily available, easy to collect, and thoroughly cataloged and analyzed. So when this coin arrived yesterday, I found myself at a loss to say anything new or interesting about it. I know it&#039;s perfectly fine to say, &quot;Hey look at my new coin, isn&#039;t it cool?&quot; But I always feel the need to live up to my reputation as a stodgy academic (slides glasses down nose).</p><p><br /></p><p>There&#039;s a dizzying number of bee and stag varieties among the silver, bronze, and electrum coins of Ephesos - see the <a href="http://www.wildwinds.com/coins/greece/ionia/ephesos/t.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.wildwinds.com/coins/greece/ionia/ephesos/t.html" rel="nofollow">Wildwinds page</a>. Both the stag and the bee are symbols of Artemis...</p><p><br /></p><p>&quot;The early association of the bee with the cult of Artemis is attested by varied evidence. It appears not only upon the strange polymastoid statue of the Ephesian goddess but upon the earliest coins of her city. As the owl was the emblem of Athena at Athens, so the bee seems to have been the emblem of Artemis at Ephesus.&quot; (Elderkin, G. W. The Bee of Artemis. <i>The American Journal of Philology</i>. Vol. 60 no. 2. 1939. p. 203)</p><p><br /></p><p>Not only was the bee a symbol of Artemis, but the young women which served in the temple were called Bees. (Frayer-Griggs, Daniel. The Beasts at Ephesus and the Cult of Artemis.&nbsp; <i>Harvard Theological Review</i> 106. 2013. p. 468.)</p><p><br /></p><p>BMC describes the obverse of this coin simply as &quot;female head left,&quot; but in light of the fact that the coinage of classical Ephesos is almost entirely dedicated to Artemis, we have to conclude that it&#039;s a bust of the goddess. And this coin has a lovely version of the bust, in addition to a well-centered bee...</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]438577[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>At 10mm, 1g, you might think this was the smallest denomination the Ephesians struck in bronze, but there is one smaller, coming in at around 6-7mm and half a gram...</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]438578[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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