FrizzyAntoine's Top 10 Greek Coins of 2021 (With Videos!)

Discussion in 'Ancient Coins' started by FrizzyAntoine, Dec 21, 2021.

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Pick Your Favourite 3 :)

  1. 10. Herakleia Nomos

    10 vote(s)
    43.5%
  2. 9. Philippi Hemidrachm

    5 vote(s)
    21.7%
  3. 8. Achaemenid Siglos

    1 vote(s)
    4.3%
  4. 7. Athens Drachm

    3 vote(s)
    13.0%
  5. 6. Teos Stater

    6 vote(s)
    26.1%
  6. 5. Syracuse Tetradrachm

    6 vote(s)
    26.1%
  7. 4. Datames Stater

    5 vote(s)
    21.7%
  8. 3. Diodotos Stater

    5 vote(s)
    21.7%
  9. 2. Hidrieus Tetradrachm

    16 vote(s)
    69.6%
  10. 1. Olympia Stater

    9 vote(s)
    39.1%
Multiple votes are allowed.
  1. FrizzyAntoine

    FrizzyAntoine Well-Known Member

    Okay, we’re most of the way through December and what a year it’s been! Replete with a great many non-numismatic ups and downs, this year has somehow nonetheless managed to be quite satisfying from a numismatic perspective, and better than I had anticipated given how hard this list was to narrow down and arrange in order. This is my 2nd list of the year, focussing only on Greek coinage, which is my primary area of interest. I hope the videos help make up for the short descriptions, though they aren’t quite where I’d like them to be either, and the coming year may bring with it a much-needed upgrade to my photography equipment. Anyways, without further ado, here they are.

    10. Herakleia Nomos



    This coin was minted in the Magna Graecian polis of Herakleia, at a time when the Greek colonists of the region were facing increased pressures from the southern expansion of local Italian peoples, chief among them the early Roman state. This call would be answered by a number of different monarchs and city-states, most importantly by Pyrrhos of Epirus, whose campaigns in southern Italy and Sicily have passed on almost into legend. In 280 BCE the fields near Herakleia would be the starting-point of this grand and ultimately ruinous Italian campaign. Athena is depicted on the obverse in traditional Magna Graecian fashion, though this example has a more complete bust than most, at the expense of a reduced plume on the helmet. The reverse meanwhile depicts the aftermath of Herakles’ duel with the Nemean Lion, showing the hero holding the hide of his vanquished foe as a trophy, and sporting his fearsome club and bow, while Nike adorns him with a crown in celebration of his conquest.

    9. Philippi Hemidrachm



    This is a coin I can still hardly believe I actually own. Part of the reason for their immense rarity is that these were minted for only a short while as a celebratory issue, following the renaming of the town of Krenides, host to the bountiful Pangean Mines – a massive series of silver and gold veins so richly bursting with ore that they were the basis for Philip of Macedon’s introduction of the first stable bimetallic currency system in Greece. Capturing the newly-founded town and its untapped ore was one of his first strategic conquests after ascending the Macedonian throne, and proved to be a masterstroke. In 356 BCE he renamed the town Philippi, and a series of hemidrachms and tetradrachms (perhaps other denominations in silver as well, of these I am as yet unaware) and gold staters were struck to commemorate the event. These coins also interestingly feature a beardless Herakles wearing the Nemean lionskin, a hallmark of the coinage of his son Alexander and a motif rarely seen before Alexanders own coinage. On the reverse is a tripod, with a grain ear to the right and the legend ΦΙΛΙΠΠΩΝ to the left.

    8. Achaemenid Type IV Siglos



    This coin has twofold historical value. It is a remarkably complete and detailed example of one of the earliest, most widespread, and most iconic coin designs of the ancient world. And it marks the final issue of coins to be struck in that series, heralding with it the death of the first truly transcontinental empire in history. These ‘Late Phase’ Type IV siglos were stuck sometime during the reigns of Artaxerxes III and Darius III, however they maintained, in very slightly-altered form, a design which had been in use since the days of Darius I nearly two centuries prior.

    7. Athens Drachm (Starr II.C)



    Like a number of other coins on this list, this is a difficult coin to get hold of, especially so when one fails to be born a member of the landed gentry. Despite the massive abundance of tetradrachms from Athens, the smaller denominations are annoyingly scarce, moreso when one looks for anything made before Athens commandeered the Delian League treasury in 454 BCE. This is a drachm of Athens, belonging to Starr Group II.C and struck sometime in the immediate aftermath of the Persian Wars, between 475 and 465 BCE. At that time Athens was being reborn from the desolation left in the wake of the Achaemenid sack of 480 BCE. The obverse features a characteristically enchanting archaic head of Athena struck in high relief, meanwhile the reverse as ever depicts her faithful owl, facing forwards with the city ethnic at his right side. Interestingly, some coins of this series do depict a crescent moon next to the olive sprig to the left of the owl while others don’t, which is generally regarded to be a reference to the Athenian victory at Marathon. I believe it is missing from my example, however the poor state of preservation of the reverse could simply be hindering my ability to locate it.

    6. Teos Stater



    Alright, finally a coin with some real heft to it! There isn’t a great deal I can say about this coin at the moment as it’s quite newly-arrived and unresearched on my part, and so I will have to leave you with a basic first impression – the mythical motif of the griffin on the obverse, while relatively common among early classical and archaic coinage, is nonetheless a real standout on this piece with a realistic and ferociously carved creature presented to us, jaws agape. With such as strong showing on the obverse the good people of Teos (of which the correct spelling may in fact be Theos) clearly felt there was no need to put anything on the reverse, so it features a shallow quadripartite incuse in typical fashion for coins minted in the Aegean around the turn of the 6th Century BCE.

    The rest of the list is below, apparently 5 embedded videos is the max per post!! o_O:banghead:
     
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  3. FrizzyAntoine

    FrizzyAntoine Well-Known Member

    5. Syracuse 2nd Democracy Tetradrachm



    It may not be a very popular opinion, but I feel that Magna Graecian coinage in general, and Syracusan Tetradrachms (and everything other denomination) in particular, are overrated. However….when I finally got around to purchasing one of my own I realised there might be something to all the hype. It certainly isn’t the nicest coin I’ve ever seen (though the nicest dies certainly do get quite close), but this coin features a fusion of interesting design, beautiful artistry, a wonderful local mythological motif on the obverse, and an iconic historical and propagandistic design on the reverse. And it was made in the early years of the Second Democracy of Syracuse, an interlude between tyrannies when the city flourished and reached unseen heights of power and artistic talent. Taken together, all these factors make for a seriously impressive coin, though perhaps still one that gets more love than it would have otherwise, were the same design minted elsewhere.

    4. Datames Satraps' Revolt Stater



    This design is probably one of my favourites from the entire corpus of ancient coinage. The figure seated on the obverse (which is unfortunately quite off-centre) within the crenelated walls of the city themselves is Ba’al, patron deity of Tarsos and a many other cities in Asia Minor – a common sight on the coinage of the region, and a potential inspiration for the seated Zeus which is near-ubiquitous on the coinage of Alexander. The reverse meanwhile is where this coin shines. Showing the figure of Datames placidly seated in full armour and Satrapal regalia, testing an arrow with a bow by his side and a Forouhar, or winged sun-disk, set above him to his right. These coins were minted in the midst of the Satraps’ Revolt, which lasted throughout the 360s BCE, and Datames was a chief instigator of this rebellion against the imperial authority of the Achaemenid emperor Artaxerxes II, rallying nearly all the satraps of Asia Minor to his cause. This coin marks a dramatic shift in the life of Datames, transforming from a loyal subordinate and willing general (as indicated by his earlier series of staters, which follow on from the types of Pharnabazos) into a rebellious, quasi-independent monarch in his own right in the space of a few months. I already have an example of the early type, so perhaps next year I will be able to finally acquire the third in the series, wherein Datames takes a less measured and thoughtful approach to his depiction, putting himself on equal footing with the god Ana, whom I have yet to research at any length. At any rate, the jump from warrior-king to God-king is certainly brazen, if not uncommon for the era, so stay tuned for next year!


    3. Diodotos ‘Soter’ Stater



    Afghanistan, as I’m sure you all know, and as many a foreign conqueror has discovered to their great dismay, is a rugged land peopled by unconquerable and fiercely independent tribes. This coin illustrates the difficult truth which has presented itself to nearly every foreign power that has attempted to exert sway over the region – however hard-won or easily consummated the conquest itself, maintaining sovereignty afterwards is a nearly impossible proposition. This coin was minted by an independent Baktrian kingdom which broke away from the suzerainty of the Seleukid king Antiochos II Theos sometimes around the year 250 BCE, bringing nearly 80 years of ‘Macedonian’ overlordship to an end. The portrait on the obverse is that of the unruly satrap who took this bold step, Diodotos I Soter of Baktria, while the reverse puzzlingly maintains the legend ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ANTIOXOY, though there is (largely unsubstantiated) speculation that this may be a posthumous issue minted by an otherwise-unknown son of Diodotos who was named Antiochos. While this may seem a stretch, in that region the numismatic record forms a surprisingly significant portion of our knowledge of the rulers who defined this era, so such a possibility is not as entirely unreasonable as it may initially seem. The coin itself was likely minted in the major Greek centre of Ai-Khanoum, a mostly-forgotten ruin in the north of modern-day Afghanistan.


    2. Hidrieus Tetradrachm



    This is without a doubt the most aesthetically-pleasing coin I bought all year. It is also the 2nd coin I bought this year, certainly something to be said for a strong start! Hidrieus was the middle brother among the Hekatomnid kings of Caria, who were essentially autonomous monarchs under nominal Achaemenid suzerainty and ruled over the region of Caria from their stronghold of Halicarnassus. The obverse features a stunning facing portrait of Apollo, rendered in the finest late-Classical style, while the reverse features the local incarnation of Zeus – Zeus Labraundos – whose primary sanctuary was in Mylasa in Caria, and who is traditionally depicted carrying a large axe known as the Labrys. On a somewhat unrelated note, I found out, some months after I had purchased the coin, that it is also a “plate coin”… of a sort. Look up ‘Hidrieus’ in Google and you’ll see what I mean.

    1. Olympia Stater (Zeus Mint)



    Okay, so it’s time to get this show wrapped up! This is my favourite coin of the year. I could ramble on about it for ages, but here’s what you really need to know:
    • This was minted in the Zeus mint at Olympia during the 89th Olympiad of 424 BCE.
    • It was one of the final dies produced in the series depicting a flying/standing eagle on the obverse with a hare/serpent in its talons.
    • It’s such a rare issue that even BCD himself didn’t have an example of this exact type (though he had a single example from the same obverse die, paired with a different reverse die). I believe this is one of three examples sold in the past two decades according to acsearch (with a fourth now being offered for sale by Stacks Bowers early next year). There are 17 total, including the aforementioned and the present coin, which I have been able to track through major reference works and institutional collections (though there must certainly be a few more hiding out there).
    • The dies themselves are the first from Olympia to have been signed by an engraver, who may plausibly have been Daedalus of Sicyon.
    • The obverse is struck from what is almost certainly the finest die for this motif (eagle with animal in talons) produced in the entire run of Olympic coinage.
    • There is a very fun little crab countermark, a common occurrence on Olympic coinage of this time period, but one whose exact meaning I have yet to decisively discover.
    • Finally, I managed to luck out massively on this coin, buying it for a fraction of what it’s truly worth. As such, I doubt it’ll be hitting the auction block again for another half-century at least, and hopefully much longer!

    Well, that’s it from me. I hope everyone had a swell time going through the list, and please feel free to comment with your thoughts and your own coins. Happy Holidays everyone!
     
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  4. ChasPay

    ChasPay Active Member

    6,5,2 are my favorites. I will have to check back and see what others vote for.
     
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  5. AncientJoe

    AncientJoe Well-Known Member

    Your coin #1 is my favorite as I nearly bought it twice (first when it showed up on MA-Shops and then at the Noble auction). I'm very glad it found its way into a good home!
     
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  6. Cucumbor

    Cucumbor Well-Known Member

    My favorites are #2, 4 and 10 in that order, congrats on a great year

    Q
     
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  7. FrizzyAntoine

    FrizzyAntoine Well-Known Member

    Thank you, that means quite a lot! I consider myself very lucky that you chose to pass, but knowing that it was on your radar is a massive confidence-booster. :)
     
  8. Di Nomos

    Di Nomos Well-Known Member

    I like them all, but voted for 1, 6, & 9.

    For some reason, I really like the Philippi coin. Nice portrait of Heracles. And the Athens drachm is nice style too. Those Starr group coins are more attractive than the later mass produced coins I think. And your Olympia coin because of all it represents.

    The rest are nice too. Well done!
     
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  9. kazuma78

    kazuma78 Supporter! Supporter

    Wonderful selections! I went with 1, 3 and 6. Your #1 coin is a wonderful piece and I am glad it went to someone who appreciates it for what it is. It was a tough year for acquisitions and you did excellent.
     
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  10. El Cazador

    El Cazador Well-Known Member

    I voted for 10&2

    can’t beat that fantastic Tetradrachm
     
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  11. DonnaML

    DonnaML Well-Known Member

    All wonderful, but I voted for 2, 4, and 7. A very difficult choice!

    PS: I might suggest that the Ancient Egyptian empire, at its peak, was also truly transcontinental -- albeit on only two continents rather than three -- well before the Persian Empire.
     
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  12. happy_collector

    happy_collector Well-Known Member

    Great selections, @FrizzyAntoine.

    Not easy to pick the top 3, but my favorites are #2, 5 and 7. I like the Syracuse coin design, and the archaic Athena portrait in your drachm is wonderful.
     
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  13. Nvb

    Nvb Well-Known Member

    I have to agree your #1 and #2 were also my favourites.

    The Olympia stater is a very appealing and rare example. Considering the universally recognizable history I am often surprised these coins do not command higher prices in general.
    I was lucky enough to acquire my own at a deep discount - a 96th Olympiad stater purchased in 2020 in a private sale. It’s not quite as nice or as scarce as yours, but I’m thrilled just to own one at all


    Regarding the Hidrieus tetradrachm - you may recall I took a keen interest in that coin but came up just short on the day.
    I agree the facing portrait is very well executed and of a lovely style. The auction listing didn’t show the tone as nicely as your video and that just adds to the appeal. Beautiful coin.

    After there it was tough to choose between 5,7 and 10.. but they’re all great coins I’d be happy to have in my collection. Same goes for all the other coins on this list..

    Nice touch with the video top 10!
    It’s such a nice way to display your coins, perhaps this will catch on :)
     
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  14. Al Kowsky

    Al Kowsky Well-Known Member

    Frizzy, That's a wonderful selection of Greek coins :happy:! I'm a fine style freak so my picks would be #2, 10, & 4, in that order :D. The Apollo/Zeus Tet is a real treasure as is the gem grade Herakleia Nomos. The stunning obverse on the Datames stater more than makes up for the off-center reverse :cool:.
     
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  15. FrizzyAntoine

    FrizzyAntoine Well-Known Member

    Congratulations! I have no doubts it's a beautiful coin, and I'd love to see it shared on this forum. And I agree, the coinage of Olympia is quite underappreciated, but I suppose the silver lining is that it offers a nice boon for us collectors at the same time.

    Indeed I do! And I agree the photos did not do it justice, failing to capture most of the toning. It seems that CNG and a few others are finally starting to remedy that with videos in their feauture listings. I think the trend of videos has been slowly growing in the past few years, and I too hope it continues to do so in the coming years. And of course thank you for the kind words and thoughful comment.
     
  16. FrizzyAntoine

    FrizzyAntoine Well-Known Member

    Thank you! The market certianly forced me to look at new places, but overall I can't really complain much about 2021, though I do hope 2022 is better for everyone overall.

    Thank you!

    Thank you! :happy: I know what you mean, I can be quite picky when it comes to style as well (there are a few types on my wantlist where I only really like one of the dies used in the series), and while it takes longer to find the right coin I find it's always worth it in the end.

    Thank you! And I believe you are in fact correct. I hadn't considered any Bronze Age civilisations, but Egypt certainly does qualify as transcontinental.

    Thank you both! The athens drachm surprised me as I hadn't thought it would even make the list initially, but after looking at it again in-hand I've found the archaic style is really quite refreshing compared to the mass emissions.


    It's been wonderful reading everyone's comments, and it's great having this community to share with. Thank you all, and I hope everyone has a very happy holiday season!
     
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  17. zumbly

    zumbly Ha'ina 'ia mai ana ka puana

    This list knocked my socks off. It was cruel to make us choose only 3. They're all beautiful and well-chosen. I voted for the Olympia, Hidrieus and the Syracuse but could just as easily have picked the Teos, Datames and Athens drachm.
     
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  18. Nvb

    Nvb Well-Known Member


    Not one to post coins in someone else’s top 10 thread… but I just discovered this with one of my own coins and remembered you had the same experience! Small world..

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larissa_(mythology)
    Larisa, daughter of Pelasgus

    E457915A-EC47-4E78-9579-BA6EEAA32DE7.jpeg
    B869D371-1B2D-4494-9EDF-5D3B93D51C82.jpeg

    THESSALY, Larissa. Circa 380-365 BC. AR Drachm (19mm, 5.78 g, 12h). Head of the nymph Larissa facing slightly left, wearing grain ears in hair / ΛA-P-I-ΣAI, Thessalian warrior, holding spear, on horseback right. L-S Series 5; BCD Thessaly II 292; HGC 4, 446. Good VF, toned, some roughness, metal flaw on obverse.

    From the BCD Collection.
     
    Last edited: Dec 31, 2021
  19. TIF

    TIF Always learning.

    WOW!! What an incredible list! It seems unfair to cite fewer than 10 as my favorite but I'll try :D.

    First pick: The Hidrieus tet. No words. :wideyed:
    Second: Olympic stater for all the special reasons you mentioned.
    Third: From here it becomes a big toss-up, but the Syracuse 2nd Democracy tet gets the nod.

    In addition to the history, your Achaemenid type IV siglos is notable for its good strike and preservation.

    Love that Athens drachm.

    The Philippi hemidrachm is very special.

    Congrats on the great year!
     
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  20. robinjojo

    robinjojo Well-Known Member

    Excellent coins and videos for 2021! The Athenian drachm, Olympia stater and the Hidrieus tetradrachm, which has fine style, in my opinion. The siglos is also exceptional.

    Also, I really like your Syracuse tet, especially the way the dolphins form a perfect frame around Arethusa.
     
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  21. Nvb

    Nvb Well-Known Member

    I wonder if any other CT members unknowingly have Wikipedia ‘plate’ coins
    :pompous:
     
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