I got this little ancient coin at the Westchester coin show this last weekend. The seller did not deal in ancient coins. The coin was in a 2x2 cardboard holder labeled simply Massalia 3rd Cenury Silver Obol. Sear’s book seems to confirm the brief data on the 2x2. About all I had to do was weigh & measure the coin and easily found it listed in the book. Massalia (Gaul) is modern-day Marseilles France. Marseilles and the surrounding area is a nice place today. I wonder if it was a nice place to live during 300-400 BC. GAUL Massalia AR Obol 3rd Century B.C. 0.74 grams, 11 mm Obv: Youthful Male Head (of Apollo?) facing left Rev: Wheel with 4 spokes, M - A in two of the quarters Assuming the coin is genuine, what would you ancient folks grade this sliver of silver?
Learning one ancient coin at a time..... BTW, I picked-up four ancient coins at the Westchester coin show. This Massalia Obol is the smallest at 0.74 grams. The largest is Punic (Carthaginian) and almost 17 grams. I’ll take photos & post the next three (in ascending order) as soon as I can. THANKS FOR LETTING ME SHARE.
Grade: ??? I appreciate the views & nice comments. Perhaps some of you could suggest a grade opinion for this little coin? GAUL Massalia AR Obol 3rd Century B.C. 0.74 grams, 11 mm Obv: Youthful Male Head (of Apollo?) facing left Rev: Wheel with 4 spokes, M - A in two of the quarters Grade: ???
HA Collect- great coin. The coin is of good silver and has nice sharp details with only a little flattening of the obverse hair and wee off struck. The coin would grade VF to VF+. This coin is very small and high grade examples of these litle pieces is few and far between. We are lucky such a piece has survived the test of time. Great Pickup!
I would imagine CNG would grade it as 2-3/5 on Surface and 2-3/5 on Strike. Although that does depend on the grader.
