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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Valentinian, post: 2416927, member: 44316&quot;]Doug is right that if a diobol is about 1 gram, my Teos coin (above), at 0.33 grams, could not be a tetartemorion (1/4 obol).</p><p><br /></p><p>DeCallatay (citing Balcer, SNR 47, for my Teos type in various sizes) has the modal weight of 47 staters (Sear 4576-7) at 11.9-11.99 grams and 29 &quot;trihemiobols&quot; at 1.30 - 1.39 grams. So, if the stater is a didrachm the drachm would be c. 5.97 grams and an obol c. 0.99 grams&nbsp; (This is heavier than an obol at Athens) and a trihemiobol 1.48 grams, heavier than the observed mode. Of course, none of these calculations allow for a per-coin seignorage (the charge for turning metal into coins) which would cause the smaller denominations to be lighter than their nominal fraction.</p><p><br /></p><p>The Balcer die-study catalog cites (only) one drachm at 5.28 grams and (only) one 2.60-grams coin he calls a triobol (= hemidrachm), which would make the obol about 0.87 grams. So, Teos in this time period did not use drachms as a major part of their system.</p><p><br /></p><p>As Doug said, &quot;We tend to force all these coins into words from Athens.&quot; Do we know that Teos used &quot;drachms&quot; and &quot;obols&quot; (6 obols to a drachm) like Athens?</p><p><br /></p><p>If so, I think the original 1 gram coin is an obol (not a diobol) on the heavy standard used at Teos.</p><p><br /></p><p>My coin, of 0.33 grams, does not fit well using the most common Greek fractions. Balcer finds 4 pieces c. 0.30 grams like mine and calls them &quot;tritemoria&quot; (3 times 1/4 obol). That&#039;s an odd denomination!</p><p><br /></p><p>I think the denominations of the smallest coins from cities other than Athens are not really certain. Maybe they are well-known in some places, but not all. The reference works that named them are old and were, at the time, focused on the bigger denominations. Now that we have so many more small coins to study, it might be time to look at them again. Balcer seems to think Teos did not issue many obols (he finds 4 coins c. 1.1 grams), but did issue lots of &quot;trihemiobols&quot; at about 1.35 grams. That seems odd.</p><p><br /></p><p>I can&#039;t see striking 12 hemiobols from the same amount of silver as one drachm -- there must be some charge for the extra work in striking 12 coins instead of one and that charge, perhaps paid by striking 13 or 14 from the right amount of silver, should reduce the average weights.</p><p><br /></p><p>Given that all these denominations look quite similar (they have the same type, but different sizes, or, more importantly, weights), I can&#039;t see how the ancient man in the street (or dark tavern) could tell the small ones apart reliably. This interests me and I will look into it.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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