Just received this little coin and have been researching on acsearch, item by item for Ionia and Caria in Wildwinds, and others to figure it out while it was in transit, but haven't gotten it yet. Can you help? The listing mentioned it being a hemiobol from Caria, with possibly a bull in the incuse (obverse?), and a lion (reverse?). I think I can see a protome lion right, with head reverted left The bull looked more like a bunny rabbit at initial view,but nothing comes up for that search. Nor can I find a bull that looks like that. The incuse reminds me in execution of the bird/quail of Miletos. The size is small: 6mm, 0.13g Is hemiobol correct? Tetartemorion? Hemitetartemorion? Edit: Could it be this one? and I have the one "lion" side wrong? (grasping at straws here lol) https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=1943222 If you have any suggestions or info, please share. Thanks in advance!
Fun little coin! .13g would make it a tetartemorion. As for attribution, Caria, 5th c. BC is about as close as you are likely to get. I believe your coin is more or less a match to the Naumann example - matching subject is more important than matching style.
That is something that I sometimes struggle with Thanks for the vote of confidence on the Naumann alignment!
Cool Tetartemorion @Justin Lee ! I found that some of these little coins just are difficult to get any further attributions... I tried here, and a couple of other places asking for advice from the experts. They say the same... there is only so far that some of these coins can be attributed for now. Few of mine, en masse:
Congrats @J.L. You nailed it yourself. Hemitetartemorion. These are the tiniest ancient coins ever. You can also check the E-Sylum Publications- NBS. Good luck.
These are neat little coins. You have to wonder how they packed so much onto such a small flan. MYLASA, CARIA AR Tetartemorion OBVERSE: Lion's head left with reversed foreleg below REVERSE: Lion's scalp facing, flanked by leg on both sides, in incuse circle Struck at Mylasa, 392-376 BC .2g, 6mm SNG Keckman I 837-846 (lion left)
Mine is 0.13g "uncertain" Caria 500-450 BC. I have been calling it a hemitartemorion but I doubt that is right and have no better feeling about tetartemorion. There is a lot to study on the changing weight standards and I see no reason to force Athenian names on them. The closest coin in Kayhan weighs twice as much and is called a tetartemorion so I went for the half not knowing any better. No such thing. If you add hemi- you drop te-.
