Ionia Electrum Plain 1/24 Stater 650 BC To 600 BC, And The Temple Of Artemis

Here's one of my favorite ancient coins, in my collection. In a sense, this is one of the first coins ever made, depending on how you define "coin". After much searching and waiting, I finally acquired this coin last year. When I acquired this coin, it was in an NGC Ancients slab. This year, I finally freed the coin from the slab.
The earliest known hoard of ancient Greek coins, the "Artemision hoard", contained coins of this type, as well as other coin types : plain pieces of silver, plain pieces of electrum, plain electrum "coins" with a punch mark on 1 side (my "coin" is of this type), electrum "coins" with stripes on 1 side and a punch mark on the other side, electrum coins with animals and other designs on a striped background and a punch mark on the other side, and electrum coins with animals and other designs on a plain background and a punch mark on the other side ("Coinage In The Greek World" by Carradice and Price, page 24). The Artemision hoard is important, because the hoard was found among various artifacts, which allowed archeologists to date the coins to 600 BC or earlier.
The Artemision hoard was found at the site of the ancient Temple Of Artemis, in the ancient Greek city of Ephesus, in what is now western Turkey. Artemis was the ancient Greek goddess of the hunt, the wilderness, wild animals, nature, vegetation, childbirth, care of children, and chastity. The final version of the Temple Of Artemis, whose construction began in 323 BC and continued for many years afterwards, was gigantic. It was 1 of the 7 Wonders Of The Ancient World. It was 450 feet long, 225 feet wide, and 60 feet high. Much larger than an American football field. This temple stood until 262 AD.
However, this was only the most recent, of a series of temples built on the site. There is archeological evidence of a temple at the site, which was built in 750 BC to 700 BC. There may have been, even earlier temples, at the site. Callimachus, an ancient Greek scholar, believed that the 1st temple at the site, was built by the Amazons, the mythical society of warrior women. However, Pausanias, a later ancient Greek geographer, believed that the 1st temple at the site, was built before the Amazons.
I also think it's interesting, that this coin was minted, when the 1st Temple in Jerusalem, which was said to contain the Ark Of The Covenant, still existed. The 1st Temple in Jerusalem was said to have been destroyed in 587 BC.
A very good reference, for the Artemision hoard, is the paper "Excavations At Ephesus : The Archaic Artemisia" by Hogarth. This paper has photographs, and weights, of many of the coins, which were found in the Artemision hoard. I was able to find this paper, on the internet.
Another good reference, is the following : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_of_Artemis
If you have any early ancient Greek electrum coins, which you feel like showing, or any information about early ancient Greek electrum coins, or any information about the Temple Of Artemis, or any information about the previous temples at the site, then I would be interested to see it.

Ionia EL 1/24 Stater. 650 BC To 600 BC. Uncertain Mint. SNG Kayhan 678. Hogarth 6. Diameter 6.0 mm. Weight 0.59 grams. Obverse : Plain. Reverse : Square Incuse Punch.

 

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An example of the very earliest form of coinage; a type-less (blank) electrum globule, weighed to a specific standard, with a simple square punch mark on one side (two or three punch marks on larger denominations). Nine similar electrum pieces were found in the famous Temple of Artemis hoard at Ephesus.

Whether they were invented by the Ionian Greeks or by the neighboring Lydians will probably never be known, but the Greeks spread coinage throughout the Mediterranean, introducing it to many non-Greek peoples with whom they came in contact.

With certain matters relating to the first coinage, suggestions and speculation, deduction and theorizing are necessities because of the paucity of written, archeological hoard find spot, and die-study evidence. What is not known about early coins is at least as much as what is known, and with what is thought known, there can be much disagreement and debate. First, much depends on the definition used for "coin." A commonly held numismatic definition of what a coin is, according to the Webster: "A piece of metal (or, rarely, of some other material) certified by a mark or marks upon it to be of a definite exchange value and issued by governmental authority to be used as money." Key here are "mark or marks" and "certified ... by government authority." Some have argued that the type-less electrum globules aren't true coins, and should be classified as pre-coins because they lack an essential feature - a "type," or mark, of a recognized issuing authority.

At first, Greek coins were stamped with designs, which numismatists call "types," only on the front or obverse, and the reverse carried the impression of the punch used to stamp the metal into the obverse die. By the end of the 6th century the punch also carried a die for the reverse, and from this point onward most Greek coins had types on both sides. It is not always clear what dictated the choice of types, but it soon became almost universal practice to use types and inscriptions that identified the polis issuing the coins.

It is well known that there are many more types than there are cities that might reasonably be supposed to have issued coins in this period, and it has often been assumed that the commoner types, particularly those repeating the same one or two dominant obverse designs, are civic issues, while smaller issues with varying obverse images are mostly "private" issues funded by local "merchants and bankers" (although probably coined, at least in the larger cities, at the official mint). This idea has been criticized on various grounds but once a (coined) money economy had been established, it would seem likely that the wealthier merchants, basically traders and wholesalers for example, would have issued coins in order to facilitate local trade, particularly in the smaller cities which may not have been in a position to issue their own coinage. The coins may have been issued as credit tokens in exchange for bullion or other goods, to small traders and shopkeepers, who could then have used them as change in settling accounts with their suppliers and customers, thus passing them into the local economy. This is of course just what 19th century merchants in various countries did when they issued their own trade tokens to compensate for the scarcity of official small change.
https://www.glebecoins.org/electrum/Early_Electrum/early_electrum.html

The most useful form of classification has been by weight standard, based on two major and several lesser-used standards. The Milesian standard, with a stater of roughly 14 grams, circulated in Lydia and parts of Ionia. The Phokaian standard of roughly 16 grams was also used in Ionia as well as Mysia. Persian, Aeginetan, and Euboic standards saw scattered use in early coinage, limited in time and extent of circulation.

Though some numismatists have identified these type-less pre-coins as transitional pieces leading to the Lydian coins, Mitchiner argued that they were Ionian Greek and led to typed Ionian Greek coins, and that chronologically they came after the Lydian coins. (https://rg.ancients.info/lion/article.html)

In my collection:
Plain Globular Type, EL Hemihekte or 1/12 stater
uncertain Ionian mint ca. 650 - 600 BC, period of the Artemis Find (Ephesus region? may have been, as Karwiese has suggested, a Lydian controlled mint in the vicinity of Ephesus, rather than a mint of Ephesus itself)
1.168 g, 7.7 mm
SNG Kayhan 676; SNG Von Aulock 7763; Rosen 324; Boston MFA 1750; Traité II -; Weidauer –

Ob.: smooth plain globular surface
Rev.: incuse roughly square pyramidal punch;

Picture courtesy Forum Ancient Coins:

 

@cmezner Thanks for the interesting information. Your coin (or pre-coin) is a nice example. At the moment, I call it a coin, but I realize it's highly debatable, and I debate with myself about it, sometimes. To me, it's sort of flat or flattened, and it has a mark on it (the punch), and it was used as money, therefore I call it a coin, at the moment. Perhaps, tomorrow, I'll change my mind, and call it something else (money, pre-coin, etc). But, at the moment, it's a coin, to me.

 

By about 100 years later, it's recognizably a "coin"...

 

I call it a coin too, and since the attribution is Hemihekte, ergo, a coin