Featured Mithrdates, He Died Old

..it can't be said ole Mith 6 didn' make an impact on the world..ya know, last time i went back over Mithradates VI coins and life, i bought an old book of prose that he's mentioned in...

 

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When I referred to light coinage I and Thompson meant that the mintage volume was small for that issue! This is based on the number of obverse dies. Dionysus,Thyrsus and Cup has only 7 obverse dies, whilst Caps of Pilloi c 96 BC has 47, Thompson #1 has 3 obverses only but I have found 8 reverses to the 3rd obverse alone whilst the first and second obverses are only known from one reverse each!
Whilst Dolphin & Trident has 45 obverses, Roma 14, and Roma & Nike 7 Griffin 12 and Star & 2 Crescents 3.

I get the impression they only minted when there was need for silver payments and a small token number to satisfy the "mint" magistrates who might have sponsored the coinage for prestige purposes when not.. Lots of New Styles ended up in Thrace as proxy Roman coinage for Thracian mercenaries and it was a recognised coinage in Syria


No the weight , weight is perfectly fine. Once the Attic tetradrachm was a 17.30 grams technically and you will find Early Alexanders and Phillips and Lysimachi and Antigonus Gonatas and Doson of around 17gm. Then they came down to your weight which is a "perfect" New Style weight most of mine are around this weight. Probably due to silver shortage and too many wars and mercenaries to pay. This is the new reduced attic weight.

 

Thank you so much for providing that extra information. Very thoughtful of you to do that.