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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;cmezner, post: 25467081, member: 87809&quot;]You did a really good deal. Got this one in May, it was a bit pricier than yours:</p><p><br /></p><p>AR Archaic Tetratemorion</p><p>Ionia, Ephesus; ca. 500-420 BC</p><p><br /></p><p>5mm, 0.164 g, 3h</p><p>Klein 370; SNG Kayan 126; Karwiese Series IV</p><p>Ob.: Anepigraphic. Bee</p><p>Rev.: Ε Φ Eagle&#039;s head to right</p><p><br /></p><p>Picture courtesy HJB:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1630201[/ATTACH]</p><p>Bee as a symbol appears very early in the development of ancient Greek coinage. In particular, on coins of Ephesus, which adopted the bee as its civic emblem.</p><p>There are nearly a thousand different known types of bee-and-stag coins from Ephesus, and unpublished new varieties appear frequently.</p><p>Bees have two pairs of wings, but ancient representations of the bee, as viewed from above, typically only show one pair.</p><p><br /></p><p>The honeybee (Apis mellifera) is native to the lands around the Mediterranean Sea, and domestication of the honeybee as a pollinator was vital for the growth of many fruit crops in the region. It was so valued that the hieroglyph for “bee” was used as the symbol for the ruler of Lower Egypt.</p><p><br /></p><p>The bee disappears from Ephesian coinage after Ephesus becomes part of the Roman empire.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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