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<p>[QUOTE="Ed Snible, post: 3526764, member: 82322"]I also doubt these come from Parion. I was going to write this up for publication but I never got around to it. I suspect gorgon/cross silver units come from Olbia.</p><p><br /></p><p>The editors of <i>An Inventory of Greek Coin Hoards</i> cite just a few hoards: 101 gorgon/incuse drachms in the Kruševo hoard, circa 32 km East of Plovdiv, Bulgaria (hoard #695); 1? drachm in a hoard of Tekirdag (ancient Bisanthe), Thrace (hoard #697); 2+ drachms in a hoard circa 37 km East of Cǎlǎraşi, Romania (hoard #734); 1 drachm in a hoard found at Granitovo, near Jambol, Bulgaria (#761; this hoard also included a Parion gorgon/cow hemidrachm); 1 drachm of the irregular incuse variety in a hoard found near the Cilician-Pamphylian border, burial circa 480 BC (hoard #1177); and 1 drachm of the irregular incuse variety in the Asyut hoard found in Egypt (hoard #1644). None of these are near Parion.</p><p><br /></p><p>Richard Payne-Knight first attributed the common fabric type to Parion in 1830. He did not record his reasoning nor did he mention de Blaramberg’s 1822 attribution to Olbia. J. P. Six argued, in 1876, against 18th century attributions to Abydos. Six wrote that it makes more sense to attribute based on obverse types than reverse types. He also assigned to the mint at Parion, a city that used a gorgoneion obverse, rather than Abydos, which has only a gorgoneion reverse type. Payne-Knight and the elder Six’s became the accepted attribution when Warwick Wroth, Barclay Head, and Babelon all followed it. The first edition of Head’s Historia Numorum hedged saying “... it must be confessed that the attribution to Parium is not by any means certain.” (Six’s own son Jan Six later proposed mints in Lycia and at Selge as better candidates.)</p><p><br /></p><p>It is surprising that no modern scholar argues for de Blaramberg's choice: Olbia on the Black Sea. Olbia is near the findspots and issued bronze gorgon/cross coins during the same period. The bronze of Olbia had similar hair style. The depiction of the gorgon’s hair, formed of half circles on coins of Olbia, is unusual. There are no gorgons with similar half circle hair in Josef Floren’s book of gorgoneion vase paintings and sculpture. Furthermore coins of Olbia depict the tongue similarly.</p><p><br /></p><p>Barclay Head suggests that the bronze gorgoneion coin type of Olbia was “copied from the silver coins of Parium.” I am proposing that the resemblance may be closer than copying – that the same city issued both.</p><p><br /></p><p>The usual weight for these silver coins is about 3.25g. The weights of the Olbian bronze denominations are about 12.5g, about 25g, and about 100g. I haven’t found any sources for the Black Sea area silver to bronze valuations, but ratios in the early period of Italy were about 120:1. If the same ratio existed at Olbia (and if these silver coins are in fact Olbian) then gorgon/cross silver has an intrinsic value of quadruple of the largest bronze.</p><p><br /></p><p>An ancient inscription says “1 Cyzicene = 11 Olbia silver staters”. But then what was an “Olbia silver stater”? Olbia doesn’t have any large silver coins. A Cyzicene electrum <i>stater</i> weighed about 16g. To the ancient Greeks, electrum was worth about ¾ the value of gold. Gold was worth 13 times the value of silver, suggesting a Cyzicene was the equivalent of 156g of silver. An “Olbia silver stater” would thus be worth 14g of silver. Thus gorgon/cross coin can’t be the stater mentioned... unless we interpret the inscription as 1 Cyzicene <i>hekte</i> = 11 Olbia silver staters” the inscription equates a circa 2.6g electrum hekte with perhaps 34g to 37g of silver, fitting nicely with the circa 3.5g gorgon/cross coins.</p><p><br /></p><p>The gorgon type which was minted in vast quantities for Parion may not have even had an early connection to the city. Parion was conquered by Abydos circa 360 BC. Abydos used the gorgon motif on its early coinage. 360 BC is about the time the gorgon/cow coinage commences at Parion.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>
[QUOTE="Ed Snible, post: 3526764, member: 82322"]I also doubt these come from Parion. I was going to write this up for publication but I never got around to it. I suspect gorgon/cross silver units come from Olbia. The editors of [I]An Inventory of Greek Coin Hoards[/I] cite just a few hoards: 101 gorgon/incuse drachms in the Kruševo hoard, circa 32 km East of Plovdiv, Bulgaria (hoard #695); 1? drachm in a hoard of Tekirdag (ancient Bisanthe), Thrace (hoard #697); 2+ drachms in a hoard circa 37 km East of Cǎlǎraşi, Romania (hoard #734); 1 drachm in a hoard found at Granitovo, near Jambol, Bulgaria (#761; this hoard also included a Parion gorgon/cow hemidrachm); 1 drachm of the irregular incuse variety in a hoard found near the Cilician-Pamphylian border, burial circa 480 BC (hoard #1177); and 1 drachm of the irregular incuse variety in the Asyut hoard found in Egypt (hoard #1644). None of these are near Parion. Richard Payne-Knight first attributed the common fabric type to Parion in 1830. He did not record his reasoning nor did he mention de Blaramberg’s 1822 attribution to Olbia. J. P. Six argued, in 1876, against 18th century attributions to Abydos. Six wrote that it makes more sense to attribute based on obverse types than reverse types. He also assigned to the mint at Parion, a city that used a gorgoneion obverse, rather than Abydos, which has only a gorgoneion reverse type. Payne-Knight and the elder Six’s became the accepted attribution when Warwick Wroth, Barclay Head, and Babelon all followed it. The first edition of Head’s Historia Numorum hedged saying “... it must be confessed that the attribution to Parium is not by any means certain.” (Six’s own son Jan Six later proposed mints in Lycia and at Selge as better candidates.) It is surprising that no modern scholar argues for de Blaramberg's choice: Olbia on the Black Sea. Olbia is near the findspots and issued bronze gorgon/cross coins during the same period. The bronze of Olbia had similar hair style. The depiction of the gorgon’s hair, formed of half circles on coins of Olbia, is unusual. There are no gorgons with similar half circle hair in Josef Floren’s book of gorgoneion vase paintings and sculpture. Furthermore coins of Olbia depict the tongue similarly. Barclay Head suggests that the bronze gorgoneion coin type of Olbia was “copied from the silver coins of Parium.” I am proposing that the resemblance may be closer than copying – that the same city issued both. The usual weight for these silver coins is about 3.25g. The weights of the Olbian bronze denominations are about 12.5g, about 25g, and about 100g. I haven’t found any sources for the Black Sea area silver to bronze valuations, but ratios in the early period of Italy were about 120:1. If the same ratio existed at Olbia (and if these silver coins are in fact Olbian) then gorgon/cross silver has an intrinsic value of quadruple of the largest bronze. An ancient inscription says “1 Cyzicene = 11 Olbia silver staters”. But then what was an “Olbia silver stater”? Olbia doesn’t have any large silver coins. A Cyzicene electrum [I]stater[/I] weighed about 16g. To the ancient Greeks, electrum was worth about ¾ the value of gold. Gold was worth 13 times the value of silver, suggesting a Cyzicene was the equivalent of 156g of silver. An “Olbia silver stater” would thus be worth 14g of silver. Thus gorgon/cross coin can’t be the stater mentioned... unless we interpret the inscription as 1 Cyzicene [I]hekte[/I] = 11 Olbia silver staters” the inscription equates a circa 2.6g electrum hekte with perhaps 34g to 37g of silver, fitting nicely with the circa 3.5g gorgon/cross coins. The gorgon type which was minted in vast quantities for Parion may not have even had an early connection to the city. Parion was conquered by Abydos circa 360 BC. Abydos used the gorgon motif on its early coinage. 360 BC is about the time the gorgon/cow coinage commences at Parion.[/QUOTE]
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