The Sheer Beauty of Ancient Greek Tets

At the risk of sounding like a little boy who's just had his first taste of ice cream, today I received the first lot of some Kingdom of Macedonia Tets I had purchased and posted here a while ago.

Are they stunning coins or is it just me??!!! The portraits jump out of the coins with a visual impact I'd not experienced before. Each ruler seems to want to outdo the other in style and quality. Even the tiny EL Hecte has so much detail and such a lot of effort put into it.

The denarii pale into insignificance in comparison. But what surprised and shocked me is how and why did the quality of coins decline so rapidly when the Romans were the conquerors!!! And not to mention the coins of the Byzantine era.

I mainly collect moderns and was not too impressed with the ancients I had held in hand until now.....All I can say is WOW what phenomenal craftsmanship.

This is just one example...Ionia Miletus (Miletos) Alexander III
Fine Style (The photo doesn't do the actual item justice)

 

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It's a shame I don't own any classical Greek and Macedonian tets as I am really missing out on some beautiful coins. The mint workers were true artisans.

 

I honestly feel that way with any ancient. Most Greek coins are better-executed art wise, but many Romans and some Byzantine have lovely work done to coins of their type.

Here is my lifetime Alexander.


Alexander III the Great (336 - 323 B.C.)
AR Tetradrachm
O: Head of Alexander as Hercules right, wearing lion-skin headdress.
R: AΛEΞAN∆POY, Zeus enthroned left, right leg forward (archaic lifetime style), eagle in extended right hand, long scepter vertical behind in left hand, bow on left.
Salamis mint, struck 332-323 B.C.
16.95g
25mm
Price 3139 ; SNG Alpha Bank 662; Newell. Salamis 7.

 

I agree @1934 Wreath Crown the Greek tets of the Classical and Hellenistic periods make for amazing coins. If I had to collect just one area it would probably be Hellenistic tets for their beauty. One of my more recent tets is this one of Philip III minted by Seleukos as satrap of Babylon.

 

This is one reason ancient collectors don't like slabs. It stops you from enjoying the 3 dimensional, high relief designs to the fullest.

John

 

Well, even as far back as the end of the 2nd century BCE with the end of the second Punic Wars, Rome had huge territories and a population of millions to strike coinage for.

Compare that to the Greek City States and relatively small kingdoms (the brief Macedonian Kingdom of Alexander being a short exemption), and the Greek mints only had to strike coinage for smaller territories with populations that never surpassed 125,000 to 250,000 people. When your target audience is smaller and you have to pump put less coinage, you have time for more quality control and artistic flare.

Also, the Greek were more inclined towards the arts, while the Romans were more militaristic, bureaucratic, and efficiency oriented...which is why the Romans were happy to let the Greek world continue to be the center of art and philosophy within the Roman Empire.



And I disagree about your assessment that ancient Roman coins are not impressive. Frankly, compared to the boring repetitive US coins collecting area, I think Roman coins offer a world of unimaginable variety, and a charm that you certainly won't find in post-early 20th century coinage.

I love my non-artistic Romans. They are still charming little coins even if they pail in comparison to a nice big tetradrachm.

 

Roman coins can be strikingly beautiful or not as refined, and of course, so can Greek. It just depends where you look.

Take the Sulla's Dream denarii for an example. The reverse is extremely artistic, dynamic, and detailed:



And this depiction of the Capitoline temple with an obverse of Jupiter/Zeus is definitely highly artistic despite also being minted in the Roman Republic when art wasn't as fine as it eventually became in the Empire:



I think any Greek engraver would have been proud to produce this portrait of Faustina Junior.



I've met some collectors who will only buy Greek coins because they think all Roman coins "look the same". To this I say good riddance as it means there will be less competition for Roman coinage!

That said, I can't argue that Greek tetradrachms are some of the most aesthetic coins. Here's a tetradrachm depicting Perseus, the last King of Macedon, with a very realistic portrait:



The often-repeated notion that Roman is artistically inferior to Greek is not universally fair. They each have wide ranges of quality and the historical context of each coin needs to be taken into account along with the art to fully appreciate the imagery.

 

Nice tets everyone

 

I completely understand, 1934 Wreath Crown. The very first Greek coin I ever owned was bought back in 1987, a drachm of Alexander the Great (posthumous, from what I found on line, it was issued by Antigonus I Monophthalmus). I paid $75 for it, which was a fortune (I was a student) but when it arrived in the mail I couldn't believe I owned something so beautiful, and so old. It is still one of my favorites:



Macedonia Kingdom Drachm
Antigonus I Monophthalmus
(c. 320-306 B.C.)
Lampsakos Mint
Head of Herakles in lion skin / AΛΕΞΑΝΔΡΟΥ, Zeus std. left on throne, eagle & sceptre. Controls: obv. forepart Pegasos left; rev. AI below throne.
Price 1385; S-6731.
(4.22 grams / 17 mm)

 

A few different TETs:

Indo-Greek Baktria:

Indo-Greek Baktria Menander I Soter BC 155-130 AR Tet 26mm 9.6g Diad - Athena Alkidemos tbolt Gorgon shield SNG ANS 764-767

Seleukid:

Seleucid Seleucus I 312-280 BCE AR Tet 14.46g Seleucia on Tigris. Zeus - Athena driving a quadriga of 4 horned elephants SC 130

Roman Republic:

RR Makedon occupation Alexander - Club Coin chest Quaestor Chair wreath Aesillas Quaestor AR Tet Thessalonika Mint BC 90-70

Syracuse:

Syracuse Tyrant Gelon 458-478 BCE AR Tet 24mm 16.7g Slow Biga Victory Artemus-Arethusa 4 dolphins Sear-Greek 914

Makedonwn:

Makedon Philip II Tet Pella LIFETIME 353-349 Zeus Horse star spearhd Le Rider 102

Alexandrine:

Makedon Alexander III - Alexandrine Babylon Di-Shekel Tet 24mm 16.35g LIFETIME 328-311 Baal-Lion

Egypt:

Egypt Ptolemy I Soter Tet Delta bankers marks

Attica:

Athens Owl AR Tet 17.3g 22.9mm x 6.8mm thick

Kushan:

INDIA Kushan Empire Vima Takto-Soter Megas Æ Tetradrachm 21mm 8.5g AD 80-100 bust r holding scepter tamgha behind on horse r holding axe tamgha Senior B17.1vT

Sasanian:

Sassanian Shapur I 240-272 CE AE Tetradrachm 10.78g 27mm Ctesiphon mint phase 1a mural crown korymbos - fire altar type 2 SNS IIa1-1a

 

Could you share your photo-taking secrets?

 

I agree with Joe, there are artistic coins across all the cultures and times. Sometimes, like Celtic coins, you have to understand what they were trying to achieve to appreciate their artistry. That said, my lifetime favorites are the Greek Tetradrachms. That ancient artists could create these detailed, realistic masterpieces with such primitive tools is one of civilization's great accomplishments.

Akragas:

Maroniea:


Klazomanai:


Rhegion:

Punic:

There are also many artistic coins to be found among the staters, drachms and bronze coins too:

Himera:

John

 

Very beautiful! I really like the reverse and the detail in the hawk!

 

Nothing beats a nice greek Tet, not in quality and not in price $250-$200 imho:

 

The works of art on the best Hellenistic tetradrachms are hard to beat, I'll admit:

Rhodes, tetradrachm, 205-190 BCE, Signed by die engraver "Danaos". Price 2513.

But let's not neglect the tiny coins too. Here's a hemiobol from Kasolaba in Caria that I'm rather fond of, and @AncientJoe has the most incredible obol I've ever seen, every bit as impressive as the tets.

8mm, 0.43g, 400-340 BCE

The Republic could hold its own:

Plautius Plancus c. 47 BCE

And first and second century Rome is hard to beat for artistic realism in portraiture:

 

This gives me the opportunity to re-post this Seleukid tet:


Cleopatra Thea, Queen of Syria, with son Antiochus VIII.
Seleucid AR tetradrachm, 15.85 gm, 27 mm.
Antioch mint, 125-121 BC.
Obv: Jugate busts, r.
Rev: ΒΑΣΙΛΙΣΣΗΣ ΚΛΕΟΠΑΤΡΑΣ ΚΑΙ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΑΝΤΙΟΧΟΥ, Zeus Nikephoros seated l., holding lotus-tipped scepter; IE outer left, A under throne.
Refs: SNG Spaer 2437; c.f. Sear 7135.
Notes: Ex-Henry Clay Lindgren. An obverse die match to an example sold in Baldwin's, Dmitry Markov and M&M Numismatics New York Sale IX, January 13, 2005.

 

I agree that US coinage pales in comparison, but we should give a nod to that short period in the early 20th century when US coins at least attempted to show some artistry. Consider the Liberty walking halves, or the St. Gaudens double eagle. Well done, Yanks.

As for Roman coins, I think many of the 1st and 2nd century A.D. sestertii compare very favorably to earlier Greek tets.

But I do agree that some Greek tets are among the most beautiful coins ever minted, and I wish I owned more of them.

 

Calligraphy is its own art form. It is not as easy to appreciate as on a fine-style Greek tetradrachm, but it was one of the foremost art forms of the Chinese culture.

 

Beautiful!

 

Here is my example of TypeCoin’s coin. It is the emperor’s own writing. The reverse is blank.