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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Sallent, post: 3094820, member: 76194&quot;]I have to agree. As nice as tetradrachms are, one can&#039;t help but be blown away by the detail and sheer beauty of tiny Greek silver.</p><p><br /></p><p>How on Earth did they get so much detail on this face for a tiny coin that&#039;s barely 6mm? The celator must have been extremely talented to accomplish this with the ancient equipment he was working with.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]781777[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>And although earlier coins like this one from around 520 BCE may be a little less artistic, there is great beauty to be appreciated in the form of the celator&#039;s talent at getting the lion&#039;s details and the reverse pattern on a coin so tiny it makes a US penny look enormous.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]781778[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>And of course, as time passed the detail on tiny coins got even more intricate and beautiful. It&#039;s almost as if the celators wanted to upstage the work of their parents and grandparents by producing more delicate and refined work on tiny silver coins.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]781779[/ATTACH]</p><p>Look at the facial details, as well as the details on the great of the helmet on this 9mm coin. Is that not amazing? And Athena, doesn&#039;t she just amazing on this tiny coin? How could one person have so much talent to depict such delicate beauty in such a small medium.</p><p><br /></p><p>And to this date, this Kyzicos boar coin is in the top 3 favorite Greek coins in my collection. Look at the about of the lion as he roars, you can see the creases. Look at the detail on the mane of the wild boar. Trully fantastic work.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]781780[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>And my favorite tiny Greek by far is this one. Can you see why? I am deeply in love with the almost surrealistic quality to the lion and the scorpion. I don&#039;t know why, but I&#039;d like to think Salvador Dalí would love the artistic style of this coin.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]781782[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>So yeah, as impressive as large Greek silvers can be, I find myself more drawn to the tiny Greek coins for the incredible talent and skills of the celators that worked on them. Any skilled celator can do wonders on a large silver coin of 28mm to 35 mm, but it takes almost superhuman talent to render a timeless work of art on a 5mm to 9mm surface area, especially only using the tools they had available 2,000 or 2,500 years ago.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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