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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 3198445, member: 19463&quot;]Among the coins that followed me home from the VNA show Saturday were these two small silvers.&nbsp; I have always wanted the first and the second ended up being interesting by raising more questions than it answered.&nbsp; I know less about the two coins now than I thought I did before.&nbsp; That is normal when you study questions with incomplete answers.&nbsp; It is easy to find experts with all the answers but they are not always the right answers.</p><p><br /></p><p>Metapontion, Lucania, 500-465 BC, Ar 7mm, 0.47g, grain/incuse of grain</p><p>[ATTACH=full]827238[/ATTACH] </p><p>The big question on this small coin is the denomination.&nbsp; The seller flip was not made by the dealer at the show and called it&nbsp; &quot;Tritartemorion&quot; which means 3/4 obol.&nbsp; I remain unconvinced of the appropriateness of using terms matching those of the coins of Athens.&nbsp; I have seen similar coins listed as 1/24 stater which would be a stater of 11.28g which is much too high for this series.&nbsp; 1/16 might be reasonable. I was hoping to find help i the online Noe book but it listed none that small.</p><p><a href="http://numismatics.org/digitallibrary/ark:/53695/nnan129962" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://numismatics.org/digitallibrary/ark:/53695/nnan129962" rel="nofollow">http://numismatics.org/digitallibrary/ark:/53695/nnan129962</a></p><p>I have a 1/3 stater at 2.58g which falls in the correct range which makes the 1/16 stater reasonable.&nbsp; I would like to know where to seek help on this.</p><p><br /></p><p>If I am in the dark regarding the proper name for the denomination, I am past hope for identifying what the seller ticket called an &quot;object&quot; obverse right.&nbsp; I guess it looks like a side view of a man seated but I suspect a random die break is closer.&nbsp; Some larger issues have grasshoppers in this position but there is so little published material on the little coins that I have seen, I know less than nothing.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>The same seller had another little coin with grain but this one is attributed to Tragilos in Macedon.&nbsp; It is called a hemiobol and, at 0.33g, would seem reasonable if that city used the names of Athens. </p><p>[ATTACH=full]827239[/ATTACH] </p><p>The reverse has the letters TRIA and various ones I have seen change the order.&nbsp; How that relates to Tragilos, I do not know. I have enjoyed a website on the coins of Magna Gracia&nbsp; which navigates through strange maps and shows images taken from various sources.&nbsp; </p><p><a href="http://www.magnagraecia.nl/coins/Lucania_map/Metapontion_map/Metapontion.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.magnagraecia.nl/coins/Lucania_map/Metapontion_map/Metapontion.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.magnagraecia.nl/coins/Lucania_map/Metapontion_map/Metapontion.html</a></p><p>Among the coins it shows for Metapontion is one of these </p><p><font size="5"><b>trias? of Metapontion?, 5C BC?</b></font></p><p><br /></p><p>Obv. ear of barley</p><p>Rev. incuse four squares, TRIA</p><p><img src="http://www.magnagraecia.nl/coins/Lucania_map/Metapontion_map/jpgs/MetaTRIA-0.37.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>Noe - 0.37 g Auktionshaus H. D. Rauch GmbH Auction 79 (2006) 2057. Estimate: EUR 200</p><p><br /></p><p>I see that I am not alone in not knowing.&nbsp; I like both coins and hope to figue out more about them with more research but will point out that we must not be too quick to jump to conclusions just because we read something in a book or online. </p><p><br /></p><p>If anyone would like to point me toward the latest word on these coins I would love to see it.&nbsp; I would hope such references would discuss the evidence that led to their final attributions.&nbsp; When we see something that claims to be definitive, we need to remember when we were in math class in school and the teacher required us to &quot;Show your work.&quot;&nbsp; Catalogs and books published by professionals and amateurs need to be read with care.&nbsp; I have not seen and weighed enough coins to take this material as gospel especially when I see more than one expert making different calls on minor points.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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