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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;NewStyleKing, post: 4658018, member: 106483&quot;]Once one local bigwig has had his name immortalized on coins, everyone else wants to do it too: the Hellenistic bronze coinage of Cyme provides us with the names of no fewer than 104 different individuals (Masson 1986). Perhaps the most extraordinary example of competitive ‘grade inflation’ among mint-magistrates is the Athenian New Style coinage of the second and first centuries BC, already discussed several times in this book (Chapter 3, p. 57; Chapter 6, pp. 124–6). The very earliest New Style tetradrachms, dating to the mid-160s BC, carry fairly discreet monograms to the left and right of the owl on the reverse (Fig. 7.6). But these monograms are soon replaced by up to three different magistrates’ names spelled out in full, usually accompanied by one or more mint-symbols (Thompson 1961: 546–607; Mattingly 2004: 85–99). The result is that the – originally rather elegant – reverse type of the New Style coinage becomes increasingly cluttered. Fig. 7.7 illustrates an issue dating to 115/14 BC, with the abbreviation Athe for Athens followed by the three names Me¯trodōros, Miltiade¯s and Hermogene¯s, along with a bunch of grapes as a mint-mark and the letters Pe (of uncertain meaning) at the bottom. The whole thing is, frankly, a barely legible mess.</p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b>Athens New Style Tetradrachm c 115/4 BC</b></p><p>bs: Athena Parthenos right in tri-form helmet</p><p>16.56g 29mm Thompson issue 50</p><p>Thompson catalogue : Obs 639 : Rev ? (altered)</p><p>Rev : ΑΘΕ ethnic</p><p>Owl standing on overturned panathenaic amphora on</p><p>which month mark Γ/Β/Α control ΣΦ below</p><p>3 magistrates : METRODOROS DEMOSTHE(N) KALLIPH / PYRROS</p><p>RF symbol : Bunch of Grapes on vine leaf</p><p>All within a surrounding olive wreath</p><p><img src="https://www.forumancientcoins.com/gallery/albums/userpics/23982/normal_NOW_BOTH_GRAPES~0.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>As I once said (or twice or more), prosopography is always valuable.</p><p>I think my Bunch of Grapes on Vine is lovely.</p><p>Frankly, what is there not to like?[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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