Your favorite coins by century.

=> sadly, I have 33 coins from the 5th and 6th century, so narrowing it down to 3 is gonna be very difficult!!

Oh well, I guess the first of the three is a no-brainer

=> Batman sold me this baby when I was first starting-out and I've always thought it was the coolest coin goin'!!

Lydia AR Archaic Siglos
545-520 BC
Diameter: 15.6 mm
Weight: 4.9 grams
Obverse: Confronted Lion and Bull
Reverse: Two incuse square punches

Man, I love that two nasty ol' square punches were needed to press the metal into the obverse die (Note => apparently the larger of the two punches was used on the lion-side of the coin)

 

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I'll try to avoid boring with too many coins. A big problem with many of my coins is that they are not dated to a specific year so quite a few are split between two centuries and don't make a good representative of either time. Since the rules lump together the 5th century and earlier, I'll pick one that crosses into the 6th but that means I'll not post some others that are too near other borders. I'll also try to post a coin that I do not know others here have even if I do like it. I trust we will see a Syracusan silver (we already have an Athenian). So here are my favorite coins of the 5th century BC. All are from Greek cities located in what is now Southern Italy. The coins of this series I like best I don't own and probably never will.

Dated roughly 510-480 BC neighboring cities made coins that were normal on one side and incuse on the other. These were not brockages but were intentionally made that way. The first similar coins were earlier, thinner and more fragile so I have none of the expensive survivors. About 510 BC they made them a bit thicker so they don't break as easily. What I do have are the most boring of the cities. First is Kroton.

Kroton AR stater (what Sear 256 calls "smaller, more compact fabric") 7.6g
retrograde QPO at left of large tripod with stork to the right. This one is worn but, worse, the die was falling apart with a large chunk missing leaving a cud near the center. The reverse lacks the legend and the stork. These coins circulated in commerce and got a lot of wear. My back up coin is off center which shows to good effect how the die was configured outside the design. It falls in the same date range but probably is later than the first having forward facing legend QPOT and the elements on opposite sides from the first. This one is 6.28g.


The coins might be interesting but the become more so when you take the next step. Why in the world would anyone issue coins like these? They might stack better??? The thin ones look huge for the amount of metal they contain but they did break a bit too easily, so I'm told, and the later ones like my two are less impressive (which explains why I could afford them). The best theory IMHO is the link of these coins to the famous mathematician and philosopher Pythagoras. Pythagoras and his followers had a way of making themselves unwelcome wherever they went. People sometimes react less than positively to those a great deal smarter than they are. Pythagoras arrived in the region about the time the strange coins began. At his death, the coins were replaced by more normal fabric. Pythagoras' father was a gem engraver by trade so it seems reasonable that he would consider himself an expert in such matters as die engraving. If you search the web, you might find some papers promoting the Pythagoreans and the coins but I'll stop short of saying that the link is 100% without question. I prefer to say it is likely that he had a hand in the design.

The best coins of this fabric were from Sybaris, Poseidonia and Kaulonia. They had neat designs which sell today over my head. The other common and ordinary one is from Metapontum which used the ear of grain (barley) as its city symbol. They had several large denominations in spread and compat fabric but my example and my #1 favorite coin of the 6th century (or, rather the 530-480 BC range) is my 1/12? stater weighing .4g. You know I like tiny coins.

The unusual point and what makes it special to me is that the obverse design shows the whole grain ear while the incuse is just one kernel - almost lifesize. It looks like the coin was made by pressing a real grain into the flan.

 

My second choice is also probably no surprise

Thasos, AR Archaic Stater
525-463 BC
Diameter: 21.5 mm
Weight: 8.60 grams
Obverse: satyr carrying off a struggling nymph, who raises her arm in protest
Reverse: Quadrapartite incuse square


=> yah, I'm not exactly sure what makes me like this coin?

 

As i lay out my coins per century, if 500 BC is the 6th century and 99 to 01 BC. is the 1st. century and 0 to 99 yrs AD. would be the 1st century, i had to think there are 2 first century's.no zero century's... don't mind me...

 

There is no Year 0. 500 BC/BCE is the oldest year of the Fifth Century before the zero point on this number line.

Second Century BCE, 200-101
First Century BCE, 100-1
First Century CE, 1-100
Second Century CE, 101-200
(etc.)

 

=> and finally, Bachelorette #3 is a swinger from Syracuse ...

Sicily, Syracuse. Hieron I AR Tetradrachm
478-466 BC
Struck circa 478-475 BC
Diameter: 24 mm
Weight: 16.90 grams
Obverse: Charioteer driving quadriga right; above, Nike flying right, crowning horses
Reverse: Diademed head of Arethusa right; four dolphins around
Reference: Boehringer series IXa, 190 (V86/R130); SNG ANS –; Randazzo 356 (same dies)
Other: 2h, Near VF, toned, test cut on reverse
From the Robert and Julius Diez Collection, Ex Gustav Philipsen Collection (Part I, J. Hirsch XV, 28 May 1906), lot 1132

 

Wow Doug, I've never seen those coins before! Very cool!

 

For my third nominee of the Fifth Century BC I give you a Gorgon:

APOLLONIA PONTICA AR Drachm
OBVERSE: Gorgoneian facing with snakes for hair and a protruding tongue
REVERSE: An anchor flanked by letter A and a crayfish, which represents the minting city of Apollonia, the major fifth century BC Greek colony on the west coast of the Black Sea, modern Sozopol in Bulgaria
Struck at Apollonia 450-400 BC
3.13g, 14-15mm
BMC IX, Black Sea 150-151

Ya gotta love dim snakes and the craw-daddy.

 

Prier to these first coinage issued (5th century), they would trade for goods or they would use gold and silver nuggets as coinage, they would also use a gold wire. Gold nuggets are found in nearly every country.
So here are some gold nuggets that they may have used in trade..

 

5th Century...Sorry i just posted this in another thread, its the only coin of this century i have..
They used these Owl Tet's for trade and were found in most Country's in Ancient time frame. Big heavy chuck of silver...

Athens.....449-41..BC..
Ar Tetradrachm Owl.
24 x 25 x 17.21g.

 

neato...i don't have anyting this old...yet.

 

SICILY, Messana
AR Tetradrachm
480-461 BC

17.21 grams, 25 mm.
Obv: Biga of mules (an apene) driven right by seated charioteer. Nike above crowning mules.
Rev: Hare bounding to right with spray of olive beneath. MEΣΣA.ИIOИ. (retrograde Ns)
Grade: a nicely toned Good Fine coin with claims to aVF.
Other: Similar to Sear 843 & 847. SNGANS.314. From Pegasi Jan 2014.



Messana is the city in Sicily located really close to ‘the toe’ of mainland Italy (just across the Straits of Messina). The city was originally called Zankle “Sickle”, which is the shape of its harbor.

Messana was originally colonized by settlers from Cumae and Euboea who named the city Zancle. It prospered for a couple centuries before it was captured by the tyrant Anaxilas in 490. Since Anaxilas was of Messenian descent, he changed the city’s name from Zancle to Messana, and populated it with new arrivals from Messenia and Samos. Amongst other things, the tyrant Anaxilas is credited with introducing the hare to Sicily.

The obverse depicts a charioteer driving a chariot drawn by two mules (an apene). Apene races were first held at the Olympic Games around 500 BC. The tyrant Anaxilas, apparently had an Olympic mule-team victory in 480 B.C. and he commemorated it with this coin type. The design is associated with Messana and the design was kept after Anaxilas’ death in 476 BC. My coin is supposedly from 480 to 461 B.C.

The reverse depicts a hare jumping with the inscription " MEΣΣA.ИIOИ" (of the Messenians). The hare on the reverse may symbolize the speed of Anaxilas’ chariot, or it may symbolize some association with fertility and abundance. The hare may also be on the coin simply because hare hunts were a favorite aristocratic pastime.

The history of this Greek state/city in Sicily does not begin & end with my new fifth Century B.C. jackalope coin. A couple hundred years later, the Battle of Messana in 265-264 BC was the first military clash between the Roman Republic and Carthage. It marked the start of the First Punic War. In that period, Sicily became of increasing strategic importance to Rome.

 

Research the ones from Sybaris, Poseidonia and Kaulonia. They are a power of ten cooler....and more expensive.
http://www.acsearch.info/record.html?id=657945
http://www.acsearch.info/record.html?id=605720
http://www.acsearch.info/record.html?id=684038

 

Here's a coin likely minted in the 5th century somewhere in Macedon. Not a lot is known about it other than it is the only ancient coin depicting a monkey

I like it for that reason and because of it's teensy size-- 5 mm.



Macedon, Pangeion Region
AR trihemitetartemorion (trihemiobol), 5 mm, 0.26 gm
Uncertain mint, 5th century BC
Obv: monkey squatting left
Rev: round shield or pellet within incuse square
Ref: "Uncertain Thraco-Macedonian Coins, Part II", NomKhron 17 (1998), 67

For dramatic size comparison, a picture I love to show-- a 48.5 mm Ptolemy II with this 5 mm monkey on top.

 

Nice comparison image, TIF. BTW, how do you know that is a monkey? I mean, it certainly could be, but it could be a child as well. Or perhaps a body prepared for burial? Regardless, it's an interesting coin to say the least.

 

It does look rather fetal or, as in the case of some cultures, a body put in the fetal position in preparation for burial. Although mine is rather worn there is a tail and similar coins look more monkey-like. But you raise a good point...

 

I fail to understand the listing trihemitetartemorion (trihemiobol). The coin might be right to be called trihemitetartemorion or 3/8 of an obol but trihemiobol is an obol and a half and should weigh about .9g. I see some variations on these and wonder if trihemitartemorion might be better but I'm not 100% certain which is correct. As I understand it the additional te is used to mean a whole 'tartemorion' in tetartemorion but is dropped when you add hemi- or trihemi- prefixes. Of course, most of these little coins probably were set on some other standard and may not have been called by those Athenian names. I think monkey is correct unless you want to fight about ape, babboon or some such.

 

TIF => man, I've always liked your monkey coin!!

... and yah, I like to think of it as a monkey, rather than a human in the fetal position ... the dudes in that era certainly didn't have an ultrasound machine

 

This century definitely goes to the Buddha coin. I do have "jiggier" coins but this one is by far my favorite, you can just see interesting just oozing out if it...