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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;TIF, post: 1850919, member: 56859&quot;]The Buddha coin is on my LookFor list.</p><p><br /></p><p>Here&#039;s my oldest coin, from late sixth century BC.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]309210[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p><b>IONIA, Samos. 510-500 BC</b></p><p>AR drachm, 13.7 mm, 3.2 gm</p><p>Obv: forepart of winged boar left</p><p>Rev: facing lion scalp with dotted square, within incuse square</p><p>Ref: SNG Cop 1673</p><p><br /></p><p>Most coins depicting a winged boar were made in Klazomenai (Ionia)&nbsp; and may have stemmed from a legend about a winged sow which terrorized the island.&nbsp; A blurb about that can be read here:&nbsp; <a href="http://www.theoi.com/Ther/HusKlazomenaios.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.theoi.com/Ther/HusKlazomenaios.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.theoi.com/Ther/HusKlazomenaios.html</a></p><p><br /></p><p>There are at least seven other locales which used the winged boar on their coins, generally in the 4th-5th century BC.&nbsp; I don&#039;t know who did it first.&nbsp; Eventually I&#039;d like to have at least one coin from each issuer.&nbsp; I have three of eight so far.</p><p><br /></p><p>Samos is an island off western Ionia in the Aegean Sea.&nbsp; From current pictures, it looks like a beautiful place!&nbsp; It is the birthplace of Pythagoras<span style="color: #ff0000"><b>*</b></span> (Thanks, man!&nbsp; I use your theorem frequently!) Klazomenai is (was) a costal town a bit north of there.&nbsp; Here&#039;s a map, modified from Google Maps.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]309214[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>As someone on this or another forum pointed out, these coins show a winged <i>boar</i>, not a <i>sow</i>.&nbsp; Perhaps the sow legend has nothing to do with the image on the coin?&nbsp; Or maybe the indigenous types of wild hogs in that part of the world have bristle ridges in both sexes?&nbsp; Was the boar important to their food supply and trading?&nbsp; Was it a deity??&nbsp; Is it Khrysaor, a son of the Gorgon Medousa?&nbsp;&nbsp; <a href="http://www.theoi.com/Ther/Khrysaor.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.theoi.com/Ther/Khrysaor.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.theoi.com/Ther/Khrysaor.html</a></p><p><br /></p><p><b><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0)">* </span></b><span style="color: #000000">Pythagoras was born ~570 BC and died ~495 BC, so this coin was circulating in his lifetime. <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie1" alt=":)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /></span>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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