The Mysterious Artake

[kirispupis]

Recently, I was thrilled to acquire this extremely rare coin of Artake, Mysia. Like most of the cities, I then set out to learn more about this ancient city.

Mysia, Artake
4th century BCE
AE 8 mm, 0.65 g, 12 h
Head of Artemis to right, wearing stephane and with bow and quiver over her shoulder.
Rev. A-P-T-A within the four spokes of a wheel.
Plankenhorn, Mysien, p. 26, 1 (this coin). Apparently unique.
Ex collection of G. Plankenhorn

 

Like many ancient cities, not too much is known about Artake. We do know that it paid tribute to Athens betwene 454 and 418 BCE. Sometime before that, during the Ionian Revolt (499-493 BCE), Artake was burnt by the Persians along with Prokonnesos.

Two different locations for Artake are given.

According to Pliny:

We then come to the river Granicus, and the harbour of Artace, where a town formerly stood.

Strabo wrote this:

 It is through this region that the Rhyndacus River flows; this river has its sources in Azanitis, and then, receiving from Mysia Abrettene, among other rivers, the Macestus, which flows from Ancyra in Abaeitis, empties into the Propontis opposite the island Besbicos. In this island of the Cyziceni is a well-wooded mountain called Artace; and in front of this mountain lies an isle bearing the same name; and near by is a promontory called Melanus, which one passes on a coasting-voyage from Cyzicus to Priapus.

From what I gather, the city was originally located at the mouth of the Granicus River, but after it was destroyed by Darius I the inhabitants moved to the same peninsula as Kyzikos, where they became under the influence of Athens - most likely as protection against the Persians.

From Ptolemaios, it sounds like there was a sanctuary to Artemis at Artake - hence her depiction on this coin.

On the north it is bounded by a part of the Euxine Pontos, which is thus described: after the mouth of the Pontos and the sanctuary of Artemis
Bithynian promontory . 56°45' . 43°20'
Artake kome . 57°00' . 43°05'

Today, the city is known as Erdek and is a popular holiday resort for the residents of Istanbul. In ancient times the city quickly became a suburb of nearby Kyzikos. Interestingly, Roman coinage from Kyzikos does depict Artemis, but not its earlier coinage (except a few rare electrum pieces). Perhaps by that time Artake was so integrated into Kyzikos that its temple to Artemis was considered Kyzikos' own? Of course, there could have been another temple.

As far as I can tell, our knowledge of the coinage of Artake begins and ends with this coin. I could find no other specimens on ACSearch, at the British Museum, or in ANS. I'm sure next week there will be five for sale in the next Savoca, but right now this appears to be the rarest coin in my collection and a centerpiece that I'm proud to own.

Feel free to share your own coins of Mysia or rare coins in general!

Edited October 2, 2023 by kirispupis

[Deinomenid]

43 minutes ago, kirispupis said:

I'm sure next week there will be five for sale in the next Savoca

😀

No Artake from me sadly - though as ever the write up  is fascinating- but this is a fairly odd Mysia type I picked up fairly cheaply recently. It's a Kore/butting bull coin overstruck. The tail of the bull is still very clear at 3  o'clock. These do come  up for sale and can look very strange eg  - https://auctions.navillenumismatics.com/auctions/catalog/id/104?catm=any&page=1&view=grid&order=order_num&xclosed=no&featured=no&lotnum=101

MYSIA. Kyzikos. 3rd century BC. AE (Bronze, 27 mm, 14.26 g, 11 h). Prow to right. Rev. K-Y/Z-I Boukranion; all within oak wreath. SNG Paris 438. Von Fritze III, 11.  Overstruck  on  an earlier issue from Kyzikos of the ‘Kore Soteira/Bull butting left’ type (SNG Paris 436).

 

 

 

[kirispupis]

15 minutes ago, Deinomenid said:

😀

No Artake from me sadly - though as ever the write up  is fascinating- but this is a fairly odd Mysia type I picked up fairly cheaply recently. It's a Kore/butting bull coin overstruck. The tail of the bull is still very clear at 3  o'clock. These do come  up for sale and can look very strange eg  - https://auctions.navillenumismatics.com/auctions/catalog/id/104?catm=any&page=1&view=grid&order=order_num&xclosed=no&featured=no&lotnum=101

MYSIA. Kyzikos. 3rd century BC. AE (Bronze, 27 mm, 14.26 g, 11 h). Prow to right. Rev. K-Y/Z-I Boukranion; all within oak wreath. SNG Paris 438. Von Fritze III, 11.  Overstruck  on  an earlier issue from Kyzikos of the ‘Kore Soteira/Bull butting left’ type (SNG Paris 436).

Very nice! I've seen these come up at auction and have been tempted. Here's my only coin from Kyzikos. Someday I'd love to own a late electrum stater from Kyzikos because in Xenophon's Anabasis they were promised as a bonus to the soldiers. 

Mysia, Kyzikos
c. 4th century BCE
Æ 8mm, 0.88g, 9h
Laureate head of Apollo l.
R/ Amphora; below, tunny r.
Von Fritze III 2; SNG BnF 411; SNG Copenhagen 57

 

[Hesiod]

1 hour ago, kirispupis said:

but not its earlier coinage.

They did, though rare:

https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=4382464

https://www.numisbids.com/n.php?p=lot&sid=7115&lot=407

[Ed Snible]

A very interesting coin, @kirispupis.  Having the only example of an ancient Greek city is a pretty big deal!

When I started collecting Greek coins I was told that there are about 600 cities.  200 common, 200 rare, and 200 extremely rare.

Now that we have public databases of coin sales and museum collections we can quickly get a sense of the scarcity of cities.

Your city, Artake, has one hit in acsearch.info.  A unique coin from a unique city, with only one sale recorded in recent decades.

I looked at my own coins of Mysian cities.  The rarest Mysian city in my collection is Atarneus/Atarneos, with 25+67 hits in acsearch:

Atarneus / Atarneos, AE9, 1.15g, circa 350 BC
ex-CNG, Triton VI, January 2003, lot 1563 (part of; ex David Freedman collection)

It is my hope that your coin is a unique coin of Artake.  The letters A, R, T, A in a wheel could also be the start of Atarneos.  I wonder if Plankenhorn had a findspot or other information to exclude a southern Mysian city?

[kirispupis]

15 minutes ago, Ed Snible said:

When I started collecting Greek coins I was told that there are about 600 cities.  200 common, 200 rare, and 200 extremely rare.

I believe the number is much higher. I currently only collect Greek coins from roughly the former territory of Alexander the Great minted between roughly 350-250 BCE (though I have exceptions). So far, I've accumulated 310 cities. There are 58 others I'm aware of but haven't procured. However, that list is missing the following:

• Mints in Sicily and Italy from the same era. I've just started adding a few here and there. I won't create a count for some time, but I'm sure there are at least 100 and it may be closer to 200.
• 2nd + 1st century BCE mints from Asia Minor to Italy. I haven't pursued these at all, but there are definitely a number of cities who only minted during this time, even discounting any coins after 1 CE. If I were to guess, I'd say in the 200 range.
• Archaic and classical mints. These are even more difficult because there are a number of cities with one sole example. I've avoided these largely due to cost because the issues are mostly silver and rare cities can go into the stratosphere. Rare bronzes, on the other hand, are usually doable. I have no idea how many cities are here, but I would expect it to be north of 300.

Therefore, I believe the number of Greek cities is at least 1000.

22 minutes ago, Ed Snible said:

It is my hope that your coin is a unique coin of Artake.  The letters A, R, T, A in a wheel could also be the start of Atarneos.  I wonder if Plankenhorn had a findspot or other information to exclude a southern Mysian city?

I'm tempted to order a copy of Plankenhorn's book to see if he has something to say about this coin - and the two other Mysian examples of his I own. For one, the letters would have to be read across rather than around to make A T A R. As I understand, he was a very detail-oriented person, so he must have had his reasons. Although it was in Leu's interests to not doubt him, they agreed with his attribution.

Here's my Atarneos. This particular coin has puzzled me a bit. The obverse + reverse are definitely the type of Atarneos, but the inscription seems to have a 'D' with one letter preceding it.  The snake mark is also known from Atarneos, but I haven't found any examples with this monogram. I've accepted the seller's attribution of Atarneos since everything else lines up, but the inscription and monogram bug me a bit.

Mysia, Atarneos
Æ (15.5mm, 2.15g, 12h)
c. 400 BCE
Laureate head of Apollo r. R/ Horse stepping r.; serpent above, monogram to r.
SNG BnF -; SNG Copenhagen -; SNG von Aulock -

[Ed Snible]

1 hour ago, kirispupis said:

Here's my Atarneos. This particular coin has puzzled me a bit. The obverse + reverse are definitely the type of Atarneos, but the inscription seems to have a 'D' with one letter preceding it.  The snake mark is also known from Atarneos, but I haven't found any examples with this monogram.

BMC includes several similar monograms.  https://books.google.com/books?id=ar0tAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA1#v=onepage&q&f=false

No D P A, but perhaps a D, and a P A.

[kirispupis]

6 minutes ago, Ed Snible said:

BMC includes several similar monograms.  https://books.google.com/books?id=ar0tAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA1#v=onepage&q&f=false

No D P A, but perhaps a D, and a P A.

Thanks! BTW, your site is my primary reference for these coins. 🙂 

I did spend some time figuring out if I could by some imagination make the monogram look like ἙΡΜΊΑΣ, but no bananas... My suspicion is these coins were all minted after his time.

[AncientOne]

Very cool find! 

I do not know if this one is unique but I have not found a similar one.

Mysia, Lampsacus. Caracalla? AE17. Capricorn

Obv: Caracalla? r.
Rev: Hippocamp r.