Very rare post Sullan NewStyle tetradrachm

[NewStyleKing]

 

This is another rare post Sullan NewStyle and the type is a Hall of notoriety in NewStyle chronology terms.  When  L C "lucky" Sulla snook out of Rome to take command of the Roman senatorial forces against Mithradates of Pontus he headed directly for Athens emptying treasures in temples on the way because he was not sort of the official choice, Marius was, but he died! He took Lucius Lucullus with him who was dispatched to raise a fleet because he had no ships and Pontus was strong in ships. His Brother, Marcus Lucullus was made a Quaestor to convert loot into coin and produced the famous pseudo-Athenian NewStyle coinage for Sulla. Sulla did what he does best and takes Athens March 86 BC and kills the hold outs in the Acropolis soon after, meanwhile, Mithradates's  general Archaelos sails away from Athens harbour Piraeus  untouched.  

Now what to do? Simples, thrash Mithradates's generals twice in central Greece. Then an official Roman commander Flaccus turns up in Asia Minor and promptly is killed by his 2IC Fimbria. Who peregrinates asia minor, thrashes Mithradates jnr. in battle, takes Eupator' s capital Pergamon, forcing him too flee onto pirate vessels and away cos the Romans argue who's the  real propraetor refuse to co-operate  and that's it , essentially 1st Mithradatic war over.  Sulla is a bit scary and sets off after Fimbria who commits suicide when his troops desert!  Sulla and Mithradates sign peace terms at Dardanus, Sulla gets all Athenian and becomes an initiate of Elysian mysteries and sets off to become dictator of Rome.

The big question is did the NewStyle coinage immediately restart after the sacking? No one knows Below is the sort of official NewStyle position with the number of known obverses known in 1961 and today, ( not much change). It seems to pick up steam again and then falls off a cliff. My general idea is it got started to help finance the 2nd Mithradatic war and the beginning of the 3rd but became essentially redundant against the denarius and the Thasian imitations and the various smaller league achaean league triobols that equated better to the denarius. The celtic tribes loved the Thasian tetradrachms and kept producing their own wild imitations, they were, after all, barbarians!.

So who and why produce the NewStyle beyond the early 70's BC?

Only as a kind of remembrance of old times when they were sort of independent and mattered somewhat, but nowadays essentially Roman proxy state, much reduced and only important cos the Romans loved Athenian Greek culture and festivals .

I believe they were commemorative coinages, specially minted as souvenirs. What use was such a small mintage otherwise, tokens, local propaganda, temple coinage. Eventually most Roman dominated cities were refused to mint silver and Athens like most of them died. The denarius essentially ruled. The cistaphorus struggled on as a tri drachm under Octavian/Augustus, the drachm became a denarius. The rest is history!

This very rare NewStyle issue was used as a base coin to overstrike an Aesillas tetradrachm. But because the florit of neither type was known the dating by means of one or the other was contentious. The dating of the Aesillas coinage is still not known, but Robert Baulaugh's Silver coinage with the types of Aesillas, Quaestor, has shown it to be an intermittent coinage  from c 95 to c 70/65 BC that can be partitioned into Vlll groups, the Aesillas type overstruck on the Demeas Kallikratides issue is a Bauslaugh group Vlll o94/r353 and late into the coinage. The post-Sullan NewStyles  essentially show few obverse die transfers and useful hoards, however the 3 issues of Diokles, of which I have the 2nd issue, can be roughly dated because he was a known entity. So we still go by Miss Thompsons internal chronology on top of Lewis's new general chronology, but, certainly the early catalogue and it's internal chronology seems to follow the hoard evidence. Generally it is believed to be what it appears in my listing, after firmly planting my feet on the shoulders of Lewis,Mattingly, Morkholm, Meadows et al! But with homage to the great Miss Margaret Thompson.

The symbol is taken to be Isis but it has been queried and all the examples of this issue are from very heavily used dies. They say the headdress is a give a way, but I cannot see it it's so badly reproduced and the thing it is carrying is also hard to make out, but Isis was famous for carrying things like situla's.....oh well until a better example surfaces...don't hold your breath..mine, the 6th appears to be the last known!  Empty your pockets!!! 

 

78	87/6	Star & 2 Crescents  note 4	KING MITHRADATES- ARISTION   2 Magistrates from now					M	3	3
79	86/5	2 Ears of Corn	KOINTOS - CHARMOST * Imitation Restored*						2	2
80	85/4	Beatyl with Fillets	KLEOPHANES - EPITHETES	N					7	7
81	84/3	Harmodios & Aristogeiton	MENTOR - MOSCHION						8	8
82	83/2	Isis	ARCHITIMOS - DEMETRI						7	7
83	82/1	Poppy Head **	LUSANDROS - OINOPHILOS						6	6
84	81/0	Demeter Single Torch **	AMPHIAS - OINOPHILOS						10	10
85	80/9	Ares ? **	EUMELOS - THEOXENIDES						8	8
86	79/8	Stag **	NESTOR - MNSEAS	N					17	17
87	78/7	Bakchos **	SOTADES - THEMISTOKLES						6	6
88	??	Demeter & Artemis **	LYKIOS - ANTIKRATHES						1	1
89	??	Herekles **	PANTAKLES - DEMETRIOS						2	2
90	??	Looped Fillet **	THEOTHRASTOS - THEMISTO						1	1
91	??	Sphinx **	DIOPHANTOS - AISCHINES						1	1
92	??	Isis  **	DEMEAS - KALLIKRATIDES						2	2
93	??	Apollo with Lyre note 3	MNASTORGORAS - MENTOR						0	1
94	??	Helmet	ALKETE - EYAPON						2	2
95	??	Dionysus	DIONYSIOS - MNASTAGORAS						1	1
96	??	Apollo Lykeios	EPIGENES - XENON						4	4
97	??	Demeter	MENEDEMOS - TIMOKRATES						4	4
98	??	Hekate	MENNEAS - ERODES						1	1
99	??	Winged Caduceus	DIONYSIOS - DEMOSTRATOS						1	1
100	??	Cicada	No tetradrachms known (Democharcs-Pammenes)						0	0
101	??	Asklepios	DIOKLES - LEONIDES						1	1
102	??	Dionysus	PHILOKRATHES - ERODES						1	1
103	??	Triptolemus	KALLIMAXOS - EPIKRATES						2	2
104	??	Filleted Thyrsos	ARCHITIMOS - PAMMENES						4	4
105	??	Hygieia	DIOKLES - TODEY - MEDIOS						3	3
106	??	Demeter	APELLIKON - ARISTOTELES						1	1
107	??	Head of Eagle   note 5	HERAKLON - ERAKLEIDES						1	1
108	??	Hekate	TRYPHON - POLUCHARMOS						1	1
109	??	Nike	PHILOKRATHES - KALLIPHON						3	3
110	??	Dionysos	TO TRI  DIOKLES - DIODOROS						2	2
111	??	Athena Parthenos	DIOKLES - MEDIOS						1	1
112	53/42 BC?	Artemis  END of NEW STYLE COINAGE ??	APOLECHIS - LYSANDROS						1	1

 

 

 

Athens New Style Tetradrachm c 73/2 BC

Obs : Athena Parthenos right in tri-form helmet
31 mm 16.15 gm Thompson issue ?
Thompson catalogue: Obs 1233 Rev: ?
Rev : ΑΘΕ ethnic
Owl standing on overturned panathenaic amphora
on which month mark ? ΣΩ below
2 magistrates :DEMEAS KALLIKRATIDES
RF symbol : Isis
All surrounded by an olive wreath

[NewStyleKing]

This picture from Svoronos Treasure's is the best known, the headdress is more like that of Isis and similar to the example on my other post Sulla Isis NewStyle of Archtimos, of which an excellent pic from my archives is given

 

[Sulla80]

I always enjoy your posts @NewStyleKing, here's my entire NewStyle sub-collection.

ATTICA. Athens. Circa 165-42 BC. Tetradrachm, Phanokles, Apollonios and Hieron, magistrates, 111/0. Head of Athena Parthenos to right, wearing triple-crested Attic helmet adorned with Pegasos and long tendril on the bowl, and with the foreparts of four horses above the visor. Rev. A-ΘE / ΦΑΝΟ-ΚΛΗΣ / ΑΠΟΛ/ΛΩΝΙΟΣ / IE/PΩΝ Owl standing facing on amphora; to left, Artemis Phosphoros standing front, holding torch with both hands; on amphora, [Θ]; in exergue, ME; all within laurel wreath. Thompson 706a.

 

This one not attributed properly (by me) - no controls on the amphora that I can see and perhaps something below? AP?

ATTICA. Athens. Tetradrachm (149/8 BC). New Style Coinage. Polychares and Timarchides, magistrates.
Obv: Helmeted head of Athena right.
Rev: A - ΘE / ΠO / ΛY - TIM (monogram). Owl standing right on amphora, head facing

Ref: Thompson 109c.

Edited February 25 by Sulla80

[NewStyleKing]

my coin is T109! Athens New Style Tetradrachm 149/8 BC

Obs : Athena Parthenos right in tri-form helmet
34mm 16.64g Thompson issue 16
Thompson catalogue: Obs 109 : Rev (not in plates)/ NEW?
Rev : AΘE ethnic
Owl standing on overturned panathenaic amphora
on which 2 control letters Ε ? : RF month mark Ι
ΠOΛΥ , TI - MPΔ monogram
2 magistrates : ΠΟΛΥ TIMARCHIDES
Symbol : Palm Leaf (oblique behind owl)
All within a surrounding olive wreath

Edited February 25 by NewStyleKing

[Nerosmyfavorite68]

That's really interesting.   I like learning about new aspects of numismatics.  Sadly, the only Athenian owl I have is a contemporary eastern old-style imitation.

[NewStyleKing]

Looking like obverse T104. With the reverse of T103 , the DELTA being off flan.  See where the palm breaks through the amphora handle!  Many new Palm behind owls have appeared over the years  no doubt with new obverse/reverse pairings. You can download Thompson via WILDWINDS, Athens  at the bottom . 

Edited February 25 by NewStyleKing

[Sulla80]

2 hours ago, NewStyleKing said:

Looking like obverse T104. With the reverse of T103 , the DELTA being off flan.  See where the palm breaks through the amphora handle!  Many new Palm behind owls have appeared over the years  no doubt with new obverse/reverse pairings. You can download Thompson via WILDWINDS, Athens  at the bottom . 

Thanks! for the ID and the pointer to Thompson - didn't realize it was there from ANS/Hathi Trust!

Edited February 25 by Sulla80