Snacking on Obols and main target acquired! / Centering? What's that??/ Let's see your Obols!

[Phil Anthos]

Phistelia, Campania

325-275 BC AR Obol (10mm, 0.55g) O: Head of Nymph facing slightly left. R: Lion standing left, right forepaw raised; star above, [serpent] in exergue(?). SNG ANS 590; HGC I, 505; HN Italy 619 From the Jörg Müller Collection; ex CNG Very little is known of Phistelia, a city accounted for only by its coinage. It is believed to have been located by the sea due to the clam shell device used on many of the coin types issued there. A strange little coin featuring the Cowardly Lion.

Edited March 8 by Phil Anthos

[kirispupis]

Lots and lots of obols! When I show these little coins to my friends, I explain that one obol was enough to purchase two bottles of wine, and two obols was the standard rate for a prostitute. Everyone of course loves the diobols then....

Macedon. Amphipolis
AR Obol/Hemiobol 357-353 BCE
8.93mm .36g
Obverse: Male head right, wearing taenia
Reverse: A-M-Φ-I, perch swimming downward in linear within incuse square
SNG ANS 83

 

Arkadia. Arcadian League. Megalopolis
AR Obol 320-275 BCE
12.24mm .87 grams
Obverse: Head of Pan left
Reverse: Monogram of the Arcadian League, I in left field, syrinx below
BCD Peloponnesos (Megalopolis) 1517
Ex Strasbourg (4 December 1985)

 

SAMARIA, Samarian-signed Series
Circa 375-333 BCE
AR Obol 8.5mm, 0.63 g, 7h
Forepart of lion crouching right, head facing / Bearded head of male left; ŠMRY[N] (in Aramaic) to right.
Meshorer & Qedar 83; Sofaer 59

 

Cyrrhestica, Bambyke-Manbog
Circa 330 BCE
AR Obol .51g, 9mm
Obv: Unknown portrait facing left. U monogram of Manbog right.
Rev: Artagatis enthroned left, wearing long dress tied by a belt; scepter in left hand, wreath in outstretched right
unpublished

 

Boeotia, Koroneia
Circa 400-350 BCE
AR Obol 11 mm, 0.81 g
Boeotian shield
Rev. K (retrograde) - O Gorgon's head facing, of Classical style.
BCD Boiotia 171a (same reverse die). BCD Boiotia II 578 (this coin)
Ex Dr. Paul Peter Urone Collection
Ex BCD Collection
Ex Classical Numismatic Group 2006

[dougsmit]

On 3/3/2024 at 3:56 PM, Phil Anthos said:

I kinda prefer even smaller denomination, but if you prefer obols, here are my favorites

I agree with this.  Obols are larger than many of my favorites.  I also question using the Athenian denomination names for cities that probably would not have used them.  One of my favorites is the Sybaris. 

Mine is 0.25g and has four dots which may or may not designate a denomination.  Usually from this region each dot indicates 1/12 litra so I choose to call mine a 4/12 which might be called a trias.  Unfortunately most of these tiny bulls fail to show all the dots or give weight information so studying them is hard.  When CNG sold this in sale 303, lot 2 for $180 + extras in 2013, they called it an obol with which I disagree greatly.  I bought it from Frank Robinson for a great deal less in 2020 (I have no idea who owned it in between or too the loss).  If I am correct that this is 1/3, the whole litra would be about 0.75 which seems right.   What is the weight of the one here?  Is it a full obol weight?  Does the location of its one dot outside the letters mean it is one whole?  The more I learn about coins, the less I believe I know. 

If anyone else here has a fraction from Sybaris, I would love to see it. 

UPDATE:  After failing to sell in two previous auctions, Roma 

https://www.numisbids.com/n.php?p=lot&sid=3309&lot=77

sold mine for 45GBP.  Obviously there is a lot of disagreement on whether this coin is treasure or trash.  

On 3/3/2024 at 3:56 PM, Phil Anthos said:

 late 6th century obol from Sybaris...

 

 

 

 

Edited March 15 by dougsmit

[Phil Anthos]

My earlier post was brief, so here's my full gallery write up for the above coin. The weight is very close to a typical 'obol' considering the flan is thin at one end. I suspect Doug's specimen is missing some metal too, but certainly not half its weight. A hemiobol? A 1/3 litra sounds good, but that puts my coin in a weird range, being heavy for a hemilitron.

Sybaris, Lucania

550-510 BC AR Obol (10mm, 0.44g) O: Bull (Ox?) standing left, head turned back to right; VM in exergue. R: Large MV monogram; four pellets around. SNG ANS 853; HGC I, 1235; HN Italy 1739; Hands Type I, IV ex Tom Vossen This coin dates from the original Greek colony, Sybaris I, before its destruction by the Krotones in 511-510 BC. The MV monogram on the reverse actually reads 'SY' for Sybaris, and I believe the VM in exergue on the obverse is 'MV' retrograde. The bull device seen on all early types from Sybaris, and later on the coins of her colonies at Poseidonia and Thurii, may in fact be a white ox at the mother city. ~ Peter

[NewStyleKing]

@Phil Anthos

 

From the Jörg Müller Collection; ex CNG

Is this the late but great Jorge Muller who was into re-dating Athenian NewStyles and Ephesian Cistaphoros? 

Muller, Jorge W., “The chronology of Ephesos revisited”. Schweizer Munzblatter Band 77   1998

                            A re-dating of the dated coins of Ephesos on grounds that the Romans only actually controlled  and minted coins in Ephesos five years later than assumed from the bequest of Attalos III. My ideas on the significance of the “Headdress of Isis” symbol in the Rome-Pontic times benefit hugely from his scheme. Opposed by DeCallatay in “More than it would seem….” 2011 below.

 

 

Crown of Iset-Reviewed (By John Arnold Nisbet on academia.edu....me)

The Impact of Jorge W. Muller’s re-dating of the Ephesian cistophori brings its Isiac symbols to a post-Rhodian epiphany date. A previously unrecorded year 42 Ephesian cistaphorus is published. The title has been changed because the original attracted the wrong sort of browser.