GREEK ?? MEDALLION / COIN ?

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Hi,

 

Being very new to coin collecting my knowledge is only slightly above 0

So please excuse my ignorance.

Another hobby is metal detecting

I recently found this silver medallion and yes I cleaned it with silvo polish (I didnt know it may of been a coin)...dont say it - I know !

A member of your forum suggested that it might be an old coin and that I ask about it here...and so here I am

It says...TEAHTAN or YEAHTAN

Does anybody know if it could be coin or anything about its origin ?

Thanks

 

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[bill]

Looks like a jewelery charm.

[Drusus]

Its a fake of a Silver Nomos from Lucania Velia, Head of Athena right / Lion standing right; above, Φ-I flanking ornate trident head right

 

There are many varieties of this type of coin

[mmarotta]

Agreed that it looks like a cast copy. Hard to tell if the mounting loop is one piece with the coin.

 

In any case, it is somewhat interesting. You don't see copies of these.

 

It is from VELIA in Italy in the region of Lucania, an old Greek area. It is spelled out in Greek letters

Upsilon Epsilon Lambda Eta Tau Omega Nu. UELETON means "of Uelia."

 

The coin type is catalogued for standard reference as Sear GCV 454v.

In the standard reference book, Greek Coins and their Values by David N. Sear, this is a variant of number 454.

 

That is the closest match, but your "coin" is still far from the mark. If yours is a cast from an original design, it is hard to say what the original was catalogued as. Your legend really looks like UELETAN and is not in line with the books.

 

The trident above the lion would be a mintmaster's mark. Typically, Greek cities elected their officials, being democracies, and the mintmaster was a political job, overseeing the technical workers. So, he had a control mark so that everyone would know whom to blame if the coins were underweight. The letters on either side are not always well explained. One good theory is that they were arithmetic notation to show how many pieces to the "pound." (The pound was a "litra" maybe 12 ounces or so. It is surprisingly standard over time how people find some convenient measure.) The one letter is clearly an A for 1 but the other might be a Pi for 80, and I'm not sure that works out correctly, 80*7.5 is too heavy.

 

Velia held its own as an independent city, was never conquered and in 275 BC was signed on as a Roman Ally.

 

(We think of "Italy" as being "Roman" but much of it was Greek. For instance, Naples was "Neo-polis" or New Town in Greek times.)

 

Anyway, be all of that as it may....

cute charm, even if that is all it is... You might enjoy reading about the times and places, the Punic Wars, Pyrrhic Victories, and all that.

[Drusus]

I should have said I THINK its a fake because I am by no means an expert regarding these...The originals are beautifully crafted coins and this one shows signs, to me, of being of a lesser quality, probably a cast fake...but its a neat little replica charm all the same as was said above.

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Thank you very much for your answers.

On the day i found it, I didn't think it was a coin

but after someone mentioning the possibility and the fact it is not stamped as silver -I thought I'd ask .

 

It is great to know about its origin though

Maybe one day I'll find a really old coin with my detector.

thanks to all replies.

 

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