Ian Posted April 2, 2006 Report Share Posted April 2, 2006 Silver hemidrachm from the Black Sea region of Chersonesos (Crimea)circa 480 -350 BC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Art Posted April 2, 2006 Report Share Posted April 2, 2006 Very nice. I was looking at one of those in a CoinWorld ad not too long ago. Very interesting design. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Posted April 2, 2006 Author Report Share Posted April 2, 2006 It's one of the more popular `ancients' and fairly readily available. Although I haven't exactly conducted any systematic study of these, I haven't come across two with the same reverses yet! This one of mine has an alpha / gamma monogram with a pellet above in one quadrant, and a tuny fish in another. The range of reverses is astonishing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mmarotta Posted April 7, 2006 Report Share Posted April 7, 2006 ... Although I haven't exactly conducted any systematic study of these ... Ah, but Barry Murphy has! http://bpmurphy.ancients.info/chersonese/Cherronesos.htm I agree with you, Ian, these coins are compelling on many grounds. I was first drawn by the recumbant lion, which I identify with Miletos. It may be that when the towns were refounded after the Celtic invasions that they hired Milesians to make their coins. Perhaps they just used a commonly accepted symbol. In any case, to us, its the reverses that entice with questions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Posted April 7, 2006 Author Report Share Posted April 7, 2006 Ah, but Barry Murphy has! http://bpmurphy.ancients.info/chersonese/Cherronesos.htm I agree with you, Ian, these coins are compelling on many grounds. I was first drawn by the recumbant lion, which I identify with Miletos. It may be that when the towns were refounded after the Celtic invasions that they hired Milesians to make their coins. Perhaps they just used a commonly accepted symbol. In any case, to us, its the reverses that entice with questions. Thanks for the link. I did have Barry's site bookmarked pre CC (computer crash). Unfortunately it was wiped along numerous others, and every single email i'd sent / received over the past ten years. I'm slowly rebuilding my database of internet reference sources but i've lost a relative mine of information gained through correspondence with numerous individuals over the years. Computer based memory in the form of hard drives, like human memory, is such a fickle thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scottishmoney Posted April 7, 2006 Report Share Posted April 7, 2006 Here is my example, this one has a bee on the reverse, as Ian notes, there are many different reverses of these and you can collect a theme of bees, amphorae, geckos etc. I am looking for a nice gecko example right now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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