Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
Diobol
| Issuer | Rhodes |
|---|---|
| Year | 205 BC - 190 BC |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Facing head of Helios rendered in three-quarter view, with radiate hair swept back in thick locks surrounding the face, characteristic of the solar deity as patron of Rhodes. The effigy is boldly modeled in high relief, displaying large almond-shaped eyes, a straight nose, and parted lips in the archaic tradition adapted to the Hellenistic style. The flan is irregular and compact, with the design filling the entire obverse field. No legend or inscription accompanies the portrait. The style is consistent with the Rhodian plintophoric coinage of the early second century BC. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Plain |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
Rhodes maintained an unusually active mint through the early second century BC, partly because the island's commercial dominance in eastern Mediterranean trade required a constant supply of small-denomination silver for port transactions. The diobol served that fractional role during a period when Rhodes was navigating the delicate diplomacy of the First and Second Macedonian Wars — officially neutral, quietly influential, and ultimately rewarded with significant territorial grants by Rome following Magnesia in 190 BC.
Ashton's die study places this emission within a tightly sequenced chronology based on magistrate names, making attribution here more precise than for most issues of comparable size.