Tetartemorion

Teos, the Ionian Greek city on the Aegean coast of Anatolia, was home to the poet Anacreon and, more practically, one of the ancient world's principal sources of kition — a bitumen-like substance traded across the Mediterranean. These fractional silver coins funded a local economy operating on genuinely tiny transactions. At roughly a quarter of an obol, the tetartemorion was among the smallest denominations struck anywhere in the Greek world, and Teos produced them with a consistency that suggests real commercial demand rather than ceremonial issue.