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!
Tetradrachm - Molossos and Menes
| Issuer | Miletos |
|---|---|
| Year | 170 BC - 160 BC |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| 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 | Round (irregular) |
| 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 | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | A standing lion facing left, depicted in bold high relief with a prominent mane, tail curled upward, and forelegs resting upon a rocky exergual ground line, characteristic of Milesian civic coinage. A six-pointed star or stellate symbol appears in the upper left field beside the lion's raised tail. The ethnic legend ΜΙΛΗΣΙΩΝ arches above the lion across the upper field, while the magistrate name ΜΕΝΗΣ is inscribed vertically along the right field, and ΜΟΛΟΣΣΟΣ appears horizontally along the lower field. The coin is enclosed within a plain border. |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | ΜΙΛΗΣΙΩΝ ΜΕΝΗΣ ΜΟΛΟΣΣΟΣ |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
Miletos struck this magistrate-series tetradrachm under the stephanephoric coinage system, where annually rotating civic officials — here Molossos and Menes — lent their names to the issue as a form of civic accountability rather than personal glorification. The practice allows modern numismatists to build rough sequential chronologies for the series, though the precise annual order of magistrate pairs remains contested.
By the 160s BC, Miletos operated under the shadow of Pergamene and, increasingly, Roman influence following the Peace of Apamea in 188 BC. The city retained enough autonomy to maintain its own silver coinage, but the political room to maneuver was narrowing.