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!
Trihemiobol
| Issuer | Phokaia |
|---|---|
| Year | 521 BC - 478 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 | 1.29 g |
| 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 | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Quadripartite incuse square divided into four recessed compartments by a raised cross, a hallmark of early electrum and silver coinage from the Ionian cities. The four sections are alternately raised and recessed in a windmill or mill-sail pattern, typical of Archaic Greek civic issues. The surface within the incuse is rough and irregular, reflecting the primitive punch technique employed at this period. No legend or subsidiary device is present. The overall execution is consistent with the early coinage of Phokaia in the late Archaic period. |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | ND (521 BC - 478 BC) |
| Additional information |
Phokaia's coinage was underwritten almost entirely by the city's extraordinary reach as a maritime trading power — Phokian merchants established colonies as far west as Massalia (modern Marseille) and Alalia in Corsica, and silver fractions like this one were the working currency of that commerce. The city's eventual sack by the Persians under Harpagos around 545 BC drove much of its population to those very colonies, yet minting continued under Persian-aligned administration through the period this piece covers.
The electrum coinage of Phokaia is better documented; these small silver fractions remain comparatively understudied.