Trihemiobol Smyrne type

Massalia — modern Marseille — was founded around 600 BC by Phocaean Greeks, and its earliest coinage closely mirrored the weight standards and types of its Aegean homeland. This tiny denomination belongs to the archaic phase of Massalian output, struck when the colony was still consolidating trade dominance over the indigenous Ligurian and Celtic networks of the western Mediterranean littoral. The Smyrne type designation reflects the Ionian stylistic ancestry the Massalians deliberately maintained, distinguishing their issues from Italic and Iberian contemporaries.

At 1.3 g, this is among the smallest fractions the mint produced at any period.