Ancient Greek Coins of Miletus

Robert J. O’Hara (rjohara@post.harvard.edu)

The ancient Greek city of Miletus in Asia Minor, on what is now the west coast of Turkey, was the intellectual and commercial center of the Greek world in the century before Athens rose to prominence. It has been called the birthplace of the modern world. These pages discuss the early history of coinage and present a detailed outline of Milesian coin types from the Greek and Roman periods.

PAGES: Illustrated table of contents—Illustrated numerical catalogue—History and weight standards—Chronological table—The electrum lion coins of the kings of Lydia (1)—The enigmatic “geometric” electrum series (1)—The sixth-century electrum lion coins of Miletus (2)—The electrum and silver lion/scorpion issues (3)—The silver eye-swirl/quincunx fractions (12)—The dotted lion-mask series (7)—The archaic twelfth-stater series (21)—The silver Milesian-style lion/bird fractions (14)—The lion-head/lion-scalp series (2)—Milesian imitatives of Hecatomnus, Mausolus, and Hidrieus (2)—The fourth-century bronze lion/sun series (3)—The Rhodian silver and bronze Apollo/lion series (7)—Early silver and bronze of Alexander the Great (5)—The reduced-Rhodian didrachms and their parallel bronzes (3)—The later Diadochian and civic Alexander types (2)—The third-century Persic silver and bronze Apollo/lion series (2)—The bronze facing-Apollo coinage (6)—The second-century silver Apollo/lion issues (5)—The wreathed bronze Apollo/lion series (8)—The bronze Apollo of Didyma series (2)—Provincial bronzes of Nero (2)—Provincial bronzes of Domitian (1)—Provincial bronzes of Faustina the Younger (1)—Provincial bronzes of Gordian III (1)—The Ottoman silver akçes of fifteenth-century Balad (1)—References and literature cited—Ancient coin resources online.

(1) References and Literature Cited

This selection of titles includes items that are useful in the study of Milesian coins and the coinage of Asia Minor in general. Works of particular value for dating and attribution are indicated by an asterisk (*). Readers looking for good general introductions to the study of ancient coins may wish to consider Zander Klawans’ Handbook of Ancient Greek and Roman Coins, Ian Carradice’s Greek Coins, Christopher Howgego’s Ancient History From Coins, and Wayne Sayles’ Ancient Coin Collecting.

• Arslan, Melih, and Chris Lightfoot. 1999. Greek Coin Hoards in Turkey: The Antalya Archaeological Museum and the C.S. Okray Collection with Additional Material from the Burdur, Fethiye and Sinop Museums. Ankara: Udaş. [ISBN 9759536919]

• Ashton, Richard H.J., Philip Kinns, Koray Konuk, and Andrew R. Meadows. 2002a. The Hecatomnus Hoard (CH 5.17, 8.96, 9.387). Coin Hoards 9: 95–158, pls. 6–20. [ISBN 0901405639 / ISSN 00804487 (Special Publications of the Royal Numismatic Society) / ISSN 01401149 (Coin Hoards).]

• *Ashton, Richard H.J., Nicholas Hardwick, Philip Kinns, Koray Konuk, and Andrew R. Meadows. 2002b. The Pixodarus Hoard (CH 9.421). Coin Hoards 9: 159–243, pls. 21–41. [ISBN 0901405639 / ISSN 00804487 (Special Publications of the Royal Numismatic Society) / ISSN 01401149 (Coin Hoards).]

• *Ashton, Richard H.J., and Philip Kinns. 2003. Opuscula Anatolica II. Numismatic Chronicle, 163: 1–47, pls. 1–8. [ISSN 00782696. Pp. 4–26 is “Milesian Notes” by Kinns.]

• Balmuth, Miriam S., ed. 2001. Hacksilber to Coinage: New Insights into the Monetary History of the Near East and Greece. New York: American Numismatic Society. (Numismatic Studies, No. 24.) [ISBN 0897222814 / ISSN 0517404X. Reviewed by Elizabeth Kosmetatou in Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2004.03.16. Reviewed by RJO on Amazon.com.]

• Barron, John Penrose. 1966. The Silver Coins of Samos. London: The Athlone Press, University of London.

• Berry, Burton Y. 1962. Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum: The Burton Y. Berry Collection, Part II: Megaris to Egypt. New York: American Numismatic Society.

• Brett, Agnes Baldwin. 1955. Catalogue of Greek Coins, Boston Museum of Fine Arts. Boston. [Not seen.]

• *Burnett, Andrew, et al. 1992–1999. Roman Provincial Coinage, volumes I, II, and supplement. London: British Museum. [Not seen.]

• Cahn, Herbert A. 1970. Knidos: Die Munzen des sechsten und des fünften Jahrhunderts v. Chr. [Knidos: The Coinage of the Sixth and Fifth Centuries Before Christ.] Berlin: Walter de Gruyter and Co. (Antike Münzen und geschnittene Steine, Band IV.)

• Carradice, Ian. 1995. Greek Coins. Austin: University of Texas Press. [ISBN 0292711840.]

• *Deppert-Lippitz, Barbara. 1984. Die Münzprägung Milets vom vierten bis ersten Jahrhundert v. Chr. [The Coinage of Miletus from the Fourth to the First Century Before Christ.] Aarau: Verlag Sauerländer. (Typos: Monographien zur antiken Numismatik, V.) [ISBN 379412569X. For a critical review see Kinns, 1986.]

• Dmitriev, Sviatoslav. 2005. City Government in Hellenistic and Roman Asia Minor. Oxford: Oxford University Press. [ISBN 0195170423.]

• Dunham, Adelaide Glynn. 1915. The History of Miletus Down to the Anabasis of Alexander. London: University of London Press. [Not seen.]

• Gardner, Percy. 1911. The coinage of the Ionian Revolt. Journal of Hellenic Studies, 31: 151–160.

• Goldhill, Simon, ed. 2001. Being Greek Under Rome: Cultural Identity, the Second Sophistic and the Development of Empire. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [ISBN 0521663172. Reviewed by Thomas A. Schmitz in Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2002.02.22.]

• Gorman, Vanessa Barrett. 2001. Miletos, the Ornament of Ionia: A History of the City to 400 B.C.E. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. [ISBN 047211199X. Reviewed by P.J. Smith in Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2002.06.17.]

• Greaves, Alan M. 2002. Miletos: A History. London: Routledge. [ISBN 0415238463.]

• Grose, S.W. 1929. Catalogue of the McClean Collection of Greek Coins, III. Cambridge. [Not seen.]

• Head, Barclay V. 1892. Catalogue of Greek Coins in the British Museum: Ionia. London. [Not seen.]

• Head, Barclay V. 1965. A Guide to the Principal Coins of the Greeks. London: British Museum.

• Herbert, Kevin. 1979. The John Max Wulfing Collection in Washington University. New York: American Numismatic Society. (Ancient Coins in North American Collections, No. 2.) [ISBN 089722180X / ISSN 02714019.]

• Hurter, Sylvia. 1998. The ‘Pixodaros hoard’: A summary. Pp. 147–153, pls. 31–33 in: Studies in Greek Numismatics in Memory of Martin Jessop Price (Richard Ashton and Silvia Hurter, eds.). London: Spink and Son. [ISBN 0907605958.]

  “Unlike other cities of Asia Minor, Miletos did not strike an autonomous silver coinage in the early fourth century. The city had strong Carian connections, although it is not clear whether it was an outright Hekatomnid possession or whether it was just closely involved with the Carian satraps. It may have served as a mint for Hekatomnos and Maussollos,¹³ and the Milesians erected statues of Hidrieus and Ada at Delphi as late as the early 340s.¹⁴ It was only after Maussollos’ death, in 353/2, that the minting of autonomous tetradrachms started.¹⁵ They bear the laureate head of Apollo with long hair on the obverse, and on the reverse a lion walking to l., head reverted, with a star above it and the city’s monogram to l. (Pl. 31, 13). The hoard contained close to twenty specimens including two magistrates’ names, ΔΑΜΝΑΣ and ΛΥΚΟΣ (Pl. 31, 14), which were hitherto unknown on this denomination.¹⁶ The coinage is homogeneous in character and cannot have been struck for much longer that a decade.

  “¹³ Hekatomnos: staters, Babelon, Traité 2 II, 84, pl. 89, 17; drachms, ibid. 85–86, pl. 89, 18–19; Maussollos: staters, ibid. 2 II, 88, pl. 90, 1.

  “¹⁴ S. Hornblower, Mausolus (Oxford, 1982), pp. 111 f.; Deppert (next note), p. 13.

  “¹⁵ See B. Deppert-Lippitz, Die Münzprägung Milets im vierten bis ersten Jahrhundert v. Chr. TYPOS V (Aarau, 1984), pp. 11–13, and nos. 68–93, who dates them to ‘one or two decades before the fall of Halikarnassos [to Alexander]’.

  “¹⁶ Damnas: Deppert 90; Lykos: Deppert 91.”

• Jenkins, G.K. 1972. Ancient Greek Coins. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons.

• Keyser, Paul T., and David D. Clark. 2001. Analyzing and interpreting the metallurgy of early electrum coins. Pp. 105–126 in: Hacksilber to Coinage: New Insights into the Monetary History of the Near East and Greece (Miriam S. Balmuth, ed.). New York: American Numismatic Society. (Numismatic Studies, No. 24.) [ISBN 0897222814 / ISSN 0517404X. Reviewed by Elizabeth Kosmetatou in Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2004.03.16. Reviewed by RJO on Amazon.com.]

• Kim, Henry S. 2001. Archaic coinage as evidence for the use of money. Pp. 7–21 in: Money and its Uses in the Ancient Greek World (Andrew Meadows and Kristy Shipton, eds.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. [ISBN 0199240124. A pdf version of this paper is available from Oxford University Press.]

• *Kinns, Philip. 1986. The coinage of Miletus. Numismatic Chronicle, 146: 234–260. [ISSN 00782696. Critical essay-review of Deppert-Lippitz, 1984.]

• *Kinns, Philip. 1998. CH 8, 474: Milesian silver coinage in the second century BC. Pp. 175–195, pls. 38–46 in: Studies in Greek Numismatics in Memory of Martin Jessop Price (Richard Ashton and Silvia Hurter, eds.). London: Spink and Son. [ISBN 0907605958.]

• Klein, Dieter. 1999. Sammlung von griechischen Kleinsilbermünzen und Bronzen. Milan: Editzioni ennerre S.r.l. (Nomismata, 3.) [ISBN 8887235074.]

• Konuk, Koray. 1998. The Coinage of the Hekatomnids of Caria. Doctoral dissertation, Oxford University. [Not seen.]

• *Konuk, Koray. 2002. Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum, Turkey, 1: The Muharrem Kayhan Collection. Istanbul: Ausonius Publications. (Numismatica Anatolica, 1.) [ISBN 2910023311.]

• Konuk, Koray. 2003. From Kroisos to Karia: Early Anatolian Coins from the Muharrem Kayhan Collection / Karun’dan Karia’ya: Muharrem Kayhan Koleksiyonundan Erken Anadolu Sikkeleri. Istanbul: Ege Yayınları. [ISBN 9758070614.]

• Konuk, Koray. 2006. Coin legends in Carian. Pp. 471–526 in: The Carian Language (Ignacio J. Adiego, ed.). Amsterdam: Brill. [ISBN 9004152814.]

• Konuk, Koray. In press. The electrum coinage of Samos in the light of a recent hoard. In: Neue Forschungen zu Ionien (E. Schwertheim and E. Winter, eds.). Bonn: Asia Minor Studien.

• Kraay, Colin M. 1976. Archaic and Classical Greek Coins. New York: Sanford J. Durst. [ISBN 0915262754.]

• Laale, Hans Willer. 2006. Once They Were Brave, the Men of Miletus. Bloomington, Indiana: AuthorHouse. [ISBN 1420891243.]

• McFadden, Eric J. 2002. A hoard of early multi-denominational electrum coins. Journal of the Society for Ancient Numismatics, 21: 17–19.

• Meadows, Andrew, and Ute Wartenberg, eds. 2002. Coin Hoards, Volume IX: Greek Hoards. London: Royal Numismatic Society. (Royal Numismatic Society, Special Publication No. 35.) [ISBN 0901405639 / ISSN 00804487 (Special Publications of the Royal Numismatic Society) / ISSN 01401149 (Coin Hoards).]

• Meadows, Andrew R., and Richard W.C. Kan. 2004. History Re-stored: Ancient Greek Coins from the Zhuyuetang Collection. Hong Kong: Zhuyuetang Limited.

• Melville Jones, John R. 1986. A Dictionary of Ancient Greek Coins. London: Seaby. [ISBN 0900652810.]

• Melville Jones, John R. 1993. Testimonia Numaria: Greek and Latin Texts Concerning Ancient Greek Coinage, Volume I: Texts and Translations. London: Spink and Son. [ISBN 0907605400.]

• *Metcalf, William E. 1980. The Cistophori of Hadrian. New York: American Numismatic Society. (Numismatic Studies, No. 15.) [ISBN 0897221818 / ISSN 0517404X.]

• *Newell, Edward T. 1926. The Coinages of Demetrius Poliorcetes. London. [Reprint edition, Chicago: Obol International, 1978. ISBN 091671036X.]

• *Pfeiler, Bärbel. 1966. Die Silberprägung von Milet im 6. Jahrhundert v. Chr. [The silver coinage of Miletus in the 6th century before Christ.] Schweizerische numismatische Rundschau, 45: 5–26. [The full text of this important paper, along with an English translation, is now available online.]

• Price, Martin Jessop, and Nancy M. Waggoner. 1975. Archaic Greek Coinage: The Asyut Hoard. London: V.C. Vecci and Sons.

• *Price, Martin Jessop. 1991. The Coinage in the Name of Alexander the Great and Philip Arrhidaeus. London. [ISBN 3908103002. Not seen.]

• Robinson, E.S.G. 1951. The coins of the Ephesian Artemision reconsidered. Journal of Hellenic Studies, 71: 156–167, pl. 38.

• Rosen, Jonathan P. 1983. Archaic Coins: An Exhibition at the J. Paul Getty Museum from the Collection of Jonathan Rosen. Malibu, California: The J. Paul Getty Museum. [ISBN 089236064X. An illustrated exhibition catalogue of fifty specimens from the Rosen collection (Waggoner, 1983), including several coins from Miletus.]

• Rosenbloom, David. 1993. Shouting “fire” in a crowded theater: Phrynichos’s Capture of Miletos and the politics of fear in early Attic tragedy. Philologus, 137: 159–196.

• Schaps, David M. 2004. The Invention of Coinage and the Monetization of Ancient Greece. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. [ISBN 047211333X.]

• Seaford, Richard. 2004. Money and the Early Greek Mind: Homer, Philosophy, Tragedy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [ISBN 0521832284.]

• *Sear, David R. 1978. Greek Coins and Their Values, Vol. I: Europe. London: Seaby Publications. [ISBN 0713478497.]

• *Sear, David R. 1979. Greek Coins and Their Values, Vol. II: Asia and North Africa. London: Seaby Publications. [ISBN 0713478500.]

• *Sear, David R. 1982. Greek Imperial Coins and Their Values: The Local Coinages of the Roman Empire. London: Seaby Publications. [ISBN 0900652594.]

• SNG Copenhagen. 1982. Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum: The Royal Collection of Coins and Medals, Danish National Museum: Ionia. West Milford, New Jersey: Sunrise Publications, Inc. (Reprint edition.)

• SNG Fitzwilliam. 1965. Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum: British Series, Vol. 6: Fitzwilliam Museum: Leake and General Collections, Part 6. London. [ISBN 0197258921. Not seen.]

• Stark, Freya. 1954. Ionia: A Quest. London: John Murray.

• *Thompson, Margaret. 1983. Alexander’s Drachm Mints, I: Sardis and Miletus. New York: American Numismatic Society. (Numismatic Studies, No. 16.) [ISBN 0897221931 / ISSN 0517404X. Reviewed by RJO on Amazon.com.]

  “Under Alexander and the Successors down to the end of the fourth century, seven mints in Asia Minor [Lampsacus, Abydus, Sardes, Colophon, Magnesia, Miletus, and probably Teos] produced the small change of the entire empire, the very substantial emissions of drachms supplemented at times by much smaller issues of tetradrachms. This pattern is in sharp contrast to that prevailing elsewhere. At all other mints the principal denomination was the tetradrachm.... [This] conforms to the traditions of the pre-Alexandrine period when the basic unit of exchange for much of Asia Minor was a small silver coin, the Persian siglos or the autonomous drachm, while Macedonia, Cilicia and lands further south and east relied on a large silver coin, the tetradrachm or the shekel.... Identification of Miletus as one of Alexander’s major drachm mints rests upon firm grounds. As Newell has demonstrated, the city struck coinage for Demetrius Poliorcetes during the initial decade of the third century. After Ipsus, which gave Lysimachus theoretical control of western Asia Minor, Demetrius managed to retain his hold on Caria and it was at Miletus that he issued gold and silver of the Alexander type, first with the name of Alexander and then with his own. The last emission, inscribed ΔΗΜΗΤΡΙΟΥ, is die-linked to a striking with the [ΜΙ] monogram of the Milesian autonomous coinage, thus establishing Miletus as the mint of the Demetrius sequence.”

• Thompson, Margaret, Otto Mørkholm, and Colin M. Kraay. 1973. An Inventory of Greek Coin Hoards. New York: American Numismatic Society.

• Toulmin, Stephen E. 1964. Night Sky at Rhodes. New York: Harcourt. [A travel account by a philosopher seeking the origins of Western science; deserves to be better known. Chapter 10 describes Miletus, “The Deserted Birthplace.”]

• *Waggoner, Nancy M. 1983. Early Greek Coins from the Collection of Jonathan P. Rosen. New York: American Numismatic Society. (Ancient Coins in North American Collections, No. 5.) [ISBN 0897222016 / ISSN 02714019. See Rosen (1983) for an illustrated exhibition catalogue of fifty specimens from this collection.]

• Wartenberg, Ute, Martin Jessop Price, and Kaelyn A. McGregor, eds. 1994. Coin Hoards, Volume VIII: Greek Hoards. London: Royal Numismatic Society. [ISSN 01401149.]

• Weidauer, Liselotte. 1975. Probleme der frühen Elektronprägung. [Problems in Early Electrum Coinage.] Fribourg: Office du Livre. (Typos: Monographien zur antiken Numismatik, I.) [A complete English translation of this standard reference, prepared by Dane Kurth with assistance from Reid Goldsborough, is available for $20 from weidauerproject@gmail.com.]