Calabria, Taras: silver obol, ca. 250 BC

lordmarcovan

Calabria, Taras- silver obol, ca. 250 BC.

Obverse- kantharos, surrounded by (five) pellets.
Reverse- kantharos, surrounded by pellets.

11 mm, 0.4 g. Ex-Brian Bucklan (bargainbinancients.com), 5/22/2014.

With cabinet toning from an old collection.



Original seller page
Coins of Calabria, Taras (Wildwinds)

Wikipedia links:
Taras (Tarentum, Taranto)
Kantharos (cantharus)

When posted here, this coin was part of my Greek & Roman Provincial collection.

nicholasz219

I really Like the toning on this piece LM. Very nice.

JCMhouston

Very nice LordM.

Zohar

NiceCurrency

I like this piece

the kantharos is a cup mainly for wine attributed to Dionysus

interesting that a coin from Taras doesn't have Taras on it or say Taras when that city (modern day Taranto) has used that Taras riding dolphin founding myth image much like the twins and the she wolf from ancient times all the way to today

Andres

Beautifull little coin ! congrats
but 0,4 Gram ? ? is that correct

lordmarcovan

I don't know if that weight is correct or not, yet.

Now when important life decisions come down to a coin toss, I can always win. Provided I choose "kantharos" instead of "heads" or "tails".

lordmarcovan

Coin is in hand as of today, and it's nice.

Very tiny. I still am getting used to how tiny some of these ancient Greek pieces are. They must have lost a ton of them, and the metal detectorist in me dreams of what it would be like to get loose over there, if it were legal. So many tiny coins must be in the ground as casual losses, let alone the hoards that must be waiting to be found.

Andres, I haven't checked the weight, but the envelope felt empty. This coin weighs practically nothing!

And yet the design is clear and the toning looks good, even with my fading eyesight and just reading glasses on.

It's a neat addition and I don't regret it, though I'm still getting used to how all these microdot-sized coins are looking in my album. They swim around in a 2x2 inch flip like a frog in an Olympic-sized swimming pool!

(I guess it's sort of the opposite of what Zohar experiences with his big huge multiple talers, which require oversized slabs.)

Swampboy

Regardless of size that piece is just a beautiful, nicely toned ancient.
Congrats!
Enjoy. I know I would.

Andres

Then I assume the weight is indeed 0,4 gram, amazing to strike such a nice coin on such a tiny piece of silver.

lordmarcovan

Indeed it is amazing, and it makes me wonder if the ancients had developed lenses for magnification, or if the engravers were all younger people with super acute eyesight.

(After Google & Wikipedia) Aha! They did have lenses!

Guess I shouldn't be that surprised, as brilliant as they were.

I had just never considered this before.

It is still impressive how they engraved the dies for some of these tiny coins. Many are so much more sophisticated than this piece, and even tinier.