Lesbos. Mytilene. c. 454-427 BC. EL Hecte (Picture Added)

Zohar · December 28, 2015 10:47AM

Found this one on Ebay. In spite of the limited imagery in a slab shot, it was clear that this piece is well centered and styled, especially given the fact it all fits on an 11mm circle! This one looks REALLY nice in hand.

Lesbos. Mytilene. c. 454-427 BC. EL Hecte, 11mm, 2.52gr. Obv: Diademed head of aged Silenus or Satyr to right, wearing taenia, with full beard and goat's ear. Rev. Heads of two confronted rams butting their heads together, all within incuse square. Bodenstedt 37. 19-23. BMC 40. SNG von Aulock 7726. Boston 1685. NGC Choice XF* 5/5, 5/5.

From my brief research of the piece, the head on the obverse of this coin was identified as being that of Midas, the Phrygian king, probably because of the diadem he wears, normally a kingly symbol. However, since Midas had the ears of an ass, rather than those of a goat, and had a normal human nose rather than the snub nose so characteristic of Silens and Satyrs, it seems more likely that the head on this coin is that of a Satyr or a Silen, like those on coins of Naxos, Thasos, Macedonia and Kyzikos (above, 88, 139, 147 and 244), though the diadem is hard to explain.

marcmoish · December 28, 2015 11:08AM

adorable...you should prob post an enlarged pic here...some of us with eye-wear will appreciate that

bronzemat · December 28, 2015 11:18AM

Look forward to your images, looks great though.

Zohar · December 28, 2015 11:50AM

I will need this to be imaged by a pro - I can't zoom to that size.

Zohar · December 28, 2015 12:42PM

LINK TO TPG IMAGE

JCMhouston · December 28, 2015 12:58PM

Very nice Z, I like those Lesbian coins.

NiceCurrency · December 28, 2015 1:42PM

BYOO TEE FULL

nicholasz219 · December 28, 2015 3:53PM

Pretty nifty. I look forward to the better images.

SmEagle1795 · December 28, 2015 5:23PM

A wonderful example - congrats!

Swampboy · December 29, 2015 1:00AM

Spectacular

Compared to that my Roman republican pieces are ultra moderns

I'd love to add an electrum piece to my collection even it's not as well struck and preserved as your lovely example.

SYRACUSIAN · December 29, 2015 6:02AM

Incredible quality for such a tiny piece! Zohar, you should really consider to liberate yourself from buying these in NGC slabs, now that you've clearly got the handle of them.

Zohar · December 29, 2015 7:51AM

Dimitri - I am a wimp and I definitely should. I will get there with your kind words of encouragement. Thank you.

Tibor · December 29, 2015 9:16AM

Very nice indeed! Z teaches a very valuable lesson by buying the

coin and not the slab. Well done!!

SaorAlba · December 29, 2015 11:02AM

Very nice, I haven't seen that design.

Zohar · December 29, 2015 11:13AM

One other (poor) attempt at imaging with cell. This is too small. I will get it done right when I have a chance.

Zohar · January 24, 2016 9:13AM

Weiss · January 24, 2016 10:22AM

Dawn of coinage is for chumps

Nice piece. Great centering, great design. Double plus good.

PatAR · January 25, 2016 3:30AM

Fantastic!

SYRACUSIAN · January 25, 2016 9:31AM

Originally posted by: Hydrant

Originally posted by: JCMhouston

Very nice Z, I like those Lesbian coins.

They are NOT Lesbian coins. They are coins FROM Lesbos. That's an island somewhere in Greece. Now go to your room!

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Lesbos (or Mytilini as it's commonly called by Greeks, which is the name of its capital), is actually the 4th biggest Greek island, after Crete, Corfu and Rhodes. It's an island that is mostly appreciated by Greeks (except for Eressos, that supposedly still attracts lesbians, but it's getting harder and harder to spot them), for its gastronomy ,its natural therapeutic spas (that I have personally enjoyed each and every time that I've visited the island, around 5-6 times so far, mostly in June) , it has its own University, including a school that is unique in Greece (whose subject escapes me now) and of course it has a military airforce base, due to its proximity to the Turkish coastline, as it is situated in the Northeastern part of the Aegean sea.

Zohar, I prefer the image in your OP, but then again, what do I know about coin pictures?

Broadstruck · January 25, 2016 12:28PM

Originally posted by: Hydrant

Originally posted by: JCMhouston

Very nice Z, I like those Lesbian coins.

They are NOT Lesbian coins. They are coins FROM Lesbos. That's an island somewhere in Greece. Now go to your room!

Zohar · January 25, 2016 12:39PM

Isn't Lesbos the main point of entry for migrants these days?

lordmarcovan · January 25, 2016 5:16PM

Originally posted by: SYRACUSIAN

Incredible quality for such a tiny piece! Zohar, you should really consider to liberate yourself from buying these in NGC slabs, now that you've clearly got the handle of them.

I tend to agree with Dimitri, though perhaps not for the same reason.

As you know, I have no objection to slabbed ancients, and slab mine, but I think if you're buying stuff like this already slabbed, you're probably paying too much. You've got a good enough eye now that you could buy them raw and "make" them yourself by submitting to NGC directly, probably saving a good bit of money thereby.

Then again, there's nothing wrong with buying them preslabbed, if you're OK with the price. Takes some of the guesswork out about how they'll grade. But then there's those danged prongs to get in the way of having good images made. I prefer to buy my ancients raw so I can have good images taken (if not already provided by the seller), and then submit them.

PS- great coin, BTW. I take it the reverse striations are from the die?

I've been wanting a small electrum piece for a while now, and think I'll make it my belated new year's resolution to have one before 2016 is done.

Zohar · January 25, 2016 9:15PM

I agree with the slab argument from an economics standpoint and made sure that the price I paid is consistent with CNG's auction records as a benchmark. For me, slabs are a convenient way to store these, especially this small. I personally don't need to touch these to enjoy - 11mm and I can clearly see all the details through the plastic. As an aside, I posted on CoinTalk ancient forum briefly last year and got beat up by pretty much everyone there on the issue of slabbing in general as they wish to religiously dictate how one collects and posts on their forum. A very unwelcoming bunch to say the least. I haven't posted since.

The striations seem to be part of the die. This is my only electrum and I really like it!

lordmarcovan · January 25, 2016 11:23PM

Don't let the slabhaters get you down.

Illegitimi non carborundum.

SmEagle1795 · January 26, 2016 7:50AM

A wonderful coin indeed! I'm glad that NGC has managed to slab small electrum more consistently now. I've seen coins all the way down to a 1/24th stater in a slab. While it does obscure the coin a bit, these small pieces are prevented from moving around when in a slab, which is worth the small tradeoff.

Originally posted by: Zohar
I agree with the slab argument from an economics standpoint and made sure that the price I paid is consistent with CNG's auction records as a benchmark. For me, slabs are a convenient way to store these, especially this small. I personally don't need to touch these to enjoy - 11mm and I can clearly see all the details through the plastic.

The image is very well done! Can you share who you had photograph this hekte? I have trouble with my smaller coins.

As an aside, I posted on CoinTalk ancient forum briefly last year and got beat up by pretty much everyone there on the issue of slabbing in general as they wish to religiously dictate how one collects and posts on their forum. A very unwelcoming bunch to say the least. I haven't posted since.

They have also continued beating people up for sharing nicer coins... as if spending more than $X means you're an "investor" instead of a "collector". It's becoming detrimental to the forum and many people (myself included) are growing quite tired of the constant unprovoked badgering. Let everyone collect what and how they wish - slabbed, not slabbed, high grade, low grade - we're all collectors. Collecting by condition rarity is no less valid than collecting rare die varieties.

I'd be posting here more if the darn software would stop destroying my replies

At this point, it's too time consuming to edit every post.

EVillageProwler · January 26, 2016 11:05AM

I've gotten to know Zohar much better over the past couple of years. He is like probably everyone else: he's a work in progress. I see how his collecting, and his collection, has evolved. Instead of encouraging him to go raw now, I suggest that he keep his coins slabbed and instead write his own tags that he can affix to the back of the slab. As he writes more and more tags, he'll know if that is really enjoyable and perhaps contain more information and develop a consistent personal style.

After all that, he'll really develop a much deeper intimacy with his coins and maybe will decide to crack them out.

EVP

Lesbos. Mytilene. c. 454-427 BC. EL Hecte (Picture Added)

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