4th century BCE
Æ 14mm, 1.94g, 3h
Female head (Artemis?) r.
R/ Bee; palm tree to lower l.
Bellinger 145; SNG München 194-6; SNG Copenhagen 335
Like so many ancient cities, we primarily know of Gentinos through its coins. There are few records that mention the city. In 452 BCE, it was listed as provided .08 talents as tribute to Athens, so it clearly wasn’t big.
The coin depicts a bee and a palm tree. Since it is believed that the female image on the obverse is Artemis, then the bee makes sense since the priestesses of Artemis were called ‘bees’. Likely, there was a temple to Artemis in the city.
On the other side we have a sphinx, which is also depicted on several other coins from the area.
During Xenophon’s time he remarked how strong the walls were. The city was named for its founder Gergithes, who was of the Teukri tribe. It appears to have been founded relatively late for cities in the Troad – somewhere between 600-500 BCE based on archeological evidence.