Cilicia, Poseidion
4th century BCE
Obol Silver, 10mm, 0.64g, 12h
Draped bust of Athena facing slightly to right, wearing triple-crested helmet and pearl necklace.
Rev: ΠΟΣΙ[ΔHIΣ] Facing female head with long hair, wearing pearl necklace.
F. Shore: A New Greek Fraction, in: The Celator Vol. 19, No. 5 (May 2005), p. 39, fig. 3
Excollection of Judge Hans-Joachim Specht
These coins were attributed only recently in an article “A New Greek Fraction” in the Celator. With the text reading ΠΟΣΙΔ but the corresponding portrait definitely female, it didn’t make sense to refer to Poseidon. Shore then investigated to find that there were two cities called Posidium, one in Coele-Syria and one in Cilicia. Since the style of this coin is similar to those of Cilicia, Posidium, Cilicia makes the most sense.
Shore estimates them to have been minted around 333 BCE, shortly before Alexander the Great conquered the area.
I have guessed at the location of Poseidion, placing it in modern day Işıkkale. There are actually several sizable sites today in Cilicia Trachea whose names we don’t know today. Others are Sinekkale and Karakabaklı. It is probably one of these three. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the other small fractions so common from Cilicia came from the other two.