c. 350-333 BCE
AE 11mm, 2.39g
Uncertain mint in western Asia Minor (Ionia or Sardes?). Persian king, wearing kidaris and kandys, in kneeling-running stance r., holding spear in r. hand, bow in l.; c/m: eight-rayed star within incuse circle. R/ Incuse rectangle, containing pattern possibly depicting relief map of the hinterland of Ephesos.
Johnston, Earliest, Æ 4; Mildenberg, Münzwesen pp. 25-26 and pl. XIII, 112; BMC (Ionia) p. 34, 7.
Ex London Ancient Coins
I noticed this coin some time ago and put it on my list. So, when another coin I really wanted came up, I added it to the order. At first glance the reverse of this coin may resemble an alien bringing his lunchbox to school, but most experts now concur that it’s a map of the Ephesus hinterlands.
Huh? But no. Here’s the description that I pillaged from another web site: On the right (north) are the Tmolos and Messogis mountains between the river valleys of the Caÿster and Maeander, to the left of which are three mountain ridges (Madranbaba Dagi, Karincali Dagi, and Akaba Tepesi, Turkey).
This, of course, makes me ask a number of questions.
So, you have a whole bunch of soldiers wandering around with swords and anxious to kill the enemy. They’re lost, so they take one of these coins out of their pocket and ask “so, do we take the path going to the left?”
Another situation: The next day, they get lost again. “Hey Harold! Tell us which way to go.” When Harold doesn’t reply, they just all shake their heads. “You bastard! You spent that on chips, didn’t you?”
There are much finer versions of this coin in silver, and if I wanted to sell my car I could buy one. However, since I don’t live near Ephesos, I don’t really need a silver coin with a map. Even if I did, I’d just use a GPS. But, this bronze coin cost a whole lot less and has the same map and pudgy king with a scepter and bow.
So, I picked it up because it’s an odd coin. Supposedly it was minted by Memnon to pay his troops after they won the battle. The map just commemorates the victory so they could take their pay home and show their kids where dad killed people the other day. “See this mountain right here, son? I chopped off that bastard’s head and kicked it straight into the valley.”