AR Obol 324/3 BCE
9.67mm .52 grams
Obverse: Facing head of Herakles, with club over shoulder, H to left
Reverse: Forepart of wolf right; star above
Göktürk 68–9
Laranda, now called Karaman in Turkey, was part of Ariarathes I of Cappadocia’s kingdom, and was therefore on Perdikkas‘ “to destroy” list in 322 BCE.
This he accomplished with far less fanfare than at Isaura Palaia, where the townsfolk sacrificed their women and children for absolutely no gain or reason. Laranda, on the other hand, was your normal “destroy the city, sell the inhabitants into slavery” deal.
For some reason the coins are extremely common, are overwhelmingly obols, and were produced in a short two year period. That seems to be a lot of obols. This one’s in much better condition than most of the rest, and depicts Herakles on the obverse and a wolf on the reverse. Supposedly Herakles has a club over his shoulder, but I’m not seeing that.
Of interest is their choice of Herakles, given that he was the symbol of Alexander the Great. Maybe they were just rubbing things in Perdikkas‘ face. Also, obols are usually rare coins, because they were so small and tended not to be in hordes, but that’s definitely not the case for Laranda.
But, kudos to them. All that work creating what must have been millions of little obols paid off. Even though Perdikkas destroyed their city, we still remember it thanks to all of these mementos.