Circa 400-310 BCE
AE 11 mm, 1.23 g
Forepart of Pegasos to left
Rev. Σ-Κ Palm tree; all within linear square
SNG Copenhagen 477. SNG München 329
If it were not for a remarkable event that occurred in Skepsis over two thousand years ago, literature and humanity would be vastly different.
One of Aristotle’s pupils, Neleos, took the works of Aristotle and another philosopher Theophrastos to Skepsis from Athens. Although Neleos was a very literate guy, his heirs were illiterate morons, and they let the works decay in a basement.
Luckily, by chance a collector happened across the works, he purchased them and thus many works of Aristotle that would have ultimately been lost were preserved and eventually were taken to Rome.
There were actually two sites for Skepsis – Paleo Skepsis and Skepsis. The coinage of all comes from Skepsis, since Paleo Skepsis was abandoned before coins were invented. That city is believed to have been settled from Miletos. Eventually, the inhabitants of the city were forced to move to the new city, created by Antigonos I Monophthalmos of Antigoneia, later renamed Alexandria Troas.