Produktdetails

The product is a 2nd Century BC Drachm coin from Phoenicia, specifically from the city of Aradus. This silver coin was minted around the years 158-157 BC and is classified as Ch VF grade by NGC certification. The obverse features a depiction of a bee between the numerical symbols for the year, while the reverse shows a stag facing right in front of a palm tree. This historical coin, which was restored and conserved by the previous owner Palatine Numismatics, represents a piece of Ancient Greek culture and is a valuable addition to any coin collection. Phoenicia, Aradus (Arados) This type of drachma, of reduced Attic standards, was minted in Arados between the years 89 and 150 (170/169-109/108 BC). For mercantile reasons, the images were adapted to those of the most important city in Asia Minor, Ephesus—an example of successful pragmatism in the Hellenistic period. Arados was one of the most powerful of the Phoenician cities. Situated on an island off the northern coast of Phoenicia, Arados nevertheless controlled a large territory on the mainland with several dependent cities. By 259 B.C. it had established almost complete independence when Antiochos II took from Egyptian control all of Phoenicia north of Sidon and granted Arados its freedom. It is from this time that the coins of Arados are dated. Seleukos bestowed on the city very substantial additional privileges in approximately 243 B.C. Sometime during the reign of the Seleucid king Alexander I Balas (150-145 B.C.), Arados defeated and destroyed its arch rival, Marathos. The resulting booty seems to have supported an even larger series of Tetradrachms and Drachms from Arados. Attic weight, or the Attic standard, also known as Euboic standard, was one of the main monetary standards in ancient Greece. As a result of its use in the coinage of the Athenian empire and the empire of Alexander the Great, it was the dominant weight standard for coinage issued in the Eastern Mediterranean from the fifth century BC until the introduction of the Roman denarius to the region in the late first century BC. The Attic weight was based on a drachma of 4.31 grams, but in practice the main denomination was the tetradrachm or four-drachma coin, which weighed approximately 17.26 g[1] in silver. For larger sums, the units of account were the mina (100 drachmae or 435 g), and the talent (6,000 drachmae or 26.1 kg). In practice, this meant that the Attic weight standard was interchangeable with the Euboic standard used on the island of Euboea, which consisted of a stater of 17.2 g divided into six hektai of 2.86 g. Because of Euboea's role in Greek colonization in the Archaic period, the latter standard was widespread in the Greek West and Pontic regions.