Would you like to support the channel and my work? Help the Channel by "Buying me a Coffee": www.buymeacoffee.com/classicalnumismatics Become a member! ua-cam.com/users/classicalnumismaticsjoin
I like obols, and so does my wallet. They are often more interesting than the tetradrachms. I have a few obols and I really like the obol from the city of Dikaia in Thrace with a small rooster on the obverse.
Some rare Obols can be super wallet-unfriendly! But thats true, its easier to collect them than expensive Tetradrachmae or Staters. These are the true waller-killers
Obols are hit or miss, the common and bad condition ones are cheap, but once you get into the rarities it gets very expensive. I was bidding on an auction and was able to win about 12 coins (staters and tetradrachms) for the price of 3 obols that hammered at around 1.5k USD each. They are definitely fun to collect and it is cool hunting down a set from a city in all denominations!
@@dimuk2452I just bought one in gVF condition from an unknown city in Cilicia. It's in a couple of the standard references, but not in those most commonly used. Because it's difficult to find a reference/attribution for this coin, the price was not as high as one might expect. The reason for this is fear of fakes.
I dont own an obol, but I want one as my first ancient. Whenever I decide I know enough to start buying them. The tuna one you showed is a strong contender. I really like the shape of the fish.
Loved this presentation Leo. I only have one obol in a collection of over 500 ancient and medieval coins and that is from Cyzikus with boar and tunny fish and lion and star reverse. How did die engravers cut such miniscule images with such precision? To me it is obvious that the ancient engravers used a lens. Lenses do survive from antiquity, such as the “Loupe of Sargon” dating from 750-710 BC, also known as the Layard Lens, as it was excavated by Austen Henry Layard at the Assyrian place of Nimrud in present-day Iraq back in the 1850s. It can be seen today in the British Museum. The lens could have been used to focus the sun's rays to produce fire, or as a magnifying glass. It effectively does both. Lenses have also been discovered from ancient Egypt. Yet Euclid, Hero and Claudius Ptolemy wrote on the subject of optics centuries later without directly describing lenses, which implies they did not know of their existence. So, what was going on? My theory is commerce. The die cutters were being paid to produce the dies. If they produced them smaller than was possible with the naked eye for the then economically important obols, it gave them a commercial advantage, so they kept the lenses that they used secret. As most professions in the ancient world were handed down from father to son, or within guilds, the technology can be used without the wider population, including philosophers, knowing about it. Technological systems not officially recorded but used by specialists can exist in this way for centuries within a society. But when you have a civilizational break, such as the collapse of Classical Civilization in the later 5th century AD, the technology can be lost due to the lack of written records. Leaving lenses to be redeveloped and then written about by the Islamic philosophers, before the technology was reintroduced to the west in the High Middle Ages. And causing people in the modern world to believe the ancients did not know anything about or use lenses.
Wonderful bits of information you contributed there, thank you very much! Indeed, magnification was available to ancient engravers. I wonder if they made that discovery by accident
I have some tetartemorion coins too. At 4 to 6mm, even smaller than the obols. I like the fractional coins more than the drachms to be honest. The amounts of workmanship of the tiny ones is beyond fascinating. ❤
@ClassicalNumismatics i have one at 0.10gr. Can dm you pictures if you want. I also got a golden bele at 2mm, though they are questionable, it is the smallest coin i have
Thanks for the vid. Leo. Unfortunately I do not have any, smallest at the moment I have are Roman hemidrachms but that Ephesus one caught my eye. Gotta start looking
The hemidrachm isnt thaaat much larger than your typical classical obol, in fact! The romans didnt put a lot of silver in these either, so if we were to compare the total weight of silver between a classical obol and a roman hemidrachm, Id guess they would have the same fine silver content.
Thanks for the video. My 9 year old absolutely adores old greek and roman coins, so she loves to watch your videos. If somebody knows a trustworthy source to buy obols, let me know. Her birthday is coming up
This man is like the only advertising to work on me. However, I will fight the temptation and focus on Roman coins. Its all Greek to me anyway! I know its impossible but I would love to know what % of the finds are just some poor farmer losing his coins because of a hole in his pocket or not paying enough attention! Great video as always!! If I could make a suggestion : what about a video on the quinarius and other such coins that aren't common at all. I'm surprised that half a denarius wasn't a popular coin!
Glad you liked them! I encourage you to have a look at my channel page, in the beginners playlist, there are lots of videos on how to avoid fakes, doing research on prices, navigating the market, etc.
The United States put a one cent coin on mars. Next, I think they should get an obol to Pluto's moon, Charon. I like the really small greek coins. Obviously the big ones are nice, but these make me smile. I love the skill it takes to make something in miniature.
I have 2 very small coins. The obverse has the head of a bull on it, and the reverse an incuse punch. Have taken it many places, but have not had any luck identifying them.
I may have found it in the Handbook of Greek Coinage, Volume 4. Item 1022 is a silver quarter stater (3.45 g) from Phokis, featuring a bull head facing on the obverse (with a seal to the right), and a rough incuse square on the reverse. These are thought to have been struck about 510 BC and are extremely rare (R3, with fewer than 5 known in museum collections). Another reference for this coin is BCD Lokris 166. Many coins from Phokis feature a bull's head obverse, but this is one of the oldest.
@@martyparsons8395The seal image to the lower left of the bull's head would "seal" this attribution, as the Greek word for seal is phoke, making the image a pun on the name of the region Phokis.
@@martyparsons8395 One more thing, your coins could be smaller than the quarter stater (approximately a drachma) I found a reference for. Although not in the references I've checked, there could well be hemidrachmas, diobols, trihemiobols, obols, hemiobols and/or tetartemorions with similar designs from this place and time.
I'm surprised they didn't use a 90% silver 10% copper alloy like old US silver coins or something similar. Then they may have been able to make the coins a bit bigger.
It would make minimal difference. The difference in density between copper and silver is not that large so it would be just like 13 % larger with the same mass of silver.
As Alicelund mentioned, the difference would be minimal. The copper added on US silver coins was mostly for the coin to be a bit more resistant to wear. For it to have a significant difference in size, they would have to have added something like 50% copper in it.
My smallest Greek silver coin is a Tetartemorian. Personally, I'm not a fan of the tiny Greek fractional silver. I generally don't collect anything smaller than a Triobol/Hemidrachm. My favorite size for a coin is Stater/Didrachm.
Hello mate, would you be so kind as to divert some time to the stolen treasure from Assen in the Netherlands? Just a few days ago they stole a couple solid gold Romanian artifacts from 2 centuries before christ, and it’s big news.
I want your opinion about some prices. I found the Miletus coins in Vcoins with the lion and and the star at 160€ . I feel that it's a bit too much for a 10mm 1,2g piece. I love your videos by the way, very relaxing and informative about ancient world.
Have a look at my beginners playlist, there's a video on how to do research on current market prices. I cant do it for you, but that video teaches you how to do it, its easy!
Would you like to support the channel and my work?
Help the Channel by "Buying me a Coffee": www.buymeacoffee.com/classicalnumismatics
Become a member! ua-cam.com/users/classicalnumismaticsjoin
I like obols, and so does my wallet. They are often more interesting than the tetradrachms. I have a few obols and I really like the obol from the city of Dikaia in Thrace with a small rooster on the obverse.
Some rare Obols can be super wallet-unfriendly! But thats true, its easier to collect them than expensive Tetradrachmae or Staters. These are the true waller-killers
Obols are hit or miss, the common and bad condition ones are cheap, but once you get into the rarities it gets very expensive. I was bidding on an auction and was able to win about 12 coins (staters and tetradrachms) for the price of 3 obols that hammered at around 1.5k USD each. They are definitely fun to collect and it is cool hunting down a set from a city in all denominations!
@@dimuk2452agree, not all of them are cheap, I suspect they’re rarer because they were tiny and probably not hoarded
@@dimuk2452I just bought one in gVF condition from an unknown city in Cilicia. It's in a couple of the standard references, but not in those most commonly used. Because it's difficult to find a reference/attribution for this coin, the price was not as high as one might expect. The reason for this is fear of fakes.
Hi Leo: wish I had some of these adorable little coins, so beautiful. Nice presentation, now off to find some !
Good hunting!
I dont own an obol, but I want one as my first ancient. Whenever I decide I know enough to start buying them. The tuna one you showed is a strong contender. I really like the shape of the fish.
The tuna is my favourite as well!
Amazed at the skill level of the die makers back then considering the tools were so primitive.
It might have been the case that they had access to tools better than we imagine. They certainly had access to magnification glasses.
The amount of details these tiny coins have is mind blowing, especially for how old they are!
Edit: I subscribed too, great video 🎉
Welcome aboard! 🎖🎆
Loved this presentation Leo. I only have one obol in a collection of over 500 ancient and medieval coins and that is from Cyzikus with boar and tunny fish and lion and star reverse. How did die engravers cut such miniscule images with such precision? To me it is obvious that the ancient engravers used a lens.
Lenses do survive from antiquity, such as the “Loupe of Sargon” dating from 750-710 BC, also known as the Layard Lens, as it was excavated by Austen Henry Layard at the Assyrian place of Nimrud in present-day Iraq back in the 1850s. It can be seen today in the British Museum. The lens could have been used to focus the sun's rays to produce fire, or as a magnifying glass. It effectively does both. Lenses have also been discovered from ancient Egypt.
Yet Euclid, Hero and Claudius Ptolemy wrote on the subject of optics centuries later without directly describing lenses, which implies they did not know of their existence. So, what was going on? My theory is commerce. The die cutters were being paid to produce the dies. If they produced them smaller than was possible with the naked eye for the then economically important obols, it gave them a commercial advantage, so they kept the lenses that they used secret. As most professions in the ancient world were handed down from father to son, or within guilds, the technology can be used without the wider population, including philosophers, knowing about it.
Technological systems not officially recorded but used by specialists can exist in this way for centuries within a society. But when you have a civilizational break, such as the collapse of Classical Civilization in the later 5th century AD, the technology can be lost due to the lack of written records.
Leaving lenses to be redeveloped and then written about by the Islamic philosophers, before the technology was reintroduced to the west in the High Middle Ages. And causing people in the modern world to believe the ancients did not know anything about or use lenses.
Wonderful bits of information you contributed there, thank you very much! Indeed, magnification was available to ancient engravers. I wonder if they made that discovery by accident
Awesome, as always !!!
The small owl coin is my favorite. Thanks for sharing. ❤ from Penang, Malaysia.
Congrats! That should be a lovely coin :)
I have some tetartemorion coins too. At 4 to 6mm, even smaller than the obols. I like the fractional coins more than the drachms to be honest. The amounts of workmanship of the tiny ones is beyond fascinating. ❤
I still need to get myself a HemiTetartemorion, just to see how incredibly small it is.
@ClassicalNumismatics i have one at 0.10gr. Can dm you pictures if you want. I also got a golden bele at 2mm, though they are questionable, it is the smallest coin i have
Thanks for the new video !! 😊
That's amazing Leo , those coins are super small 😮👍
All interesting and new to understand - The obol is also the denomination of the smallest coin in Middle ages Europ after the small roman coins 😀
Just getting into ancients a little now, Have one Obol with a bee, look forward to getting more.
I have most that you showed! I also have several Cilician obols which I love.
Cilician coinage is really interesting, indeed!
I like the big bronze coins, you can sharpen the edges and use them as weapons, total Ninja.
Or we could get a Ptolemaic Tetrobol and use it as a hockey puck
@ClassicalNumismatics sadly we have no ice hockey rings in my state of Victoria. Plenty of Kangaroo shit though. Mmmmm
Very informative video.
Thanks for the vid. Leo. Unfortunately I do not have any, smallest at the moment I have are Roman hemidrachms but that Ephesus one caught my eye. Gotta start looking
The hemidrachm isnt thaaat much larger than your typical classical obol, in fact!
The romans didnt put a lot of silver in these either, so if we were to compare the total weight of silver between a classical obol and a roman hemidrachm, Id guess they would have the same fine silver content.
Thanks for the video. My 9 year old absolutely adores old greek and roman coins, so she loves to watch your videos.
If somebody knows a trustworthy source to buy obols, let me know. Her birthday is coming up
Have a look at VCoins and MA Shops, you should find something there.
@ClassicalNumismatics thanks a lot
This man is like the only advertising to work on me. However, I will fight the temptation and focus on Roman coins. Its all Greek to me anyway! I know its impossible but I would love to know what % of the finds are just some poor farmer losing his coins because of a hole in his pocket or not paying enough attention! Great video as always!!
If I could make a suggestion : what about a video on the quinarius and other such coins that aren't common at all. I'm surprised that half a denarius wasn't a popular coin!
Im accumulating footage of some Quinarii, definitely a video I want to make in the near future.
So beautiful- as a newbie would love to know where to find truly authentic ones in a world flooded with fakes
Glad you liked them! I encourage you to have a look at my channel page, in the beginners playlist, there are lots of videos on how to avoid fakes, doing research on prices, navigating the market, etc.
I bought 4 tiny silver greek coins for €25 so I'm excited to watch this video, probably help me understand them more.
Thats actually a really really good bargain!
The United States put a one cent coin on mars. Next, I think they should get an obol to Pluto's moon, Charon. I like the really small greek coins. Obviously the big ones are nice, but these make me smile. I love the skill it takes to make something in miniature.
I put these in Mylar flips as soon as I get them, they’re too easy to drop and lose
Wise words!
I have 2 very small coins. The obverse has the head of a bull on it, and the reverse an incuse punch. Have taken it many places, but have not had any luck identifying them.
Give "Wildwinds" a try
I may have found it in the Handbook of Greek Coinage, Volume 4. Item 1022 is a silver quarter stater (3.45 g) from Phokis, featuring a bull head facing on the obverse (with a seal to the right), and a rough incuse square on the reverse. These are thought to have been struck about 510 BC and are extremely rare (R3, with fewer than 5 known in museum collections). Another reference for this coin is BCD Lokris 166. Many coins from Phokis feature a bull's head obverse, but this is one of the oldest.
@charleshash4919 holy smokes, I hope you're correct!! I've got 2 of them.
@@martyparsons8395The seal image to the lower left of the bull's head would "seal" this attribution, as the Greek word for seal is phoke, making the image a pun on the name of the region Phokis.
@@martyparsons8395 One more thing, your coins could be smaller than the quarter stater (approximately a drachma) I found a reference for. Although not in the references I've checked, there could well be hemidrachmas, diobols, trihemiobols, obols, hemiobols and/or tetartemorions with similar designs from this place and time.
I have one from Miletus.
One of my first coins, and still of my oldest, is also an archaic coin from Miletus :)
I like them smol
I'm surprised they didn't use a 90% silver 10% copper alloy like old US silver coins or something similar. Then they may have been able to make the coins a bit bigger.
It would make minimal difference. The difference in density between copper and silver is not that large so it would be just like 13 % larger with the same mass of silver.
As Alicelund mentioned, the difference would be minimal. The copper added on US silver coins was mostly for the coin to be a bit more resistant to wear. For it to have a significant difference in size, they would have to have added something like 50% copper in it.
My smallest Greek silver coin is a Tetartemorian. Personally, I'm not a fan of the tiny Greek fractional silver. I generally don't collect anything smaller than a Triobol/Hemidrachm. My favorite size for a coin is Stater/Didrachm.
I like toning, but I don't like horn silver. The trick is making sure what you buy has toning or that you know how to remove the horn silver!
Is the best way to determine the specific silver Obol denomination the size or the weight, or does it depend on the area/time period?
a sacrifice
For the boatman and the algoritm!
Are there any websites I can use to study Ancient Greek coins or help me identify them ? Something like wild winds for example for romans
Sadly, there is no single database for Greek coins, its just too much.
Have a try at the different issues of "Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum"
@@ClassicalNumismatics I’ll take a look, thank you !
Hello mate, would you be so kind as to divert some time to the stolen treasure from Assen in the Netherlands? Just a few days ago they stole a couple solid gold Romanian artifacts from 2 centuries before christ, and it’s big news.
Thank you for bringing this to my attention, I'll check it out.
Cyzicus received many colonists from Miletus, which could explain the design
Ohh, there it goes! Thank you very much for the clarification. That solves the mistery
I want your opinion about some prices. I found the Miletus coins in Vcoins with the lion and and the star at 160€ . I feel that it's a bit too much for a 10mm 1,2g piece.
I love your videos by the way, very relaxing and informative about ancient world.
Have a look at my beginners playlist, there's a video on how to do research on current market prices. I cant do it for you, but that video teaches you how to do it, its easy!
Hi, you can read everywhere what diameter coins have; but never the exact thickness. How thick was a Augustinian denarius and Aureus for example?